Under His Construction
• Nov. 25, 2007 - Lessons in Discipline from the Barnardo Home for Boys
I get a free download once a week over at Homeschool E-Store. Such a generous site that through their free weekly downloads has helped build up a wealth of lapbooks, unit studies and many other resources gor our little school! A couple of week's ago the free download was a book by the title 'Ned: Barnardo Boy' by Barbara Coyle. What an incredible book this is! If you have never read it I encourage you to either head over to Homeschool E-Store and download it or search the web for the hardback edition and order it! The kids and I were immediately drawn into this sweet story of a little orphan boy living on the streets of London having no knowledge of who his parents are/were or even how old he was. Life on the streets was difficult - sleeping in the freezing cold wherever you can find a place to bed down for the night and not knowing when and where your next meal would come from. But Ned's life was drastically altered when a series of events leads him to the Barnardo Boy's Home. What an incredible place this was! It was here that Ned learned to make his bed, cook and bake, clean, wash his clothes, do the dishes and so much more. The home began sending groups of boys from the home to Canada to be adopted. Ned was eventually among one of these groups. Ned went to stay with a childless couple who were amazed and richly blessed by Ned's work ethic and discipline that had been established during his stay in the boy's home. The story touched my heart in so many ways but the most impacting part for me has been the discipline established in each boy at the home. I had to ask myself if I was succeeding in this area with my own children. And since there is a chance we may be staying for a short while with my parents during our move I began to wonder if my children would be a blessing to their grandparents? Of course the kids being the apple of my parent's eyes are always blessings to my parents but would they bless them with helpfulness? Have they been adequately trained to pick up after themselves? To give their very best always looking for what more they can do as opposed to how much less they can do? Do they make their beds without being told? Take care of their dishes after each meal, again, without being told?
I realized that I am failing miserably in this area - but not only in disciplining my children but myself as well! Oh how often I was not making them do these things! How often I was not checking their work to make sure it was up to par! And even worse, how often was I not doing the things I needed to each day! So I decided to take action! I knew that I had to do this in baby steps so we have started out small. I sat down with the kids and discussed their lack of self-government in many areas of their lives that they knew they were supposed to get done. I let them know that I was done reminding them of these things and that since they knew what was expected and when it was expected to be done by they were now going to be spanked if they did not do these things. We discussed how it was a form of disobedience on their part and the real enemy they were battling was laziness. So here is what is expected to begin with:
When they get up in the morning they are to get dressed, make their bed, and tidy their room. Then they are to get their chores done. These things have to be done well or they do them over again. In the evening before bed they have to brush their teeth before I come to tuck them in. This is it so far but this list of expectations will grow over time. Starting with small steps is much easier to manage then jumping in all at once. This way I am ensuring that I will stay on top of these things as I need to do and not become overwhelmed with it all forgetting half of what I need to be managing. It is easier for my kids to remember as well.
This has been so good for us and they are really starting to establish these things as a daily habit. Yes - I have had to spank a few time so far but for the most part it has been a tremendous blessing to not have to remind them to do these things anymore!
And as for my own self-discipline I am not expecting anything from the kids that I am not already being disciplined about - so I am working on my own list of things that I need to establish as a discipline in my own life and I have to tell you that it feels pretty good to be working towards these things.
Thank you Lord for using this precious story to help me see the need to get serious about establishing these disciplines in my children's lives! Thank you for this story that gives such a charming and beautiful picture of the blessings that come from such a disciplined life!
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• Nov. 26, 2007 - Good plan Mandi
Lots of Love!!, Dad