Often,
children will "act out" negatively in order to get our attention. In
place of a lack of positive attention from us, they will push our buttons until
we pay attention to them. We can stop this negative spiral by giving them regularly
scheduled focused attention to which they can look forward to enjoying.
We
often choose to focus on the negative aspects of having children, when we have
a gold mine of blessings in our little charges. So often, we create
opportunities to get away from them, or to use the TV or electronic devices to
distract their attention.
Instead,
we can choose to create fun times with them so they can fill up our emotional
tank, and we can develop a lasting relationship with them. Here are some ideas
we can use as parents and grandparents to allow our blessings from the Lord (Psalm
127:3) to feel loved, respected and enjoyed:
1.
Listen to them. This is easier said than done when we work all day, cook dinner
when we get home, and have chores that pile up each week and demand our
attention. Doing chores and cooking together with our children provide us with time
to listen to their chatter about what is important to them.
2.
Go to the beach and collect shells (and wear shorts and a t-shirt if you don't
want to wear a bathing suit).
3.
Watch one favorite TV show with them every day/week. We can snuggle with
them on the couch, or make a tent from a sheet draped over the table in order
to watch the TV from inside, or pop popcorn and eat it while we watch the show
from anywhere in the room at which each child feels comfortable.
4.
Go to the park and swing, slide and climb monkey bars with them; or go to the pool and have some fun "splash" time.
5.
Find some community service we can do together as a family.
6.
Rent an age-appropriate (Christian, if possible) movie each weekend and watch
it all together as a family.
7.
Read them a series of Christian children books that we check out at the library
one at a time. Or read Bible stories from a Children's Bible and tell them real
live stories about how God blessed us during our lifetime. Read every night
before they have to go to bed. This helps them to unwind in a positive way and
gives them special bonding time together with us.
8.
Play their favorite games with them, even simple ones like "go fish"
or charades, or the old standard games like Marbles, Connect Four, Checkers,
Tic-Tac-Toe, Battleship, etc.
9.
Take a nature walk and collect leaves; then, glue them into a homemade book of
stapled sheets of scrap paper from work.
10.
Get a library book on clouds and then go outside and identify the different
clouds in the sky. Do this with star formations too. A fun future game is to recognize
the clouds and stars with them all through their lifetime.
11.
Go to the thrift store and give each child $3-$10 to pick out a toy, book,
etc. that tickles their fancy. We can play with the items with them when we get
home. We can give our teenagers more
money, and let them pick out their own clothes - this teaches them the value of
money.
12.
Have each child make a drawing about saving our water, or saving our
whales, or some other social issue that they are interested in, and hang them
on our refrigerator or enter them in area contests.
13.
Make age-appropriate craft kits together. We can purchase kits from Walmart,
Amazon, etc.
14.
Buy a set of dominoes with directions, and teach them how to play.
15.
Buy flash cards from Walmart and play "school" and teach them their numbers,
shapes, colors, addition and multiplication facts, etc.
16.
Teach them how to lace and tie their shoes. They will brag to everyone about
their sense of accomplishment over learning this skill.
17.
Take a free tour of a local factory, (we went to see them make and process milk,
ice cream, rice, coal, bologna, chocolate, etc.) Many factories love people to take tours.
18.
Have "play dates" and get together with church families with kids the
same age as our children, so we can get a bit of adult fellowship in, while we
supervise the children's games.
19.
Have a craft shelf where they can get crayons, water-proof markers, child-safe
scissors, glue, glitter pens, water color paint sets, construction paper, plain
typing/copier paper, stencils, ruler, etc. to use whenever the mood strikes
them.
20. You
get the idea...now start generating ideas of your own.
Prayer:
Father
God, thank You for stirring our imagination to give us ways to improve our
quality time focusing on our children during family times. Help us to
"catch our child being good" and compliment them, or give them a
special treat, or just snuggle a few moments on the couch to tell them how much
you appreciate their appropriate behavior. Give us ideas on how to turn chore-time
into play-time in order to enjoy each other's company.
Remind
us to take couple time too, after procuring the help of reliable, safe
childcare. We can even tag-team with each other in order to give one another
time to closet our self in the bedroom to play a video game, to take a long
soaking bath, to watch a sporting event on TV, or a Hallmark movie we want to
see, etc. Help us to be creative in these areas too.
Thought
for the Day:
Every
moment of positive, quality time we spend with our child will pay dividends of a
peaceful home together, and will also build special memories for all of us that
will last a lifetime.
