Christine Davidson — Fri, 11 May 2012 21:10:21 +0000

May Theme: Building on the Rock

Here is a summary of recent most popular dinner topics

Mothers Day 2012 Inspirational Quotes

No other work reaches so close to divinity as does the nurturing of the sons and daughters of God.

Marriage, President Obama, and Mormon Beliefs

In the aftermath of North Carolina’s overwhelming vote in favor of traditional marriage, President Obama has just announced that he is in favor of gay marriage, for the obvious purpose of getting votes. Following is an official proclamation from the Mormon church, giving the traditional definition of marriage, which accurately reflects the views of the majority of Americans. It includes a warning to society of the dire consequences of perverting those traditional institutions which stabilize our civilization.

May Parenting Value: Kindness and Friendliness

President Obama Cancels National Day of Prayer

Dinner, Themes, and Traditions

Dinner Talk—The Universal Parable

“All happenings great and small are parables whereby God speaks. The art of life is to get the message. ~Malcolm Muggeridge~

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Christine Davidson — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:19:58 +0000

Check out these most popular posts from this month. Videos, and everything from Art, to Classical music, to American history, to Parenting, to politics, to Walt Disney, and more. Feel free to comment in the box provided with each post.

Art

Titanic Movie and History of Titanic

In 1912, the Titanic was one of the largest, most luxurious steamships ever built. Follow its incredible story, from a shipyard in Ireland to the icy Atlantic Ocean, and discover how this ‘unsinkable’ ship met with such a tragic end.

Did you see — the story about all the people who tweeted, young people, who had no idea that the Titanic actually happened. They thought it was just a movie. Dawn, it’s a lot of people. Well, figuratively young people, were shocked … with the 100th anniversary. They said, “Hundredth anniversary? That movie was only out ten years ago.”

They didn’t know the Titanic actually happened. Well, what are they being taught, if they don’t know that the Titanic actually happened? To them the Titanic was Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Read this post to learn how you can share this tragic event in American history with your children.

American History

Paul Revere’s Ride

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

“Listen my children and you shall hear…”

Classical Music and American Culture: Watch these delightful videos

Classical Music, Walt Disney, and Peter and the Wolf

Celebrate Easter Sunday with Classical Music, Messiah

Hallelujah, by Mormon Tabernacle Choir, youtube

Classical Music, Stress Relief, and Rachmaninov

Parenting

Value for April: Empathy

Value of Unselfishness & Sensitivity

Becoming more extra-centered and less self-centered. Learning to feel with and for others. Empathy, tolerance, brotherhood. Sensitivity to needs in people and situations.

Politics

Obama Deception, the White House, and the Muslim Brotherhood

Obama Administration Courts the Muslim Brotherhood

Reagan, President Obama, and Socialism

Learn tons in minutes about economics in this clever video.

American Culture and William Shakespeare

Children Stories of William Shakespeare

The works of William Shakespeare are rich in wisdom about human nature and government. But some of his works are over the heads of modern adult readers–certainly for children. But now parents can introduce and share this great classic literature with their children so they can develop appreciation for one of many vital elements of our culture of liberty. April 30- May , Screen Off week, is the perfect time to try something new. Check out this post to see how you can share this beautifully illustrated, easily read literature with your children.

From lively comedy to dark tragedy, with clowns, witches and a doomed romance, this wonderful collection has six of Shakespeare’s best-loved plays. Discover the stories of Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and the Tempest, all beautifully retold for easy reading.

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Christine Davidson — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 03:25:49 +0000

March Themes: Good vs. Evil

Most Popular Posts

Prevention of Sin: A Fable

Repeal Obamacare: 10 Terrible Provisions

American History, Fidel Castro, and Barack Hussein Obama

Veterans Outraged Over American Flag With Obama Image

Ten Commandments and Quotes about Life

Republic, not a Democracy: see video

Warning issued re: violence of ‘Hunger Games’

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Christine Davidson — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 22:32:20 +0000

Sociology and Culture

Article by David Brooks, distinguished Notre Dame Sociologist

“The interviewers asked open-ended questions about right and wrong, moral dilemmas and the meaning of life. In the rambling answers, … you see the young people groping to say anything sensible on these matters. But they just don’t have the categories or vocabulary to do so.

