Changing Your Child's Heart Part 2

In the book, "Changing Your Child's Heart," he talks about 4 steps he calls "progression of discipline" that he takes to get a child to obey and get rid of their bad attitude.

1. Have your child verbally repeat what you want them to do (ex. Clean up their toys). With children under 5, have them repeat, "I will obey Daddy + Mommy." This is the kind of "brainwashing" they need. We have been doing this with Kiera and it has been working! Yesterday morning, she got out of bed and all on her own (I wasn't even thinking about it) she said, "I will obey Mommy!" :)
In the Bible, God says, "Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds...Teach them to your children, talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road..." Deuteronomy 11:18-19

2. If they don't do what you are asking them to do, have them do the task 3 times in a row. He calls this practicing consequences. (Ex. Tommy wasn't putting his bike away like he was asked, so he had to ride his bike to the end of the street, come back, and put the bike in the garage, ride to the end of the street, come back, and put the bike in the garage, etc.)
In the Bible, Israel practiced and practiced obedience in their observance of the rules for food preparation, work, social life, sacrifice, and worship.

3. Assign work (extra chores).
a. Match the degree of work difficulty with the level of the bad attitude
b. The job should use their muscles and not chemicals or power tools.
c. The standard for work assigned as a disciplinary tool is higher than the standard for daily chores.
d. Make sure the child is physically capable of doing the work you assign them. In their family, they started using this tool at the age of 3.
e. Attitude-adjustment work is not a substitute for regular chores.
Work is so effective for a very simple reason: it makes kids move. External movement will eventually change their internal posture.
In the Bible, when Israel sinned over and over, God made them slaves many times, which means they had to work hard.

4. The final tool: Exercise
If your child won't work out their attitudes by working, then you will give them a workout. Ex. Get them to do 20 push-ups and with each one have them count out loud and say, "Ok, Mom, one. Ok, Mom, two, etc." If their attitude isn't better after that, get them to do more push-ups or maybe switch to jumping jacks and have them count and say, "I'll respect Mom, one, I'll respect Dad, two, I'll respect my sister, three...etc." When in public, take them to the car and have them do exercises. That way not as many people will see them and you can leave if they aren't cooperating.

As I was reading, I thought, all of these are wonderful ideas, but none of them will work when my child is throwing a temper tantrum. He addresses that close to the end of the book, so I will tell you what he says about that tomorrow!