Molding young minds

Kids pick up things so quickly! This can be beneficial and also detrimental depending on what they are picking up. We have gone through many trials and error with the kids especially when it comes to what they view. They do not watch regular programmed shows on television. They have only watched videos that we chose for them to view. Early on we thought we would stick to Disney movies (Cinderella, Snow White, Little Mermaid....etc) We soon discovered that although they may be 'clean' viewing material, that doesn't necessarily mean it is 'good' viewing material. We found the kids (especially our daughter at the time) would really start misbehaving. I got to thinking about the movies and soon realized that Ariel in the Little Mermaid is a very disobedient child always getting herself in trouble. Snow White and Cinderella have evil women in authoritative positions and none of these videos had a whole functioning family (mother and father together). So we moved on....for a time we had no television whatsoever and things seemed to improve. We gradually added tamer videos (why did we ruin a good thing?? I don't know) such as Little Bear and Max & Ruby. Well again, we saw behaviour not fitting our home. Max & Ruby are 2 rabbits, brother and sister, what could be harmful? ... She bosses her little brother around constantly telling him what to do and not to do. We then observed this behaviour from our children. So again....back to no television. We've even cut out all the Bible story videos we would get from the library because I truly believe that kids get used to all the animation and colorful viewing, then when it comes time to sit still for school....they get cranky and bored because their minds want the excitement and dazzle these images provide.

One example that I can give is in our Math studies this year. It is her toughest subject and it is hard to get her excited and motivated about doing math work. Towards the end of the year she put forth very little effort and would get sloppy in her work to where she got way too many questions wrong on a sheet. She told me math was not fun. I found a math game on the computer and right away she took to it getting correct answers and building excitement. Yes, games can make a subject fun and interesting, but there is a problem when there is an attitude change just because it becomes more 'fun'. We need to train our kids at a young age to just be able to sit and settle their minds and do quiet activities instead of always needing to have excitement to accomplish things. They need to have appropriate behaviour and attitude when it comes time to doing things that are not pleasurable in their minds.

This is what we are tackling presently amongst so many other character qualities like sharing, compassion, immediate obedience with the right attitude...... :)

Who said parenting was easy right ?!