So my initial idea was to paint railway ties but my budding artist has inspired more creativity! Together we have created a fun art scape for the train set while we wait to go outside again!
Moving on from colour codes, we are learning the names of notes, so I've kept both stickers on for now.
This way Boo can look at the charts that came with some toys and my song charts too! There is nothing "just a mom" about it and yet I said it! I was attending a women's networking event on top of it! More to come, someone's crawling over me...
At one time I became intrigued by secular sayings such as
“You can never spoil a baby”. As my child began to strive for independence I searched the bible for insight and found “train up a child in their youth and when they are older they will not depart from it”. As I pondered ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’ I felt utterly uncomfortable with the literal sense. When my child’s inevitable search for independence began I knew I had to let go of the thought that you can never spoil a baby. we found a happy, gentle, sweet child testing boundaries and challenging safety. In came my quest for the appropriate forms of discipline. I tested time outs and taps on the but with rules never to discipline in anger, always in consideration of the future consequences. I was horrified that biblically, not to discipline a child is to lead to a child’s future demise. However, it simply stepped-up to a too frequent answer and was not the solution. Enter “A soft and gentle answer turns away wrath”. This was brought to me in the form of scripture by two moms on two occasions. I couldn’t find a way to apply it yet. I was and am so head over heels in love with my child. I shower my child with love to the fullest of my capacity hoping my child recognizes agape love. I was however raised with love and stern discipline and though I would distance myself as much as I could and watch attentively the various mommy discipline methods, I could not find a solution. It was such a grown up concept, the gentle answer, a lesson in diplomacy with reasonable peers, not suitable for a child too young for reason. “Do not anger your children.” was pointed out to me. It was buffered by scripture on the other side of the road “Do not anger your parents” (which only serves to create a sense of entitlement in a parent). Do not anger your children reminds us of our own behaviour. With this scripture I was armed with a desire not to anger/frustrate my children yet I was still helpless to change. “A kindler gentler daycare.” This wording caught my attention in the context of a secular childcare advertisement. Now I had the banner or mantra I was in need of. I knew I had to use a childcare workers methods, focus on keeping my child’s attention before or at the first signs of frustration from either of us. We are after all only watching God’s children. So we are not the ones to wield the rod of discipline. If she could watch children a softer way, then it was possible for a parent also. I don’t know why this was the phrase to change me. I was infused with the ability to get down to my child’s level and make more eye contact, connect and avert, see early pre-capricious symptoms and stop whatever I am doing and invest the time before the frustration levels overload. And I focus on structure.. I try to improve our schedules and commitments and incorporate more structure into our days.. I just don't know that the word discipline translates well so I focus on structure. I shouldn't even try to quantify whatever has happened with examples because it is a sure-fire way of making it untrue. It is simply the mantra that I feel works for me and that changed me. In addition to Jesus, I have a fictional role model in mind, an unsuspecting mentor in that child care provider's advert. I regained my unconditional love and affection for my child, which has overshadowed our frustration. I more naturally pause when frustration levels rise, ask God for advice and intervention and trust God that my child will grow up well. I just thank the moms and friends who've prayed me through this so far and I in turn pray for all moms/dads/caretakers struggling with the discernment of how to raise God's children. As a bookmark, I plan to further study the meaning of discipline as I encountered in bible translations, but it seems to mean instruction in the context of children. A link I intend to read further: http://www.bibleanswerstand.org/discipline.htm |
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