Going Public

A book review, by Donna Hatasaki

 

Some called it the biggest upset in college football
history.  On October 6, 2007, underdog
Stanford University beat top dog USC, 24-23 in front of a televised audience
and 85,000 people in the Los Angeles Coliseum. 
Tavita Pritchard was the sophomore quarterback who made history that day
with his first college start and quickly became the bright eyes at the center
of a sports media storm. Without hesitation, the 6’4”, 200-pound Samoan smiled
at the cameras and said, “All the glory goes to God.”

 

Tavita’s story sounds like good material for ...<< MORE >>

David and I get asked how we taught our little children to love the Lord with all their heart,soul, mind and strength. If you've read our book then you know some of what we do with our school age kids. But what about those early years. Here are just a few of the things that stand out as I think back on those very busy, yet very fulfilling days!! Veggie Tales was just coming out and we used that to talk about Jesus. We also used lots of nature examples to teach that God is everywhere i.e. signs of winter, spring, summer, and fall. He made it all!!

With behavior, we talked about wanting Jesus to win not the devil! There is a great book series that my little guys loved that you can get online - Building Christian Character Series by Michael Waite. Our favorite is Suzy Swoof: A book about kindness. There are about a dozen and you can get them each for under $5.

The videos that were our favorite were done by the Duron family called the Best Buddies. The songs were catchy, easy to memorize and taught the children how to love each other. Here is how to get those: http://www.thebestbuddies.com/ I know they are only available in VHS/cassettes but you may be able to convert them - they are worth it. One of our favorite songs is," If its not fun for everyone, its not fun!"

There is also a family devotional series call Family Time that my brother does. It suggests an object lesson, scripture and a short jingle that teaches the heart of the verse. It offers age appropriate material. Here is the website:  http://www.famtime.com/go/

 Lastly, as they got into school, they fell asleep to Adventures in Odyssey, the Focus on the Family CD series that is excellent.

Overall, what we really emphasized pre-K was obedience, kindness and self- control toward us, their siblings and friends.  These were important lessons that became the foundation for the rest of what we were teaching.

Hope this helps! Enjoy and cherish this season with your children! Thank you for making your family a priority and growing it to draw others to Christ!

Love and Blessings,
David and Kelli

 

 

One of the serendipities of writing "Going Public" is the encouragement we receive from people we haven't had the pleasure of meeting. Thank you to those of you who have posted a message or have sent an email. We appreciate hearing from you. We hope to hear from you again as you put these principles into practice. Remember this book isn't meant to be simply interesting information - it's meant to be applied. Our prayer is that it will change the way you parent your child!

Lately we've been getting more questions about speaking engagements and parenting seminars. One of the things we knew we had to do in order to "promote" our conferences was develop a short DVD to explain what we are about. We finally have one! You can see it now on our website www.pritchardministries.org. If your church is interested in putting on a parenting seminar (or if you would like your church to be interested!) we would love to send out a packet of information along with this 3 minute DVD.

Be encouraged! We would love to hear from you. If you've read the book we'd love to hear your thoughts. And if you haven't read it, we'd still love to hear from you. Kelli and I love to talk about everything "parenting"! Be blessed.

If you've ever read Psalm 22, then you know it starts out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?". It was written hundreds of years before Jesus said those exact words while hanging on the cross. Many scholars believe when Jesus spoke those words, He was referencing the entire Psalm; a Psalm known well to all of the Jews present. So when He said, My God, My God... everyone present heard all of what we now know as Psalm 22 - a great prophecy fulfilled in Jesus' death on the ...<< MORE >>

Good Morning Friends and Fellow Parents!! 
We have posted some radio spots on  our website that have been taped to air on many radio stations across the country on "Today's Light". We also did an interview for our local Christian radio station KCMS. We are excited about these as we get an opportunity to encourage families on live radio with a message of hope.

We spent this past weekend with some great families at Wapato Valley Church in Gaston, Oregon doing a parenting conference. The feedback was valuable and the new friends are a bonus!! Our next conference will be in Carbondale, Colorado on May 9-10. We have posted a link to the church's website if you would like more information. We are also hoping to do an evening conference on Thursday in Eagle and possibly something the following week in Colorado Springs. We will post updated information as it becomes available. If you are interested in having us come to your church please don't hesitate to contact us!

Lastly, we would like to share our idea for these last few months of school. We count "get up days" ie the number of school mornings left until school is out for the summer. We make a paper chain with that number of links. We then remove one each morning after devotions and remind our students to finish strong academically. With the weather getting better and the lure of graduation for our senior aged daughter, it is always  important to remain on task, usin g time well and keeping those grades up!! In case you are wondering, we are at 50!!

Since it is a parenting book we figured we could get away with a parenting analogy. Our first book has finally arrived! We got our copy a couple of days ago and we know that some of you have already ordered it online and it should be arriving any day. Needless to say, it is an exciting time for us. Like a first child, it's hard for us to remember that others have done this, and in some cases many times. It is all new to us and we are just enjoying the experience.

We are hoping that after you ...<< MORE >>

Hey everyone (especially you guys),

Thanks for visiting our site. I especially want to invite and encourage you guys out there (you know who you are!) to visit our site often. I will try to have things that will be of interest to you dads out there. I love that you are even reading this, because just by doing that you are separating yourself from 95% of the dads out there. Thanks for being willing to invest in the most important job you will ever do! I look forward to getting to know you better as we explore parenting and fatherhood ...<< MORE >>

Hey everyone,

This is Kelli and I just wanted to say hi and to thank you for visiting our site. I would love to be available to you if you have questions or comments for me. I don't pretend to have all the answers, but I have experienced a lot of things with eight kids and a whole bunch of our "other" kids. Maybe we can learn from each other along the way. So, please keep visiting and I look forward to getting to know you better right here.

Blessings,
Kelli

We are glad to welcome you to our blog - thanks for visiting. Please help us make this a valuable resource for parents everywhere.

We plan to use this blog to support parents in your God-given calling of raising your child to be all he made them to be.

In the future you will find here articles that expand on Going Public and provide answers to questions that would benefit everyone (we hope!)

Feel free to click on "Add Comment" below and type a comment or question; we hope to reply as quickly as our crazy schedules allow - please be patient with us.

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Our Mission is to help couples and parents grow Godly homes that influence and change our culture.

Our Vision is to reclaim the hope and belief in what God has ordained. Our philosophy is based on some basic foundational principles:

• God is sovereign.
• God ordained marriage.
• The family begins when you say "I do".
• A parent's primary role is to train up their child to become a self-governing adult. And it's possible to do so!
• Other than the church, the family is still the primary institution ordained by God to influence our culture.

If you haven't been there yet, please visit www.goingpublicthebook.com to learn more about us, our family and our book; and please buy and READ the book!

May God bless you in your great calling,

David & Kelli