After reading Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood: Practical Parenting from Birth to Six Years, the first thing that I did was clean a shelf in our toy closet to display those things taken away. Boy do we have a collection! Let me back up and tell you what I learned. First of all, before reading this book, toy clean up time was ...
Parenting
Love and Logic Discipline
When I was a teenager, my life changed. Suddenly discipline changed. The change happened because my mom changed. She attended a Love and Logic conference. She learned the magic of giving choices. I guess you could say that I am a "product" of Love and Logic. Because it was modeled to me, much of it has become ...
I Talk Too Much
I got an email from my mom the other day that said, "You talk too much." You know what? She is right! Let's back up... As I have written, Little Man has caused me to seek wisdom from some of the best disciplinarians in the world. For me, that is family members. I am surrounded by adults who know how to love, lead, and discipline children ...
Keeping Shoes and Socks on in the Car
As I type, Little Man is buckled up in his car seat in the garage. He thought it was really cool to take off his shoes and socks (which he knows not to do). While that is a lot of fun, it makes life much harder for Mommy. With the temperatures bordering frigid, I have no desire to stand outside to put his shoes ...
Practice Makes Perfect?
Little Man struggles to get into his car seat. Oh, it's not because he can't. It is because he gets distracted from all of the buttons, gadgets, insects, items on the floor - basically, you name it - on the way to his seat. (Remember my posts about Spirited Children?") So a few mornings ago, we practiced getting in and ...
A Parenting Problem or a Child Problem
During one of my last sleepless, prego nights, an aha moment came to me. Is this current problem a parenting problem or a child problem? My question stemmed from a couple of issues that we are facing at our home. Some of them deal with all of our children while others are child specific. During my time of ...
Just Bandaid It…
While talking to another mom about our spirited Little Man, I gained some very wise advice. Upon the birth of her oldest son, my friend asked her grandma for a piece of wisdom on raising kids. Her grandma told her: You can either bandaid the problem or fix the problem. When life as a mommy kicked in, my friend ...
A New Set of Challenges
Little Man is a challenge. At two, he could drive me to need professional help. Honestly, the problem is that he is too smart. He has the vocabulary and understanding of a child twice his age. But the impulse control of a 15 month old. No lie. In Colossians 3:21 it says: Fathers, do not exasperate your ...
Age- Appropriate Chores
Chores are a very important part of child-rearing. They teach work-ethic and responsibility. Focus on the Family has a list of age-appropriate chores in a new set of articles called "Motivating Kids to Clean Up." 1.Overview 2.Age-Appropriate Chores 3.Trade Chores With Your Kids 4.Inspire Your Kids to Do Chores 5.My Child Won't Do His ...
A Chore for a Chore
Let's face it. We all get lazy sometimes. We all have selective hearing sometimes. Right now our kiddos are struggling with both. My solution - an additional chore. Here are some examples: - For some reason Bubs has started leaving his pajamas on the floor of the bathroom instead of placing ...