THANKSGIVING THEME NIGHT

Tomorrow Night at Awana Clubs, clubbers get extra points for dressing up as pilgrims, native Americans, turkeys etc. so get creative and have fun with it!  Grab a belt and wrap it around a brimmed hat, roll your pant legs with long socks and dress shoes.  Stick some feathers in your hair and put some face paint on.  You get the idea!

Let’s celebrate Thanksgiving and the end of the Pop-Out!

The Gratefulness Principle

Gratitude increases closeness in relationships. As you parent your children, look for opportunities to take advantage of gratefulness to draw closer to your kids. Give your children small gifts of love day after day. Be careful, though, that you don’t confuse the gratefulness principle with the overindulgence trap.

Some parents, wanting their children to like them, recognize giving gifts opens the heart, so they overdo it by giving them too many things. Giving to your kids must be tied into relationship, or the gifts feed selfishness instead of gratefulness.
Overindulgence is giving your children more than their character can handle. When children lack gratitude, then the more you give them, the less they appreciate. Parents must restrain themselves or they’ll exceed their children’s ability to manage the blessings.

Overindulged children rarely become grateful when you give them more things. They grow to be more demanding and selfish. Parents then feel unappreciated and become resentful. The hearts of both parents and children harden toward each other, and closeness becomes a thing of the past.

If your children become overindulged rather than grateful, then pull back on the area where you’re giving too much. Look for creative ways to give differently to your child. Teaching the heart gratefulness can be a challenge. Having a child say thank you is just behavior. Gratefulness comes from the heart.

Monitor your child’s response to gifts of love to determine if you’re growing gratitude or overindulgence. As gratefulness increases, you can slowly give blessings in a way that will produce more gratefulness. You’ll know if you’re moving too quickly by your child’s response.

This parenting tip comes from the book Parenting is Heart Work by Dr Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller, RN, BSN.

Twin/Triplet Theme Night at Awana Clubs TONIGHT!

It's TWIN/TRIPLET NIGHT at Awana Clubs!

Get together with one or two of your friends and dress the same for extra points tonight.

Matching a friend will count as a uniform tonight so uniforms are optional.

Uniforms do not count as matching clothes, however.  (It's NOT clone night.)

:-D

POP-OUT FOR BGMC CONTINUES!

2 WEEKS DOWN!  ONLY 1 MORE TO GO 

BEFORE THANKSGIVING AND YOUR SODA REWARD!!  

HANG IN THERE, KIDS!  

YOU'RE DOING GREAT!

Teach Children to Take a Break

When you begin to see a bad attitude or hear that manipulative whining voice, have your child take a Break. With young children, as young as two or three years old, have them sit in a particular place, a chair, a carpet square, the hallway, or a bottom step. For older children, you might send them to the parent's room or to another quiet place.

We believe that the Break is much more helpful than Time Out. The instructions given are simple and clear. "You need to go take a Break. Come back and see me when you've calmed down and are ready to talk about this nicely." Two differences are important. The child knows that the objective in taking a Break is a changed heart and also the child helps determine the length of time spent in the break place, coming back only when ready for a debriefing.

These two differences between Time Out and the Break change the posture of the parent. With Time Out, the parent is the policeman, keeping the child in the chair until the sentence for misbehavior has been served. With the Break, the parent is eagerly waiting for the child to return so that they can debrief and more forward.

The Break helps parents address heart issues with children and can become a primary discipline technique. It actually comes from the Bible in the teaching about discipline in God's family, the Church (Matthew 18, 1 Corinthians 5, and 2 Corinthians 2). The idea is basically this: If you can't abide by the principles that make this family work, then you can't enjoy the benefits of family life. The two go hand in hand.

For more information about how to implement the Break in your family, see the chapter about four steps of correction in the book, Good and Angry, Exchanging Frustration for Character in You and Your Kids, by Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller, RN, BSN.