Looks like I've gotten a little lax about posting Ellie's verses over the past few weeks. Really, the last couple weeks I've even gotten lax about doing them! We go over the ones she's learned so far, but haven't introduced any new ones lately. Summer makes me lazy. =D (Okay, so really I'm pretty lazy in general, and I just like to use Summer as an excuse...) So here's where we are so far:
C is for Children:
"Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right." Ephesians 6:1 (She goes around saying this one a lot!)
D is for Draw:
"Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." James 4:8 (She can say this one, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't quite know what it means. When she messes up she tends to say it, "Draw near to God and he will draw your neighbors." I think she thinks that "near to God" is an object you can draw. So we're still working on that. =D)
E is for Even:
"Even a child is known by his deeds, by whether what he does is pure and right." Proverbs 20:11 (This is by far Ellie's favorite verse so far. She spouts it to random people and then asks if they know that verse, too. It's cute to see her enthusiasm.)
F is for For:
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23
And that's where we stopped. We will keep going with them. I really like them, and I think she does, too. I took the CD out of the car so we could copy the songs to mp3 (I will be taking an mp3 player to Texas with us), so we haven't had the regular reminder in the car to go over verses. We also haven't ripped the songs yet, so that's not helpful. Really we've been off schedule completely for a few weeks, since thing got so busy in June! It won't slow down until next week, though, when we head to Texas! So... it may be Fall before we move on to G, but I've heard her singing the song in her room so I know she already knows it. ;)
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Book Review: America The Beautiful
Happy Fourth of July!!
As part of our 4th of July celebrations today, Ellie and I read "America The Beautiful" by Katharine Lee Bates (the original poet) and Susan Winget (illustrator).
It contains the original poem by Katharine Lee Bates, as well as a short bio about the author and the story behind the poem. The illustrations are very Americana, but done beautifully, providing some conversation topics to discuss along with the poem. I appreciate that the illustrations are not merely pictures of what the words are conveying, but representations of history. Covered wagons, ships, soldiers on horseback, farms, bald eagle, Abraham Lincoln, flags, George Washington... all of these open the way for further discussion, even with small children.
The poem is long, but the pages go by quickly and the illustrations held Eliana's attention. She did not appreciate me singing the words, though, after about the third page. Still, she was happy to listen to the whole book and ask questions about the pictures. It was an enjoyable read and one that I'm glad we have in our library. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
********************************* end of review ****************************
Next year I'm hoping we can read Robert Sabuda's version of the poem. I am loving his pop-ups and hope to add this one to our collection, too. Maybe it will go on sale after the holiday! ;) I got a couple Christmas ones just a few weeks ago at Borders for $5 each (!!) and can't wait to read those with Ellie this winter. How fun!
Friday, June 26, 2009
WOW, It's been a long time since I've posted...
Huh. Must be busy. Because there's certainly not a lack of posts for lack of things to write about! We are just bursting at the seams with exciting stuff going on, and that leaves little time to blog, especially with the long days and exhausted mommy at the end of them!
I'll post about some of the things that are going on, but here's what I really got on to post about...
Ellie's food log.
Exciting, eh? ;)
6/26 -
Breakfast: the top half of a sprinkle doughnut
Lunch: 2 servings of spaghetti, a bowl of applesauce, and 3 large bites of corn.
Dinner: Well, we'll see what dinner is. Ellie will be with a sitter, so I'll have to come up with something easy. Maybe some cheese melted onto the spaghetti noodles to create a mac and cheese of sorts. And peas. And some ham? That might work and be a one dish wonder. =D
Thursday, May 14, 2009
A couple thoughts on obedience
Last night in our Shepherding a Child's Heart study we were talking about obedience and I had a couple thoughts. I have always just defined obedience as "doing what you're told to do." Tedd Tripp, however, defines it this way:
"Obedience is submission to God's authority that causes a child to do what he is told to do, without arguing, without stalling, and without challenging."
I really like his definition. We've been working to teach Eliana to obey right away, without delay, with a good attitude every day. In doing this, I have realized a couple things. First, it is a good time to train Eliana that obedience is an attitude of the heart. It is not just what she does, but the attitude with which she does it, too. We can use this as a time to talk about what is going on in her heart when she doesn't want to obey. We can also use it as a time to teach her about submission and authority. We want her to obey not because we are the parents and she needs to submit to our will, but because we all need to submit to God's will. We are all under God's authority, and in His infinite wisdom He has set up a hierarchy of authority here on earth to maintain order in His creation. Ellie's obedience isn't to us, it is to God and who He has put as the authority in her life. The same is true of us. We honor and respect and submit to our bosses and pastors and husbands and president not because they are worthy of it, but because HE is and He is the one who put them in authority over us. It is not obedience to them, it is obedience to Him. So that was one thought that I had about how this idea of obedience as more than a set of actions fulfilling a specific request will benefit our children.
