Quotable Timeless Tuesdays: Honesty

Posted on February 22, 2011 by viviankirkfield

Image via Wikipedia

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. –Thomas Jefferson (1762-1826) 3^rd President of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence.

Yesterday was President’s Day. We honored two of our outstanding presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. One of the most famous stories connected with George Washington is the one about the cherry tree.

Honesty is the best policy. If I lose mine honor, I lose myself. – William Shakespeare, English playwright.

When asked by his father what happened, young George supposedly replied, “Father, I cannot tell a lie. It was I who chopped down the cherry tree.” Although researchers are pretty sure that the story of a young George Washington cutting down a cherry tree in his father’s orchard is false, the message behind it remains true, even today.

One of the hardest things in the world is to admit you are wrong. And nothing is more helpful in resolving a situation than its frank admission. – Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) British Prime Minister.

For me, however, it is really important to look at honesty as it relates to young children.

We must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy. – George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish playwright.

As parents, we want our children to be honest. We want them to come to us with their problems and concerns. If we ask them what happened or how they are feeling, we believe they should honestly communicate with us.

Pretty much all the honest truth-telling in the world is done by children. – Oliver Wendell Holmes.

I think children start out being entirely honest…they don’t know about evasiveness and lying. When does it start? How do they learn? Why do they lose that innocent openness they are born with?

We tell lies when we are afraid…afraid of what we don’t know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing that we fear grows stronger. – Tad Williams

We need to be good role models for our children when it comes to honesty. Equally important, we must encourage our children to come to us by being non-judgmental.

Does this mean we can allow our children to do as they please? NO, I don’t think we can!

Should we refrain from disciplining our children when they have misbehaved or acted inappropriately? NO, I don’t believe we should!

1. Children need rules…parents, please be consistent.

2. Children need to have consequences for their actions…parents, please be consistent.

3. Children need to learn responsibility…parents, please be consistent.

Please stop by tomorrow for WHAT’S IN YOUR CHILD’S BOOKCASE WORDY WEDNESDAY. I’ll recommend another picture book from SHOW ME HOW! BUILD YOUR CHILD’S SELF-ESTEEM THROUGH READING, CRAFTING AND COOKING. For the price of a couple of hot dogs and sodas at the ball game, you can own a copy of this unique resource that will help you build your child’s self-esteem and make planning fun craft and cooking activities a snap! Stop by my website and grab a copy at half-price!

Make-A-Meal Mondays: President’s Day Special

Posted on February 21, 2011 by viviankirkfield

Image via Wikipedia

Every four years, the citizens of the United States have the opportunity to choose a new president who will hopefully lead the country on an upward path of economic and social reform, while staying within the budget.

Every day, three times each day, moms (and sometimes dads) have the opportunity to choose a new dish to serve to their families that will hopefully provide good nutrition and good taste, while staying within the budget.

Hmmm…have you also seen the similarity between running the country and running a household? 🙂

It is true, though, that the responsibility of putting high quality, highly nutritious¸ good-tasting, affordable meals on the table is a heavy one. I thought that since today is President’s Day, I should offer up a recipe that includes CHERRIES as one of the ingredients.

Why cherries you might ask?

I’m sure most of you know the story of our first president, George Washington, and the incident with the cherry tree. As it was told when I was in school, young George went out into the garden with a new hatchet and chopped down a young cherry tree. When questioned by his father as to whether or not he did it, George replied, “I cannot tell a lie. It was I who chopped down the cherry tree.” His father, impressed with his young son’s honesty, did not punish him, but praised him for telling the truth.

Of course, the moral of the little tale is that we should always tell the truth…no matter what we have done or what the consequences of our actions might be. I know this is what we teach our children…and this week I’ll be examining the topic of honesty in many of my posts. And, if you are looking for any information or resources about President’s Day, hop over to Mirth and Motivation. The author of that blog is the consummate researcher…a great writer and funny to boot! And she is having a Mega-Blog Hop…if you join, you will meet a bunch of awesome bloggers!

But for now, I’d like to provide you with a recipe for lovely child-friendly fruit crisp…full of super foods…and with the option of using cherries (sometimes they are available only in season and can be quite expensive) or substituting other fruits.

CHILD-FRIENDLY COLORFUL FRUIT CRISP

You will need: 5 cups mixed fruit, washed and then sliced if necessary (peaches, plums, apricots, strawberries, blueberries, cherries, apples), ¼ cup white sugar, ¼ cup orange juice, 1 tsp lemon juice, 3 Tb flour (for the fruit), ¼ cup flour (for the topping), 2 cups rolled oats, ¼ cup brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, ¼ cup healthy margarine softened, a greased 9×13 inch pan, and 2 large bowls.

