Pros and Cons of Being an MK

March 7th, 2014

pros-and-cons-of-being-an-mk

What are the pros and cons of being an MK?

For me personally, I’m glad that I grew up as a missionary kid. I never fit in when I was in Guatemala, but fitting in is overrated. Who cares that the kids screamed, “Fire! Fire!” and ran away from me because I had red hair and white skin, while they had black hair and brown skin. Yes, I cried, but I got over it.

For all that, I know that living overseas in a third-world country has opened my eyes and given me more wisdom. I have more perspective on life. When I later lived in England as a teacher and my shower stopped working, I was not angry when it took six months for them to fix it. Americans become furious when their lives are not perfect. I’m not sure why they do this. They expect that life on this earth is heaven.

Having grown up in Guatemala, I can tell you that this life is not heaven, and it never will be. Heaven is what happens when you have a deep walk with God and care about God’s glory. Then your life can be heaven on earth, even if your body is put into flames, because more of God in your life is more incredible joy. Yes, heaven is the presence of God. You can have it here on earth when you die to self and stop seeking earthly ease.

Americans are really in the grip of materialism, and American Christians are oblivious to the fact that their walk with God is almost non-existent. They live for TV. They live for a nicer house. They live for all that they covet. They do not live for God. It’s hard to find an American Christian who actually walks by the Spirit. It’s easier to find true Christians in any third-world country, where their walk with God is raw and real.

I watched the following video that has many MK’s telling the pros and cons of being an MK, and I list what they said in the bullet points under the video:

Advantages of Being a Missionary Kid:

  • You get to taste amazing food from everywhere.
  • You get to meet a lot of interesting people.
  • You’re 5,000 miles away from your family.
  • You appreciate the small things in life.
  • You know another language.
  • You get to travel everywhere.
  • You can fit in to most contexts.
  • You understand people better.

Disadvantages of Being a Missionary Kid:

  • Pride keeps you away from good relationships.
  • Always saying good-bye.
  • Traveling everywhere.
  • Always feel like an outsider.
  • Lack of stability.
  • Not being there when your younger siblings are growing up, if you go to college in America.
  • Not being able to connect and feel like you’re a part of somewhere.
  • Not understanding American culture. Feeling “out of it.”
  • Home is ever changing.
  • Feeling misunderstood.

One MK said that she would never be truly home until she was in heaven. For me, home is where my husband is. It’s more the people that I’m with, rather than the physical location.

Can you think of any other pros and cons of being an MK?

Keep up with missionary kid posts by liking my Missionary Kid Page.

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Posted in Growing Up as a Missionary Kid | 13 Comments »

Hands-on Learning Pinterest Boards

March 5th, 2014

hands-on-learning-pinterest-boards

These are my top 5 Hands-on Learning Pinterest Boards:

1. Homeschooling Bible

This Pinterest board is full of hands-on ideas for teaching the Bible to your children. My popular 31 Days of Bible Crafts caused this board to soar because of all the original ideas that were gorgeous and do-able. Most of the projects are super easy, and the ones that take longer are worth it. To bring Scripture to life for your children will bring them delight in God’s Word!



2. Ancient Egypt Unit Study  This Pinterest board has lots of fun ideas for teaching Ancient Egypt to your kids. You can make your own mummy and sarcophagus using an inexpensive hinged box, a small doll, and some white strips of cloth. Play games, make hieroglyphs, create a simple Egyptian costume, build sugar cube pyramids with sand on them, and emboss some Egyptian art onto metal. Look at a list of fun DVD’s about Egypt that you can find at your local library. And create an Egyptian feast as a culminating activity for your study!

3. Homeschooling Geography

This Pinterest board is a joy to me because I traveled the world before I was married, so I have seen a lot of places. I have a Travel board, too, if you want to see where I’ve been. (I grew up in Guatemala and have another board about that!) But this Homeschooling Geography board is specifically for hands-on geography ideas for your kids to understand world cultures and geography. I show you different ways to learn about maps: cookie maps, 3-D maps with clay in blue water, and home-made puzzle maps. Cut an orange to understand hemispheres. Learn about the culture of France through various hands-on activities. And learn how to use coins to teach about geography!

