We have not had a great month with Mother Goose Time. I was really excited about this month, and the activities were so, so fun! Sadly, between taking a few days off to visit friends, and my getting lax on consistent discipline, we have not gotten much done, and we are more than halfway through the month.
Little Guy was getting really good at obeying, after I finally got consistent, but since he was doing so well, I got lax again, and when I get bad at parenting, he gets bad at obeying. Now we are back to square two, which is a little better than square one, but not where I like to be.
What does this have to do with Mother Goose Time? Well, every time we get started, after a few minutes, he decides he doesn't want to obey. Like today. We were playing a game where he rolled the pocket cube, and then either colored in a matching egg, or did an action, depending on what he rolled. He did great at it. His coloring was better than ever, he matched everything perfectly, and was having fun. When we were finished with the activity, it went downhill. He decided to continue throwing the cube, completely ignoring me when I let him know it was time to move on, and yanking it away from my hand when I reached out for it.
I am going to be honest. I was flaming mad at him. I was thisclose to screaming at him. Yes, it is a bit of an over reaction, but for the last week or so, he has been subtly disobeying me at almost every turn, and I have mostly remained calm. So it was a bit of a straw and camel moment. BUT! I held myself together, told him (in an admittedly unpleasant tone of voice) to sit down in the chair and wait for me to come back. Then I went to the other room and prayed for patience, love, kindness, and consistency in disciplining him.
Most people probably don't have to pray about not screaming at their children for small acts of disobedience, but I am not the picture of self-control, and sometimes need help to keep it together.
I REALLY, REALLY hope I can get back to my consistency, and help him continue learning to obey. Both Little Guy and I have so much more fun together, and so much less stress when he knows what to expect from his choices. Plus, I would like to actually finish an entire day of Mother Goose Time this month!
Now that I have told my humbling parenting story of the day, I will share a little more about what we have managed to get done in our curriculum this month.
Little Guy was getting really good at obeying, after I finally got consistent, but since he was doing so well, I got lax again, and when I get bad at parenting, he gets bad at obeying. Now we are back to square two, which is a little better than square one, but not where I like to be. What does this have to do with Mother Goose Time? Well, every time we get started, after a few minutes, he decides he doesn't want to obey. Like today. We were playing a game where he rolled the pocket cube, and then either colored in a matching egg, or did an action, depending on what he rolled. He did great at it. His coloring was better than ever, he matched everything perfectly, and was having fun. When we were finished with the activity, it went downhill. He decided to continue throwing the cube, completely ignoring me when I let him know it was time to move on, and yanking it away from my hand when I reached out for it.
I am going to be honest. I was flaming mad at him. I was thisclose to screaming at him. Yes, it is a bit of an over reaction, but for the last week or so, he has been subtly disobeying me at almost every turn, and I have mostly remained calm. So it was a bit of a straw and camel moment. BUT! I held myself together, told him (in an admittedly unpleasant tone of voice) to sit down in the chair and wait for me to come back. Then I went to the other room and prayed for patience, love, kindness, and consistency in disciplining him.
Most people probably don't have to pray about not screaming at their children for small acts of disobedience, but I am not the picture of self-control, and sometimes need help to keep it together.
I REALLY, REALLY hope I can get back to my consistency, and help him continue learning to obey. Both Little Guy and I have so much more fun together, and so much less stress when he knows what to expect from his choices. Plus, I would like to actually finish an entire day of Mother Goose Time this month!
Now that I have told my humbling parenting story of the day, I will share a little more about what we have managed to get done in our curriculum this month.
During this activity we were putting "eggs" into the correct "nest" by sorting their colors. He is a pro at color sorting by this point, so it was a pretty easy process. I love that Mother Goose Time gives us so many creative opportunities to do simple activities with a twist.
I really liked this one! We rolled the cube and then added the correct number of sticks to build a nest. The tricky part was that some of the sides had NEGATIVE numbers! So not only was he working on counting, but he was learning about subtraction.
These are actually the duck counters (and the magnifying glass) from At The Pond last month. His favorite toys are the animal counters we get most months. My husband plays a game called World of Tanks, and so here Little Guy is playing "tanks" with his duck counters and magnifying glass. He gets points for creativity that is for sure!
Little Guy and I receive Mother Goose Time free of charge in exchange for sharing our experiences and pictures. All opinions are my own.
I understand. Gabby was experimenting with disobedience recently and lost some things and privileges that mean a lot to her.
ReplyDeleteShe also is getting into a bad habit of whining when asked to do school work which means we get less done because I'm too busy making extra effort to keep her focused (while trying not to turn I to momasaurus Rex raar).
I agree, being consistent is key, but I also think kids get a little amesia periodically lol
I hate getting him in trouble, so when his disobedience isn't irritating me, I tend to ignore it. "If you give them an inch, they take a mile" kicks in, and it gets to me!
DeleteI actually never discipline Little Guy if he doesn't know what he did, because I don't think it is fair. Actually I think I have when he has done something dangerous, but as a rule, I don't. He can almost always tell me exactly why he is in trouble (99% of the time it's because he disobeyed), and the details of it: "I am in trouble because I disobeyed by _______."