1. In a large bowl, gently toss fruit with white sugar, orange juice and lemon juice.

2. Sprinkle with 3 Tb flour, toss gently again and spread in the greased pan.

3. In another bowl, mix oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and the remaining flour.

4. Add the margarine and mix till crumbly.

5. Sprinkle crumbly mixture over fruit.

6. Bake 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees until fruit is tender and topping is golden brown.

7. Serve warm or at room temperature.

8. Store leftovers in a covered container in the fridge.

9. Serves about 12.

This recipe has so many super foods: oats, orange juice, lemon juice, cinnamon and all of the fruits…even though it is a dessert, you can rest easy giving it to your family because it is so high in nutrition and fiber while being fairly low in added sugar and fat. Plus, it is really simple to prepare…your young children will love to help with the measuring and mixing. It’s only one of the 100 easy-to-make child-friendly healthful recipes you’ll find in my new parenting book, on sale now for a limited time on my website for half price! Check it out…I think you’ll be glad you did…it takes the hassle out of planning activities with preschoolers.

I hope you’ll stop by tomorrow for Quotable Timeless Tuesdays…for an honest look at honesty.

Temper Tantrums: 3 Winning Solutions!

Posted on February 19, 2011 by viviankirkfield

Image by dschubba via Flickr

Whether it is weekly grocery shopping or a quick run out to grab a container of milk and a loaf of bread, if we take our preschoolers, there is always a possibility of a temper tantrum. WHAT! NOT MY CHILD! NO, NO, NOT EVER!…STAMPING MY FEET WITH STEAM COMING OUT OF MY EARS

Realistically speaking though, here are three easy discipline tricks that really work.

Make a game out of what must be done: Sing a silly song, make funny faces, say the ABC’s in a high/low voice. This works for things like buckling up the seat belt of the car seat (don’t all children hate that), leaving the toy store, putting on a jacket or hat.
Be matter-of-fact: Don’t ask, “Do you want to put on your jacket?” or “Shall we put that toy down because we are ready to leave?” Just say, “We are ready to leave and we are putting on our jackets.” (and maybe start singing a song about now we are putting our jackets on, jackets on, jackets on, etc.) Or, “It’s time to leave the store and put the toy back…which shelf are we putting it back on, the top shelf or the bottom shelf?” (always make sure that when you give your child a choice, BOTH choices will lead to the goal YOU have in mind)
Warn, distract, and then proceed with what needs to be done: Children like to know what the plan is…and they need to realize that what you say goes and that there is no discussion or negotiation. It helps, if possible, to give a warning. For example, when you need to leave the store, give your child a warning in a friendly upbeat tone of voice, “One more hug for mister bear and then we will put him back on his shelf and go and get a drink at the water fountain on our way to the car.” After the hug, help your child put the bear back, scoop him up, head towards the water fountain, singing a song about bears or water or whatever. Or, if you are at the library, you might say, “You can turn two more pages and then we will take our books to the librarian to check out so we can go home and read one of them. Again, scoop up your child (if there is any question he disagrees about your plan to leave), and head towards the library checkout. Let your child know you understand how he is feeling, “I bet you wish you could stay in the library all day, but it’s time to check out. You can hold the library card and give it to the librarian.”

One of the hardest things about dealing with preschoolers is that they are easily distracted and often cannot stick with one thing for very long. This distractibility is a blessing in disguise, however. No matter what they are involved in: looking at a book, playing with a toy, having a temper tantrum…they can almost always be distracted from it if your are able to turn their attention to something else. I am not really a very good singer, but when my children where little, I sang ALL the time…when I buttoned up their jackets, put them in the stroller, washed their hair. Silly songs, happy songs, high songs, low songs…it really worked! I can remember only one temper tantrum…one of my children (I won’t say which one) wanted a candy bar as we were checking out at the grocery store (don’t you LOVE how they put all those tempting sweets right at child-level?) and, being busy putting up the food on the counter and trying to watch the register read-out as the items were being scanned, I “ignored” my child’s rising whine of “I want a candy” and soon I had a 2-year-old laying flat on the floor, kicking his feet. Had I been paying attention and intervened at the start of this candy demand, I think I could have distracted him and avoided the temper tantrum altogether.

I posted this several months ago…but thought it might be a good companion post to the one I did yesterday that was devoted to shopping with preschoolers. I hope these three tips help smooth out those rough moments that will almost surely occur at one time or another. At home, having a plan and activities to do also helps a day with preschoolers run smoothly. Stop over at my website: www.positiveparentalparticipation.com and grab a copy of my new book that provides 100 simple craft projects and 100 easy recipes and 100 picture book summaries to help you fill your child’s days with fun-filled educational self-esteem building activities…on special now at half price!

Please stop by tomorrow for Cinema Sunday: My Picks of Great Flicks!