Must Read

So lately..well, since having Addy I've read one book. The final book in, "The Great and the Terrible" series. Before having her, I read about a book a week. Now, after going to that Conference up at BYU-I..I ordered two books on Amazon. I always read Fiction or church books..so these two were a stretch for me, BUT after the two parenting classes; I knew I had to get these books. They're from a series of books called, "Positive Discipline." I swear there's a book for every situation..whether you're a school teacher, grandparent...whatever..she's got a book for you. So I ordered, "Positive Discipline A-Z...1001 solutions to everyday parenting problems."(toddler-teen)..and then I got one for infant-3. The one was a penny used..the other 2.99 used! These books are amazing! Chris and I have been talking about how we want to raise and discipline our children, and after this class I shared my notes with him and it's exactly what we both want to strive for. Everybody watches other people's kids and how the parents handle them..etc. You observe what you do and don't want to do with your own. I know what I want to happen..but didn't really know how to do it. This book has every possible situation you can imagine that occurs with children, and several POSITIVE solutions you can try. But what I love the most is how she teaches you to listen, and understand life from a kid's point of view. Too often we tell kids what to do, how to feel, how to react etc. We jump right to grounding, time-out etc. In the class the teacher had us make a list of challenges that come with raising kids...complaining, whining, tattling, yelling, fighting etc...she had us cross out "challenges" and replace it with "teaching moments." Then she had us make a list of characteristics we want our kids to have...honest, optimistic, non-judgemental, listener..etc. She reminded us that in order to teach our children to be these things..we must be them first. Kids learn from observing our actions more than they do our words. We also must act what we teach. There's so much negative discipline in the world today, when children make mistakes, they're always so quickly disciplined when instead, these are opportunities to teach and for them to learn. I learned how Positive Discipline is a long-term effect.. and negative is only a quick fix. We're not only raising our children..but their future families as well. Anyway..the teacher raved about these books and how they changed their family. I have enjoyed it so far and can hopefully learn and implement it so I'm ready when these moments arise:)