Near Future

Praying for Joel! May God speed his recovery and give the doctors insight into the truth about his condition!

Okay, so we had no plans for Independence Day. None. Then on Sunday night, we called our dear friends to plan at least one get-together before they return to Africa. It turned out they had no plans for Independence Day either. So now we all have plans: eat, play, watch fireworks!! Woo-hoo. This family defines fun, so we'll be having a good time.

Thursday, July 6th, we head off to Washington DC. We have friends who moved there last year. We'll be doing Smithsonian (focusing on American History) on Friday and visiting the Zoo on Saturday. Then we'll go to their church on Sunday and come back home. These friends are Korean and are graciously allowing us to taste some of Korea's culture. This coming year we will be studying the Eastern Hemisphere, so this will be a foretaste. Sandy has offered to give us a taste of Korean food and culture. This is learning at its best--to live it rather than just read about it.

Character development: Sam is not a list-checking person. I am. Every time I have tried to get him to learn a routine, I have always started with a list for him to check off. I have never seen success. So, I adapted a FlyLady concept. She has acronyms for many things. If your house is a mess, it is in CHAOS (can't have anyone over syndrome). I am not quite that creative, but was able to list all the tasks Sam is to complete and create a silly sentence.

So, Sam's morning routine is:

Eat Crumbs, Don't Make Burned Toast

Eat breakfast
Clean up after breakfast (bowl in dishwasher, cereal box closed and put away)
Dressed
Medicine
Birdbath (filled unless it rained)
Teeth (brushed)

He loves the sentences and is amazed that I am so talented to be able to come up with them (ego boost for a 10 year old--imagine that!). Once they weren't new anymore, though, we were no longer seeing compliance.

So, according to John Rosemond, a child has free will and can choose not to obey, the parents job is to instill consequences that make it "worth it" to obey and wait for the child to adjust their behavior. For stubborn children, this may take a bit longer, but sticking to your guns is the way to succeed. So, the consequence for running over to Eric's house before the routine is done? No computer gaming time that day.

This morning we had a particularly unattractive meltdown b/c we are sticking to our guns. Aah, there goes the ego boost...down the drain.

Enjoy the freedoms that others laid their lives down for...and pray for those whose lives are in danger right now!