PICK A NUMBA

I meet weekly during the school year with each of my kids one-on-one.  Hands down I think it’s the single best parenting move I have ever done.

I wrote about it in “As for Me and My Crazy House” and a lot of people ask me, “What exactly do you do with your kids?”  My answer: “It depends on the kid and the day.”  All of them go with me to the same local coffee shop.  We call it “Joe’s place” cuz he’s the owner and he knows us all by name and our orders by heart.

But for the most part, after we grab something to drink, we find an table and then we do some silly stuff.  Like I ask a few “Would you Rather” questions from books, iphone apps, or just crazy junk I make up myself.  My go-to as of late is a series of books called “Weird but True” that also has an iphone app now too.  I just read a fact or tweak one slightly and then say, “Is that weird or true?”  Super easy to do and fun for all my kids, even my high schooler gets stumped.

Then, I love to ask this question:  “Is there anything we should be talking about that we’re not talking about?”  That one has launched some GREAT conversations with my kids.

We’ve also used the “one minute bible for students” and read those entries and talked about them.  That’s a great resource for this time with an entry for every day of the week that literally can be read in a minute.

But the thing that I’ve enjoyed the most lately is a thing I call “Pick a Numba”   Here’s how it works.  I have a series of books that have numbered entries that are each about a paragraph or two long.  I tell my kid to “pick a numba” and then I go to whatever number they pick.  Then I write their name and the date down on the entry (so I never discuss the same kid with the same number twice) and then one of us reads it.  We discuss it for maybe 5 minutes and then I pick up another book and we go again.  This goes on for about 30 minutes and then we go home or I drop them off at school or whatever.

If you want to play “Pick a Numba”, here’s some books I use.  They all can be found at simplyyouthministry.com   Oh.. and the only that doesn’t have a 99 in the title is also the one we almost never “read”.  It is the “Answers to Teenagers 50 Toughest Questions.”  For that one, I simply ask the toughest question and ask them how they would answer it.  That’s more valuable to me than the “answer” anyway.

Regardless of the resource you use. I’d encourage you to give this a try.  I think you, your kids, and your family will be beyond blessed by your investment. I sure have.