There is a website called Kids of Integrity by Focus on the Family. (http://kidsofintegrity.com/) It is a free resource to help your child develop Christ-like attitudes and behaviors. Well - in this house we aren't always Christ-like and right now there is a lot of bickering between the kids so I thought I'd give this site a try.
So this afternoon when the kids got home we started working on 'HARMONY'. We read a story from the Bible, talked about some things in the story and then we had an activity to help create harmony. I tied the kids' legs together in a row - Navia, Emma & Kaleb. They were given a list of things to do and they had to work together in order to make it work. They started off arguing, yelling and even crying. I decided to stay out of it and see what they would do. Within a minute they sat themselves down and started trying to figure it out - naming feet 'one' and 'two' and practice walking. They managed the stairs TWO times and finished all their tasks laughing as they were walking around.
At the end they sat down and told me that they learned that if they weren't patient with each other they couldn't go anywhere, if they only thought about themselves and not now the person beside them was doing then they couldn't go anywhere. They took off their ropes and gave each other hugs and I told them that they did a great job. Oh, and this week as we're working on getting along in harmony with each other, I'd give them a head's up that if two of them were arguing I would be tying them up to each other again and give them another list of "to-do" for them to figure out - it's definitely the most unique "consequence" that I've ever heard of!
We'll see how it goes, but as soon as they were released from each other they all ran out to the trampoline and started playing together so peacefully! Hopefully this is the beginning of a harmonious week in our house . . .and hopefully that will continue for weeks to come!
