The morning started with a delicious breakfast with friends while the dads attended their own shindig. It was so nice to get out with the ladies and talk about what we had been learning and just make stronger connections with each other!
After breakfast, I hurried to hear Carol Barnier's talk on not missing the GIFT that is my child. Wow! She did it again! Carol's session was wonderful, and I walked away feeling encouraged and blessed. My kids may be cray-cray sometimes (I suppose 'highly distractible' is the nicer term), but God has loaned these precious gifts to me. And they are indeed precious. (Click here to see tips for teaching your high-energy kiddo.)
My biggest take-away from Carol's talk was learning to look beyond the moment at God's vision for my children. Look beyond the what-in-THE-WORLD-were-you-thinking to the positive ways that God can use my girls for His glory. That's pretty tough sometimes, to be honest, but with practice (and God's grace), it can be done (I'm told ;) ).
Oh, and the sandwich approach to correction was pretty neat, too. Have you heard of that? When correcting a child's behavior, first say something positive, then say the correction, then end with another positive. It might look something like this:
Positive:
"Oh, Anna, you are such a wonderful artist! I love how you used those pretty pink colors in your drawing!"
Correction:
"However, we need to draw on paper and not the walls."
Ending Positive:
"Can you draw another beautiful picture on a card for Mommy? Your flowers are always so lovely."
Y'know, something like that. :) The sandwich method has been around a while, but it was the first time I heard it, and I liked it. Have you or do you use it with your kids?
Later, Classical Conversations held a dads' meeting, which my hubby said was great!
Above, you can see the little room sectioned off in the CC area of the Exhibit Hall. Not an empty seat! How cool!
Before heading home, I ran into CC super-blogger Brandy at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood! No way!