“When asked to describe a moral dilemma they had faced, two-thirds of the young people either couldn’t answer the question or described problems that are not moral at all, like whether they could afford to rent a certain apartment or whether they had enough quarters to feed the meter at a parking spot.”

“The default position, which most of them came back to again and again, is that moral choices are just a matter of individual taste. ‘It’s personal,’ the respondents typically said. ‘It’s up to the individual. Who am I to say?’

“Rejecting blind deference to authority, many of the young people have gone off to the other extreme [saying]: ‘I would do what I thought made me happy or how I felt. I have no other way of knowing what to do but how I internally feel.’”

Those who conducted the interviews emphasized that the majority of the young people with whom they spoke had “not been given the resources—by schools, institutions [or] families—to cultivate their moral intuitions.”¹ David Brooks, “If it Feels Right. . .”, New York Times, Sept. 12, 2011, nytimes.com

continued

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Christine Davidson — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 04:22:42 +0000

Founding Fathers, Federalist Papers, and Unity

“. . . the Founders knew people were imperfect. My concern is not only us trying to seek perfection, but we’re embracing the utopian notion that we can actually find this great Pied Piper who is going to lead us. There are no Pied Pipers. There are great statesmen who can certainly help us, like Reagan, like Churchill, like Thatcher, and so forth—but they would have been the first to tell you that they’re not perfect. We don’t have to have perfection; there is no such thing.” ~Mark Levin

Veterans Outraged Over American Flag With Obama Image

We the People

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Christine Davidson — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 02:24:55 +0000

Dinner Topics for March

Please visit and follow us at

discerning the face of evil

our new blog URL and your comments are welcome!

March theme, Lessons of Life: Good vs. Evil

March 15, 2012

American History, Fidel Castro, and Barack Hussein Obama

This is an eye-opening warning on what has happened elsewhere and can happen here.

March 14, 2012

The 10 Terrible Provisions of Obamacare You May Not Have Heard Of, from the Heritage Foundation

Repeal Obamacare: 10 Terrible Provisions

Obamacare includes such a variety and volume of negative policies that it’s hard to keep track of them all. Here is a list of 10 terrible provisions that every American should be aware of.

March 9, 2012

Prevention of Sin: A Fable

On preventing sin, rather than being faced with the much more difficult task of curing it.

March 8, 2012

Is Fascism to the Right of Communism and Socialism?

American History Analysis: Are Communism and Fascism Really Opposites?

Many adults, including some media, are confused about “socialism” and “fascism”. What is the difference? Correct history is not always taught in schools. After we define a few “isms”, and clear up the confusion, even your young adults may know more than some politicians!

March 2, 2012

Dr. Seuss Children’s books

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Christine Davidson — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 04:27:52 +0000

Dinner Topics for Monday

Leftist lyrics spawn criticism — Education…or indoctrination

Bob Kellogg – OneNewsNow –

An organization that works with schools to teach elementary students songwriting is being accused of trying to indoctrinate youngsters with left-wing ideology

“Kid Pan Alley” — whose stated mission is to inspire musical creativity in children — helped third-grade students at Woodbrook Elementary School in Virginia write a song about Occupy Wall Street. The song, called “Part of the 99,” includes the lyrics: “I used to be one of the 1 percent / I worked all the time / Never saw my family / Couldn’t make life rhyme / Then the bubble burst / It really, really hurt / I lost my money / Lost my pride / Lost my home / Now I’m part of the 99.”

According to Olson, this is not an isolated incident. Kid Pan Alley travels to various schools across the country putting on songwriting workshops for young students.

“And so I really encourage parents to be on the outlook for this organization specifically, Kid Pan Alley, but then also look at what’s going on in your school and your classroom and be vigilant and on the lookout for these types of things,” he suggests.

