Tag: obedience

The Big List of Effective Consequences (a.k.a. What to do When You Butt Heads with Your Kids)

Published on by Mary Cooney4 Comments

I hope you were able to attend some of the talks at last month’s Catholic Homeschool Conference. After 14+ years of homeschooling, I still find there is always something new to learn.

Browsing through some of the comments and chat feed, I was reminded that many parents really struggle with getting their kids to obey and/or do their school work:

“We started homeschooling last year The transition from public school (4 boys) has been challenging.”

“I’ve got two boys and am trying to homeschool them the last two years and it’s not going well… I can’t get them to do work.”

“Finding the right practical consequence is what I find hard to think of when they do disobey.”

“Obedience is one of the hardest things to master as a parent with children.”

Yes, I know. I’ve been there.

So, as an addendum to my talk on “How to Get Your Kids to Obey”, I’m sharing this big bad list of effective consequences.  It really helps to know ahead of time what you’re going to do if your child flat out refuses to complete a math assignment, or argues about having to take out the garbage, or  has gotten into the terrible habit of ignoring you every time you ask him/her to do something.

Continue reading “The Big List of Effective Consequences (a.k.a. What to do When You Butt Heads with Your Kids)” →

The Catholic Homeschool Conference is Back!

Published on by Mary CooneyLeave a comment

Just a quick little post to say…. (drum roll, please ….) It’s that time of year again! Time for the Catholic Homeschool Conference! And as I said last year, the conference is for ALL Catholic parents, not just homeschoolers.

From May 19 – 22 you can listen to live key note speakers such as Kimberly Hahn, Laura Berquist, Sarah Mackenzie, and Andrew Pudewa. In addition, you can tune into 60+ pre-recorded talks including one by yours truly 🙂 For free! I’m so looking forward to it!

Whether you’re homeschooling or not, I think you’ll benefit from the wonderful presentations. There will be talks on homeschooling, of course, but also on marriage, family life, and virtue and character development.

And here’s what I’ll be talking about…

Continue reading “The Catholic Homeschool Conference is Back!” →

Raising Virtuous Children

Published on by Mary Cooney3 Comments

Last month, I had the privilege of speaking at a family conference near State College, PA. My topic was Raising Virtuous Children – a topic so broad one could write a whole book about it. I think I over-loaded the audience with too much info, so I promised one mom that I would post the talk on this blog. I’ll post it as a three-part series. Here is Part I of the talk on Raising Virtuous Children:

Continue reading “Raising Virtuous Children” →

How to Get Your Teens to Obey (the Right People)

Published on by Mary Cooney2 Comments

When children approach their adolescent years, they sometimes revert to their terrible twos as they exert their independence and question our authority. This becomes an important time to work on the third degree of obedience: full submission of one’s judgement, for this is when obedience really becomes virtuous.

Continue reading “How to Get Your Teens to Obey (the Right People)” →

How to Get Your Kids to Obey

Published on by Mary Cooney1 Comment

In last week’s post, I touched on the importance of teaching our children to obey. We homeschool moms are keenly aware of the necessity of obedience, for without it not much learning takes place and the home deteriorates into a battle zone. Indeed, several moms tell  me they are reluctant to homeschool because their kids won’t listen to them. The reality is that many of us struggle with getting our children to do their work promptly, responsibly, and without whining or complaining.  Teaching our children to obey well takes a lot of patience and consistency, and it takes a lot of prayer. But the good news is that homeschooling provides us with ample opportunities to grow in those virtues and it gives our children lots of practice in obedience.

Continue reading “How to Get Your Kids to Obey” →

Understanding our Children

Published on by Mary Cooney2 Comments

Do you ever have times when your children’s behavior is baffling? Last summer, All-Star threw a foosball at our sliding glass window on purpose. His aim was shattering. Why an intelligent, well-behaved boy would throw a hard foosball at a glass window on purpose, I’ll never know. He never gave me a reasonable explaination for what he did, at least not one that I could comprehend.

Understanding our children can be one of the most mystifying aspects of being a parent. There are times when our children’s behavior or words leave us perplexed and confused: a daughter who bursts into tears when you mention the weather, a son who becomes sullen and dejected for no apparent reason, or a healthy child who pretends to be sick. Try as we might to understand their motives and thought-process (or lack thereof!), we are sometimes left baffled and bewildered. And this can be frustrating because we want to help our children, but without understanding, we  do not know how to deal with the situation.

Continue reading “Understanding our Children” →