February 21st Meeting

This week we were privileged to hear words of wisdom (and wit) from our dearly appreciated Mentor Moms! Our Mentor Mom panel took questions from you and shared their thoughts, mistakes, and successes when it comes to being a mom. Here are the cliff notes...

How to incorporate faith on a daily basis:
- Enjoy creation
- Breakfast bible reading
- Car time
- Pray together
- Be real with them

Chores:
- Don't make it more important than it is
- "Family Fifteen" 15 minutes of cleaning as a family at night
- Make it into a game
- Show them how one-on-one

Clutter:
-BASKETS

Book recommendations:
-Parenting by the Book
-The Five Love Languages (Chapman)
-The Power of a Praying Parent (Omartian)
-The Power of a Praying Wife (Omartian)
-Grace Based Parenting (Kimmel)
-Do You Know Who I Am? (Thompson)

Teaching kids to share:
-Spend time individually with them
-Transforming the Difficult Child by Howard Glasser
-Catch them doing something GOOD and praise them
-They don't have to share everything
-Don't use idle threats. Follow through on what you say.
-Don't bring it up again once it's dealt with.

Stopping wining:
-Tell them you don't understand wining
-The Wining Chair, where you sit until you are done wining

Tantrums/tantrums in public:
-Say what you mean and follow through
-Hug it out
-Have a daily quiet time, alone and quiet

Transition to school:
-go to school before the first day
-talk about it; role-play
-role-model bravery
-give little ones chances to play apart from mom, like in MOPPETS or church nursery

Picky eaters:
-Remember that every child is different, and so is every parent!
-Sometimes it's just a stage
-It's okay if they skip a meal once in a while
-Pick your battles
-Be consistent

Praise God for our dedicated Mentor Moms!