Teasing

I had had ENOUGH!!! I felt like I've tried EVERYTHING I had ever heard of to help my son to STOP teasing. Desperately, I said a silent prayer as I once again sat my son down for a talk to somehow help him make better choices. I reminded myself and him how this was really just temporary and that I saw a glimpse of the son I know when he complimented his sister earlier that morning (literally the ONE nice thing he did that day!). Something HAD to change but HOW?

In answer to my prayer, I saw a picture of a hiker climbing a mountain flash into my mind. We talked about how we hiked the "Y" on the mountain behind Brigham Young University as a family. It's a pretty steep climb but he was able to make it to the top. I told him that changing a bad habit is like climbing a steep mountain. We decided we would make our own mountain and hiker to help my son overcome his bad habit of teasing and being unkind to his siblings.

We decided together that if he slips and makes a poor choice, his hiker will slip too. Immediately, my son named his hiker Adam because he said, "He is a son of God." He went on to explain that Adam represents him.

We've had a whole morning without teasing or fighting!!! That may not seem like a very long time to you but it is truly an accomplishment that we celebrated with a couple of steps up the mountain ; ) Now my daughter wants one...she's trying to think of something she needs to improve. I'll post a picture of it when our hiker reaches the top!

You, Not Them Illustrated

Another fun example of the principle of "You, Not Them". My husband and I decided to put our mattress on the ground to see if that would help our lower backs from hurting. That morning I walked into my sons' room and this is what I found...

CraziBeautiful

My latest post can be found on this awesome website!

You can access it here.

Be sure to check out the yummy recipes, fun crafts, humanitarian info and much more!

Create Community

Rachelle DeMille shared this video clip at a Thomas Jefferson Education Conference last year. I was really touched by the message. When applied to education this clip speaks volume about our roles as parents. We need to create a strong community of educated adults to mentor our children! We cannot do it alone...

Thomas Jefferson Center for Constitutional Studies

Check out the new blog for the Thomas Jefferson Center for Constitutional Studies !

Click W. Cleon Skousen's Healing of America

Where Love Is...

My (super) hero Cherish Newman is preparing to adopt 7 children from Ethiopia. While visiting and caring for her new brood on a trip to Africa, she met a young man named Jason who started a home for street boys. Instantly with her big heart, she agreed to find sponsers for the boys. Click here to read about Jason, his street boys and how you can help!

Accountability

Just wanted to share a quick suggestion my husband made during our weekly planning meeting on Sunday. He interviews the children regularly and asks them about what they have learned. To help him in this discussion, he recommended I make a chart where the children could keep track of what they did each day. So (after some grumbling ; ) I made an Excel spreadsheet titled "This is What I Did Today!" with 3 columns with the headings--date, subject, and activity.

Wow, I can't tell you how that simple spreadsheet has enhanced our home school! It helps me to remember to follow-up with them at the end of the day and they proudly show me all of their work (previously I didn't have a system to encourage accountability). The children are more excited to do their different activities (even hard ones!) because they know Dad is going to ask them about it. Recording their progress each day sets good habits that will benefit them especially when they want to go to college and have to prove their home school achievements and studies. The spreadsheet goes in the front of their binder.

Thanks honey for the great idea! What do you do at home to encourage accountability? I would love to hear your comments.

Sing & Dance!!

Aneladee Milne shared this video clip during the LEMI training I attended this July. I love it! Check it out...it's definitely worth the couple of minutes it takes to watch. (You'll have to pause the music on my blog so it doesn't interfere.)

"Free" from the Government!

Hi all. Just wanted to pass along an awesome resource my brother-in-law Daniel shared with me. This website http://free.ed.gov/ has some great information. As I check in out in depth, I'll let you know what we've done with it. Have fun exploring!! Now here's something I will take for "free" from my government!

Dryer Lint

In several seminars I've attended with LEMI and at George Wythe University I have heard this proverb or saying:

The way you do one thing is the way you do everything.

