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Kids are People TOO!
Have you ever thought about how many decisions you make for your kids everyday? From their shoes to clothes, what they eat, how they comb their hair, and what they talk about. Listening to my kids makes me smile, stop and want to listen a while.
If you think about it, kids are hustled and bustled from home to school and back again. They hardly get to make decisions about things which really matter in their lives. We choose schools, courses of education, and how they spend their free time. Unfortunately, if you give your kids some small decisions to make, you can score big points to being a Super Mom or Dad.
I know from experience that even one day a week of two or three simple decisions creates a fantastic way to help your kids make decisions. It also helps them know you care about what they want and think. I recently turned my four on their ears, I did the unthinkable. I asked each and everyone what they wanted to do. I know it was a lunatic move. Each and everyone was able to pick something they wanted. One picked McDonald’s, one picked Cabela’s, one chose to go to Walmart for a toy and the other wanted Build a Bear. I sounds crazy, but each one picked something different. We spent the day going from place to place, buying little things and spending time together. Everyone was so excited by the idea of doing something they wanted. I limited the budget, but everyone was satisfied in the end. At the end they asked me what I wanted. It was great. I was able to hit Starbuck’s and get my triple Venti no foam Latte.
In that, I have to say kids are people too. They want to be heard and make decisions. I didn’t realize how much they want to have a say until my neice said, “Parent’s don’t have to ask what they want to do.” We don’t? Yes we do. We ask our boss for time off, we ask our family to help clean up after themselves, we ask our spouses to help with the children, we beg for attention and we really want to be heard. Don’t we have the same problems our kids do? We just are a little bigger. So try thinking about what your kids are missing from you. Help them make good decisions, help them to save money, and help them to share. You’re the Super Parent, you can do it. You already do so much for them. In the end, you might be surprised, they’ll want to do what you want too.
Happy Parenting.
RD
Posting 2/10/2009
Getting Kids to Read MORE!
I have been thinking about how to have our kids read and engage in reading. We are dominated in our society with more than a fair share of interactive media. Books are designed to create imagination, but interactive media delivers the imagination. It is no longer a product of our minds, but of what the designers create in our minds. Have you ever read a book and then went to see the movie and decided you would have rather not. This is exactly what I mean. By seeing the movie, your mind was tainted by the images of what the movie company thought you should see. Sometimes this is not true, but more times that we can count it is.
In that I have to be innovative and create a new experience for our kids. How? By talking them through what a book can do for them. You can do it to. Here’s how:
Pick a book, something popular, something you might want to read, something you think your kids would like. Now choose a chapter or section for a weekly read, but here’s the catch, my kids and I act out the parts or pretend to be characters. This has worked wonders. The kids are in the middle of the story, I don’t have to read for hours, I just have to be proactive when I do read. I have been able to engage them, put them in mood to read, and make them beg for more. I have to admit, the more I read to them, the less they watch movies, but they play more! I love this. Their imagination is running wild, from pirates to princesses and galloping white horses, the sky is the limit. Anything which gets them to use their heads and imagine, I’m all for.
I realize this might sound silly, but try it for 15 minutes. Try to make props and use household items to add to the story. Every time they use their imagination, you’re winning as a parent. You are the hero. Isn’t that what we want. We want to be there hero, because in just a short time, they’ll be tweens and teenagers. That is when we want to be the friend, the hero. We have to connect now. So grab a book and get them reading, and then get them off the couch and out in the yard. It puts distance between them and the couch, them and the video games, and gets them closer to you.
Regards,
RD
