Operation: SELF CONTROL

Last week, as part of our Kids of Integrity character training lesson,  we talked about Self Control.

We talked about how we are responsible for our hands and our bodies, and how we need to use control and be responsible for how we use them.

We used the verse, "resist the devil, and he will flee from you."  ....for the first time really talking about temptation, and what that means. We hadnt really talked about Satan alot, I guess, because there were alot of questions in that area. They loved the idea of "resisting" Satan.

We made a lion, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8 ..I am really amazed with how all our character qualities have been so tied together. We obey because we love God, we are alert/attentive so we know how to obey, we are are alert and self controlled so that we do what God wants and not what Satan wants.

Here is Ty "resisting" the devil, portrayed as a lion...he suggested a game where we offer scenerios and try to decide if it is from God or if we are being tempted and need to resist Satan. If our answer was to resist, we put our hand over his face. I was impressed :)

It was alittle more difficult to reward self-control because it was something they didnt do, instead of something they did. We put the nickles away this week, but we will use them again next week when we focus on Respect.

Oh..one more thing that we used alot of ..we had "forced self-control" when they were being out of control with their mouth (yelling inappropriately, talking ugly to siblings, etc) or their hands (hitting, hanging on someone, etc.). They would have to lace their fingers together for a time as a "hand time out" or put their pointer finger over their mouth for a "mouth time out". It worked really well, especially in the car.  We will keep using this one.

Good stuff, I cant wait to keep working obeying, being attentive and having self control. I can see real changes in these little men :)

Operation: ATTENTIVENESS

Our second week of the Kids of Integrity lessons we focused on learning about being attentive. This is big issue in our house, and since we learned last week that "if you love me, you will obey my command" (John 14:15) it makes sense that this week we will learn about how we find out what God's commands for us are!

We focused on the verse .."He who belongs to God, listens to what he says." John 8:47

The first day we made these "listening ears"  ...to relate the need to listen carefully, just like animals who are hunting do (thus this look of a tiger..or something :).

We talked about Samuel, who listened carefully to both Eli and God when they spoke. That story is ripe for kids lessons of so many kinds :)

Then, we followed the lesson from KOI but added a few little changes of our own, to fit these specific boys.

We learned that listening involved eyes, ears and heart - we talked about how we read God's word with our eyes, as well as watch others who are good examples. We listen with our ears to instructions, carefully so we know what commands to follow. And that one way we listen to God is through our heart.

We really stressed eyes and ears together ...HUGE stress on making eye contact, and we mentioned alot about where your eyes are, there your ears and heart will follow :)  We paid out from the nickel jar for making eye contact, listening and then obeying properly.  The boys got two nickels if they both paid attention with their eyes AND obeyed cheerfully.  This worked pretty well!

We played the "Pay Attention" game ...this is one we have played before, and the boys loved it. We took the timer that beeped, set it for one minute, and then I hid it somewhere in the room. They had to come in the room, and see if they could find it. They had to wait until they could hear the beeping, before they could locate it. We did this over and OVER ..meanwhile, we talked about we can look for something with just our eyes like that for a long time, but it is easier when we "listen" for it as well (aka ..listen to mommy's instructions so you know what to do to obey).

This week, we have moved onto Self Control ...another big one for these boys. I cant wait to tell you about the week! :)

Update: Operation: OBEY

Well, I am celebrating a three week "yay me!" because we are really sticking to the Kids of Integrity character training program!

We started with Obedience, and have moved through Attentiveness and now working on the Self-Control lesson. I cant stress how great this program is, being very thorough and giving some really great ideas of ways to incorporate these godly qualities in our children.

First, I wanted to update on Obedience ...I pretty much showed all our great activities on the previous post, except for this one ...this one is based on the verse "Listen, my son, to your fathers instruction and do not forsake your mothers teaching. They will be a garland to grace your head, and a chain to adorn your neck." Prov 1:8-9

 If you knew Canon, you would know how impressive it was that he kept with this activity for about 45 minutes. He was SO proud of his chain when it was all done :)

We are still working on the lessons we learned about Adam and Eve, Lot's wife, Noah and Jonah ..some of which obeyed, and some who didnt.

One thing we did a bit differently as the week progressed, is that we changed up the Nickel Jar a bit ...

Canon kinna started enjoying moving the nickels from from the "happy" jar to the "sad" jar a little too much :) SOO, we changed it up and poured all the nickels into the sad jar, and started earning nickels for good behavior instead of taking them away for bad behavior...seems like child psychology backs that one up somehow :)

We will keep this tool going, now that we learned how it works better for us :)