Olson has written a book — Indoctrination: How ‘Useful Idiots’ Are Using Our Schools to Subvert American Exceptionalism – that he says reveals how the left indoctrinates students with its political agenda.

Results from our related poll

What most likely would’ve happened

if these students had written a song about Jesus Christ?

Our Future depends on our children’s education

Our Children’s Education is in our hands: What you can do about it

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Christine Davidson — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 04:53:48 +0000

Dinner Topics for Friday

Charles John Huffam Dickens 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature’s most iconic novels and characters.^[1]

Many of his writings were originally published serially, in monthly instalments, a format of publication which Dickens himself helped popularise. Unlike other authors who completed novels before serialisation, Dickens often created the episodes as they were being serialised. The practice lent his stories a particular rhythm, punctuated by cliffhangers to keep the public looking forward to the next instalment.^[2] The continuing popularity of his novels and short stories is such that they have never gone out of print.^[3]

Dickens’s work has been highly praised for its realism, comedy, mastery of prose, unique personalities and concern for social reform, by writers such as Leo Tolstoy, George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton; though others, such as Henry James and Virginia Woolf, have criticised it for melodrama, sentimentality and implausibility.^[4]

Charles Dickens was born at Landport, in Portsea, on February 7, 1812, the second of eight children, to John and Elizabeth Dickens. His father was a clerk in the Navy Pay-office and was temporarily on duty in the neighbourhood. Very soon after the birth of Charles, however, the family moved for a short period to Norfolk Street, Bloomsbury, and then for a long period to Chatham, in Kent, which thus became the real childhood home, and for all serious purposes, the native place of Dickens. His early years seem to have been idyllic, although he thought himself a “very small and not-over-particularly-taken-care-of boy”.^[5] Charles spent time outdoors, but also read voraciously, especially the picaresque novels of Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding. He spoke, later in life, of his poignant memories of childhood, and of his near-photographic memory of the people and events, which he used in his writing. His father’s brief period as a clerk in the Navy Pay Office afforded him a few years of private education at William Giles’s School, in Chatham.^[6]

This period came to an abrupt end when the Dickens family, because of financial difficulties, moved from Kent to Camden Town, in London in 1822. John Dickens continually lived beyond his means and was eventually imprisoned in the Marshalsea debtor’s prison in Southwark, London in 1824. Shortly afterwards, the rest of his family joined him – except 12-year-old Charles, who was boarded with family friend Elizabeth Roylance in Camden Town.^[7] Mrs. Roylance was “a reduced [impoverished] old lady, long known to our family”, whom Dickens later immortalised, “with a few alterations and embellishments”, as “Mrs. Pipchin”, in Dombey and Son. Later, he lived in a “back-attic…at the house of an insolvent-court agent…in Lant Street in The Borough…he was a fat, good-natured, kind old gentleman, with a quiet old wife”; and he had a very innocent grown-up son; these three were the inspiration for the Garland family in The Old Curiosity Shop.^[8]

On Sundays, Dickens and his sister Frances (“Fanny”) were allowed out from the Royal Academy of Music and spent the day at the Marshalsea.^[9] (Dickens later used the prison as a setting in Little Dorrit). To pay for his board and to help his family, Dickens was forced to leave school and began working ten-hour days at Warren’s Blacking Warehouse, on Hungerford Stairs, near the present Charing Cross railway station. He earned six shillings a week pasting labels on blacking. The strenuous – and often cruel – work conditions made a deep impression on Dickens, and later influenced his fiction and essays, forming the foundation of his interest in the reform of socio-economic and labour conditions, the rigors of which he believed were unfairly borne by the poor. He would later write that he wondered “how I could have been so easily cast away at such an age.” As told to John Forster (from The Life of Charles Dickens):

Characters

‘Dickens’ Dream’ by Robert William Buss, portraying Dickens at his desk at Gads Hill Place surrounded by many of his characters

