"Making Princesses" Retreat

We went to a place where we stayed at a cabin called "Applegum". That night we had a spa and ate chocolates. Mummy read a book to me about girls. That night we watched "Nim's Island".

The next day we had hot chocolates with Tim Tams and Bacon and Tomato with spinach leaves. Mummy gave a book for girls to learn more about Jesus. We went for a bush walk before lunch and walked mostly downhill. That afternoon we watched "Nim's Island" again. It's a good film about a girl named Nim who lived on a Island and had lots of adventures.

Half way through, I found a tick in my hair. We went to the office and got the tick out of my hair. Then we went back to the cabin and got dressed to go out. We went to a Chinese restaurant and had a good dinner and some dessert.

The next day we packed up all of our things and had a massage. We drove back home.

Written by Princess

Psalm 144:12
May our sons in their youth
  be like plants full grown,
our daughters like corner pillars
  cut for the structure of a palace

Dressed up for our special dinner together. We girls have
decided not to go tenting on our retreat. We think we
need something a bit special!

Otherwise known as "Big Girls Camp", or "Big Boys Camp", both Christian and I take our children away by themselves for two nights every year once they turn 8. Christian takes the boys, and I take the girls. 

The purpose of our camp is for us as parents to develop our personal relationship with each of our children, to give specific discipleship and encouragement in their relationship with Jesus, to teach them about their changing body and give them a godly perspective on sexuality and how to relate appropriately to the opposite sex. We do this well before they are teenagers because we want to imprint God's standards in their lives before the world gets it's chance. 

The idea comes from many sources that talk about our culture having a lack of "coming of age" or "initiation"event, as traditional cultures have. We did this in my family when we each turned 18. But we decided that it was important to develop our personal relationship with our children earlier because of the sexualisation of our world. Currently, I use Concordia Press: Learning about Sex series to teach our children about their body. This year both Tiger and Princess received a devotional book that we taught them how to use. Another good resource, particularly for girls would be Dannah Gresh's book on Mother Daughter dates.

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