Homeschooling a Houseful

Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining, and Bad Attitudes in you and your kids!

10:33 PM, May. 11, 2006 .. Posted in BooksCurriculum .. 4 comments .. Link

This is the name of the book I am currently reading. Every now and then I look at my family and wonder what on earth has happened. This usually does occur after the birth of a baby. I think during pregnancy I tend to let things slide. Not a good thing I tell ya. Makes for a very unhappy mommy.

Anyway, I happened to be listening to Family Life one evening and what they were saying was so perfect for where we are at. I immediately bought the book. As I read the book, I can't say I am learning much that is "new" to me. I definitely need the reminder and this book does spell out some techniques that I think will be very helpful.

This book focuses on honor. It is so easy as parents to focus on the actions, the behavior. Changing behavior is not enough, honor deals with deeper issues.

In chapter 2, we are given a simplified definition of honor:
Treating people as special, doing more than what's expected, and having a good attitude.

The children and I had a really good family meeting this morning and we drew a house on the dry erase board and filled it with all the characteristics that our family should have. The children did an awesome job coming up with them. I didn't have to give them the words. It was fun because even the little boys got the gist of what we were doing and came up with things. The dry erase board is on the dining room wall so now we can look at the words and talk about them at meal times. We talked about expectations. It was funny to ask them what they expect for their day when they get up in the morning. Of course none of them could say they expected anything. I then gave examples like this..
Ok, you wake up in the morning and have no clean clothes. You expect to have clean clothes don't you?
You go to the cupboard and there is no cereal. Don't you expect that when you open the cupboard that there will be cereal? Now they started getting what I meant. Then I asked them to be honest...if this were to really happen how would you feel. Heide admitted she would feel angry. I asked who she would be angry at...she blushed and said mom. Aah Ha. See, we all have something to contribute to the functioning family and if someone doesn't do their part then others suffer. I as mom am responsible for the food shopping and for the laundry. When I have given you children responsibilty and you don't do it, it affects the whole family. I think they are beginning to see.
The house continued to have words added to it throughout the day and I saw an improvement in attitudes. We need to correct the selfish that has been growing. The theme we have always strived for is JOY--Jesus, Others, You. We have always tried to live by this, guess at times I as mom lose focus. I find myself developing the same selfish attitudes and then one day I realize that I certainly can't expect anything different from the children. OUCH.

Well, I again am up too late. Hope you like the song I added, it is one of my favorites.

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