In this call, we discuss: Christmas traditions and fun stuff to do How to NOT hate math Defiant behavior and iPods Correcting pencil posture, but not power struggling Helping ages 9, 5, and 1 overcome shyness What the difference is between conflict and a power struggle and becoming upset too easily Correcting a son who is very dramatic and dangerous

This was a wonderful call. In it, we discussed: Deceit and oppositional defiance Keeping young children in their own church classes Connecting with certain children Extreme aggressiveness in age 7 son TSG for nursery children (ages 18 months-3yrs) Using the TSG vocabulary and breaking attachments to electronics

This call talks about: Wanting to be spanked instead of governing self. Doing TSG while on bedrest. Letting little children run around naked. Age five boy bullying family and thinking that his naughtiness is funny.

In this call, we talk about: Time out being the Calm Down Spot instead of the consequence Bipolar and needing to be there for everything for age 15 son Bedtime sillies trouble Modified Rule of Three for age 6 Passive-Aggressive “calmness”

In this call, the topics covered were: Age 16 daughter being dishonest with electronics and won’t give parents respect Rule of Three anxiety for age 5 son and the Calm Down Spot Having more than a pocketful of candy for a positive consequence How to get personal mentoring

Warning: This is a very long call. 😉 But, we covered some amazing things that I’m sure will be helpful to anyone who listens to this call. Those topics were: Halloween Homeschooling, self-worth issues, and gaming 24 hours, picking and choosing your battles, and helping turning into micromanaging Dishonesty with electronics, really being okay, and scripture time Bad treatment from friends because you’re homeschooled Illness, checking back, and accepting consequences Adopted girl lives with ex and has no consequences for her actions and younger girl is following suit Depression and personal calmness Is there such a thing as earning 24 hours too many times? Husband’s personality affects the tone of the home Is it okay to leave someone alone to calm down? Accepting and willingly doing extra chores

This call discusses: Speeding chores up Demonstrating bad behaviors Rule of Three consistency and hitting Fighting siblings

This call was amazing! We talked about: How to use TSG when being bullied Bipolar and addictions (porn, TV, media) Getting heated during corrections and not accepting no answers 25 Principles Of Leadership

This call discusses: What we do at harvest time What new members of the Support Group get Spending too much time in the car The “Terrible 2’s” Rebellious teenagers Addictions to violent online gaming Joining the cause!

This call talks about: Helping children become joyful adults mission fulfilled Six children under the age of twelve and they can’t all be corrected at the same time. And, lots of negativity in the home. 2-year-old uses screaming to communicate. How can it be fixed?

The questions for this call are: We just decided this weekend that it’s time to pull our kids and homeschool. We’re super excited and anxious about it, but know without a doubt that it’s what we’re supposed to be doing.Do you follow a certain program, or curriculum, do you come up with it on your own? Our oldest has high functioning autism, and has really struggled with math, especially the new Common Core methods, which is partly why we’re pulling them.He’s 9.5, and I’m concerned about how to teach the math to him. We have twin toddlers (1 year old) who are into everything!I’m homeschooling my 2 older children and it’s becoming really hard because I’m constantly having to chase the toddlers around and pull them away from stuff. What TSG techniques can I use on children this young? Also one of my girls screams all the time – this ear piercing, window shattering scream and its horrible!This seems to be the only way she thinks she can communicate. Help? My oldest daughter is 16. She is a junior and up until this year she has been homeschooled.She is wanting to get a part time job after school. I would love for her to have a job, but how do I know when a child is ready for that kind of trust/commitment level? What is your rule for taking toys outside? Do you have specifics ones that can go outside? Or if they get ruined is that the natural consequence and you just throw them away?Are your children allowed to help themselves to the fridge when they are 5 and under?Are your children aloud to go in your room? What about with friends? How do you teach this?

