Shepherding a Child's Heart

(^)
Chapter 16
Childhood: Training Objectives
The day arrived for our first child to go to school. We were
confident of his success. We had been working on obedience for
several years. He had learned to obey us without challenge, without
excuse, without delay.
(^) We did all the preparation rituals. We went shopping for all the
usual school supplies. We bought a lunch pail and a thermos. We
located a book bag his size and furnished it with pencils, erasers,
paper, and crayons. We got some sturdy school clothes. We were sure
we had prepared him in every way.
(^) We found, to our chagrin, that our preparation was inadequate. We
did okay with the shopping trip; it was our training that was
inadequate. We had taught our son to obey us. The problem was we
weren’t there to give direction. There were many situations—on the
school bus, during free play timeplaytime, and in the lunchroom—
when he needed guidance. We began to realize that we had to have
different training objectives for this new period of his life.
Childhood
(^) I am using the word childhood to refer to the middle period of a
child’s life. Chronologically, it is ages five to twelve. It is the
elementary school years. It is the period of time we usually think of
when we think about “childhood.” It is the time between starting
school and puberty.
(^) New challenges confront the parent. The child is developing a
growing independence of choice and personality. The child is