One really good principle coming out of the Growing Kids Gods Way (GKGW) class is the constant reminder that we need to encourage and build up our children (duh...right!). By using lots of pre-teaching, question asking and positive reinforcement we can help our children desire to have a heart for the Lord thus leading to a heart for obedience. Over the past few months our oldest, Tage, has struggled a little with different school related issues...social and academic. While we know he is only a first grader and likely will continue to have school related issues off and on through out his tenure at The River Academy, we really want to nip these things as quickly as we can thus making room for the next bump...whatever that may be. My personal opinion is that God's timing for these little bumps is not an accident. These little bumps are falling on open and ready to apply some of our new parenting skills ears! One particular little bump we are working on is related to Tage's neatness, or lack there of and class room diligence. Tage is ready for the year to be over (as am I) and seems to really need a little extra "you can do it" push.
So we have decided to institute the "Tage ROCKS" jar. One of the jars is filled with rocks and sits ready for Tage to arrive home from school with "Outstanding" neat work, and/or a note from his teacher telling us he was really 'with it' in school today. Also, if while Tage is doing his homework and he comes across something difficult and tackles it like a man with no fussing or whining he will get to move a rock from one jar to the next. Once the second jar is filled with the rocks TAGE gets to pick an outing or date with Brant or I going and doing whatever he likes, within reason...of course. Last night he had a plethora of emotions surrounding his rock jars, thinking there were to many rocks and it would take to long to fill the other jar etc. While in the thick of his reading homework he read the word "astonishment" without an ounce of difficulty and I promptly moved a rock from the full jar to the empty jar just to get the ball rolling. He perked right up, became VERY enthusiastic and finished his homework strong. He woke up this morning cheerful and ready to do neat work at school so he could earn more rocks for his jar. TAGE ROCKS!!!!
One really good principle coming out of the Growing Kids Gods Way (GKGW) class is the constant reminder that we need to encourage and build up our children (duh...right!). By using lots of pre-teaching, question asking and positive reinforcement we can help our children desire to have a heart for the Lord thus leading to a heart for obedience. Over the past few months our oldest, Tage, has struggled a little with different school related issues...social and academic. While we know he is only a first grader and likely will continue to have school related issues off and on through out his tenure at The River Academy, we really want to nip these things as quickly as we can thus making room for the next bump...whatever that may be. My personal opinion is that God's timing for these little bumps is not an accident. These little bumps are falling on open and ready to apply some of our new parenting skills ears! One particular little bump we are working on is related to Tage's neatness, or lack there of and class room diligence. Tage is ready for the year to be over (as am I) and seems to really need a little extra "you can do it" push.
So we have decided to institute the "Tage ROCKS" jar. One of the jars is filled with rocks and sits ready for Tage to arrive home from school with "Outstanding" neat work, and/or a note from his teacher telling us he was really 'with it' in school today. Also, if while Tage is doing his homework and he comes across something difficult and tackles it like a man with no fussing or whining he will get to move a rock from one jar to the next. Once the second jar is filled with the rocks TAGE gets to pick an outing or date with Brant or I going and doing whatever he likes, within reason...of course. Last night he had a plethora of emotions surrounding his rock jars, thinking there were to many rocks and it would take to long to fill the other jar etc. While in the thick of his reading homework he read the word "astonishment" without an ounce of difficulty and I promptly moved a rock from the full jar to the empty jar just to get the ball rolling. He perked right up, became VERY enthusiastic and finished his homework strong. He woke up this morning cheerful and ready to do neat work at school so he could earn more rocks for his jar. TAGE ROCKS!!!!
4 comments:
Nothing like a little competition to motivate a boy - what a fantastic idea!
I love it!! And we of course think Tage rocks too! :)
Nice work Rache! Great idea - so simple but full of great incentives for little hearts! Keep up the good work!
Fabulous idea. I'm filing it away in my mommy arsenal...always love a good idea!
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