Sunday, October 6, 2013

National Anthem of Andorra, Italy, and Algeria

My mom bought the kids this Intelliglobe thing, and one of the features is a pamphlet full of all the national flags. When you touch one of the flags with this special computerized pen, it plays the national anthem from that country.

Well the kids have discovered this feature and Natalie plays the Andorra anthem all day long. She loves this song so much she says she wants to play a "horn sang" (horn thing aka trumpet) so she can play it. I didn't even know where in the world Andorra was. I always feel so ignorant when it comes to geography. It reminds me of school how everyone knows who the popular kids are, but the popular kids have no idea who the less popular kids are. That is how it is living in the United States. We only really know about ourselves even though the whole rest of the world knows about us.

Anyways, Andorra is a little country that is right between Spain and France!! Who knew!? I thought it might be one of those tiny islands that's a dot in the middle of the ocean. Nope. It's right there in Europe. And I thought I knew about European countries at least. I guess not.

So while Natalie loves Andorra, Adam loves Italy (every time it stops he sticks his butt out and pretends he's farting). I happen to like Algeria (some nice snare drums). Frannie hasn't picked a favorite.

Like Soap and Horses

These are the images I keep in my head in regards to discipline:

Sometimes you hold kids like soap. You just hold them up and guide them without squeezing too hard. Because if you squeeze they'll just slip right out and fall on the floor. So you quietly hold and take them where they need to go.

In times like this I can tell one of my kids needs to just BE. And they need time to work it out. They need understanding. They need to know I'm on their team. In times like these I can't make them do exactly what I want, because that will just escalate the whole problem. Usually the perfect remedy is a nap. Sleep cures a lot of things.

Other times I think it's like horses. You need to just grab the reins. Here. Now. Do this. No negotiation.

These are the "you're not wise enough to know what's good for you, so this is simply what you must do" moments. And the "you will obey because you simply must" moments.

It's not all the time soap, or all the time horses. It just depends.