Author Archives: Jonathan Sircy

My daughter can light up a room with her laugh. Today, she lit up a dentist office. After a hard day at school, my daughter got schlepped over to the local dentist for a cleaning. She was a bit apprehensive during the drive over, but once we were inside, she was in good spirits. HerContinue reading “The Laugh”

I have been praying in earnest for my daughter’s salvation. Her decision to follow Christ is not something that I can–or would want–force. Yesterday, during prayer, I felt convicted about what I should be doing. My commitment: share the gospel with my daughter every day. Yesterday, I shared the gospel in the context of discipline.Continue reading “Sharing the Gospel”

“Daddy, daddy,” my daughter said when she got in the car, “I got my Chromebook!” My daughter has been wanting her computer all week. Today, she got what she wanted. At home, we navigated through the following Chromebook-enabled features: Encyclopedia articles about dogs and cats (read out loud to us, btw) Games involving adding andContinue reading “The Chromebook”

A student in my daughter’s class has been crying all week. Crying in the morning. Crying in the afternoon. The student, my daughter says, misses his mama. She doesn’t like the student crying. “It’s hard to learn,” she told me. My wife and I have endured quite a few fits from my daughter this summer.Continue reading “The Comparison”

“I can’t wait for tomorrow!” my daughter said upon getting picked up today. “Why?” we asked. “I get to go to school tomorrow!” Off to a good start. But it was her lesson for the day that I really took note of… At home, we played school again, and I learned the kindergarten-approved way ofContinue reading “Cool Down”

Today was our daughter’s first day of kindergarten. Over time, I’ve found that direct questions rarely get my daughter to divulge what went on at school on any particular day. Instead, I have to be willing to “play” the student while my daughter “plays” teacher. She spills all the goods. I played a rambunctious kindergartenerContinue reading “Playing Student”

“What do you want to learn about today?” I asked our daughter this morning. “Sharks!” she said definitively. More specifically, she wanted to know more about Tiger Sharks. So we headed off to the library. Inside, we found a Shark Encyclopedia and sat down to read through its small article on Tiger Sharks. I hadContinue reading “Two Kinds of Lessons”

Yesterday, my daughter and I made our weekly trek to the library. I said she could check out three books: A picture book A book she wanted to read A non-fiction book on a topic she wanted to learn about She got a Vox Book (a book that has contains an mp3 file so youContinue reading ““What do you want to learn?””

Inspired by yesterday’s meet-the-teacher exercise, I set up two scavenger hunts for my daughter this morning. The hunts consisted of tiny notecards with couplets for clues. Example: If finding the next card is your goal,You’ll should look in the basket that gives you “control.” Doggerel for the win! She looked here and there for twelveContinue reading “The Scavenger Hunt”

We showed up at our daughter’s Meet The Teacher day and were greeted with a nine-part treasure hunt. It was our daughter’s job to navigate nine classroom activities before she left. They included: Finding her cubby Having her parents volunteer for activities Placing her supplies in the class storeroom Spotting and attempting to name theContinue reading “Experiential Learning”