It was one of those moments that I was so proud of my child. Little Man obeyed. This time, I wasn’t the only person to witness it. A man in a suit did a double take and then made a comment.
Little Man and I have this game after church. He runs a little way ahead until I stay stop. Go….Stop! He freezes and looks at me with this amazingly cute face. I give him a thumbs up and he gives me one back. He knows he did well.
One particular time, a gentleman was walking along the sidewalk and witnessed our game. He was dressed very nicely and almost out of place at our church as the dress is very causal. I didn’t know him, and I assume he didn’t know me. After seeing Little Man’s immediate obedience, he was taken back. In his 60 or so years of life, he wasn’t used to seeing obedience from a 2-year-old. Happy obedience at that.
Now in prideful part of my life, I imagined him being an author and speaker on discipline and he was going to be using Little Man in his next example. Okay…back to reality!
First of all, if you know Little Man, he is a handful. He has run away more than once. I try and keep him within my reach at all times while away from home. His curiosity is scary (for his Momma)!
Nothing but the Holy Spirit’s prompting, after church one night Little Man and I played an impromtu game of “Red Light, Green Light.” He was allowed to run ahead of me until I said “stop.” If he obeyed, I let him move ahead with “go.” He drank in this fun like a thirsty boy for a cold lemonade. This Momma praised Jesus for the game that taught Little Man safety.
Both the 2 and 3 Year Curriculum include the game “Red Light, Green Light” for a gross motor activity. While the game is typically played with a group of children running to touch the light, tweak the game to teach a life skill. You never know when an emergency may occur and you need to yell “red light!”
This is a wonderful idea. My oldest is on a major disobedience streak. He obeys almost nothing I ask/tell him to do. I've been doing character studies on obedience and trying to talk with him for months and nothing has worked. I'm going to try this game and how it works out.