From: Krista Sent: Monday, October 18 To: floridabestmom@att.net Subject: FW: Where can I find the Tape for "From Combat
Zone to
Love at Home"?
Dear
Debbie,
I am a
homeschooling mom of 7 wonderful children, 2 girls and 5 boys. As you
can imagine our house is quite busy. The girls are 1 yr and 14 yrs with
the boys all in the middle.
I found
your book in a box of books that was given to me and have just now had a
chance to read it! I jumped on the computer and managed to locate you.
What I am wondering is, How do I go about getting on of your seminar tapes on
this topic? Most sites offering your book are offering the
tape free with the book purchase but since I already have the book...
Anyway, I can't pay much for it so I'm hoping it's not too expensive but I
would really like to have the tape.
I
plan to incorporate your happy face system ASAP and I can't wait to see what
the quarantine does to my 14 yr old! :)
Thank
you for taking your time to write this book and thanks also, for taking the
time to read this note. I know you are busy.
Blessings,
Krista
Product
Reviews
February
2000
This is where we
will review different products and give you a glimpse into some of the
wonderful resources available to homeschoolers.
Lorrie
Flem, Editor of TEACH Magazine, is our reviewer for this month. You may
contact her at 18016 West Spring Lake Drive, Renton, WA 98058, or
teachhsnews@juno.com.
We won't waste our time or
yours by reviewing products that rate less than "Super".
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Superior
Super
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NATIONAL PARENTING AUDIO
FREE CD ROM OF
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mp3 audio clips and Combatmom.mpg
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Chore and
Behavior Systems
"Lost,
yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden
hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered,
for they are gone forever."
Horace Mann
This issue we are
covering an area dear to my heart. I have long
been engrossed in
trying to find the perfect chore and behavior
system for my family to
use. This illusive system must be easy to
implement, inexpensive,
appealing to mother and children, and of
course, effective. Here
are my favorites.
This 72-page book
explains how to implement what is called "The Happy Face Token
System."
Two different
sources recently have caused me to re-evaluate our
thinking about
rewarding children for doing "what they're supposed
to do anyway."
One was evangelical
pastor and author John Piper, who musters up
some pretty strong
theological arguments that God wants us to serve
Him with His rewards in
view, not try to ignore His rewards and just
serve Him because it's
right to do so. He cites many, many Scriptures,
but to mention just
one, "He who comes to God must believe that He
is, and that He is a
rewarder of those who diligently seek Him"
Hebrews 11:6.
If we are to take
the Lord God as our model in raising children,
then the implication is
that we should also provide appropriate
rewards. I have never
wanted to "bribe" our children into compliance,
so I found the
following excerpt from Debbie Preece's book very
interesting: She notes
that: ". . . according to Webster's Dictionary
a bribe is: 'Anything
especially money-given or promised to induce
a person to do
something illegal or wrong.' . . . Webster's defines
a blessing as, 'The
gift of divine favor. Anything that gives
happiness or prevents
misfortune.' Is it possible that you are the
instrument by which God
has provided a way for your children to be
the best they can be?
Yes. Therefore, it's okay to provide blessings
for them when they do
good."
A reward is:
"Something given in return for good. . . . Given in
recompense for a good
deed . . . instead of bribing our children to
do what we want them to
do, we will bless and reward them in
righteousness."
It is important to
note, lest anyone be concerned that a reward
system would have the
effect of causing parents to "wink at sin,"
this system also
mandates the loss of rewards (tokens) for
disobedience or failing
to fulfill responsibilities.
This book is packed
with fun ideas like "The Slothful Servant
Quarantine," as
well as practical charts and ideas. The production
is not the most
professional but still very useable.
Dating is referred
to as an assumption that your family will be
participating in it. If
you lean toward courting as we do this part
and the "Law of
Chastity" will not be applicable.
Altogether a very
valuable resource to aid you in child training
and setting up and
enforcing chores.
RATING:
The Job and
Pick a Privilege Jars
This system has
been highly effective in our home. Two plastic jars and plastic disks are all
the equipment you need. You choose from
the provided stickers
listing rewards and non-routine mini-jobs.
