As most of you know, I work full time as a case manager for children in treatment foster care homes. I place kids with special needs in specially trained homes as they wait to be reunified with their family or adopted...ha-that is such a poor summary.
Anyways, I have the priveledge of knowing families in our community at such a deep level. I also get so many creative ideas in ways to discipline children at a variety of ages. You think that from all the "life experience" I get living vicariously through my foster parents, I'd be able to tackle most of the problems I run into at home with my own kids-who aren't considered to have "special needs" (though, I beg to differ some days).
Ha. Did I just say that? Did I not just post a few days ago about my 2 yr old spraying everything in sight when he is in a not-so-pleasant mood?
Not that I am an expert in discipline, because, me, living by the grace of God, I have a lot of work to do.
Wouldn't this be a perfect post for a NOT ME MONDAY!?!?! Yeah, I thought so.
Anyways, here are just the latest of the creative ways some parents are dealing with difficult behavior:
1) Noooo arguing! = automatic priveledge taken away (i.e. if you say kids can play outside for 30 minutes and they whine "awww how about 40" the time is automatically deducted 5 minutes)
2) "Jewel" System = Kids earn their own color "jewels" (or colored stones found in mesh bags at craft stores) for doing something that is asked of them the first time. They earn double jewels if they come upon something that needs to be done (such as emptying the dishwasher) and do it without being asked. The point is to catch kids doing great things! Once a month have a service project that is worth 10 jewels when completed (hey, make it cleaning the dog poo from the yard). Then once a month the "appreciation station" is opened up and your kiddos can purchase toys, pop, or various rewards from the station you have purchased ahead of time with their jewels. When a service project is completed, this allows the appreciation station to be open for 1 day at "1/2 price".
My son has tends to have the desire to hang out with older kids, if possible. Thus having him exposed to things that I'm not so fond of. We have found that ensuring that B understands why we say no to certain movies or TV shows is so important...especially when we are training him to be a boy/man who loves God. I see B struggling with why other moms and dads allow their kids to do things when we say no.
Ah, the process begins! Not that it hasn't been for sometime, but now, "just because" isn't working.
How thankful I am to know that I am not perfect yet, I am continually being refined by my Savior, striving to be all He has made me to be-in a wife, a daughter, His daughter, and a mother.
Let us encourage eachother as we raise our children to love God. We are not perfect, however, I'm sure we can gain wisdom and crazy ideas from eachother.
Oh, and for some REALLY fun family time ideas, specifically geared towards verse memorization, check out Michelle's blog!
1 comment:
Great post! Great ideas! Discipline is an ever changing process depending on the age of the child. Just when you feel like you're getting it a little bit...they get older and another issues arises. :) Thankfully we aren't on this journey alone, we are blessed with great husbands and an even greater God. Thanks for the Family Time plug!
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