Mommy School

Last weekend my sister and I went to the Hearts at Home Conference in Grand Rapids. I went 2 years ago and really enjoyed it. My mom treated us for our birthday, so even better! Friday night is "mom's night out." There were few speakers who were really funny and a group called The Go Fish Guys. They have great preschool/kids music. I normally don't care for kid CD's, but this one is catchy. My favorite is from the Party Like a Preschooler CD. The song is called It's Hard to Be Cool in a Minivan.
The next day is workshop day. There are 2 main sessions with more great speakers, and 4 workshops. There are 20 different workshops to choose from- some topics are finance, discipline, organizing, fashion, marriage, and motherhood. I picked 2 finance workshops: one about raising financially savvy kids and one about getting out of debt. I also went to Finding the Hero in your Husband and My Heart's at Home-because there was not really much to choose from during the 4th session. My sister went to a workshop called What Not to Wear and loved it. They even went through to figure out the best colors for you based on skin tone and hair color. Very informative sessions and you leave feeling inspired, re-charged, and encouraged.

On top of all this '"mommy school" stuff, David and I are taking a parenting class through our church called the Nurtured Heart Approach. If you want more info visit the link. I would say it's geared for intense or ADHD labeled children, but the techniques they use for those types of children could be used for any type of child. The first session, there are 4, was all about ADHD and I was wondering what the heck I had signed up for. I don't think my kids are ADHD, I just want some parenting techniques. The second class got more into the "meat" of the techniques and it was a lot better class. We have to go to class number 3 on Thursday. As a reader, you get some of the goodies they shared with us.

1. Kids hear a lot of negativity during through out the day. Most of the time, when we do give them attention, it is mostly negative. i.e., " Tyler stop hitting your brother" you get the idea. Our homework for the first session was to give the kids 30 validations every day. i.e., "Tyler, I see that you are playing nicely with Jake. Thank-you."

2. Studies have shown that protein is an important part in a "concentration diet." Most kids get most of their protein at night, after school is over and they don't need to concentrate as much. They suggest giving your child more protein at breakfast and lunch, to help stay focused at school.

3. Spend 15 minutes a day with your child doing what they want. There should be no direction from you during this 15 minutes. Just straight play doing whatever your child desires. Ideally, it should be at the same time everyday and it will be something your child truly looks forward to. You are your child's favorite toy.

Our last class that we are taking is at the Jackson School for the Arts. I never knew this even existed, I found it through another blog. I signed Tyler up for My First Art. I love to do art projects, but I am never prepared to do them and if I do, the kids are interested for maybe 5-10 minutes and then I spend another 20 min cleaning up the project. This class is great beacuse the teacher plans each project and they bring the materials and do the clean up. It also gets Tyler around other kids his age. I really enjoy going and Ty does too. Jackson does have some cool things to do with kids!

I love going to all these classes. I really miss college. One of the things I noticed most when I started staying at home was that I wasn't learning anything. I missed information! You don't get much information from doing laundry or emptying the dishwasher! I also like having a set date night with David. We know that you should have date nights but we don't ever plan them. Having to attend classes makes us get Grandma over and we spend time together. And the best part is it's not our usual dinner and a movie. We get good information and something we can really use from our "date nights." Another example was our Marriage Matters classes we took last spring. Those had a lot of good information too and it made us get out and spend time together. So, go sign up for some classes!