Jillian still enjoys her Highland dancing. She recently danced the sword dance for an activity days talent show. All the 8-11 year old girls in our ward got to preform their talents for each other. She loved showing off her sword!! As you can see from the pictures she is learning how to handle it well. It is a real sword but it is not sharp, and it is not ours. We borrowed it from her teacher.
She has been practicing a lot lately to get ready for her upcoming show. On the 26th she is dancing in an old fashioned Scottish ceilidh (pronounced "kay-lee"). It is fun to see her improving and enjoying her talent.
We do tend to have lots of moaning & groaning when it is time to practice. She is fine practicing on her own but as soon as I tell her something to work on it is all huff's & puff's!! But I guess that is pretty typical!!
We are also building up our costume collection. Jillian is now the owner of her very own kilt, blouse, 2 vests & wool knee socks (not the outfit in the picture above, her new one was still being adjusted). We also have a white dress, under skirt & tartan that are worn for some of the dances. There really is a lot to learn about Highland dancing. We are slowly taking it all in. I think I finally stopped calling the kilt a skirt so that is a step in the right direction.
A cute story about Jillian: She recently broke our steamer mop while getting into things that she wasn't supposed to. We tell the kids all the time not to climb on the shelves & get things but to ask us instead & we will hand them what they need. Why? So they don't break the shelves or drop & break things on the shelves. Well Jillian & friends decided they needed batteries & they were probably on the top shelf in the closet. Jillian pulled down a bin full of candles from the top shelf & dropped many of them on the floor breaking the steamer & much glass in the process all around the bear feet of herself & her friends. I came to see what the noise was, luckily got everyone out without cuts on their feet & reminded (sternly) about not getting things down without asking for help. I also pointed out the batteries were on the bottom shelf easily accessible & she would have known that if she had asked.
We didn't notice the steamer was broken until I was in the process of sweeping up the glass. Jillian was sorry when I pointed it out to her but I reminded her she was sure to be much sorrier when Daddy found out since he has told them not to do it a million times. (Why are things always so much worse when Dad says them even when it is exactly what Mom said in the first place). Well, we told Christian about the accident at dinner & of course when he got after her for not listening it was way worse & the tears started. She felt very bad about it. Christian had assured Jillian that she would be buying the new steamer with the allowance we have recently started giving the kids and she said was ready to do what was necessary.
Of course on later reflection & with a cooler head he decided that was not reasonable & she clearly felt very bad about what had happened. We talked it over & decided that it was reasonable to have her contribute to the new steamer, with the hope she would learn a more lasting lesson but we didn't want to take away her allowance for the next year. We are trying to teach them money management & if she has no money she can't learn to manage it. So we thought $5 would be a decent amount for her to give toward the new steamer. It ends up being about 3 weeks worth of allowance (considering what is set aside for tithing & savings).
Each Monday night as part of family home evening I go over the children's allowance with them. They get 2 dollars a week with 10% for tithing, 20% for savings & 70% for savings/spending on things they save up for (still working on teaching them about not just spending it because it is there). We discuss their new total for each column & they get excited as they watch it grow. Well that night as we did allowance we told Jillian what we had decided and as we got to the last column we subtracted $5 to go toward the mop. We felt so bad doing this as she was so sorry about what she had done & very good natured about giving up the money & insisting she wanted to give more (she tends to go to extremes). We assured her this was adequate & gave her her new total in savings/spending. It was hard for her to see Carter's $8.40 and her $3.40 but like I said, we were hopeing the lesson would stick.
I ordered the new steamer & it arrived a few days later. As she came in the door from school she saw the box & excitedly asked what was in it & was it something for her. I said she was right to be excited & it did have something for her. "After all," I told her, "you do own $5 worth of the steamer inside!" All the excitement left her face & I got an eye roll and a "mommy" in the give me a break tone kids use.
I hope this will be a good lesson for her about listening to what we say, being obedient, managing money & helping to fix things when we make mistakes. It was hard for us to follow through with having her contribute money for the steamer since she is such a sweet, good natured thing & we hate to see her feel bad, but I thought it was important. She did tell me later that she no longer wanted to receive allowance anymore (taking things to the extreme again). I assured her I understood her feelings but that was not her choice to make. Once again, we are trying to teach them how to manage their money & they need some to do that with.