This call’s questions are: OK, my 5 year old is probably my biggest problem right now. He does it all.Argues, is rude, refuses to accept a no answer, torments siblings and enjoys seeing them upset. If he is given an extra job he refuses to do it. He is 5 years old and the middle of three boys. What would be the steps to help him listen the first time if he just refuses to? I would say that he and his older brother tend rarely to listen the first, second or third time. I try soooo stinkin hard to stay calm but they just don’t listen. What is your opinion of vaccinations and mixing them and what ages to give them etc? Also, my son all of a sudden started getting shy giving scriptures at church. I think a couple of months he went from fearless to being self-conscious. How can I help him? And, how did you teach yourself history and science and what resources did you use for you children? Our children are exploring each other. They were at our friend’s house while we were on a trip. Our friend called us and said that a situation had happened where our children were in the same room, exploring each other somewhat seriously. We’re freaking out! What do we do?

This call’s questions are: Self-government in Shakespeare Frequently, I find myself in a predicament. When I need to be teaching self government skills to one child the others seem to have immediate needs that need to be taken care of also. Such as the newborn needing to feed or a toddler needing to use the bathroom, etc . What should my priority be? What are your favorite DVDs that you watch for Movie night? And, my son has trouble with attention seeking. I have the same problem. I haven’t really explained what attention seeking is what why it is bad. I guess I need help with that.It is disrupting. What do I do? Also, my almost 5 year old really likes to be close to me during story time. At home he crams up next to me and I have to constantly tell him he is digging his elbow into me.I’m not exactly sure what to do. I handled it wrong. How do I advocate for him? Along with that, my 2.5 year old has had a lot of separation anxiety ever since we took a little trip recently. Usually she is anxious and then gets over it. I don’t know… Should I just stay with her?Also I struggle with how to speak to my husband.I didn’t know how to tell him that it feels like he doesn’t have faith in me when he tells me “we may just not be a match for each other”. He feels he needs to share his opinion and be open and honest.How should I ask him to word this to me so that I don’t feel discouraged? Generational differences in parenting.

This Support Call covers a miriad of questions, from a tantrumming 17 year-old to movie night to bed time. The questions: We are struggling with our oldest child. He is now 17 1/2. He just simply wants things his way and just won’t be obedient. We’ve tried all kinds of training and consequences with him, but he still defies the rules. A few days ago, my husband decided that our son could no longer use our resources (ie: Internet, car, phone) since he has clearly chosen not to follow our guidelines.My husband is “done” providing for an ungrateful young adult who talks back and is the instigator of much difficultyin our home. What are your thoughts on this? First, I am now in charge of story time for core children ages 3-7 for a Leadership Education co-op. What picture books with good morals and values do you recommend? Second, my 3.5 month old just stopped sleeping through the night because he is teething. Also, my 2.5 year old keeps waking up 1-2x per night. Not sure if she has to go to the bathroom (she isn’t quite potty trained yet) or if she get too hot or cold. Third, how do you guys do your weekly family movie night? I am very frustrated and at a loss about what to do with my seven-year old son. There are times when he is very kind and thoughtful, and other times when he is angry, telling me he hates me and throwing things at me. Basically, My problem with this son is that he won’t follow instructions and/or accept consequences, unless I physically contain him in a room until he is ready and willing to follow instructions and do his consequences.How would you recommend I work with this dear seven-year-old son?

Here is the Support Call for August 29, 2014. The questions were: This program seems like it’s suited more to older children. What program would be good to use with my younger children? My husband and I both really love self-government, but we have a struggle with consistency. What can we do? What is the difference between responsibilities and stewardships as it relates to roles?

This support call was good. We only had one question that was actually sent to me. There were three other questions asked on the call that were great though. They were: Weird question. If you were going to give a 20-30 min presentation about yourself what would you focus on.Also, I love your quote that says: “I’m not raising perfect children, I am raising joyful adults that know what their mission is in life and can’t wait to fight for it….” Is it in your book somewhere? I can’t seem to find it. I have a 4 year old daughter. She wants to be big like her brother and sisters. She is trying to prove she is big by doing things she shouldn’t. I need help! My daughter is 2 and she won’t follow instructions. So, I use the Calm Down spot to help her with that. Is that okay? Is there a way you can use self-government with students? Especially large groups of students?

