Guiding Behavior

Daily Devotions: Week 1

Since school started this week, we have been doing a short daily devotional after homework – our “Bible Study.” We are following the devotions in the book Jesus Calling: 365 Devotions for Kids by Sarah Young.

Now, my young kids don’t always understand all of the concepts of the devotions… I’d say this book is great for upper elementary to high school… but it does offer some great scriptures for my kids to know and gives me a skeleton of where I can begin a Bible lesson for the day. Besides, I’d rather them understand the scripture than what the devotion says about that scripture. I paraphrase the book a lot for my kids.

What my 3 year old is learning: Right now, I am just trying to get him to follow along. Each kid has his Bible open and I am teaching Leyson how he should be acting during a Bible study. I open his Bible for him and just get him to stay on the page long enough for us to read the scripture (he loves to flip through ALL the pages). I am teaching him how to treat his Bible. He has to hold his finger on the chapter number and search for the verse number.

Goal: to sit still and listen.

What my 6 year old is learning: James is learning to look up the verses in the Bible. He has (mostly) memorized the order of the books in the New Testament so if there is a verse in there that we are studying, he can search for it by himself. Yesterday, I taught him how to use the Table of Contents to search for the books in the Old Testament. What a great concept for reading and number awareness!

Goal: to find the verses on his own.

Below I will share some simple activities that we have done to follow the verses that we study in the devotions. We take one concept from one of the verses in the devotion and do a project that relates to it. The activities are super simple and not planned in advance (and I have to have the supplies somewhere in my house already). If we ever come to one that I can’t think about what to do, we will just do a writing assignment.

I will try to share our journey on here as much as I can! So here is our first school-week’s worth of verses and SIMPLE SIMPLE SIMPLE activities that we did to accompany them!

Day 1: Like a Candle

“He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle.” -Isaiah 42:3 (NLT)

We glued birthday candles to a piece of paper and drew flames above them. We also lit a large candle while we were doing the devotion (which my 3 year old promptly blew out) so then we had to relight it to show that God would never blow out our candles, the light inside of us.

3 year old: For him, I wrote the verse and he traced it.

6 year old: I wrote the verse on my own paper and he copied. When he has mastered this, he will then begin to copy straight from the Bible.

“‘Though the mountains move and the hills shake, My love will not be removed from you and My covenant of peace will not be shaken,’ says your compassionate Lord.” Isaiah 54:10

Day 2: Enjoy Life

“A thief comes to steal and kill and destroy. But I came to give you life–life in all its fullness.” -John 10:10 (ICB)

I asked my kids what Jesus did to ensure that we have eternal life. My 6 year old said, “He died on the cross,” so we made crosses out of popsicle sticks. (See? I said these activities were simple)

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.” -John 10:11

Day 3: Rock-Solid

“Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth and made the heavens with your hands. They will perish, but you remain forever; they will wear out like old clothing . . . . But you are always the same; you will live forever.” -Psalm 102:25-27

My friends just recently shared with us a great pre-dinner prayer time ritual that they do with their 3 kids. They use prayer sticks that each have a different prayer request or person to pray for written on them. Each person gets to pick out a prayer stick from the cup and lead the prayer for the person/request on the stick.

I wanted to get some prayer sticks right away, but did not have time to make it to the store. “Ah well, we’ll make prayer sticks eventually.” The very next day our Bible verse was about God being rock-solid and our neighbors just happen to have a driveway full of rocks. So we made “prayer rocks” instead of sticks. The kids had a blast finding the perfect rocks to write our prayers on!

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” – Hebrews 13:8

My 6 year old decided to put a lantern in the middle of our prayer rocks. At first I asked him to remove it because, well, they drain all of the batteries out of our flashlights and every time our electricity goes out we can’t find any working ones, but he told me…

James: “But Mom, God is the light and He will answer our prayers. We need to put His light around our prayer rocks.”

Can’t argue with that one… I let him keep it there, of course.

Day 4: The Position of your Heart

“Morning, noon, and night I cry out in my distress, and the Lord hears my voice.” -Psalm 55:17

“Therefore let everyone who is faithful pray to You at a time that You may be found. When great floodwaters come, they will not reach him.” -Psalm 32:6

“Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge.” Psalm 62:8

Day 5: Focusing Your Thoughts

“Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” -Philippians 4:8

The boys had to look through their binoculars to focus in on the positive things in life. We then looked at our house rules, gave examples of each, and related them to the verse above – if we follow these things and “dwell” on them, then the “God of peace will be with you.” (Phil 4:9)

“but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint.” -Isaiah 40:31

“I have asked one thing from the Lord; it is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, gazing on the beauty of the Lord and seeking Him in His temple.” Psalm 27:4

I will try to keep up as much as I can with sharing our Daily Devotions with you! Bare with me, life with 3 is cray-zee! Please share any pictures of you and your little ones studying God’s word on Facebook!

