Consequences to Try

Disciplining our children takes dedication and effort. It also helps to mix in a little creativity when needed. The consequences below from parenting expert, Lisa Welchel, might seem a little strong, but let them inspire you to come up with your own, and pair them with the 7 Steps to Tried and True Discipline.

1. If time-outs don't work, try a "time-in." This can be accomplished by sending your child to a designated spot where he must complete a task that has a definite beginning and end. This could be putting together a small puzzle, stringing 50 beads on a piece of yarn, or tracing the alphabet. A time-in diverts his energies and encourages him to focus on something positive.

2. Timers set definite boundaries. For example, with a timer, you can say, "I'm setting the timer. I want your room cleaned (or your shoes on, or the dishes unloaded) in 15 minutes. If you haven't finished by then, your correction is…." This method not only spurs on easily distracted children, but it also leaves little room for arguing about a job that isn't finished and whether the correction is warranted.

3. Make a homemade "Correction" can and fill it with tickets or slips of paper with various consequences written on them. Instead of giving your child a time-out, send her to the can for a slip. A few ideas might include no TV or computer for a night, early bedtime, or an extra chore. Toss in a blank piece of paper, a "mercy" ticket. This gives you an opportunity to talk about how God gives us mercy even when we deserve punishment.

4. If you repeatedly open the door to your child's room only to catch him in an act of disobedience, take your child's bedroom door off the hinges. It sounds harder to do than it actually is. And it works wonders!

5. Adjust bedtimes according to your children's behavior that day. For each infraction, they must go to bed five minutes earlier, but if they've been good, they can earn the right to stay up an extra five minutes.

6. An especially tough but effective correction for teenagers who forget to wear their seat belts is to add an additional day past their sixteenth birthday before they can take their driver's test. Hey, it's important!

7. If you have dawdlers, try this: Whoever is last to the table at dinnertime becomes the server. But there's a catch. Even if you're first, your hands must be clean, of you'll end up serving the food, pouring the drinks, and fetching the condiments (after washing your hands, of course!).

8. If your children are constantly turning in sloppy schoolwork, get a few photocopied pages of printing or cursive exercises. (These can be found at any teachers supply store.) Then ask your haphazard child this: "What takes longer: a report done neatly in 15 minutes or one you've sped through in 10 that must be redone and warrants a page of handwriting practice?"

9. You've heard the reprimand "Hold your tongue!" Make your child do it-literally. Have her stick out her tongue and hold it between two fingers. This is an especially effective correction for public outbursts.

10. My friend, Becki, tried a variation on this idea in the car. If things got too raucous or there was too much fussing between siblings, she would cry, "Noses on knees!" Her children then had to immediately touch their noses to their knees until she determined that they had learned their lesson.

11. Next time your child "forgets" to put something away, like video games or sports equipment, put it away for him. When he asks where it is, tell him that he'll just have to look for it. Believe me; he will learn that it's a lot more trouble to find something that Mom has hidden than it is to put it away in the first place.

12. If you have younger children who are messy, try this: Put their toys in a "rainy day" box to bring out later. This has the added benefit of making an old toy seem new again. Or set the toy somewhere out of reach but within sight for a predetermined number of days. This increases the impact of the correction by keeping the forbidden toy fresh in their minds.

13. I heard from a mom who had tired of her three sons' ceaseless noises and sound effects—so she got creative. If her boys did not take their commotion outside, she would make them sit down and listen to the "Barney" theme song cassette for 10 minutes. For adolescent boys, it's torture!

14. If your little one gets too hyper, come up with a code word to remind him to stop the action without embarrassing him. Whenever Tucker started getting too rowdy in a group, I would yell, "Hey, Batman." He knew that he needed to calm down before I had to take more drastic measures.

15. Does your child slam the door when she's angry? You might tell her, "It's obvious that you don't know how to close a door properly. To learn, you will open and close this door, calmly and completely, 100 times."

16. If your child likes to stomp off to his room or stomp around in anger, send him outside to the driveway and tell him to stomp his feet for one minute. He'll be ready to quit after about 15 seconds, but make him stomp even harder.

17. The same goes for throwing fits. Tell your child to go to her room to continue her fit. She isn't allowed to come out and she has to keep crying for 10 minutes. Ten minutes is an awfully long time, and it's no fun if your parents tell you to cry.

18. Another way to handle temper tantrums is to simply say, "That is too disruptive for this house. You may continue your fit in the backyard. When you're finished, you are welcome to come back inside." When there isn't an audience, the thrill of throwing a temper tantrum is gone.

19. If a job is not done diligently, have your child practice doing it. She'll learn to be more thorough if she's made to sweep the floor three or four times because her first effort wasn't good enough.

20. When one of my children is acting disrespectful, disobedient, or defiant, I will instruct him or her to choose a chore from the Job Jar. The jobs include scrubbing the toilet, organizing the pots and pans, moving and vacuuming underneath the furniture, weeding the garden, matching up odd socks, defrosting the refrigerator, and cleaning the closet, garage, or under the bed. And those are just a few possibilities. You could add ironing, vacuuming the refrigerator coils, scrubbing the inside of small wastebaskets, polishing the silver, cleaning the window wells, brushing the animals, cleaning the fireplace, shaking the kitchen rugs, vacuuming the couch, alphabetizing the spices, and using wood cleaner on the dining room chairs. Not only does the Job Jar help to get my house clean, but it also keeps my little ones from complaining that they're bored. They know that with the Job Jar, Mom will always have an antidote for boredom.