She has been practicing a lot lately to get ready for her upcoming show. On the 26th she is dancing in an old fashioned Scottish ceilidh (pronounced "kay-lee"). It is fun to see her improving and enjoying her talent.
We do tend to have lots of moaning & groaning when it is time to practice. She is fine practicing on her own but as soon as I tell her something to work on it is all huff's & puff's!! But I guess that is pretty typical!!
We are also building up our costume collection. Jillian is now the owner of her very own kilt, blouse, 2 vests & wool knee socks (not the outfit in the picture above, her new one was still being adjusted). We also have a white dress, under skirt & tartan that are worn for some of the dances. There really is a lot to learn about Highland dancing. We are slowly taking it all in. I think I finally stopped calling the kilt a skirt so that is a step in the right direction.
A cute story about Jillian: She recently broke our steamer mop while getting into things that she wasn't supposed to. We tell the kids all the time not to climb on the shelves & get things but to ask us instead & we will hand them what they need. Why? So they don't break the shelves or drop & break things on the shelves. Well Jillian & friends decided they needed batteries & they were probably on the top shelf in the closet. Jillian pulled down a bin full of candles from the top shelf & dropped many of them on the floor breaking the steamer & much glass in the process all around the bear feet of herself & her friends. I came to see what the noise was, luckily got everyone out without cuts on their feet & reminded (sternly) about not getting things down without asking for help. I also pointed out the batteries were on the bottom shelf easily accessible & she would have known that if she had asked.
We didn't notice the steamer was broken until I was in the process of sweeping up the glass. Jillian was sorry when I pointed it out to her but I reminded her she was sure to be much sorrier when Daddy found out since he has told them not to do it a million times. (Why are things always so much worse when Dad says them even when it is exactly what Mom said in the first place). Well, we told Christian about the accident at dinner & of course when he got after her for not listening it was way worse & the tears started. She felt very bad about it. Christian had assured Jillian that she would be buying the new steamer with the allowance we have recently started giving the kids and she said was ready to do what was necessary.
Of course on later reflection & with a cooler head he decided that was not reasonable & she clearly felt very bad about what had happened. We talked it over & decided that it was reasonable to have her contribute to the new steamer, with the hope she would learn a more lasting lesson but we didn't want to take away her allowance for the next year. We are trying to teach them money management & if she has no money she can't learn to manage it. So we thought $5 would be a decent amount for her to give toward the new steamer. It ends up being about 3 weeks worth of allowance (considering what is set aside for tithing & savings).
Each Monday night as part of family home evening I go over the children's allowance with them. They get 2 dollars a week with 10% for tithing, 20% for savings & 70% for savings/spending on things they save up for (still working on teaching them about not just spending it because it is there). We discuss their new total for each column & they get excited as they watch it grow. Well that night as we did allowance we told Jillian what we had decided and as we got to the last column we subtracted $5 to go toward the mop. We felt so bad doing this as she was so sorry about what she had done & very good natured about giving up the money & insisting she wanted to give more (she tends to go to extremes). We assured her this was adequate & gave her her new total in savings/spending. It was hard for her to see Carter's $8.40 and her $3.40 but like I said, we were hopeing the lesson would stick.
I ordered the new steamer & it arrived a few days later. As she came in the door from school she saw the box & excitedly asked what was in it & was it something for her. I said she was right to be excited & it did have something for her. "After all," I told her, "you do own $5 worth of the steamer inside!" All the excitement left her face & I got an eye roll and a "mommy" in the give me a break tone kids use.
I hope this will be a good lesson for her about listening to what we say, being obedient, managing money & helping to fix things when we make mistakes. It was hard for us to follow through with having her contribute money for the steamer since she is such a sweet, good natured thing & we hate to see her feel bad, but I thought it was important. She did tell me later that she no longer wanted to receive allowance anymore (taking things to the extreme again). I assured her I understood her feelings but that was not her choice to make. Once again, we are trying to teach them how to manage their money & they need some to do that with.
1 comment:
I am so impressed with how you and CHP handled this little incident. It sounds like you guys handled it rationally and calmly explained to Jilly what the consequences were. Great teaching moment!! We give the boys $2.00 a week for allowance as well. They pay tithing on it, but I like how you have them break it up into three separate jars. I think we will start doing that. BTW, I couldn't see any of the pictures on your blog...not sure why???
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