Growing Kids God's Way: Consequences and Punishment

This week we will discuss maybe a controversial topic: consequences and punishment.  Remember this key principle: Punishment serves a moral purpose.  It communicates to children the value of good and evil by the weight of the punishment ascribed to the wrongful act.

Punishment is used more in the early years and natural/logical consequences are used more in the later years.  Whatever you use, pain is potential correction for foolishness.    It could be a skinned knee after falling off a bike or taking away privileges.

We want our children to take ownership of their decisions and also help them learn to make wise decisions.  Children need to learn the consequences of their choices.  It will be no different when they get out into the world.

Here are some ideas:
*Labor is a great consequence (extra chores, hard work, etc.)
*For lying some have used "sassy sauce" like vinegar or hot sauce.
*Chastisement is a common form of correction and should only be used up until 5 years of age.  (You can read more about that in the Growing Kids God's Way book)

Whatever method of punishment and consequences that you use, be consistent.  Your child will respond to parents who take the time to raise them with dignity.  Teach your child what your expectations are and follow through.  Loving your child enough to train them is the greatest gift you can give them.

Thanks for listening!

Next time: Repentance, Forgiveness and Restoration

Scripture Adventures FREE Easter Lapbook

If you haven't yet heard about Scripture Adventures I suggest you check it out!  This is a great website with wonderful resources for teaching your children all about Scripture with fun activities for every age.  They have a variety of ebooks including An  Easter Adventure and full curriculum courses such as Adventures in the Life of Christ.

Right now you can download a FREE copy of their Easter Lapbook.

I'm so excited to use this with my son this year!  This is such a great way to introduce him to the most wonderful story in the world.  I'm so thankful for the great layout and all the hard work that Scripture Adventures puts into their products.

Not only that, you can download the complete resource, An Easter Adventure for only $6.99 which has over 100 pages featuring stories, memory verses, recipes, crafts, hands-on projects and activities that you can do with the whole family.  I have mine!

So take a look, this might be a great way to teach your kids about Easter in a whole new way!

Be sure to sign up for their newsletter and facebook page.

Enjoy!!

Lightning Bug Literacy Creative Explorations Kit Review

Recently I was given the chance to review a fun creative explorations kit from Lightning Bug Literacy.  This blog is about "bright ideas for early learning."   They offer great tips for teaching little ones on their daily blog posts.  The Lightning Bug store has a host of a variety of Creative Explorations Kits all with different themes using the letters of the alphabet.  Each kit has 5 learning activities tied to a focus book. 

We were given the R is for Rainbows kit.  

Our focus book was: 

Shrade and I had so much fun exploring rainbows in this unique way.  We were given a little packet with all the materials and great welcoming letter which advised us that the time spent learning is what matters the most!

Before each activity we sat down to read A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman.  My son is fascinated by rainbows and it was a great book for my son to discover the wonder of colors.

Our first activity was to build the letter R with rainbow colored foam shapes.  It was fun to create different combinations of colors.  We also practiced writing R with 3 crayons taped together.  This was a great fine motor skill.

Our next activity was to build a rainbow name puzzle.  Thankfully, Shrade has the exact number of letters as colors of the rainbow.  So I laid out the puzzle pieces and Shrade had to match the correct color square.  Then we put them in order starting with red to purple.  I wrote the letters of his name on each of the squares and we reviewed the letters of his name.  We've been doing this orally for awhile, but it was a great way for him to visually see his name.  I could think of several other great ideas for playing with this activity, but that will have to wait!

Another activity was making the Rainbow Streamer.  I asked Shrade to hand me the different colored ribbon as I tied it to the paper plate.  He was right on!  Then we played with the streamer while using an action cube that gave us different motions to do like hop on one foot.  Shrade was more interested in throwing the cube than anything else, but he did do a few hops here and there!

This bonus activity was probably Shrade's favorite.  He had to match colored happy face stickers to spaces on a rainbow page.  I did this activity with him and then when all the spaces were filled I just let him do the rest by himself.  I was completely shocked when he matched up the rest of the stickers to the appropriate color!  I need to get more of these stickers.  :)

Look what Shrade did all by himself!

Our last activity was working with numbers on a rainbow mat.  I put a number card on one side of the rainbow on the cloud and Shrade was to color the correct number of dots on the other cloud on the other side of the rainbow.  We only did 1, 2 and 3.  Then Shrade wanted to match the number cards with the same colors.

This was such a fun review and we can do these activities over and over.

Thank you so much to Lightning Bug Literacy for allowing me the chance to try out their fun learning kit!

Be sure to stop by and visit their Facebook page for up to date blog postings and giveaways.

You can also connect with them on Twitter.

PS.  A  Bug Club Membership gives you access to a special weekly newsletter, free printables, savings on Creative Explorations kits and a free gift for your child's birthday.

Stay tuned for great giveaway I have coming  SOON from Lightning Bug Literacy for a Zoo Printable extension set!

Brightly Beaming Resources: Week #6- Rainbows

Studying rainbows was a lot of fun.  We played with a prism and even tried to find rainbows during this time.  Shrade is starting to repeat the nursery rhyme that we learn during the week at other times of the day.  He is having a harder time grasping numbers even though he can count to 10.  We count things all the time and I read a lot of books with numbers in it.  He is having fun recognizing a stop sign which is an octagon and is red which is the shape and color that we have learned the last few weeks.

Here is one of the ways we work with numbers in our lesson.  I give Shrade the number cards and I put out the cards with stickers.  He has to count the stickers and then find the number cards.  I need to do this more not just during "school" time.  One time we reviewed at dinner with daddy.  That was fun!

OK, don't forget to check out Brightly Beaming Resources for great ideas!

Books we read during this week:

21 Days of Prayer for Sons Challenge

I just signed up!

Come join the 21 Days of Prayer for Sons challenge April 1-April 29.  Read all the details at the link above.

What's on our Bookshelf? All Fall Down by Helen Oxenbury

This book had my son begging for more!  There are only 4 short phrases in this book but we made the fun last for 20 minutes!  So, I read this story and each page has an action.  My son went wild with delight with the singing, running, bouncing and falling down.  He kept saying "More, more!"  The other day I pulled it out again and he grabbed a pillow (which is what we bounced on) and off we went.  He absolutely loves Ring Around the Rosies and the falling down part.  So this book was perfect for my 2 year old who needed to release some energy.

March Monthly Plan

*Bible Verse: Psalm 144:15  "Happy are the people whose God is the Lord."  from Songs for Saplings

*Brightly Beaming Resources:  We are using the Preparatory Curriculum for 2-4 year olds

Stars

Sun

*Sensory Play:
-pudding
-playdough

*Literature Connection:
We are going to revisit Brown Bear, Brown Bear with a tot pack that I made last year.

*Daily Music time: Songs from Music Notes and CD's we get at the library


*Art:

-coloring

-sponge painting

*Field Trips:
Playdates
MOPS
Library story time
Children's Museum
Nature Center
Play to Learn
Learning Sprout Tot Time
Zoo


*Skills/Chores:
-wash hands
-taking off clothes/diaper and put in laundry basket
-drinking from cup
-clean up toys
-throw away garbage/recycling
-clean up messes on the floor 

-put dishes in the sink

-help put dishes away from the dishwasher

-put clothes in the washer