Truly Rich and Blessed

Financial Breakdown of Raising a Child

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(A repost from www.stoutboys.blogspot.com. A MUST READ FOR ALL PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS! 🙂 Blessings upon everyone!)

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140.00 for a middle income family. Talk about price shock! That doesn’t even touch college tuition.

But $160,140.00 isn’t so bad if you break it down. It translates into:

* $8,896.66 a year,
* $741.38 a month,
* $171.08 a week.
* A mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.

Still, you might think the best financial advice is; don’t have children if you want to be ‘rich.’ Actually, it is just the opposite.

What do you get for your $160,140.00?

* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles and flying kites.
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140.00, you never have to grow up. You get to:

* finger-paint,
* carve pumpkins,
* play hide-and-seek,
* catch lightning bugs,
* never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to:

* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
* watch Saturday morning cartoons,
* go to Disney movies, and
* wish on stars.

You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother’s Day, and cards with backward letters for Father’s Day.

For a mere $24.24 a day, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for:

* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and
* coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat in history to witness the:

* First step,
* First word,
* First bra,
* First date,
* First time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you’re lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost. That is quite a deal for the price!!!!!!!

Love & enjoy your children & grandchildren & great-grandchildren!!!!!!! It’s the best investment you’ll ever make!!!!!!!!!

(Our family enjoying one another ^_^)

Catholic Homeschooling – Strengthening The Future of The Catholic Church

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Catholic Home Schooling Teaches Children the Core Values of the Catholic Faith
(Mike Jerry)

Introduction

Catholic home schooling provides children with a strong basis of Catholic values. Catholic homeschooled children are taught the Ten Commandments, a history of the church, the seven sacraments, and about the life of Christ. The homeschooling curriculum allows for flexibility in that the student can have one-on-one discussions with the teacher instead of competing with other students for help. The Catholic schooling advantage is that the children are safe to learn about their religion, without fearing for their safety. The values the children learn will serve to make them productive adults, firmly grounded in their faith.

Although Catholic home schooling is a relatively new trend, it is warmly welcomed by strict Catholic families. A Catholic home schooling will provide children a firm educational foundation anchored in the Catholic faith and doctrines.

With Catholic home schooling, parents are assured the child will learn the basic tenets of the Catholic faith, so they can live a balanced spiritual life; this is because Catholic home schooled students are taught the history of the 2,000-year-old Roman Catholic faith and the culture, 10 Commandments, the life of Jesus, the saints, and the seven sacraments.

The Six Benefits That Catholic Home Schooling Provides Students

A Catholic home schooling program frees children from the problems present in the public school system: an overcrowded educational system, which is known for producing graduates who are bored with their subjects, apathetic and tired of learning from outdated textbooks.

A Catholic home schooling program minimizes the chances for children to be in danger. These dangers such as drug use, bullying and student violence, are a real menace in traditional schools.

Catholic home schooling provides Catholic children of different learning abilities from fast learners to those with special needs, an education that is at a pace consistent with their learning capabilities.

A Catholic home schooling program provides home schooled students a healthy learning environment; one where they can freely express their opinions, exchange views with the teacher, without worrying that their grades will suffer. They will enjoy the learning process because they do not need to worry about punishment.

A Catholic home schooling program by necessity and structure has a limit on the number of students allowed in each class. The ratio of one teacher to one student provides the optimum learning environment for the child to get the needed attention.

A Catholic home schooling curriculum can be easily customized to teach the children non-academic subjects, which students in the traditional classroom setting have limited access to. For this reason, many home schooling parents have created complementary activities like assignments, board work, field trips or on the job training stints, to impart knowledge in innovative ways.

In short, when parents opt to provide their children with a Catholic home schooling, they offer their children the ability to learn as they grow in their Catholic faith. These values and knowledge, when nurtured, will strengthen the Catholic home schooled child; giving the child resolve should adversity, disaster, or misfortune strike.

You can read the original article here: http://www.yourhomeschoolingresource.com/Catholic-Home-Schooling-Teaches-Children-The-Core-Values-Of-The-Catholic-Fa.html

COJ or CFA (Catholic Preschool or Homeschool?)

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Right now we are in the process of discerning what God wants for our kids’ education. Tim just turned 3 yrs and 5 months and we’ve been wanting to enroll him in a preschool or something similar here in Timor Leste. However, so far, all the schools that he could apply to are categorized as “international” (read: EXPENSIVE hehehe) and also, every time we ask him, he’ll say “I don’t want to go to school. This is our school. Here.” (And he gestures around him). “And you’re my teacher, Mama!” (Aaawww… *heart melts* )

Truthfully, ever since I learned about homeschooling from Bo Sanchez (Catholic Filipino Academy or CFA) and other resources online (mostly from non-Catholic Christian sites, which by the way are very, very good! :)) I’ve been thinking a lot about what Tim always says about going to school (read above :)) Perhaps homeschooling IS the way to go for us, and God is using Tim to send me a message.

On the other hand, if we do go for homeschooling, we know it will be a HUGE commitment, especially on my part. I’d have to really stay at home (or find work I can do from home) to be able to teach Tim (and Rysse when she’s old enough). Which means Anthony would be the only one left working.

The question in this case would then be “Can we afford to live on one income?”

Hmmm…

On the other hand, there are several good preschools (in the Philippines) that I’ve discovered online. One of them is Cradle of Joy (COJ), which has really caught my attention, since they advertise themselves as a Catholic Progressive School, and claim that their curriculum is the closest aligned to homeschooling. After having read some of the testimonials of parents who have sent their kids to preschool there, I’m half convinced that COJ is the school that we’ve been looking and praying for.  (Although, at present I have no idea how much the tuition fees there cost! Perhaps when I do find out I’ll change my mind! hahaha.)

Anyway, for the meantime, while we are still here in Timor, I guess I’ll just make the most of Tim wanting to go to “school” at home with myself as his “teacher.” I’ve managed to get some good materials online (here’s a sample from www.dreamenglish.com: howmanyfish) and from the bookstores in the Philippines, and hopefully I’ll be able to teach Tim the basic preschool concepts he needs to know at his age. At least for the next few months, that’s how our set-up will be.

What do you think? COJ or CFA? 🙂

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