Love and Logic Classes

Steve and Jenny Smith

Present

Becoming a Love and Logic Parent Curriculum

A six-week parenting program designed by Love and Logic

Answers to:

· How do I get them out of bed in time to catch the school bus?

· How can I stop my children from bickering and fighting?

· How do I get my children to help with the chores without an argument?

· Is there a way to discipline my toddler in public without creating a scene?

· How can I get my teenage daughter to come home at the agreed-upon time?

· How do I get him to stop spitting his peas and whining at dinner?

· And many other day-to-day parenting challenges…

This parenting program is designed to give you practical skills

that can be used immediately!

Dates: January 7- February 11

Time: 7:00 – 9:00pm

Location: Tuttle Residence

21397 E. Calle De Flores,

Queen Creek, AZ 85142

Cost: $100/couple, or $85/person

Facilitators of the Becoming a Love and Logic Parent curriculum are independent and are not employees of the Love and Logic Institute.

If you are interested in hosting a Love and Logic Class, email Jenny at steve.jensmith@gmail.com

Sooooo...how do I sum up the last 4 MONTHS??? I feel a bit brain dead from the busy-ness. But, alas I am here now and so happy I made it through. Highlights were...Training 40 new teachers for Let's Play Music in the last few months. Working with the Advisory Board(the 6 ladies in the front) in the planning and executing the symposium weekend here in Mesa and teaching the classroom management workshop there. It all was so overwhelming, but turned out a huge success. We have the best advisory board. I just love these ladies I get to work with. A couple weeks later we were off to Utah for more trainings and an open house. We made house calls to teachers up there and got to see their studios. It was so fun to see new ideas! We worked our bootays off, and managed to have a lot of laughs. In the process, sadly my camera was dropped and busted, so even sadder I don't have many pictures of this summer! Good news is that we had a warranty and are getting a new one...any... day... now...

On the "family side"...Between all the projects and trainings, I was able to take my kids to California for 5 days to visit Auntie Lori. We went to Sea World, fished on the pier and spent a day on the beach. (Maybe sweet Auntie Lori will send me some pictures of my kiddos hint hint) Then we spent about 9 days at the Whiting Homestead starting with the 4th of July. We went to the Taylor Rodeo- my favorite place for the 4th! So AMERICAN! Sadie re-discovered her passion for horses. I discovered I want to live on a farm (don't know if that's just a mood I'm in though) It's been a month and it still hasn't gone away??? My kids really should live on a farm. Here' Sadie's new friend Sally, the Horny Toad. They would live at the homestead if they could.

Here's Hailee catching some air.
We had Steve's family come up there for the "Smith" reunion. Steve and I had fun planning the activities. We had an "Amazing Race", Horseshoe tournament, played Family Feud, ran down Greens Peak, yep, I still got it :) went crawdad fishing (and ate them! not me though!), we had a dance, and every night played 007. It was a fun filled weekend!

We've been home for a couple weeks now and we are itching to go back. I just finished recording a few songs for LPM, and just filmed a video for new teachers. And I think I can say, I am officially off duty. I would leave tomorrow if I could, but sadly I have Sharing Time this Sunday. But FO SHO after that! And I ain't comin back until school starts!!! I'm so sad summer is over! I'm trying to be excited that ALL my kids are going to be in school...Is this the day I've been waiting for - for 11 years??? Seriously? Now I'm kinda getting sad...is this normal? I always imagined all the things I'd do once they were all in school. Scrapbook, organize the house, bake cookies to have for them when they return :) Go back to school with all my spare time...ha ha ha ha! It's going to take some getting used to.
Well, I think this is a long enough post. I better save some for next time :)

We're on the News!

This is Hailee's class with "Mrs. Shelle" How exciting! :)

Spring Ball Begins

I know I'm in for it this season. I wouldn't do this to myself if I didn't enjoy it so much. All 3 kids are signed up for ball. Sadie's in Minors, Tyson is in Coach Pitch and Hailee is starting Tee Ball. I miss playing softball- (which is such an understatement!) I'm just so glad my kids love playing! I love watching them! And so it begins... all 3 of them had practice tonight. Hailee is getting over bronchitis so we x-ed hers. Steve took Tyson and I took Sadie. I am so excited for Sadie. She is truly a ball player! It was so fun to see her making plays and then crankin the ball. I could tell she was feeling good about herself, which is good. She seems to always need a little more confidence. It was awesome to see her beaming. She said afterwards that it feels good to be one of the better ones for once. I can tell her coaches are awesome. Yeah! Here's to a great season...PLAY BALL!

