Okay parents. I have been teaching your children (or somebody’s children) for the past 2 months. I have had first grade up to 8th grade students.
I have taught Character Counts, which is on developing good character traits. How is it that your 8th grader doesn’t know what the word obedience means? How can it be that your 1st grader doesn’t know what honesty is?
I know you have spent countless hours taking your child to soccer, piano, gymnastics, or something similar. But have you ever taught him or her to sit still? Yes! It can be done.
Set a timer: have them sit on a chair, hands held together, feet still, no fidgeting, no moving the head to one side…
Try for one minute, then two, then 5, 10, 15, plus.
Just like riding a bike or learning to throw a football; practice and repetition, and more practice, and more repetition.
Learning to sit still is a SKILL that can be LEARNED. But it must be taught, expected, and practiced.
See how long they can be quiet on a long car ride, at the table, in church, at home. Practice, practice, and practice, and give rewards each time they go longer.
When they learn to keep their body still, the mind then has an easier time to focus and they will do better in school, in business, and in life.
Hyperactive children CAN be taught to sit still. Just find the right motivator (such as for every 30 min on a game…you have to sit still for 10 minutes first). Can’t sit still? No gaming.
Guess what…they will sit still, because hyper boys love video games.
Also, please teach your children they are not to touch my purse, my shoes, my hair, my jewelry, my classroom supplies. To rub the leaves on a plant, stick their lips on a door, pick their nose in public, put their hand inside their pants, or eat with their mouth open.
They are not to write on the board, touch things in the room, get too close to me or others, rub our arms, take hats off of others, open someone else’s backpack, etc.
Practice this one rule when they are young: DO NOT touch things that belong to other people.
What bothers me the most is not that occasionally, a good child messes up and forgets a rule…it is that more and more, the children are telling me that they were never taught these rules.
Feed your children breakfast; and Oreos and a coke do not count. If you have money for candy and pop, you have money for oatmeal or healthy cereal.
Why is it that a child that has designer shoes, nice clothes, expensive jewelry or phone, coming to me in America and telling me they are hungry? Fat and sugar will not keep them full, give their brain what it needs, and sustain them all day.
You have time to buy them I-tunes, watch a dirty video with them, but not make sure they eat properly?
And why is it that 1st and 2nd graders have seen videos that I, myself, would not dare watch? How is it that when I ask them what videos they want to watch on You Tube for fun, they know about videos that are sexual, suggestive, inappropriate, dirty, and just downright nasty.
I found that when I showed them the “old” cartoons from the 40s and 50s that the whole class would sit still. They might complain in the beginning, however, they ended up liking them more and wanting them in the future.
Another fact, is when they watch a good show, they behave better. Whereas, when I let them watch a music video that is questionable or a little crazy, that they go crazy and we have more discipline problems.
Also, parents, in case you did not know, in America, where most people have running water and electricity, it is considered proper and good to bathe every day. To have your hair combed and to have brushed, clean teeth.
You buy them an I-pad, but cannot take them to the dentist?
Now, to all you good wonderful parents who are teaching these things and doing the best you can to discipline your children, teaching them to be clean and orderly…THANK YOU!
In each class, while I have some children who make messes, and do not even know that they are responsible to put their own trash in a trash can... (do you follow them around the house and pick up after them?...if so…shame on you!
Teach them to NOT make a mess in the first place and to always leave an area cleaner than they found it)
There are always, thank goodness, two or three “helpers”, who clean up, help other children clean up, pick up trash, wipe down tables, and so on.
I know who the helpers are; I try to reward them with extra goodies, extra praise, a smile, a nod of the head, and more.
Help your children to become “helpers”
not “hindrances”.
You will bless their lives and the lives of others by doing so.
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