>>Valley Patriot>> |
Packrat From Birth
Children need to be taught early on to give to others. This will help increase the abundance in their lives. Life has a natural flow and people who give find that much more is given back to them. Here is one idea that you can implement as a family. Twice a year, perhaps before Christmas and again in the spring, have your child sort through clothes that don’t fit and toys that are not being used. (It would help if she sees you going through your stuff also.) Give her the choice of two or three places where they may be given away. Have her help you clean the items up and get them ready to be donated. What do you think is a fair amount of television viewing time for a first grader on a week night? One half-hour program. If after dinner a small amount of homework needs to be done, this should be completed first. Why are some children so rude? I am talking about seven and eight year olds that go by on the sidewalk. Unbelievable. They would knock you down given half a chance. This is sad. Someone is raising these children without manners. Children can not go beyond what they have been taught. It is important for parents to model appropriate behavior and to expect their children to act accordingly.Some parents are poor role models and have no or low expectations for their children. Best you can do is stay out of their way and when available demonstrate your own manners, hoping some will wear off on them. Whatever the case, don’t sink to their level of behavior. At what age are children normally ready to be toilet trained? One of my friends claims that her son was trained at fifteen months. Children’s bodies are physically developed by about age two to have the muscle control needed for toilet training. When children are using the toilet at fifteen months, often it is the parents who are keyed into the cycle of a child’s body functions. They anticipate when the child needs to eliminate and stick the youngster on the toilet in time. When the child approaches two, look for signs of readiness such as, awareness of bodily functions, gesturing to show when he/she needs changing, and staying dryer for longer periods. What is a good reply to a child that says to you “Mommy you are speaking to me in a mad voice,” when you are simply being firm with the directions you are giving? Sure does tug at your heart strings. You will be tempted to say “You haven’t heard my really mad voice yet, buster.” Instead,ignore the comment and repeat your directions. Children sometimes repeat things that they hear and parrot words without thinking about what they are saying. Short speech writing for my eighth grader is no problem. Writing papers is very difficult. I have had her try brainstorming, writing down drafts, etc. She balks at it all. Part of the problem may be thinking faster than she can write her ideas down. Have her speak the paper into a tape recorder and then transcribe the words. Getting the thoughts out and on paper is the initial goal. Once that is done, she may be able to more easily rearrange them and come up with a completed paper. *Send your questions
comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com |
My
seven year old has been a packrat from birth. Keeping gum
wrappers, straws, you name it, she does not part with
it.Yesterday, she came to me and said “I don’t
use my two scooter cars any more” and “I want
to give one to your school (I am a teacher) and one to my
school.” I feel like this is a big breakthrough. How
can we encourage more of this?