4. Organization for Homeschoolers  I love to organize, and this board is stuffed with ideas on how to organize everything in your home! Organize each room in your house. After that, you can organize your closets, your art supplies, your car, your shoes, your games, and your paper clutter. Organize your homeschool space through nature displays, science learning centers, and other educational displays. Then organize your time through scheduling, goal-setting, and prioritizing what is important.

5. Spring Activities for Kids 

I have a fun hands-on board for each season, and because Spring is around the corner, here are some super fun activities you can do with your kids to enjoy this season. Throw tea parties, create fun hats, do some gardening, visit your local botanical gardens, go kite flying, and make a pop bottle bird feeder. Use fun cookie cutters in 17 creative ways, including jam tarts, sandwiches, dolls and pillows, soap, jello, and pancakes. Have fun this spring with your kids!

Each of these boards is packed full of ideas for incorporating hands-on learning into your home. And the fun part of it is that they are all bookmarked visually!

Linked to Our Pintastic Pinboards

pintasticpinboards

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Posted in Homeschooling | 2 Comments »

Edible Sedimentary Rocks

March 3rd, 2014

edible-sedimentary-rocks

This post contains an affiliate link. I was compensated for my work in writing this post.

The highlight of our rocks and minerals study was making delicious edible sedimentary rocks, a layered treat overloaded with sugar. Look away from this page if you are on a diet! My own kids are skin and bone, so this treat put some meat on my kids, and a small-ish slice I ate (okay–fine! I had many small slices!) reminds me of the mud pies in Malibu, California.

We are continuing our  homeschooling science posts about Earth and Space by Bright Ideas Press. The recipe for the edible sedimentary rocks comes from this book, and I will give you a video tutorial for how to make this delicious treat at the bottom of this article. If you can’t wait that long, go ahead and scroll down right away to begin your sugar rush.

My kids have collected rocks and minerals for years, and when we studied the different types of rocks, they remembered the differences between igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. Take a look at one of our collections, which we have organized in a labeled tackle box:

rock-collection

When you are studying rocks and minerals, you should really go ahead and do some experiments on the rocks, like plopping them into vinegar to watch them fizz. Here is a free PDF from the National Museum of Natural History. Scroll down and print out the last page for your kids. This is a chart. Go ahead and do the different experiments listed in the PDF, and have your kids enter the results into their charts. Place the chart into your Earth and Space notebook.

We have now arrived at our grand finale, our pièce de résistance:

How to Make Edible Sedimentary Rocks:

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Posted in Science | 10 Comments »

Don’t Attribute Wrong Motives to Your Husband

February 28th, 2014

wrong-motives-to-your-husband

Don’t attribute wrong motives to your husband. In the same way that you are a new creation at salvation, your husband is also a new creation. Deep down he desires to please God. Even if he is trapped in his flesh and sins out of habit–usually through some form of selfishness–so do you. None of us who are true believers wants to do the wrong thing. Our conscience makes us feel bad, and we ask God to help us overcome sin.

I used to attribute wrong motives to my husband without even realizing it. My husband would make a statement, and I would twist his statement to make him seem like he was attacking me when he wasn’t. “Susan , you’re just hurting yourself by making up something that I didn’t say,” he told me one day. I stopped in my tracks and realized that he was right. He had made a statement that was not positive or negative, and I had extrapolated a negative motivation behind it. And there he was, refusing to defend himself because I was the one causing the problem.

“I don’t know how to stop doing it,” I said to my husband, referring to the fact that I would subconsciously attribute the worst motive to him instead of giving him the benefit of the doubt and expecting that we were on the same side. “What should I do? My brain automatically makes you out to be the bad guy, and I don’t want to do that any more. Help me figure out what to do.”

We sat down, and he prayed with me. We asked God to break this pattern of negative interaction. Do you know what? From that day forward, I stopped doing it!

Most areas of sin in my life take years for me to overcome, but this one was resolved in an instant. I’m not sure if God just fixed the negative pattern in my brain through a miracle, or if realizing that I was twisting my husband’s words and hurting my marriage caused me to be aware of what I was doing. In any case, I praise God that this destructive pattern is gone from my marriage!

I talk about this a lot more in my free audio about how powerful praying with your spouse can be: How to Get Your Husband to Pray with You

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Posted in Marriage | 6 Comments »

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