The second thing I realized about teaching Eliana to obey without arguing, stalling, or challenging is that it maintains peace in our home more than I thought it would. I really thought it would cause more problems because I would have to discipline her CONSTANTLY for stalling as she "obeyed" or argued with me. We already felt like we were disciplining her a lot, and to add tighter boundaries to that seemed like it would make the discipline never ending, heightening tension in our home. As it turns out, the opposite is true, and not because she now obeys all the time right away without complaint. The change comes when we discipline her immediately. Before, I would ask Eliana to do something, and she would say, "Just a minute" and I would let her have a minute or a few. Then I would ask her again and tell her to do it right away, not in a minute. So she would get up and start to obey, but go very slowly. I would get frustrated and try to motivate her to do what I asked, sometimes trying to build her excitement about cleaning her room ("Let's play a clean-up game!") or bribing her ("When you clean up your room we can do something fun together!") or dangling consequences in front of her to remind her what she wanted to avoid ("Remember that if you don't obey I will have to spank you."). In the process of all of that, her attitude didn't change at all, but mine did. I got frustrated and irritated, and then I would have to take a time out for myself before disciplining her, which just put more distance between the offence and the consequence. Then the next time I didn't want to get frustrated, so I was tempted just to let the offence slide and ignore her stalling or arguing. What I have found in the past couple weeks of requiring immediate obedience is that she gets more spankings, but they are given in love because I want her to learn to obey for the right reasons, with the right attitude, because her submission is to God, not to me. She doesn't understand it all right now, but she is starting to form a clearer picture of how the hierarchy of authority works. I am not frustrated when I discipline her, because my desire is that she learn to love and obey God, and it's not about me or my power. She knows the consequences and does not fight them as much because they are more consistenly administered. It does not mean that there is never tension over disobedience, but it does mean that the tension is much less because we approach the discipline differently.
There is a lot more that I could say on the subject, and a lot more that I want to go into. But I still need to get ready for today and head into town, so I'll leave it at that for now. If you've never read it (or if you've read Shepherding a Child's Heart and want more), I STRONGLY recommend reading Instructing a Child's Heart by Tedd and Margy Tripp. Perhaps you won't agree with everything they have to say, but it is good food for thought.
"Obedience is submission to God's authority that causes a child to do what he is told to do, without arguing, without stalling, and without challenging."
I really like his definition. We've been working to teach Eliana to obey right away, without delay, with a good attitude every day. In doing this, I have realized a couple things. First, it is a good time to train Eliana that obedience is an attitude of the heart. It is not just what she does, but the attitude with which she does it, too. We can use this as a time to talk about what is going on in her heart when she doesn't want to obey. We can also use it as a time to teach her about submission and authority. We want her to obey not because we are the parents and she needs to submit to our will, but because we all need to submit to God's will. We are all under God's authority, and in His infinite wisdom He has set up a hierarchy of authority here on earth to maintain order in His creation. Ellie's obedience isn't to us, it is to God and who He has put as the authority in her life. The same is true of us. We honor and respect and submit to our bosses and pastors and husbands and president not because they are worthy of it, but because HE is and He is the one who put them in authority over us. It is not obedience to them, it is obedience to Him. So that was one thought that I had about how this idea of obedience as more than a set of actions fulfilling a specific request will benefit our children.