When the children need
a reminder to be more responsible they choose
from the jar which has
little jobs. This frees me from thinking of
off-the-cuff
appropriate punishments. When there is not direct
disobedience so a
spanking is not required we have a jar of
consequences. This
includes things like washing switch plates and
dusting picture frames
which may otherwise not get done.
The children are
very motivated by and enjoy drawing from the other
little jar to see what
their reward for good behavior will be. These
are things like a visit
to the pet store next time we are out or
picking the next
dessert.
Once you think
through which stickers you want to utilize and put
them on the disks it is
very easy to use.
Available from
Family Tools at (888) 384-7347 for $6.95 each.
RATING:
Managers of
Their Homes: A Practical Guide to
Daily Scheduling for
Christian Homeschool Families
When I asked Teri
why they were writing this book, she said, "our goal . . . is to help
free mothers from any burden of discouragement
they carry when they
can't keep up with the demands on their time."
Well, they have reached
their goal!
For our family a
schedule is mandatory in order to accomplish
anything. This is a
necessity for my sanity! With no schedule to
follow, the days just
melt away with me simply trying to mop up the
messes and have some
semblance of dinner ready before Daddy gets home.
By following our
own family's custom schedule we have a vision for
how it is possible to
accomplish certain things that we need to do
each day. Furthermore,
with our schedule we are able to successfully
finish more than ever
before, so it is not just our basic needs that
we finish. With a plan
we are able to enjoy some of the before-only-dreamt-of things, like quilting
and putting together TEACH!
The beauty of this
system has been the ease of setting it up.
Someone who has never
worked out a schedule before will find it so
easy with this book
that they will wonder what all the fuss over
scheduling drudgery is
about. You are lead through it so gently and in such small, easy to swallow
steps (just the way we should train
our children!) that it just seems to effortlessly come
together. But don't
deceive yourself into thinking that this is
only for the
inexperienced "scheduler." I have put together many
schedules over the
years, yet with this book and kit I was
astonished at how
effortless it was. If I became a little over-whelmed I put it away for a
while. With this it was fun -- like one
big puzzle.
The book is a
treasure chest of "golden" ideas. If you haven't
already been convicted
and convinced about your family's need for
a schedule the first
chapter will really speak to you. If, on the
other hand, you are
just having trouble working your schedule out,
the chapter on
"Challenges" will be a tremendous boost. This
chapter reminds me of
the charts that come with appliances: "If
your dryer is . . . try
this."
Step-by-step
instructions and an interactive scheduling kit for
making your own
personalized family schedule that includes all the
family members, come
packaged together. I have read more organizational
books than you can
shake a stick at, as my Great Grandma would say.
This one is
tailor-made for homeschoolers and will be invaluable to you!
Available from TEACHing
Tools for $25 --
18016 West Spring Lake
Drive, Renton WA 98058
RATING:
Kids Biz:
The Wiggle-Proof Job Organizer
by Cheri Ellison and Debbie
Hope
This program is
designed to help children learn basic life skills by transferring
responsibility from parent to child. Children agree
to a written outline
detailing their responsibilities and as a result
of how this is carried
out, rewards and consequences. Learning these
crucial skills through
repetition is the key to this or any system.
How many of us would
continue to speed if we got a ticket every
time we exceeded the
speed limit?
This is not just a
chore system. With Kids Biz you will also be
teaching money
management, goal setting, and family rules. Here you
get a fun program with
the necessary structure. The Game Plan book
is 84 pages of valuable
advice. The spiral-bound planner is a chore
chart which you can
fill out weekly with each of your children.
Herein lies my quibble,
$20 for each of my children each year? If
they had a master sheet
available for purchase then those of us
with larger families
would be able to use this too!
The one year
planner is $19.95 (one needed for each child), Game
Plan book is $10. Call
for s/h prices and to order. 1-800-735-3378.
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AND SPONSORSHIP INFORMATION is available by writing ads@heartofhome.com.
Heart
of Home does not assume responsibility for advice given. All
advice should be weighed against your own circumstances and the Lord's
leading. Views expressed by writers appearing in Heart
of Home do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of the
publisher.
FREE
mp3 audio clips and Combatmom.mpg