Yes, this was the first Mother's Day without Judy. Tough day for the girls. Haley started the day with posting pictures of Judy on Facebook. Looking at pictures was a powerful reminder of a wonderful person and a reminder of the precious memories we have built as a family. When the girls went to the gym, they saw an inspirational quote on the bulletin board. Someone had garnished the message with a drawing of a diamond. Mary said Judy had a hand in providing the drawing of the diamond. I'm sure she did...some way, some how.
Earlier in the day, I skipped church for a change. I did not want to deal with the elephant in the room on Mother's Day so I joined my aunties and uncle for breakfast at the Confederation Inn.
After breakfast, I tried unsuccessfully to install Mary's dishwasher. Dang! I didn't have right fittings. Next stop was Costco. What a zoo!
I still had time in the afternoon for a walk and a brief siesta before my family arrived for supper. When I was walking the trail, I greeted every person who looked like a mother with a "Happy Mother's Day." That felt good.
January 09 Principal Message
During
the month of January, one poor teacher on Prairie View School staff will take
on the challenge of explaining the virtue of self control to their own class
and, in turn, to the whole school. As I
consider the challenge of teaching self control, I am reminded of a study done
at Stanford University titled The Stanford Marshmallow Experiment. Four year old children were placed in a room
with a marshmallow in front of them. They
were told they could eat the marshmallow immediately, or could choose to wait
for 20 minutes while the researcher ran some errands and receive two
marshmallows. The children were observed
through a two way mirror. About one
third of the children impulsively gobbled the marshmallow immediately. They were aptly labelled “impulsive”. One third of the children delayed
gratification for 20 minutes until the researcher returned and were duly
rewarded.
At
the age of 18, the same children were given the SAT, a standardized test used
to determine college admission. The
impulse controlled group scored dramatically higher than the impulsive group on
verbal and math scores. Furthermore, the
impulse controlled children were more assertive, stress tolerant, self
reliant, confident, trustworthy, dependable, academically competent,
reasonable, and eager to learn.
My daughters tolerate my preaching
on the topic of delayed gratification.
Throughout their childhood, they often had a “bee in their bonnet” about
desperately needing things and they needed them right away. They didn’t appreciate the reminder that
“good things come to those who wait”.
As parents, we sometimes feel guilty
about not being able to give our children the best – right away! Our children are masters at making us feel
guilty because we don’t deliver things – right away! Fortunately, I am incredibly cheap; therefore,
I have become adept making my children delay gratification. When my daughter wanted to go to a very
expensive post secondary institution, I didn’t say, “No, you cannot go!” I said, “Sounds great. You better get a job and start saving in
order to pay for the king’s ransom it will require to pay for the
venture.” My wife and I have always been
there to guide our children, support, and help, but we have also taught our
children to delay gratification.
Can we teach self control? I know we can and I also believe it is never
too late to teach our children well. At
Prairie View School we use programs such as Second Step to teach children to
identify their feelings, make good decisions, control their impulses, manage
their anger, resolve conflict, empathize, build relationships, solve problems,
and resist temptation. We know parents,
relatives, and community members believe self control is virtuous so let us all
work together to teach and model the virtue to our children.
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