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Habit of ORDER – suggestions needed
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My children and I are working through the Family Work reading program put together by the Ten Boom Institute and I wanted to include LDTR alongside it. I’m focusing on Order first and have put together a plan from the Baby LDTR book but I have some questions. I know the wonderful feeling I get when I have to go into the kitchen during the middle of the night and I see a perfectly clean area aglow in moonlight. In thinking about Lesson 9 (which says to think about how pleasant it is to have the school area in order at the start of the day, or the kitchen in order when you want to make breakfast) I don’t expect my children would be aware of this.
Once last year my older children took care of my younger ones (now ages 16, 13, 8 and 7) while we went on a date. They had takeout pizza and the kitchen/dining room was a mess when we returned. We decided to not say a thing and just leave it. The next night at dinner the mess was still there and we ate dinner squeezed into whatever space we could find at the table because the old pizza boxes were still there. The kids didn’t even comment! I was on the verge of tears and they acted like everything was normal.
When I first read the lesson I thought it would be great to not do dinner dishes, maybe we’d ‘get distracted’ with a game (I don’t think the kids would even notice not cleaning the dishes even though they are responsible for helping). Then in the morning everything would be a mess and I’d WANT that to be a lesson bc there wouldn’t be clean dishes to eat off of, or maybe I’d say we have to clean up again before we can eat…but I think in the end they would see it as an adult problem and I do have one who is very sensitive to being hungry (early life issues from before he lived with us). It seems like it would be a great way to actually experience the lesson but I don’t think it would actually work.
Can you see a way to make this point in real life, or is it just something I should discuss and hope they get to some understanding? Can children this age (the younger ones are the ones who homeschool, so 7 and 8yo) really get it or is it something only adults sense? I don’t think I ‘got it’ until I was an adult. I definitely beleive an orderly environment creates a peaceful being whether you ‘get it’ or not, I am just not sure how to make this into a lesson.
Also, if anyone has suggestions for ways to celebrate such a habit, or any other poems or stories to exemplify ORDER (I don’t like two of the poems in this section of Baby LDTR very much), I would greatly appreciate it!
Maybe suggesting something totally unusual, like taking the dirty dishes to the bathtub, or outside to wash. Asking if kids have a better idea. Hopefully they say ‘the kitchen sink’. Ask why. ‘Too cold outside, the bathtub is for people’. After doing dishes, suggest putting dishes in coat or linen closet. Hopefully as you are making far-fetched suggestions they are talking about why things are done as they are or should be!
Shannon,
It seems like whenever I try to leave messes to be a “lesson” it backfires….Maybe I’m doing something wrong! Or maybe I don’t leave it long enough! I can’t stand trying to make a meal or work in an untidy area. (My definition of untidy – which is sometimes different than anyone elses. In other words, sometimes, my mess can stay, but the kids’ messes have to go….I know that’s not right, but sometimes there seem to be good reasons why my mess can stay.) Maybe I start ranting and raving too soon, so the kids don’t actually have to live in the mess or something.
Anyway, I just want you to know that you are not alone in that boat!!! I’ve got the other oar! *L*
I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s ideas and suggestions.
Maybe have a “Backwards Day” to highlight what it would be like if things were out of order? Wear clothes inside out and backwards, eat supper, lunch, then breakfast, walk around the house backwards…etc.
As far as stories go, the days of creation in Genesis comes to mind to how how God created everything in a very orderly fashion.
I don’t really have any ideas but I have the same issues here. I make my kids clean up after breakfast and lunch but after supper (I am at work nights) if my husband doesn’t have them clear off the table and put the food away it doesn’t get done. My oldest DD 11, is starting to understand why I feel like I do (like I could pull my hair out when the house is trashed) and she does initiate cleaning up sometimes, so I just figure it is a learning process that will sink in as they get older? My DS 9 gets upset when I call his toys garbage; when I say the house is messed up really bad and there is garbage everywhere; so I try to refrain from that because after all, he probably thinks my sewing machine, material and books are garbage!
I would be interested to see what others have to say on this too.
I’ve been wondering myself how much this is matter of development and maturity and how much it can be taught. I can insist on the children cleaning up, even help them develop good habits just out of obedience, but when/how do they learn to care about order for themselves? I know many adults that don’t really seem to care about how tidy their environment is. Is that a personality thing, or an upbringing thing? Or is it just that they don’t learn how to keep clean, so they develop the attitude that they don’t care?
Sorry, I have more questions for you instead of answers, but I’d love to know the answers myself.
when I think of Habit of ORDER, the first thing I think of is organization. So I would set up a game…assign a room to each child. Discuss the use of the room what items should be in the room. What do you use daily, weekly, monthly etc. and it’s accessibility when you need it and have them put on paper how they would re-work the room. Have them give reasons for their decisions. If you really wnat to go crazy, then set the room up according to their plan and use it and find out by trial and error if the plan was a good one or not. I would probably start with their bathroom! LOL 😛
this would be for older children though. I walk my daughter through this for her room though and she is 8.
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