Tag Archives: standards

For the Strength of Youth Series: Friends

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Growing up, I always had good friends. In my first high school, I chose a quiet group of LDS kids to hang around with and I always felt like my standards were respected. I don’t think they were ever challenged. My second high school was also like this. I quickly found friends in seminary and at church, and these friends were instrumental in helping me gain confidence and self-understanding in a turbulent time. In fact, it wasn’t until the end of my undergraduate degree while studying in England that I became close friends with people of other faiths. Call me … Continue reading →

For the Strength of Youth Series

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Have you read the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet lately? I hadn’t until I was called to a Young Women calling a while ago. All I remembered was that as a youth I used to think of the pamphlet as guidance for what I wasn’t supposed to do. As I looked at it again, I was amazed at the simple doctrines, the understanding, and the love that radiates from the pages of this pamphlet. Everything is so direct and simple. Everything is doctrinally sound. It’s fabulous. Whether you have a teenager around the house or not, this little book … Continue reading →

It’s Not Conformity, It’s Called Obedience

I often hear statements that lead me to feel that the speaker doesn’t fully understand the importance of obedience. They talk about how they hate the idea of conformity, that we all have to be exactly the same way, and how they dislike the way the Church seems to want to churn out cookie-cutter people with no personalities of their own. Most often, I hear people state that they are living the commandments the way they most feel comfortable with living them, and that they don’t necessarily ascribe to the idea that we have to live up to a “standard,” … Continue reading →

Standardize What Works Well

Do you ever feel like you are reinventing the wheel with your home business or at least that you forget what worked so great for you last month and have to relearn it? I find that, especially with tasks and activities that do no occur daily (maybe things you only have to do once a year–like taxes), it is easy to figure out a great system and then forget it in the interim until you have to do it again. Even though your business is likely small–if you have something that is working well, it might make sense to standardize … Continue reading →

Dealing with Different Standards

Standards and expectations can play a big part in our customer relations. Even if we think we have high standards, we may very well be facing a different set of standards as we work with different clients and customers. Finding a common ground and having the tact not to offend anyone is one of the customer service and relationship issues that come with the small business territory. I find that it does not matter how high I think my work standards are, there are always going to be those who have higher ones. AND, there are going to be those … Continue reading →

But What am I Supposed to Teach?

This is one of the first questions new homeschoolers ask. How are we supposed to know what to teach? Some homeschoolers will turn to the public school system and some systems are very happy to lend texts and materials. Other districts are not so accommodating to homeschoolers, but I have to posit that if what the public school was doing, was working, then perhaps one wouldn’t be homeschooling. In any case, there are several places to look for information on standards and what you should be teaching. Remember that in the younger grades, it is better to look at the … Continue reading →

“Behind” Is a Relative Term in Homeschooling

Has anyone ever been surprised at how “behind” your child seems to be? This has happened to me a few times actually. . .always in reference to my preschool aged children and always in reference to learning how to read. I have mentioned before that we don’t do preschool formally. While I consider reading literature to the children (all of them–even the two year olds) a necessary task on my daily agenda. I don’t consider teaching them their alphabet, teaching them their numbers, or teaching them letter sounds necessary until about age 5 or 6. Sometimes, they just learn them … Continue reading →

Should You Lower or Raise Your Standards?

I recently wrote about how I think that those people who tell single parents that they should “stop being so picky” need to stop! In my opinion, single parents have earned the right to take their time and be as picky as they feel they need to be whether they are dating and looking for love, choosing friends, finding a new neighborhood, working on their careers, or whatever. As I was writing, however, I got to thinking about the whole idea of “standards” and whether or not some of us single parents have a tendency to have standards that are … Continue reading →

Are Your Standards Too High or Unattainable?

High standards in the business world are a good thing, right? We all want to be known for keeping high standards and doing the most amazing work—but sometimes we can set our expectations so high that they are actually unattainable and off-putting—especially if we let those expectations seep over onto our relationships with our customers and clients. Have you ever gone into a store where they sales person made you feel like you didn’t deserve to shop their? I think most of us have had that experience where we were met with a snobby salesperson or someone who treated us … Continue reading →

Young Men: Teaching the Standards

One of the most important things you can to do to help your young man is to teach him the standards in the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet. The church will teach these standards at the Standards night activity every year, as well as during lessons on Sunday. However, these standards are most effective if taught in the home as well. Here are four easy ways to teach the standards to your young man. 1) The best way to teach the standards is to live them yourself. Your children are watching you, and will likely do the same things … Continue reading →