This post is about "stop", signing, and I'm going to add in quiet time.
The way we teach our kids to "stop" is pretty simple. We will use it throughout the day. So if Noah is headed toward the street I will say "Noah! (wait for him to look) stop!" He usually stops when he looks at me. But if he doesn't I will go to him and stop him and say, "mommy said stop. That means don't move your feet" and I will hold his feet still on the ground to show him.
But we also play stop and go sometimes. Especially with Mary because she gets it. And I will have her sit and tell me to stop and go sometimes too. With Noah I plan to hold his hand to play stop and go until he understands the word stop better. Learning this command has literally been life saving at times.
Another thing that has been life saving and has to do with self control is we taught Mary to put her hand on the car when she gets out. She has to keep her hand on the car until we tell her she can take it off. Once I remember opening her car door for her in a parking lot and I went over to get Noah. I told her to follow me but I guess she didn't hear me. I was terrified when I turned around and she wasn't there, but when I ran back to her side of the car she was standing there with her hand on the car.
We teach our kids a few signs: eat, all done, help, please, and more. Noah (14 months) has most of these down except help. He usually just signs please if he wants something, which I'm fine with. I teach them the signs by doing them myself, and then by taking their hands and doing the sign for them. At this point, I require Noah to say please, or he doesn't get what he wants. Because I know that he knows the sign. But before I was sure he knew it I would tell him to do it, then just take his hands and do it for him.
I decided to add quiet time to the self control posts (although I guess it could go with peace too) because it is control of the mouth and body. We have quiet time a couple times a week with Mary. I think we started it when she was about 2.5, but we really could have started earlier. I tell her to sit and I usually read to her or give her books. Then I tell her that she may not make noise (with her mouth or body) until my phone alarm goes off. At first I would just remind her not to make noise, until she knew what it meant. Then she would get one little switch on her leg for making noise. Now I hardly have problems with it at all.
Remember my post from a bit ago about trying to honor Mary's words??? Well the other day in the car was seriously getting overwhelming: "mommy, mommy, mommy, did you see the bus?!?! mommy, mommy, mommy, we watch word world when we get home??? mommy, MOMMY, MOMMY!!!" So I told her that I loved her questions, but we were going to have quiet time until my phone alarm went off. She did really good and my mind was saved. Praise Jesus.
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