21. I have a friend whose son's morning chore was to get the pooper-scooper and clean up the doggie gifts littering the backyard. The boy was not doing this job with much diligence, so his father came up with this creative solution: After the boy had completed the task, he would be required to run through the yard barefoot! From then on, their lawn was perfectly clean.

Taken from Creative Correction by Lisa Whelchel.

Cardboard Creation

Well, the weather went from warm and wonderful, to windy and chilly. So the kids had to play inside today. To be honest, they were driving me nuts, and I knew it was just that they were sick of their indoor toys.

Looking around the house for something new and fun, I came across the box of broken down boxes in Evan's closet. I googled cardboard kid's crafts, and there were so many ideas. Jess wanted to build a ship so she could travel the ocean.

Here is how the ship turned out....

1st I had to cut the base box (the biggest one we had).

I then taped parts into place.

Next I cut and stacked boxes ontop of the base box, and in front of it, till it looked like a ship!

Finally we added the flag and the kids have been playing in this boat for hours!

Weekly Menu Board

This is the post I have looked forward to for weeks! The idea of a menu board was 100% Pinterest inspired. But I wasn't able to find one that fit the space I had. So I sort of combined a few ideas into this board. I cannot wait to plan out our meals for next week this Sunday as I coupon!!!!!

It has taken me weeks to complete it, but don't get scared away, I didn't just work on this board. If I had, it probably would have taken me 2 days. So here is the step-by-step process.









First, I took the chalkboard I already had. (Plain and ugly...I know.)

Next I took stickers to make out the words "Menu" and "Shopping" and sealed them with Mod Podge. This way I can wipe the board clean with a wet rag since it is in my kitchen.  I also painted the trim a green color.

As the painted trim was drying, I took 5 wooden clothes pins and painted them with nail polishes.

As those dried, I took an empty bandaid box and trimmed it to the size I wanted.

I then covered the bandaid box.

After the clothes pins were dry, I used my hotglue gun and attached the pins where I wanted them. I only used 5, because we usually end up eating out 1 day on the weekend and eat at my in-laws the other day of the weekend. So I tend to not plan on cooking on weekends.

Next, I decided to print up the most common meals in our house with all of the ingredients need to make the meal on the back of the card. This way, when I make out my shopping list I will know all the ingredients I need to buy.
After they printed, I lamenated them so I would be able to wipe off anything that would get on them.

Finally, I assembled my board with the menu card holder, a pad of paper, and a sharpie holder (made out of ribbon). I used velcro to attach the pad of paper and card holder, and hot glue to attach the pen holder.

And my menu board was complete!

Recycled Scrap Paper Box

I love taking things that I would normall throw away and make something neat out of it.

This was super easy to make and looks adorable on my desk. Also, where I normally have scrap paper laying around all over, I now have a place for it all.


Take an empty box the size you want your holder to be. (I took an empty sweetener box.)
Cut the box to the height you want.

Cover the box with whatever design you like. (I have been dying to use this pink paper.) I then sealed the box to keep it looking nice in the future. Let dry, and your box is complete!

Lemon Cubes

This was so easy I'm not sure why I haven't done it sooner!

I love drinking water with lemon. However, I hate warm water. Soooo....genius idea here.....

1. Take a muffin pan and add a slice of lemon (however thick you want it) in the bottom of each muffin spot.
2. Pour water over each slice to the top of the muffin spot.
3. Freeze
4. Add cube to drinking glass
5. Ta-da! 

Bead Bowl

Another Pinterest-inspired project.

This was super fun to make with Jessica. 

PLEASE make sure a grown-up does any part that requires the oven!!!!!!!!!

First, gather all of your supplies. You will need the following:

Meltable beads

Oven saft bowl or dish

Cooking spray

Timer

Spray your bowl with cooking spray

Pour in your beads (Jessica's favorite part)

Press beads so the sides are a single layer

Bake in 400 degree oven for 10-20 minutes (until beads are melted)

LET A GROWN-UP DO THIS

Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes

LET A GROWN-UP DO THIS

Remove your bowl and wash with soapy water before use. I don't recomment putting liquid in them as there may still be some holes. I used this one for a fruit bowl. We made a square bowl to hold my sweetener packets next to my coffee pot.

Denim Bracelet

It happened...my fave of all fave jeans are no longer wearable. I wore them to the point of inappropriate holes...
We all know that I am addicted to crafting. And I have been dying for a denim bracelet. I searched the internet for some cool designs to try to recreate and came up with nothing. Then I remembered making friendship bracelets as a kid. I figured I would try that same technique with thicker strands of denim. What the hell, I am throwing the jeans away anyways.




Ok, so first I cut strips of denim the length of the leg part. (Yes, the entire length).
Then, I stitched the 4 strips together at one end.
Starting with the stitched end, I started knotting the pieces.

Take the 1st and 2nd pieces and make sort of a #4 with them

Tuck piece 1 under piece 2 and pull the knot all the way up.

Continuing with piece 1, move down the bracelet knotting the same way with piece

1 & 3 and piece 1 & 4

Start back at the begining of the bracelet and continue until it is long enough for your wrist.

Stitch a few stitches at the end to keep loose ends neat and together.

Cut off any dangling pieces after the stitching.

Then stitch the begining part to the end to form a circle.

Because the stitching looks all ugly, I took a piece of scrap and wrapped it around the stitching.

I put 2 stitches in an X to keep the wrapped piece in place.
And it's all done!!!!

Your new bracelet!