Spend some time playing a board game with your child. During the game stand up and tell your child, “I quit. I don’t want to play anymore.” Or if you are losing, say, “I can’t win, so why should I bother?”

Your kids will probably protest. Go back and finish the game then ask them the following questions:

• How did you feel when I quit?
• How did my actions affect you?
• Do you think that your actions affect others?
• Why is it important to see something to the end?
• Why shouldn’t you give up just because you are losing?
• Have you ever given up because you were losing?

Children learn when something affects them personaly. By doing this activity your child will become aware that our actions do affect others. During the week look for ways to bring up an incident were your actions or your child’s actions affected another person.

Activity: The Power of Our Words

My children loved this activity. It helped them understand they can’t take back their words once they were spoken.

Let your children empty a tube of toothpaste onto a plate. (I bought the cheapest kind I could find.)  Have them play with it for a couple of minutes. (They will love it if you play in it as well.) Then ask them to put the toothpaste back into the tube. You can try different objects like a toothpick or spoon to help. Everyone helps clean up if there is a mess.

Were you able to get any of the toothpaste back into the tube?

The toothpaste represents our words. Once they are out of our mouths (the tube), it is impossible to put all of the toothpaste back (taking back what we have said).

Did the toothpaste just stay on the plate or did it go somewhere else?

If the toothpaste got on anything (your child and your fingers), it is just like our words affecting other people in addition to the ones we talked to.

Do the different types of toothpaste taste the same? (If you bought a cheap brand, have them taste some of it and compare it to the one you normally use.) Our words can leave a different taste with our friends depending on what types of words we use.

Questions to ask your child:

What kind of an effect can our words have on other people?

• What type of sweet words did you say today?
• What type of hurtful words did you say today?
• What type of caring words did you say today?

Our words have power in them. We can use our words to make someone feel good or bad. What is something good you can say to your friends or family members today?

I am a single mother working two jobs. When would I have time to play with my kids.

In life we do what is important to us or what we think we should do. Is is more important to have a clean house or to have happy kids?

I chose to play with my kids. Sometimes the house didn’t get clean for weeks. Oh well. To me my children and my relationship with them were more important. I got over what I thought my house should look like.

I have been a single mother working two jobs for 14 years. Sometimes I had to drag myself up to play with them, but to me making sure my kids knew I loved them and wanted to be with them was what was important.

Everything we do has a consequence. Now, as teenagers, they make sure to spend time with me. Because I chose to make my children important when they were young, they have chosen to make me important. It is so worth it.

So go get a book, coloring crayons’, building blocks, football, games, or make up and play with your kids. You will be so glad you did. After you have had fun come back and tell me what you did and how it went.