August 19, 2013 by Casey | 3 Comments

Some Of My Favorite YouTube Playlists

Whether, like me, you are somewhat homebound with a newborn, or you have other reasons that you need to get your kids moving (rain, heat, an injury, etc.). I wanted to share some great movement videos for young children. My kids spend at least half an hour enjoying some of the videos I have shared below.

We only have one TV in our house, but it happens to be one that has “Apps” like Netflix, YouTube, Pandora, etc. This makes our den my all-purpose room for sure.

My favorite playlists for MOVEMENT are:

PattyShukla’s action and movement songs

Have Fun Teaching’s fitness songs

and for

Sing -Along :

Super Simple Song’s “Easy-to-teach, Easy-to-learn Songs for Young Learners”

Harry Kindergarten’s class songs

If you subscribe to any of these channels you will discover LOTS of great educational songs too. Have Fun Teaching has some really fun songs that makes associations with the letter formation of the letters, the sounds, and words that start with that sound. And of course Sesame Street is so great too!

PLEASE share your favorites in a comment so I can add some new playlists 🙂

My kindergarteners loved these videos so don’t rule them out until you put them on for your kids. They are great to coincide with learning about the body to reinforce body parts and the importance of exercise.

Here is a little clip of my little ones and a friend enjoying “Jump” by Patty Shukla. Yes, we let them jump on the couches for this one…. I know some moms are going crazy, but ya know…. To each his own 🙂

June 21, 2013 by Jessica | 0 comments

House Rules

I recently wrote a post about a Routine Change for our after school schedule that I posted on our chalkboard door.

I also posted our house rules on that same door, in plain view to remind us how to behave throughout the day.

1. Be Respectful
2. Be Obedient
3. Be Honest
4. Be Kind
5. Be Positive

I once visited a classroom that had just two rules: be respectful and be obedient. Brilliant! I mean, you really don’t need much more than that because those are two rules that any type of disobedience can fall under. I call them “umbrella” rules.

I decided to use that in my house. Once your kids get a full understanding of respect and obedience, they are extremely effective for toddlers. However, those are BIG words for little kids, so don’t expect them to immediately understand them. However, if you use the same language a few times while modeling each of the behaviors, then your 2 year old will start telling you all about the appropriate behaviors he or she just displayed. (They also may start questioning you about your appropriate or inappropriate behaviors – but that’s all a part of the learning process).

How to teach your kids about respect and obedience:

-Define the new vocabulary

“Respect means you are being nice and talking nice to your mommy, daddy, siblings, friends and other adults. ”

“Obedience means you listen the first time and always remember the appropriate behaviors you should be showing at all times.

-Model the new vocabulary

“‘Mommy, may I please have some milk?’ is a very respectful way to ask for something. Can you say that? ::wait:: Great! I love how you used your manners and talked to me in a sweet tone. I appreciate you showing me respect. That was a very respectful way to ask me for something.”

“If I tell you to please pick up your clothes, a respectful response should be, ‘Yes, ma’am,’ and then you show your obedience by picking up your clothes right away. Listening the first time every time is a great way to be obedient.”

-Show the opposite behaviors and define them

“If I tell you, ‘Gimme some milk!’ Is that showing respect? No. That is called disrespect and it is not allowed. How can we rephrase or say it again in a respectful tone? ::wait:: That’s right! You say, ‘May I please have some milk?’ I love how respectful that sounds.”

“If I ask you to pick up your clothes and you don’t look at me, don’t listen to me, or tell me, ‘no,’ that is called disobedience and it is not allowed. Instead, what should we do? ::wait:: You’re right! Be obedient! We do the task right away! The VERY first time you are asked to do it! But first, how do we show respect when asked to do something? ::wait:: You’re right. We say, ‘Yes, ma’am.'”

-Model different scenarios of respect, disrespect, obedience and disobedience and have your child label each

“Is this respect or disrespect: ‘Moooooom I wanted to play with that toy!’ ::wait:: “Right. Disrespect. Do we allow disrespect? No.”

“Can you please throw this away? Yes, ma’am! ::throw trash away:: Was that obedience or disobedience? Right! Say, ‘great job, Mommy! Thank you for being obedient!'”

-Have your child generate responses from cues

“How can we show respect to our friends? ::wait:: You’re right… share our toys! Great idea!”

“If I ask you to clean up your spilled milk, what would you do to be obedient?”

-Praise and repeat language

“Thank you for being respectful!”

