Category Archives: Parenting

International Sports Day

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According to my calendar, today is International Sport Day!

I have no idea what that really means. But, in a house full of boys, any reason to celebrate sports is taken advantage of.

So, we are making it the “Day of Sportsing.”

Our first sport is PVC Bowling. The rules are simple. Set pieces of leftover PVC pipe up like bowling pins and toss a ball at them. Squeals will ensue each time a pipe falls down.

Sport two is indoor soccer. The Champ and I will attempt to get a balloon past one another to score a point. At some point, the Champ will start using his hands and this will turn into more of a weird version of volleyball, until the balloon touches the popcorn ceiling and pops, scaring the dogs and ending our game.

Sport three is football. We take turns holding the foam football with our finger while the other one kicks it. At some point, the Champ will remove the football right before I kick, a la Lucy from Charlie Brown.

Sport four is baseball. We will take turns hitting a ball off of a tee. Mommy cannot catch, so she will miss every hit. Ethan will end up getting distracted by an interesting weed, ending the game entirely. Thus concludes the “Day of Sportsing.”

Comment on your favorite “Toddler Friendly Sports.”

Chores For Young Kids

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Start Them Young

Young kids love to help mom and dad. Take advantage of this. If your child can dump out a box of toys, he can place the toys back in the box. We started “cleaning up” with our son at 18 months of age. We started by helping him with most of his toys and gradually increased the number he was required to pick up.

Make Sure Chores are Age Appropriate

Young toddlers may only be able to sort their toys into baskets. Older toddlers can make their beds, put up their clothes, and dust low shelves. Older children can unload the dishwasher, run the vacuum cleaner, and take out the trash.

Show Your Kids What You Expect of Them

Provide clear instructions for your children and lead by example with a positive attitude. Written job descriptions and chore lists are great tools to use with any age child. For children who cannot read, make a list using pictures.

Find Joy in Your Work

Make chore time fun by turning your chores into games or having dance parties while doing your work. Spend time with your child by doing chores together. If your child sees you having fun cleaning, they will follow suit.

Reward A Job Well Done

Most importantly, make sure to reward a job well done, positive attitudes, and good work ethic. This does not have to be a physical rewards such as money or a treat. A simple “nice work” or “great attitude” will encourage good work in the future.

Bunnies, Chicks, and Jesus!

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Easter is this Sunday and our son, the Champ, is getting to the age where we have to be more sensitive about Christian holidays. We want him to understand that Easter is the celebration of Christ’s victory over death. But we want him to be able to have fun celebrating the holiday as well. Below are the ways we will incorporate non-religious Easter traditions with our preschooler.

Egg Hunts

I spoke earlier this week about Resurrection Eggs. I love using these as a visual teaching tool. I believe that we can allow our son to participate in egg hunts and open up the eggs to get candy “prizes.” However, I want to stress to him through the use of Resurrection Eggs that our real Easter prize is Jesus.

The Easter Bunny

I will not be going out of my way to avoid the Easter Bunny. He is everywhere this time of year. Instead, I will be explaining to my son that the Easter Bunny is just something fun that some people do at Easter time and is not what this holiday is about.

Chicks, Flowers, Eggs, and Other Non-Religious Easter Symbols

All of the other non-religious Easter symbols are simply Spring symbols. This is easy enough to explain as a Christian parent. When we see pictures of Easter eggs and chicks, I can remind my son that many birds lay eggs during the spring time. The same applies for flowers. Lambs are usually considered by society to be a “non-religious” Easter image, so I can discuss Jesus’s role as a sacrificial lamb.

Easter Baskets/Presents

We will still give our son a Easter basket. However, we will clearly explain that this is a present from us, not the big bunny. His present will also be a religious gift. This year we are giving him God Is with Me: 365 Daily Devos for Boys (VeggieTales).

How do you celebrate Easter with your young children?

Products I Love: Resurrection Eggs

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As a mom of a three year old boy, I appreciate anything that will help me explain the Bible in a real and tangible way. Easter is such a difficult concept for three year olds who do not have the attention span to listen to and comprehend the Easter story being read to them.

I purchased Resurrection Eggs because they claim that you can “See, Touch, and Hear the Story of Easter.”

The set comes with twelve eggs that each contain an item relating to the Easter story, a plastic container to store the eggs, a lesson booklet, and a sticker sheet. I was really impressed with the quality of the items.

The book contains twelve days of readings. Each day includes a Bible verse, a prompt for opening an egg, and a short devotional explaining the item inside the egg. The lesson takes less than five minutes to complete.

We started these 12 days before Easter. Each day we review the items we have already talked about, read the booklet, and then open a new egg.

We are on day number eight and I feel like he has really enjoyed them. While he does not have a full grasp of the story, as we review the items he remembers that “Jesus rode a donkey” and “Jesus prayed to God in the Garden.” For a three year old, I am very pleased with this.

I do recommend reading the booklet yourself before reading it to your child. Some parts of the story may need modifications to better fit your understanding of the Gospel. However, for the most part our family enjoyed the simplification of the story.

How do you celebrate and explain the Easter story to your young children?

*Please, note that I get a small fee from Amazon through the link above. However, I have purchased Resurrection Eggs and my family loves to use them to explain the Easter story.

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The Defiant Child

Parenting, Strategies Leave a comment

My three year old son, the Champ, is wild. Every morning he gets up around six thirty and he does not stop talking until eight o’clock in the evening. His brother is only three months old, so I am his only playmate. It is exhausting.

Over the last several months, he has become incredibly defiant. We have tried time-outs, rewards for good behavior, taking away toys, and spanking. Nothing seems to work.

One night, I decided to try something totally different. Before the Champ went to bed, I sent the rest of the family elsewhere and I got down on the floor with him and started to ask him about his day. We chatted for less than five minutes and when we were done I scooped him up, looked him directly in the eyes, and I told him that he was special to me.

After he went to sleep that night, I realized that I rarely take the time to listen to him. I talk to him all day long but I assume that because of his age, he does not have anything important to say.

Listening to my little boy talk about the “ice cream breathing dragons” in his room may have been a tad bit boring for my grown up mind, but it made him feel as if what he had to say was important.  It made a huge difference in his behavior the next day.

I won’t say that he was perfect, but it was a start.

How do you take the time to show your child that he is a valued part of the family?