Sunday, December 13, 2009

Quiet Time

Have you ever tried to have a phone call only for your kids to get super extra loud that you no longer can talk on the phone anymore? Have you been at the doctors office needing to talk to the doctor all the while your children are running around the office? Have you been out to a restaurant and the kids are finished their meals but you are only half way through yours? Won't it be great if you had a mute button on your child that you could push in these moments? Well you do! You just have to do some training!!!

Here are some ideas that we have used at home to practice "Quiet Time":
* First we talk about what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:1-7 -- mainly just this part "For everything there is a season...a time to be quiet and a time to speak..."

* I came up with this great idea today when I was creating my scrapbook page for "Quiet Time". I came across some stickers of a frog on a lily pad and another frog not on a lily pad. We have some circled mats that the kids love to play with and so today I called them their lily pads. We talked about how the one frog was sitting nice and quiet on his lily pad playing with his toys while the other frog wasn't sitting on his lily pad and wasn't showing mommy frog quiet time. So to practice, I gave each kid their "lily pad" and a small plastic basket of quiet toys (SuperTarget has some great things in their dollar section near the front of the store!). I set the timer for 5 minutes and the kids were to sit on their lily pads while showing mommy how they could sit there quietly playing with their toys. They did a great job! As we continue with our training, I'll increase the time so the kids will be use to sitting and playing quiet with their toys in those times mommy needs them to be quiet. This is the same idea as "blanket time" that GKGW shares.

* Another training opportunity actually comes at dinner time when the family is eating dinner together. Typically the kids have finished before mommy and daddy and ask to be excused. Instead of excusing them, it would be wise to train them to sit and play quietly at the table until everyone is finished (remember eating out a restaurants and then start to panic since you haven't finished your meal and now your child wants to run around the restaurant?!) Train first at home and your meals out will be more enjoyable! For our training, I have set up a couple of totes filled with quiet toys the kids can bring with them to the dinner table after they are finished with their meals. I do have them clear their dishes first so the toys don't get messy. (You can also do the same thing for couch time -- have some special quiet toys just for couch time that your kids will play with -- again teaching the concept of quiet time!)

* The other "Quiet Time" training we do is "Quiet and Still" where during the day if the children need to be sent to their room because of bad behavior, I want them to sit there quiet and still untill they are ready to behave (which we also are working towards time for reflection of "Repentance, Forgiveness, and Restoration"....you can't reflect if you haven't been trained to sit quiet and still). For our training time I have stools the kids sit on and they are to fold their hands and sit quiet and still for a set amount of time. We started our training at 1 minute, then have worked our way up to 3 minutes, then 5 minutes. I have to say, when I first heard of a friend doing this it sounded horrible to make your kids sit there for a set amount of time. But I have to say, my kids LOVE all the training sessions and there is no struggle to comply to our training sessions, including sitting quiet and still. Even my 2 year old sits quiet and still folding her hands! Again, this is why it is important for you to go through the GKGW program so you can understand the theory and principals behind why it is important to teach your child to sit quiet and still.

2 comments:

  1. Ugh, I have a phone conversation almost every day that gets "paused" b/c I have to remind 1 or more of the girls to shush--I'm on the phone! I thought I had taught them how to behave, but obviously it's not doing the trick :)
    Thanks so much for this :) I'm reminded once again that I need to finish my GKGW DVD's--Dan bought them for me last Christmas, and I've not watched them all yet. Need to continue, and put it into practice while the kids are still young and trainable!!!!

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  2. Yeah, I was on the phone in the car asking my Brother-in-law a question about why my washer fluid wasn't working. Of course as soon as I started talking the kids started getting louder and louder and louder. I had to pause to tell them to be quite and of course they were for like two seconds and the proceeded to be loud again. I was getting so frustrated with them. As soon as I was off the phone - I turned to them and told them they needed to be quiet and still (something we had been practicing in our training time) and immediately they folded their hands and were quiet. Now if I only would have thought about that earlier when I was on the phone!

    I also have really enjoyed the Mom's Notes. They are having a Christmas Sale and the CD's are $30 a volume. You'll have to call and order if you are wanting that price. They really have provided a lot more specifics on how and what to do. They have really helped me out a lot!

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