Motivate: Lunches PACKED with Love

Ten Ways to Send a Little Lunchtime Love:

1. Include a short love note or written pep talk. 

2. Pack a present...Wrap up a fun set of pencils or erasers. Don't forget squiggly ribbon!

3. Substitute traditional (jelly) for terrific (Fluff, Nutella, or honey).

4. Include a homemade ticket for an after school activity the two of you can do together (such as a trip to the local bowling alley). 

5. Toss in an extra dollar for ice cream.  

6. Cut sandwiches into fun shapes (hearts, dinosaurs, stars, happy faces, etc). 

7. Pack an extra special sweet treat.

8. Pack an extra special sweet treat for all of your kid's lunchtime friends. 

9. Tuck a funny comic strip inside the napkin.

10. Tape the note, "Look to your right," inside your kiddo's empty lunchbox. Then, be standing across the cafeteria with a McDonald's bag in your hands. 

11. You're turn! Please share!

Motivate: Joyful Noise

In our home, we take Psalm 100 pretty seriously. It says, "make a joyful noise unto the Lord...come before His presence with singing...enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise...for the Lord is good." Why shouldn't it be fun to praise God for His blessings? 

Johnny Appleseed Grace:

Oh, the Lord's been good to me,

And so I thank the Lord.

For giving me, the things I need: 

The sun and the rain, and the appleseeds. 

The Lord's been good to me! 
Amen!

Motivate: Worn Treasures

funmoms.org is so proud to introduce:

Sarah 

(Click link to learn more about Sarah.)

I am a reader.  Books are treasures in my family, and my children all have their own library cards by the time they're 5.  Their personal bookshelves have more books than most adults'. Reading is the way of life in our family. Research has shown that reading to your children is one of the best--and possibly the best--thing you can do with them.  But if you're not an avid reader, you might need some tips to incorporate reading into your daily life with your children: 

Buy a good book on books!  Jim Trelease's "Read-Aloud Handbook" is the gold standard, as is Gladys Hunt's "Honey for a Child's Heart."  There's also Sarah Clarkson's "Read for the Heart," and the classic, "Books Children Love."  All four not only have great booklists for every age and genre (type of book), but also great tips for reading to your children.

After you've done that, take them to the library, even if they're babies.  Children need to grow up familiar with and fond of their local library.  Take them to storytime, or just create your own.  My oldest son's first trip was when he was three weeks old, and I read board books to him.  He didn't have a clue what I was doing, but it started the weekly tradition that we continue nine years later.

Establish a daily reading time.  Fifteen minutes is appropriate for young toddlers, and the habit of attention that they develop will soon find you reading for much longer stretches.  If you're not used to reading aloud, this is a good amount of time to start with for you, too.  

Don't expect active toddlers (or boys of any age!) to sit still!  Allow your younger ones to draw or play quietly with Legos, etc.  Research shows that many kids pay better attention if they can move.  Forcing a busy three year old to sit on the couch next to you will work against you.  Trust me.  Our only rule is that everybody must be quiet, except for asking questions or commenting on the story.  But nobody has to sit still! If you read with enthusiasm, and let the story speak for itself, instead of interrupting yourself with reading comprehension questions (I'm a former language arts teacher, and the impulse still runs strong!), you'll find they are more interested, and those wiggly boys might even sit still!

Remember that reading is supposed to be enjoyable.  If you don't like the book you're reading, and neither does your child, find another one.  Everybody has different tastes, and with the wealth of books now published, you can find one that will suit everybody.  There's no hard and fast rule that you have to read certain books.  Let your children have a voice and help you choose the stories, and they'll be more willing to listen.

And last, model for your children what you want them to do.  If you surround yourself with books and reading material, and you read in front of them--purely for enjoyment--they will see that reading is a worthy pursuit.  If you treasure your books and teach them to take good care of theirs, they will see that books are special.  And if you read with them, just for the fun of it, they will see that they are important, too. 

Don't stop when they go to school; keep up the read-aloud times, and you'll find that you've created an easy way into their hearts and lives, as you discuss books and enjoy being together.   Reading can become a lifelong habit that will bless them, and you!

Motivate: 64 Crayons and Back-to-School Shopping

Shared by: Bev

August, when summer is coming to an end, and school is just around the corner. As a child, I always loved the start of the school year, new Big Chief tablets, #2 pencils with pink erasers, and a cigar box to hold all my supplies. The one thing I really, really wanted was the big box of 64 crayons, with the sharpener built in the side. With six kids to outfit for school, there wasn't money for any unnecessary extras. I didn't mention it to my mother, and took the little box she handed me without saying a word. The box that didn't have fun colors like fushia and turquoise. Mine had plain old blue and purple and red. 