I was thinking about that this morning when I emptied my dryer lint. My husband is always trying to get me to do it after every load, but I like to have something to grab onto not just scrape the lint off. So often to his dismay I wait too long to remove it. I was thinking this morning how that sums up the way I do a lot of things. For example, I will wait until my desk is piled high with papers before I will pay attention to it. I read in an organizing book once that I am a "Zorro" house cleaner. I attack a job with zeal and enjoy seeing the great change only to let it pile up soon after, then I repeat the whole process over again. A very exhausting approach that causes the cleaning process to happen only when the mess can't be tolerated any longer.

So my thoughts are, should I put away the mask and change my natural tendencies? I think it is important to recognize that I like to accomplish things in chunks of time rather than a little here and a little there. This knowledge could be helpful if I recognize when writing, for example, I do better if I have a chunk of time to get my thoughts on paper then I know I need to schedule it. But honestly, in the life I lead, I do not have chunks of time to devote to things like house cleaning or tracking my finances. I really only have little gifts of time to accomplish these tasks.

In contemplating this I remembered that my friend Tamera was telling me she liked the post "It's a Snap!". Funny...I should take my own advice. So I had a wonderful idea. I could capitalize on my Zorro tendencies and attack a bunch of little jobs with zeal by thinking, "This is a snap!" Do you think I can do it? I would stay on top of things and expend less energy.

I probably sound like I'm repeating myself but really I'm wrestling with the natural man. I have a clear picture of who I want to be and I'm determined to come off conqueror. Afterall, I have Zorro-like tendencies ; ) I think I could possibly start enjoying scraping the dryer lint off the screen thing...and I'll have a really happy hubby ; ) I feel a positive affirmation coming on...

Stewardship

Webster's Dictionary defines stewardship as "the conducting, supervising, or managing of something; especially : the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care." I have recently learned a very painful experience about that word.

After procrastinating updating my Money program with all of my recent purchases and paying my bills, I finally sat down to do one of my least favorite jobs (afterall it was in my chore pocket and I had to set a good example ; ) To my dismay, the program had somehow been updated and when I restored the backup file, I realized that I hadn't backed-up since the middle of April!! I had to go in and manually enter every purchase, bill and deposit in the last four months. It took me two days (with interruptions of course) of sitting at my desk tediously re-entering all that data.

You may be asking, "What does this have to do with inspiring children?" My reply, EVERYTHING!! I alluded to it in the post with my sis-in-law's beautiful shelves. If we are master of our stewardships, then we will be free to inspire our children and fulfill our missions. Tiffany Earl shared this concept in the LEMI Parent Mentoring Conference Calls I participated in last year. Our stewardships may include our bodies, time, home, finances, family (with all the different relationships), church responsibilities, etc. If we are out of control on these most basic areas of our lives, we will not be available to be instruments in God's hands.

So although it was painful to re-enter all of my financial information, I learned some very valuable lessons.

• I am out of control with my finances and I need to work on disciplining myself not only keeping track of what I spend but how I spend it!
• I have to get back to the basics--first things first. Imagine what I will be able to accomplish when I have my basic stewarships under my control and them not controlling me!
• When I don't carefully manage my stewardships, I lose valuable time. My husband played with the children while I finished updating Money last night. I could have played with them and created memories with my family.
• Whether I like it or not, my children are watching me. They see Mom freaking out about the hard job I made for myself because of my poor management.
• Last but definitely not least, I backup after every entry ; )

It gives me hope that God has entrusted me with the stewardships I have. That means He will help me and in the strength of the Lord I can do all things!

Quote for the Day

"The purpose of the task is to strengthen the relationship."

A Tip for the Pencil...Put it Down!

I recently watched a borrowed copy of the teacher's training from The Institute for Excellence in Writing and Andrew Pudewa gave a great tip. He says generally speaking boys do not like to write (if you have one you've probably figured that out!) They want to build forts not write paragraphs so to encourage boys to write, let them learn how to type.

Of course we still use our printing and cursive workbooks. However, when you want your children to express themselves in writing, making them write neatly is not your main objective. (That is also why you shouldn't correct their spelling...let them concentrate on the task at hand.)

Boys like to use the computer and I found this fun free typing site that has lessons and games. Try your hand and improve your skills...it's pretty fun!