This morning we met another family at Lundeen Park. It has a play structure at one end and a small beach at the other. We started with the playstructure. Trevor and new friend Kaden raced up, raced down, slipped into each other, and laughed. Sterling sat on a blanket in the shade and tried to get his hands on nature. Miriam liked the wiggly slide.
At the beach, everyone waded in. In spite of hiking up shorts, children got wet up to their waists. Miriam was enraptured with the ducks under the dock. No one wanted to go. We had more run aways than I could carry. I informed a certain four year old that if he ran away again, he would get a five minute time out as soon sas we got home. He ran anyway. Thanks to Nicole's help, we all made it back to our van. Trevor was sobbing. Miriam again amazed me with her nurturing instincts (a.k.a. divine nature) by finding a package of pocket tissues, pulling one out announcing, "This is for Twevuh. He's cwying."I cheerfully administered the time-out. Why am I happy? A month ago we tackled the hitting problem in our family . . . and after a week it was nearly gone, and has stayed that way. Now that I feel we have successfully finished replacing that habit, I think we can move on to our next worst behavior problem of running away. Cory, I propose that if children run away while we are at the park, library, or church, upon getting home we promptly give time outs: 1 minute for Miriam 5 minutes for Trevor, 10 minutes for Kaith (as if he would). I am optimistic that good change can soon occur.
This afternoon I hope to help with cutting workbooks, put away laundry, make dinner, and offer wading pool time.
2 comments:
great pictures. Hope the time-outs help. I chuckled at "10 minutes for Kaith". I can't imagine him running away. He loves to be around grown-ups. Plus, I've seen him run.
Well, that was his consequence for hitting, so it seemed consistent.
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