One of the things I learned as a rookie teacher was the best way to deal with classroom discipline is to prevent it. One particularly valuable trick (although not profound) was simply to avoid your desk. Walking around while you teach and have your students work is one of those elegant and effective solutions to [...]

Filed under: Discipleship, Getting Along, Obedience

Last night I was relating the library incident to my husband. He thought that disciplining both for the offense of one was too harsh (and not a small deal as I had thought). So I asked him (a little smugly) what he would have done. His suggestion? Stay for the storytime, but make the offending [...]

Filed under: Introspection, Obedience

Generally speaking, I think consequences for children should be predictable. Children should know that getting too rowdy is asking for a time-out, saying something unkind to a sister means he has to think of something kind to say, and so on. Today, we were on our way to the library for storytime, and one of [...]

Filed under: Obedience

Today at lunch, David instructed Bethel in the art of “see-food.” She happily followed his example, even after I squelched his lessons. I suspected this was something David learned from a church potluck the night before, where all the children sit together. (I did not see any of this behavior, but I was close enough [...]

Filed under: Discipleship, Mealtime

Can I sum up my days? Obey mom. Be kind to your sister/ brother. Am I missing a zillion teachable moments? How can I apply Psalm 78 from this?

Filed under: Introspection