Budding Artist

It's 9:00pm and I think my kids are asleep...Tyson appears and says, "Mom, I need to get a piano in my room" ~Why Tyson? "Because I have a tune in my head and I need to put it on sheetmusic before I forget it" OH, can I cry now? This is such music to my ears!!! :)

Procrastinating Homework

Here's another doozy. It's not that big of a deal, and I wish there was a way to make this long story short, but here goes... I have a child that likes to put off homework until the last minute. I know I'm probably the only one who has this problem :)
I'm not a fan of homework on the weekends, but her teacher sure is. Almost every weekend they have to write a spelling story and type it out. Well, it takes her forever because she's not a typer yet! Anyway, I have been trying to get her to do her homework before Sunday, because it's a brain drain to hear on Sunday night before bedtime..."Oh no! I have a story to do!" Wah wah wah! Last weekend she let us know after church that she had homework and a test. She had a few hours before we went to the cousins house for the big Super Bowl hoo rah, Here's the dialogue:
Me: "Well, you can do it now with help, or when we get home tonight at 9:00 with no help."
I was taken off guard when she said, "I'll do it tonight".
Me: "Okay" :)
She goes and relaxes the day away and then we come home and it's time for bed.
Sadie: "Oh NOOOOOO!"
Me: "What's wrong?"
Sadie: "I'm too tired, I can't do it tonight"
Me: "That's okay, we can wake you up extra early tomorrow"
Sadie: "I'm just not going to go to school!"
Me: "Well, that's not really an option, so do you want to stay up tonight, or wake up extra early?"
Sadie: "You can't make me go"
Me: "You're probably right, so you will have to explain to the secretary why you are home"
Sadie: "Fine, I'll wake up early"
Steve and I have a discussion about what will happen in the morning when she doesn't get everything done. We decide to have a little training session. I will call the secretary and tell her whats going on and ask her to help us teach her a little responsibility. (I'm dreading this by the way)
Steve tries to wake her up, and she decides not to get up. I wake her up with everyone else and she starts working on her homework. "I'm just going to go in late"
Me: "Who's going to take you?"
Sadie: "Can't you?"
Me: "It's gonna cost ya:)"
She finishes her test and decides to go to school without doing the story. While she is getting ready, I call the secretary and tell her I'm trying to teach my child some responsibility and ask her if she wouldn't mind helping me out. The secretary was actually very happy to do it. She even said "Gladly"
(Now in Sadie's defence, she really is a good student and would never want to disappoint any teacher so even a word from this woman is going to crush her)
I drop Sadie off, give her a hug and say, "Good luck, have a great day"
I leave the school feeling like the meanest mom. I am starting to panic wondering what the secretary will say to her, or if it will make her cry because she tends to cry easily. The secretary can be quite serious. I call the sec. when I get home and ask her how it went. She said she asked her why she was late and Sadie said she had to do a few things before coming to school. Sec says "Oh, your mom said it was because you didn't do your homework. You do have all weekend to do it" Sadie gave her a look of horror like she'd been caught. And then in class because she didn't finish her story her teacher made her sit on the wall for recess. At dinner that night Steve asked her how it went at school and she dropped her head and said she didn't want to talk about it. Soooooo we'll see if that worked or not the next time she has homework on the weekend. Looking back, I don't know why I was so scared to call the secretary -I seriously about cried. It wasn't as mean as I thought it was. We shall see...

Another L and L Momment

This story comes from our beloved ten year old in a teenage body. Sometimes I just have to say, poor girl. She grows so fast and is having to deal with a lot going on, so I can totally understand her teenage tantrums, but anyway here goes... Every night we all have a kitchen chore to do after dinner. Last night she decided that she would not be doing her chore because she had a headache. We said, "No problem, it'll be here tomorrow when you feel better". (Maybe at this point she thought she got away with it) Morning comes and she needs her hair straightened. -She was blessed with my frizzy fro, but imagine double the thickness. It takes me about 40 minutes to straighten her hair. WELL, she comes in to wake me up and asks if I will straighten her hair, and
Steve chimes in..."Mom likes to help do hair for people who help with chores"
Can you imagine what comes next??? "WHAT?"
Steve repeats in the smoothest tone, "Sweetie, mom likes to do hair for..."
Hormones kick in and screaming fit, stomping and slamming door etc.
10 secs later, a calmer Sadie says, "Mom, could you please do my hair? I can't go to school like this."
Me: "That would be kinda funny, I wouldn't mind putting your hair in a bun."
Sadie: "AAAAGH! I DON'T WANT A BUN! This is soooo STUPID!" (runs off to room again, and is back in a few seconds)
Me: "Sadie, you have about an hour if you want to straighten your hair by yourself" (I've been trying to help her learn how for a very long time!) "Honey, it's really okay if you can't, I can put your hair in a bun."
She started straightening her hair. But not without a few more short tantrums to her room, I was fighting so hard not to just go in and help her. But in the end, she ended up doing her own hair just in time for her friend to come and get her for school.
Me: "Wow Sadie, you did that all by yourself! I bet you feel proud"
Happy Sadie: "Yeah, I can't believe I got it done! Bye mom!"
WHEW---1 tantrum down, 500 to go. :)
Relationship still in tact, and most importantly, I didn't loose my temper.
Oh, what about the chore you say? Well after dinner tonight, can you guess who was the first one to jump to their chore? Sadie :) After she was done with that one, last nights chore was still awaiting her, which she did as well. Deep breath! Until the next challenge...