“I love how you were being obedient! You listened the very first time!”

-Frequent Reminders

“The way you said that was disrespectful, can you please change your behavior and use a respectful tone?”

“I have already told you once to do _____. You have not done ____. Is that being obedient?”

Sure, kids slip up from time to time, but by effectively setting your expectations for behavior and being consistent with praising and correcting, your child will likely choose to meet those expectations.

Now after having these rules for a while, I began to notice a few behaviors that my child was displaying that I still wanted to change. It was necessary for me to set aside a few more rules to clarify which behaviors I did not like, even though these rules can also fall under the first two big umbrell a rules.

3. Be Honest
4. Be Kind
5. Be Positive

My kindergartner, bless his little imagination, can get himself into a lot of trouble with the stories he tells. He is definitely the “dog-ate-my-homework” kid, so we instated the “be honest” rule.

He and his toddler brother were also starting to pick on each other around the same time. Sure, they were both being respectful and obedient toward Mom and Dad, but were they showing the same courtesy to each other? No. So we instituted the “be kind” rule.

Our last rule is to “be positive.” Sure, we can all have bad days (even Mommies and Daddies), but our newest rule is to take a few minutes to yourself to reflect, and then when you return to be with the rest of the family, you must come with a new and improved new attitude. And it must be positive.

After all is said and done, I have been rewarding my kids with tally marks when they follow the rules. We set a goal for our family: 100 tally marks = a trip to Kart Ranch (similar to Chuck-E-Cheese). It’s been way more positive than punishments for not following the rules and they have been more obedient all around, knowing that there is a reward – a positive consequence – at the end. Just a little encouragement for them.

What kinds of rules do you have in your home? Which behaviors do you want your kids to change? What new rules would you like to add to your list of expectations for your kids to follow?

March 11, 2013 by Casey | 0 comments

Would you like some string cheese with that WHINE?

We are teaching Sean Patrick A LOT right now.

I try my best to purpose our “upcoming” days at night before I go to bed. Even if I just spend 15-30 minutes making a little “agenda” and some goals for the day. My goals might include some age-appropriate social studies skills like 1) caring for our pet 2) talking about our environment (signs, water, animals, places, workers) and some days I might focus on his social-emotional skills like self-control, communication, calming techniques, etc. But I mainly try to have a balanced day…which as a stay-at-home mom means a BALANCING ACT of mommy teaching, cleaning, feeding, changing, playing, managing, ETC.

Today I wanted to share some of my anti-whining techniques in a video and then share a printable I made for my little man since we are working on using our words and a big boy voice.

Telling him over and over “STOP WHINING” does not work for many reasons I could list, but these tricks and a few other positive reinforcement cues really help.

I made “raffle tickets” for Sean Patrick to receive to place into a jar each time he SELF-CORRECTS himself or CHOOSES to use his words/big boy voice or does something else that I notably want to reward him for. When it is filled I plan to take him to the New Orleans Zoo or somewhere that we rarely get to go. I plan to fill out the left side of the ticket (talking out loud for extra positive reinforcement) and then tear the ticket. He can place the right side in the jar and I will save the left side to share with daddy, MeMe, or family friends each chance I get so that he will be excited about his good choices. I hope this is helpful to you as well!

Here is the big boy ticket printable

Here is the big girl ticket printable

I used a Word Template to make these 🙂 Enjoy!

August 23, 2012 by Jessica | 0 comments

Remedy for the little one with the “I can’t” bug!

My son has been using the phrase “I can’t” a lot lately because he is so catious, but lately I have noticed that he is using it as a crutch. We went swimming in the lake on the fourth of July and when asked to go into the lake he cried out “I can’t” because he was scared. I don’t want to ignore his fears so we are going to be swimming in pools more often until he is comfortable. But, I also want to implement the “I can” mentality into his vocabulary as much as I have the influence to do so.

So, here are a few things that I have casually introduced to Sean Patrick and spent time encouraging him with in the past week.

1) We started off coloring an “I Can” book that I could read to him and encourage him to “read” to daddy and others as well.

2) We made a homemade video of him on my iphone acting out all of the “I CAN” actions from the book (I would’ve shared this, but he didn’t feel like putting clothes on for the video haha).

3) I started a little personalized “I can” book for him in a Word document:

And 4) I stumbled upon a Barney (yes the big purple dinosaur) video called “I Can Do That” featuring a group of friends playing “I Can _____” and then putting on a skit about it.

These tips are NOT a short-term “cure” for the I can’ts! All of these ideas are things I am currently teaching toward a GOAL that we can replace “I can’t” with “I can.” I’m sure there will be plenty of reminders 🙂