It started when I saw him not finishing his dinner and when I asked, he told me that Dad gave him the Ipad to play with. I told him that just because Dad did that, does not mean that he has to play with the Ipad, that he actually has a choice. So I started asking, "Which is the better choice for you? Finish dinner or play with Ipad?" and he "chose", "Finish dinner".
So I went on with the game and almost like a test, wanted to see which he will choose. We had so much fun but most importantly, during that fun game, I was able to teach him the power of choosing the better choice and checking the choices he will make when presented with options. Later that night I was able to use a couple of the questions I posed to him to enable me to put him to bed a littler early and have him listen to me much more attentively.
Here are the questions we played with --- please feel free to try this with your kid and hope that you receive the same blessings I did when I connected with my son using this game:
- Milk or Soda? (My son's answer: Milk)
- Water or Juice? (My son's answer: Water)
- Brown Rice or White Rice? (My son's answer: White Rice -- I then took the opportunity to explain to him that Brown rice is better than white rice and why)
- After play time, leave the mess behind or clean up? (My son's answer: Clean up)
- Before eating, don't wash hands, or wash hands? (My son's answer: Wash hands)
- After potty, wash hands or don't wash hands? (My son's answer: Wash hands)
- When changing clothes, leave the clothes on the floor or put in hamper? (My son's answer: Hamper)
- After coming home from school, spend time with Mama and Dada or play with Ipad (My son's answer: spend time with mama and dada)
- Ipad or read books? (My son's answer: Read books)
- After waking up in the morning, go the living room and play ipad, or go to mama and dada and say good morning with hugs and kisses (My son's answer: go to mama/dada and say GM with hugs and kisses)
- When asking for something, say politely with please or just ask without being polite? (My son's answer: ask politely)
- Go to bed early or go to bed late? (My son's answer: go to bed early)
- When Mommy is asking for help, ignore and continue to play with Ipad or listen to Mommy right away? (My son's answer: Listen to Mommy right away)
- When you need to go potty, hold it for the longest time or go potty right away? (My son's answer: go potty right away)
You get the idea right? It isn't that hard and these are choices that he has to learn to make at an early age. If I don't give him the tools or teach him, how will he know?
Love you all~
