Category: parenting

Top Ten Personal Summer Missions

Top Ten {Tuesday} Summer is finally here! Time to set some goals for myself. 

1. Execute Mission: Summer Education! I have a comprehensive plan to help Nathan maintain the reading and writing skills he has developed in Kindergarten, but that’s a whole post itself.  Stay tuned!

2. Paint a room.  Even if it’s just the tiny power room. Not a single wall in this house nor the last house we bought has ever been painted.  I know I can do this!

3. Start a new blog.  Don’t worry, this one isn’t going anywhere.  The new blog is a super secret project I’m starting with a friend of mine that will have a very niche purpose.

4. Hang some shelves.  In both kids rooms and my bedroom.  Because there aren’t any and I think they look nice, especially with frame photos sitting on them. 

5. Read a book.  A whole novel, start to finish.  I don’t read books anymore, and especially not fiction ones, but I’m inspired to try one this summer.  Maybe Katherine Center’s Get Lucky?

6. Organize my office.  This mostly means filing the stacks of important papers like bills and paystubs that have been laying around for months.  Getting rid of books, since my bookshelves are jammed full.  Possibly buying a whole new desk, since mine is falling apart.

7. Optimize the desktop computer.  I’ve been avoiding doing anything with it, nobody uses is anymore except the kids.  But it’s essentially unusable.  It needs RAM and probably a new operating system.  This is a pretty ambitious project actually.

8. Lose a dress size.  Shouldn’t be hard, right? 🙂

9. Volunteer at our local crisis pregnancy center.  I donate money there but I want to give them some time as well.  They help a ton of teen moms, single moms, and dads too with counseling, diapers and clothes and other physical needs.

10. Write music. I’d be happy with one decent song.  This goal also involves improving my languishing piano skills.  I want to inspire Nathan to want to play the  piano as well. 

Wow, that’s a lot of stuff to get accomplished in a few short months.  It’ll be fun to see what I can cross off the list on Labor Day weekend! 

What are some of your personal missions for this summer?

Connecting with Your Child’s Heart

works for me wednesday at we are that family

Let’s face it, every family has behaviour issues with their kids.  Some more than others.  Sometimes it’s just whining and complaining, sometimes it’s willful rebellion.  TV shows like SuperNanny* demonstrate the skillful techniques of behavior modification that are also grilled into the brains of teachers nationwide.  To an extent, things like “the naughty step” or “finding your child’s currency” absolutely do work.  But the fact is that teaching a child to behave in expectation of consequences, good or bad, often skips over the heart of the matter…your child’s own conscience.  Being able to mold our childrens’ very hearts so that they can choose right and wrong absent of the possibility of consequences is a higher goal than just getting them to behave. 
So here’s where I highly recommend a book that addresses this very issue.  It’s what works for me…at least as far as I put its advice to use.  The book is called “Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining, and Bad Attitudes in You and Your Kids” by Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller.  It has great advice for teaching kids about the concept of honor. 

Turansky and Miller also have an email you can subscribe to with great, practical parenting advice.  This week they had one I particularly loved on connecting with your child’s heart.  The post concedes that it’s not always easy, and gives eleven very basic ideas, such as telling kids stories about your own childhood without feeling there needs to be a lesson tied in. 

“In short, enjoy your kids and have fun with them. Take an interest in their lives. If you don’t feel like it, do it anyway. Your kids need your playfulness, love, affection, and joy. When you give to your kids, you contribute to their well-being and your family’s strength. Yes, it’s sacrifice, but the time you put in now will go a long way toward reducing friction when it’s time to confront or discipline.”

This totally hit me deeply as my husband has been out of town the past two weeks and I find it difficult to get the basic routine accomplished, let alone finding time for fun and connecting with my kids.  When our energy and patience are sapped, our kids know it and they are the ones that really lose. 

So making an effort to reach my kid’s heart is what works for me, and the book is a great help. 

Also I recommend you check out my dear friend Jo-Lynne’s blog series, Raising Responsible Kids.

*I just realized that my very first blog post ever, more than five years ago, was on my love of the TV show, Supernanny.  I still like the show, though I have learned a whole lot since that first post 🙂