Dickens is famed for his depiction of the hardships of the working class, his intricate plots, and his sense of humour. But he is perhaps most famed for the characters he created. His novels were heralded early in his career for their ability to capture the everyday man and thus create characters to whom readers could relate. Beginning with The Pickwick Papers in 1836, Dickens wrote numerous novels, each uniquely filled with believable personalities and vivid physical descriptions. Dickens’s friend and biographer, John Forster, said that Dickens made “characters real existences, not by describing them but by letting them describe themselves.”^[45]

Dickensian characters—especially their typically whimsical names—are among the most memorable in English literature. The likes of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit, Oliver Twist, The Artful Dodger, Fagin, Bill Sikes, Pip, Miss Havisham, Charles Darnay, David Copperfield, Mr. Micawber, Abel Magwitch, Daniel Quilp, Samuel Pickwick, Wackford Squeers, Uriah Heep and many others are so well known and can be believed to be living a life outside the novels that their stories have been continued by other authors.^{[citation needed]}

The author worked closely with his illustrators supplying them with a summary of the work at the outset and thus ensuring that his characters and settings were exactly how he envisioned them.^[46] He would brief the illustrator on plans for each month’s instalment so that work could begin before he wrote them. Marcus Stone, illustrator of Our Mutual Friend, recalled that the author was always “ready to describe down to the minutest details the personal characteristics, and … life-history of the creations of his fancy.”^[30] This close working relationship is important to readers of Dickens today. The illustrations give us a glimpse of the characters as Dickens described them. Film makers still use the illustrations as a basis for characterisation, costume, and set design.

Often these characters were based on people he knew. In a few instances Dickens based the character too closely on the original, as in the case of Harold Skimpole in Bleak House, based on James Henry Leigh Hunt, and Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield, based on his wife’s dwarf chiropodist. Indeed, the acquaintances made when reading a Dickens novel are not easily forgotten. The author Virginia Woolf maintained that “we remodel our psychological geography when we read Dickens” as he produces “characters who exist not in detail, not accurately or exactly, but abundantly in a cluster of wild yet extraordinarily revealing remarks.”^[47]

Click on this image at epicworldbook.net for a collection of beautiful, illustrated stories by Charles Dickens in children’s books for reading with your family!

Dickens Bio Continued

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Christine Davidson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 04:16:16 +0000

Dinner Topics for Monday and Tuesday

Parenting value for February: Respect

By Richard and Linda Eyre

Respect for life, for property, for parents, for elders, for nature, and for the beliefs and rights of others. Courtesy, politeness, and manners. Self-respect and the avoidance of self-criticism.

Introduction

The importance of and basic necessity for respect are self-evident. Respect is the basis and foundation (and often the motivation) for several of the other basic values of life. Children who learn both to implement and to understand the principle of respect will be better members of society, better friends, and better leaders.

The teaching of respect is an interesting and somewhat difficult proposition. The main thing to remember is that respect isn’t given consistently unless it is received. We need first to respect our children (in terms of how we speak to them and how we treat them) and then to absolutely demand that they show respect for us in return. The respect they receive in the home will be the basis for their own self-respect; and the respect they learn to show in the home (to family members) will be the foundation on which to build respect for others outside the home.

General Guidelines

Teach by your own examples. Show respectful behavior. As always, example is the best teacher. During this month be ever-conscious of respect. Let your children see and hear you being concerned for the property and rights of others, assisting the elderly, caring for nature, being polite in all situations and showing self-respect in terms of how you look and how you speak of yourself.

Extend respect and then expect respect. Create the proper climate for respect in your own home. We often speak to and deal with our children with less respect than we show to strangers. We treat them as though they have no rights an deserve no explanations. We say “because I said so” and we give them no benefit of the doubt and assume they are guilty until proven innocent.

We need to change this, even if it requires imagining that they are strangers and speaking to them accordingly. Use the words “please” and “thank you” more. Ask them whenever possible instead of telling them. Ask for their advice or input on things. Respect their opinions.