So jump forward 35 years, and I'm shopping with all three of my kids, for school supplies. Two of the three weren't that thrilled that summer was about to end, and within days they'd be stuck back in a classroom seat, having to sit still and be quiet. Looking back, I can see that the fun of choosing school supplies was probably all that sparkled for them, when it came to the thought of climbing back on that bus, and walking into a classroom. Our kids were about 7 years apart in age, so the older one needed folders and notebooks and a calculator. The middle one wanted fun spiral-bound notebooks that had the latest pop-star on them, and sparkly pencils with her name on the side. The last one - a boy - well, the store shelves didn't hold anything that could get him excited about returning to the classroom, to another teacher who was bound to be completely worn out with him by Christmas break. 

The discontent, the mumbling and groaning and complaining, grew with every aisle. Like most parents shopping for school supplies, our budget was stretched thin, and my patience was growing thinner by the minute too. Feeling like I was trapped with a bunch of whiny, grumbling kids, embarrassed by their less than wonderful behavior, I quit asking for any input, just threw a bit of this and that into the cart, and headed to the checkout. 

As I began to unload the cart's contents onto the belt, one of my children went into meltdown mode 'I don't want to go back to school! My teacher is going to hate me. And I didn't even get the smelly markers I wanted.'

Instead of going back in my memories, to a little girl about seven or eight years old to whom a box of 64 crayons was supremely important, I had my own meltdown.  I yelled loud enough for anyone within several aisles to hear me, "I am NEVER taking all three of you shopping again!" 

Oh for do-overs. Nobody wants to be 'that woman' shopping at the discount store. So here's a heads-up idea: make it a special date with ONE child. Leave the others at home. Just the two of you go out for a hamburger, or ice cream cone, or whatever. Then let them help choose their school supplies. It'll give you precious time with your child, help them learn to make decisions, make them feel valued and ensure sweet memories when both of you look back someday. When I shared, a few years ago, with my own mother, that I'd always wanted the box of '64 crayons with sharpener' she said she'd had no idea. Being at the store with five siblings, there was little chance of being heard. One-on-one time is a gift, for you and your child. 

Motivate: Enjoining

This AMAZING post shared with permission from Katrina at http://callapidderdays.com/

It was a normal evening during a normal week. I was cleaning up the dinner dishes while the kids played and Chad caught up on that day’s Tour de France happenings.

L.(4) was headed outside with a notebook and a crayon. He was so excited about the prospect of “writing outside.” I didn’t know what he planned on writing, but judging by the sparkle in his eyes, it was going to be something good.

Right before the door closed behind him, he peeked back in and asked, “Are you coming outside too, Mom?”

“No, buddy, I’m cleaning up the kitchen right now.”

“Oh. Well, when you’re done, would you like to enjoin me?”

According to the dictionary, “enjoin” means to order or command someone to do something. That’s not at all what L. was talking about. He has endearingly combined the words “join” and “enjoy” to create his own hybrid, “enjoin.” He’ll use enjoin wherever you or I would use join or enjoy, and I have no plans to correct him.

[And C.(11), if you're reading this -- you're not allowed to correct him either! I like how he says enjoin. Let's hold onto it for a while.]

In L.’s world:

Join + Enjoy = Enjoin

And so, he had asked me to enjoin him outside when I was done in the kitchen.

I have to admit, there are far too many times when I join my kids, but I leave out theenjoy part.

I’m sure you moms know what I’m talking about.

We can join our kids grudgingly, thinking about all the things we’d rather be doing or “should” be doing.

We can join our kids critically, noticing (or even pointing out) all the things they’re doing wrong.

We can join our kids distractedly, being physically present, but mentally….we’re somewhere else entirely.

But those times when we do manage to truly enjoin our kids — to join them and enjoy them — they’re something special. Last night, I chose to enjoin L. outside. I watched him conquer a challenge on the swingset, I smiled while he combined his imagination and a watering can to do all kinds of things,… and then I instigated a water gun fight.

Before long, both of the kids and I were soaked (refreshingly so), chasing each other around the back yard and the front with a variety of water guns. In the end, C. won, because he lugged out the SuperSoaker Flash Flood. But L. and I didn’t mind losing. The water felt good…and we were having fun.

The enjoinment continued through bedtime reading and snuggling with L., and then with C. as we read another chapter in our current read-aloud. All in all, a delightful evening.

Sure, I could have picked up a book, or checked my email and Facebook (again), but it was so much more fun to join the kids…and to really enjoy them.

I’m hoping for even more enjoining today.