How to Catch Your Children Doing Right

How to Catch Your Children Doing Right

Teaching our children how to have the strong character strengths that we know will mold them into the adults they need to be in order to live a life of promise takes more than wishful thinking. Good parent tools are hard to come by, or they are too complicated. How do we teach our children to have the best character traits?

Traits like Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control are what every parent wants to instill in their children. The Family Honor Plate is a parent tool that helps both the parent and the child learn these traits.

Family Honor Plate:

Step #1 MOM AND DAD – BE THE EXAMPLE. BE THE ROLE-MODEL:

The virtues are listed in the center of the plate for mom and dad to use as their anchor, their moral compass to guide them in how they need to show up for and to their children. This is how our children learn what character (Christ’s Character) is, what it looks like, what it feels like. Our children are watching us and learning from us.

Step #2 BE ON THE LOOKOUT:

Look for the good choices and attitude your kids/spouse are making and showing throughout the day. Track it back to the virtues and character it shows.

Step #3 CELEBRATE THEIR CHARACTER:

Turn dinnertime into a celebration when you catch someone making good choices and showing good character and present their meal on the FAMILY HONOR PLATE. This is when you:
· Talk about the choices they made and the virtues and character that it showed (Be specific).
· Talk about how they made everyone involved feel and the impact they had on people and how that is POWERFUL and BEAUTIFUL.

Let’s Talk Table Thyme Cards:

Every question is followed up with “Why?” to take everyone’s answers to a deeper more intimate level. That’s where the magic is and the real conversation starts. So now when even a simple question such as…”What is your favorite dessert?” for example, rather than someone answering “Apple Pie” and then moving on to the next person, the whole family gets to walk down memory lane because it reminds them of Grandma Smith who always made apple pies with them when they came to visit.” Her house always smelled of fresh baked pies and she gave the best hugs when we walked in the door.”

Communication is the key to connecting, building and maintaining healthy relationships. When we are raise our children to be confident in their ability to communicate with others and get their point across, situations are less stressful and they have better outcomes.

My Thoughts:

The Family Honor Plate is a kit that you can create your own plate for your family. Everything needed is included in the kit. Your family can decorate the plate anyway they want, or with a much embellishment as desired.

All the edges of the center of the plate are listed the Fruits of the Spirit aka important character traits to know. Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control.

Once your plate is completed, the idea is for parents to watch for those times when children are displaying one of the character traits. As a reward, they get to use the honor plate for the next meal. Not only can parents “catch” a family member using good traits, but anyone can point out the behavior and “honor” the other family member with the plate.

I like how the honor plate involves the entire family. It helps us to keep the important things like character in front of us. It reminds us to look for the good in others and to honor it. Sadly, it seems we always notice the bad or wrong behavior. Let’s focus on what our children are doing that is right for a while and see how quickly they step up and show us that they are growing up to be the honorable person we want them to be.

Another parent tool that we have enjoyed using are the Table Tyme Discussion cards. They are set up for a year of conversation starters over a meal. My crew has been using them for every meal so we will get through them sooner. Not a problem as we will just keep rotating through.

Each card has a question that each person needs to answer. Today’s question was: What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen? Why? As we went around the table, everyone answered and we had a nice time together. Some of the questions really make you think while others are easier to answer. They all end with the “Why” question which is great for taking the conversation to a more meaningful level.

The cards are a way for families to connect, enjoy, laugh, learn, share, and listen to each other. All of which are what makes a family stronger.

To learn more about these items, visit Honor Plate.

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These gifts would be the perfect family gift for your neighbors and friends.

I was sent the Family Honor Plate for free to complete and review. All opinions expressed are my own!