This call’s questions were: Do you ever require a child to redo a SODAS? My daughter is in the habit of power struggling. What can I do to help her? How can I make homeschooling fun? My daughter is manipulative and won’t accept her consequences after she goes through the Rule of Three. What do I do?

This call has multiple questions, all somewhat on the same topic, but not quite. Each has their own wonderful insight and are very helpful. The questions were: Can you explain more about correcting young children and using the calm-down spot/”time-out” when they are tired or hungry? What do you say to your 4-year-old when he wants to go and play at the neighbor’s house by himself? What do I tell my son if the neighbor’s want him to go over and play? I would prefer if I was there when he goes to other people’s houses. I appreciate your recent article on the clingy children. Right now my youngest (2 ½) dislikes nursery very much. In your article, you suggest not to force the issue, but wait until they’re ready. But what do you do when you and your husband both have callings you need to be to for second and third hour?Also, this same child has a really hard time with “no” answers. When I tell him “no,” for even the simplest thing, he flies off the handle. How can I teach him to accept a “no” without all the drama?

This call was full ofreally good questions,such as: You are doing so many things deliberately, how do you schedule your life to make time and room for it all?Where do you fit in weekly times with your daughters to have that one-on-one time you have mentioned we should have with the children who are our gender?What about mother-son time?Do you do those in the daytime so they doesn’t conflict with evening family time? How do you have time for it all? How do I train my 2 year old to sit quietly in an hour long church meeting? I’m going to be tending two young out-of-town granddaughters for a week and a half. I stayed at their home recently and observed their behavior, and I think tending could be very difficult unless I establish TSG principles while they are here. Is there any reason not to have things be different at my home than at theirs?Am I naïve to think that I can teach them to act differently in a week?What do you recommend? My eldest daughter (age 16) has been diagnosed with an eating disorder, among other things, and has been admitted to a therapy clinic out of state. My husband is with her. I’m with my other 5 kids. I can see that the way I’ve parented in the past has led to my children having several behavioral and self-government issues. I want a more open, clear, honest and loving environment in my home.I really want to begin changing how I parent, and I’d like your input as to how to go about doing so, step by step.How do we weave our eldest daughter into the new family culture when she is living with us again? What exclamation words do you use? I would like to stop saying: dang-it, crap, and oh my gosh. And, what do you say when your child wants to give up? Also, can you elaborate on your process of goal setting, maybe give an example of a goal you or your child set and how you accomplished the goal? And when I praise, I give too many instructions that I really get tired of praising.It’s hard not to rush through the relationship.What do you recommend to change my own heart? Along with all that, there’s an 11 year old girl that comes to my house often. She talks constantly. How do I lovingly tell her to be quiet? One more thing.Can you explain “point of reference?” Where did you get the term from? What does it mean?

This call was great. We had questions ranging in a wide variety of subjects, such as: How do you teach a 4 year old to clean his room? And when can I expect him to do this himself without help? I get really mad and frustrated with big messes. And I can go get calm, but when I come back to help him fix it if he doesn’t listen I blow up. I’m not sure how to remove the emotion, stay calm, and have him clean it. I have a hard time not getting sucked into power struggles. My 4yr old son, when given an instruction (or reminded) not to play on the baby’s swing or carseat etc. because he will break them. He asks in an annoyed voice “Then why do they make them.” He thinks everything should be his toy and is very put off if he cannot use/play with it. Also, we have too much stuff. I need to get rid of some and start a toy rotation. The problem is they (the 2 and 4 yr old) will get into it wherever it is so do I lock it in the office or put it in the garage.Do I need to make a boundary rule that they ask for everything and anything first? And, when does discipline start with babies? Before time out. When do you start teaching boundaries? I feel like my kids “work the system,” (ages almost 6 and almost 3) in the sense that I’ll give them an instruction and they’ll sulk until I start correcting and then they say “No, no, no! I’m going! I’m doing it!” Do I start correcting them then, or, what exactly do I do? How do the first and second consequences for the Rule of Three work? And what about the calm down spot?