The Anti-Roll Over Effect

The Anti-Roll Over Effect

baker-kids-summer-2013

 

Truthfully, this is a totally made up effect, but it does happen in real life.  When we first started our detox from public schools years ago, my eldest kids were 9, 8, and 6…I had three others that were younger but they weren’t interested in what I was teaching.  During their Core Phase I spent scheduled days teaching them the basics with every single step in life/house skills training.  They learned to bake bread, wash the clothes, do the dishes manually and with the dishwasher, what all of my expectations were in all of these areas.  It took a lot of my time, but the rewards were immediate.

I’ve always taught my children the gospel and everything I can think of to teach them that is and becomes important to me.  They learned the plan of Salvation, we learn and recite scriptures.  The years of things I spent teaching them….and then last year I had a huge smack in the face…duh moment.  I currently have nine children (the oldest 3 now being 17, 16, 14) and am expecting our tenth child (no that wasn’t the shock).  My husband and I were sitting in an adult session of Stake Conference and the Stake President shared a humorous filled video that he put together.  He went around the stake and interviewed the children in Primary in the Stake.  He asked them questions like who is the current prophet, why do we get baptized, etc.  It was funny because of the cute and many times incorrect answers the children gave.  Then it hit me.  Did all those hours I spent teaching stuff carry over to the younger children? Would they be the kids on the video giving crazy and incorrect answers?

We left the conference and I immediately started quizzing my kids….who is the prophet, were they were ignorant!  It is the anti-roll over effect. Yes, some stuff rolled over with the help of the older kids…but the fact is, I have to reteach the next group and the group after as they become ready. I had become complacent, and well, I was ignorant.  But, thanks to a loving God who directs my path in raising and teaching these kids.  I’ve started round two remembering this very valuable lesson.

2 comments

  1. I find that I am in the same boat with my younger 3 kids. My older 3 know these things, but younger 3 don’t know them as well. However, the oldest of my younger 3 (my 4th son) has an up on the older 3, he learned all 13 articles of faith for my church while in Kindergarten. My older kids were much older than he. My younger kids are used to working hard around the house because I now know that they are capable from a young age- of more than I thought when my older kids were this age .

Leave a Reply to Shiloah Baker Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.