The second thing I realized about teaching Eliana to obey without arguing, stalling, or challenging is that it maintains peace in our home more than I thought it would. I really thought it would cause more problems because I would have to discipline her CONSTANTLY for stalling as she "obeyed" or argued with me. We already felt like we were disciplining her a lot, and to add tighter boundaries to that seemed like it would make the discipline never ending, heightening tension in our home. As it turns out, the opposite is true, and not because she now obeys all the time right away without complaint. The change comes when we discipline her immediately. Before, I would ask Eliana to do something, and she would say, "Just a minute" and I would let her have a minute or a few. Then I would ask her again and tell her to do it right away, not in a minute. So she would get up and start to obey, but go very slowly. I would get frustrated and try to motivate her to do what I asked, sometimes trying to build her excitement about cleaning her room ("Let's play a clean-up game!") or bribing her ("When you clean up your room we can do something fun together!") or dangling consequences in front of her to remind her what she wanted to avoid ("Remember that if you don't obey I will have to spank you."). In the process of all of that, her attitude didn't change at all, but mine did. I got frustrated and irritated, and then I would have to take a time out for myself before disciplining her, which just put more distance between the offence and the consequence. Then the next time I didn't want to get frustrated, so I was tempted just to let the offence slide and ignore her stalling or arguing. What I have found in the past couple weeks of requiring immediate obedience is that she gets more spankings, but they are given in love because I want her to learn to obey for the right reasons, with the right attitude, because her submission is to God, not to me. She doesn't understand it all right now, but she is starting to form a clearer picture of how the hierarchy of authority works. I am not frustrated when I discipline her, because my desire is that she learn to love and obey God, and it's not about me or my power. She knows the consequences and does not fight them as much because they are more consistenly administered. It does not mean that there is never tension over disobedience, but it does mean that the tension is much less because we approach the discipline differently.
There is a lot more that I could say on the subject, and a lot more that I want to go into. But I still need to get ready for today and head into town, so I'll leave it at that for now. If you've never read it (or if you've read Shepherding a Child's Heart and want more), I STRONGLY recommend reading Instructing a Child's Heart by Tedd and Margy Tripp. Perhaps you won't agree with everything they have to say, but it is good food for thought.
Monday, May 11, 2009
The Potty Chair
When we first started potty training Ellie, we got her one of those little training potty chairs so she could sit on her own. Well, now she is able to get up onto the big potty by herself and doesn't need to use the little potty. So we've taken it out of the bathroom.
I stored it downstairs for a while and then realized that it might still come in handy from time to time, especially since Ellie is in panties full time during the day now. So.... here's a new trick we've found very helpful...
Keep the training potty in the car!
Yesterday we made the 2 hour drive to Billings for Mother's Day. We had the potty in the back of the car and 3 times on the way home Ellie needed to use the bathroom when we weren't ANYWHERE near a restaurant, gas station, rest stop, or even house. (That happens in Montana when you're driving...). So we pulled off the next exit or pull out and she went in the little potty (which we promptly dumped in the weeds on the side of the road - I don't want pee sloshing around my car!) and we went on our way! She didn't have to hold it for another 30 minutes until we found an exit with a bathroom, and we didn't have to try to strip her bare on the side of the road so could go without hitting her clothing.
It's pretty good for emergencies when you're potty training, and worth a try if you're finding yourself putting your kid in pull-ups for long road trips since you might not be able to find a bathroom in time.
I stored it downstairs for a while and then realized that it might still come in handy from time to time, especially since Ellie is in panties full time during the day now. So.... here's a new trick we've found very helpful...
Keep the training potty in the car!
Yesterday we made the 2 hour drive to Billings for Mother's Day. We had the potty in the back of the car and 3 times on the way home Ellie needed to use the bathroom when we weren't ANYWHERE near a restaurant, gas station, rest stop, or even house. (That happens in Montana when you're driving...). So we pulled off the next exit or pull out and she went in the little potty (which we promptly dumped in the weeds on the side of the road - I don't want pee sloshing around my car!) and we went on our way! She didn't have to hold it for another 30 minutes until we found an exit with a bathroom, and we didn't have to try to strip her bare on the side of the road so could go without hitting her clothing.
It's pretty good for emergencies when you're potty training, and worth a try if you're finding yourself putting your kid in pull-ups for long road trips since you might not be able to find a bathroom in time.
Snow Cones
When your yard looks like this on April 24:
I am pretty sure this is the best response:
Snowcones! Made with real snow... It's a pretty good way to make a little girl happy!
I am pretty sure this is the best response:
Snowcones! Made with real snow... It's a pretty good way to make a little girl happy!
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But when Spring gives you snow, make snowcones!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Dinosaur Playground
Remember when I raved about the community park in Livingston? Well, it looks like we'll be getting one of our own in a month! And, much to Ellie's delight I am sure, it will be a dinosaur themed park, called the Dinosaur Playground.
I can't tell very well from the picture exactly what the play areas will be like, but I'm excited to find out when the park is built!
I can't tell very well from the picture exactly what the play areas will be like, but I'm excited to find out when the park is built!
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