Once we make this effort, we are in a position to expect (even demand) respect in return. Make it clear that respect includes tone of voice as well as manners. This expectation must be consistent and repetitive. Simply do not allow disrespect in your home.

Give plenty of praise and recognition. Reinforce respectful behavior and encourage its repetition. Make up your mind to watch for opportunities to praise courtesy and politeness during the month. Catch them doing something right and make a big deal of it. Praise them in front of other family members — and then try to remember to praise them privately, one on one, later the same day.

Give them a chance to correct themselves by saying “Let’s start over.” This is a good method to correct disrespectful behavior in a positive way. Establish the pattern (and the habit, in connection with consistently not allowing disrespect in the home) of saying, “Let’s start over.” When a disrespectful answer is given, when someone fails to say “please” or “thank you,” say “Let’s start over.” Then repeat the situation, letting the child do it right. Do this with children of all ages. And when necessary, say, “Let’s start over” for yourself and then repeat your own statement or behavior in a more respectful way.
“Parenting-by-Objective”

Review the activities and stories that go along with this months value. Make sure everyone in your family understands the value so they can see how they can apply it in their own lives and situations.

Talk about the Monthly Value every morning and remind your family to look for opportunities to use the value throughout the day. They may also observe how others don’t understand the value. Get your children to share their experience with the value each day at the dinner table or before you go to bed. Be sure to share your experience each day as well. It will help your children know that you are thinking about the value too.

methods for teaching teens at

Dinner talk for Champions

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Christine Davidson — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:48:37 +0000

“Family dinner” and “family friendly” are not popular in your typical daily word search, but on Google Insight the interest is high and rising. The following article explains why. ~C.A. Davidson

What your children really want for dinner is you

Kristine Frederickson

In the book “Farewell to Manzanar,” a woman describes her time as a 7-year-old Japanese American in an internment camp during World War II.

“Before Manzanar, mealtime had always been the center of our family scene. In camp, and afterward, I would often recall with deep yearning the old, round, wooden table in our dining room in Ocean Park, the biggest piece of furniture we owned, large enough to seat 12 or 13 of us at once.

The family was knit together, her parents side by side, her father overseeing the meal, and she and her sister bonding in simple childlike ways.

Then she described, “now, in the mess halls (at Manzanar). . .we stopped eating as a family. Mama tried to hold us together for awhile, but it was hopeless. . .My older brothers and sisters. . .began eating with their friends. I confess I enjoyed this part of it at the time. We all did.”

Abandoning this simple practice, however, changed behavior in the camp so much that two years after the Japanese were interned, sociologists called in to study camp life issued an edict, “that families must start eating together again.” However, it was impossible to enforce this edict. As she explained, “Not much could really be done. It was too late. My own family, after three years of mess hall living, collapsed as an integral unit. Whatever dignity or feeling of filial strength we may have known before December 1941 was lost, and we did not recover it until many years after the war, not until after Papa died and we began to come together, trying to fill the vacuum his passing left in our lives.”

Eating dinner together as a family seems such a simple and often insignificant thing. We know it is not. We have been instructed by church leaders many times to do times. Janette Hales Beckham said, “We sometimes fail to see the sacred nature of our seemingly routine daily tasks. Fundamentals of daily living—scripture reading, prayer, family home evening, the conversation at dinner—these provide the experiences that make faith a reality.”

Dallin H. Oaks said, “The number of those who report that their ‘whole family usually eats dinner together’ has declined 33 percent. This is most concerning because the time a family spends together ‘eating meals at home (is) the strongest predictor of children’s academic achievement and psychological adjustment.’(Anderson and Doherty, “Family Relations”). Family mealtimes have also been shown to be a strong bulwark against children’s smoking, drinking, or using drugs.(Nancy Gibbs, “The Magic of the Family Meal”, Time, June 12, 2006, 51-52) There is inspired advice to parents: what your children really want for dinner is you.”

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