Hi kids, the death of Jesus had just been celebrated at Easter and I hope you enjoyed your break. Learning to be like Jesus when he was a kid will help your destiny. Jesus was born for a purpose, you are. The earlier you discover and work towards purpose the better. Let me quickly take you through some facts about Jesus as a child.
Can you remember the story of how he went into the temple and began to learn under Doctors and Teachers? As a young boy and girl, being like Jesus will require that you learn. Learning entails listening and asking questions. These were the things Jesus did to become a successful adult. As you resume this new term, study more, be closer to your teachers more, ask questions more and be sure to be better.
The fact that Jesus left the home to go to the synagogue where he could be taught does not infer Jesus was a vagabond but a purpose driven kid who will go all length to align beyond the limitations of his parents. He told Mary his mother, ‘don’t you know I have to be in my father’s house?’ That was discovery and expression of purpose. As you settle in a new term, align well. Jesus did not go to the synagogue to play ludo. Be sure of your acts and attitudes at all point. Know what you should be doing at all times and why even without the control of your parents.
When Mary came for Jesus in the synagogue, he did not argue but simply followed her home. Arguing with parents will not make you good adult. Obedience is the key. Even when you feel dad or mum might be wrong and you are right, you will need to show respect and not arrogance.
Let’s quickly consider some tips I think will be useful enough now or at a later day for you. I call it back to school tips without tears.
Please note, no matter the status of your parents, resources are always scarce whereas, issues requiring monetary attentions are not. All you could do is ensure that going back to school comes without tears to dad and mum. In other words, you can make your going back to school easy for you and your parents as same time.
Have you taken the time to analyse the cost of your going back to school? Some of these costs are necessities that can’t be shelved but some are not and such can be adjusted. You will have to work things out with mum at this period. You know what? Notably, mum or dad might not tell you this, because of the prevailing economic situation in our country, there are so many equally important urgent needs that are dependent of the income of mum and dad but you have to return to school hence, you have been taken as the priority. To this effect, the need to plan and curtail expenses cannot be overemphasised. Here are some tips.
1. Scale your needs, Make sensible priorities:
Making a comprehensive list of required items to go back to school will help a lot. The next step is to scale these listed items in order of priorities or importance. Mum should only buy only the very needful items and shun others that you do not compulsorily and immediately need. These others might be re-visited much later during the term or as soon as Mum and Dad can again comfortably afford. Please note, even if Mum and Dad can afford more than your necessary needs, encourage them to help you by some restrictions. Make do with the needful.
2. Do a Closet Sweep
A new term is different from a new session. You do not necessarily need to buy new things. Guess what? Do you know it is very likely that you even already have some of the listed items somehow and somewhere around the house but you don’t know or just feel like getting another. If you do a clean sweep of the rooms in the house, you will be surprised how that you will only need to buy few things more. At that, Mum and Dad can save lots and lots of money to do other things.
Start by looking at some of the items you made use of last time and clean them up for use in the new term. Shoes can be fixed, polished to become like new ones for use in the new term except if such shoes are now too tight because you are actually growing very fast or that you have over used them. Very laughable but because you are often very playful, your white school uniform had actually turned cream colour kind of. A little bleaching might just be enough to make such uniform almost new again. If the shirt/blouse are torn, please don’t bother to sew.
Other items like Pens, pencils, markers, Erasers, Rulers, Notebooks and loose-leaf paper, Scratch paper, Binders, Calculators, Crayons could still be useful to some extent. See the possibilities of making them presentable for your use.
Do you know that some of the books your older siblings made use of can still be useful? So long as they are neat enough and could be made neater, make do with these and save enough money for the new term.
3. Consider discount purchases:
I do see banks calling for the opening of savings accounts with some gift items that could be useful in school as incentives. If you have accounts in such institutions, why not go for the gifts and if you don’t, you can tell mum to open one for you to get the gifts no matter how little. Money in your account is still yours. In some cases, some online platforms where items could be purchased do give some discounts, patronise such and get the discount no matter how little. Little drops of water they say, make a mighty ocean.
Let’s leave the discussion here for now, till next week. Welcome back to school.
Be free to send me a mail at obastocks@gmail.com.