SHOUT OUT--A GREAT WAY TO RIDE

We had our first PEACEMAKING COUNCIL today in an effort to help the kids get along for the long summer break. (This idea was inspired by a Smart Mama blog post.) We only talked about one thing--being positive. I'm really glad the kids were in the mood to participate at this meeting because Jordan helped us remember that negative is the opposite of positive and its really cold if its a negative temperature. We went with that theme and talked about saying warm things to each other and having warm actions like hugging, high fives, pats on the back etc. We hopped in the car and I had a flash of inspiration to do a few "shout outs." "Lets give a shout out for Alex for doing his reading lesson today." The kids really got into the "hoorays" and came up with some of their own shout outs including, "lets give a shout out for mom for being a good mom today." (Yes being a good mom is a little unusual for me.) All the kids got at least one shout out and we (for once in this entire month) had a car ride without any fighting. You know, I get easily distracted and sometimes live as if the kids are holding me back. I say things like, "I'll help you just as soon as . . ." and "maybe we'll do that later." My best days though are the ones when I'm focusing first on helping them grow and learn good things. In the long run it will be these 4 little people that will be my greatest reward and not my endless list of great projects.