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Affirmations

Affirmations
By Marilyn Mackenzie

Recently, while re-reading Zig Ziglar's Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World I was reminded that our public school kids hear eight negative comments for every affirmation they receive. That's sad, because receiving positive feedback helps us all perform better.

This may be one reason that performance and testing results are often better for home-educated kids than kids in public schools. Home schooled children receive affirmations throughout the day!

If you have visited public schools, you’ve most likely discovered that classrooms are chaotic. Teachers raise their voices and verbally discipline students often far more than they educate or instruct. Since more and more students have been diagnosed with ADHD, it must be horribly difficult for them to filter the chaos. That has to result in their behaviors being less than desired, and the cycle continues. As they cannot concentrate, they act out, and more chaos results. And that just makes the teachers raise their voices more as well.

Zig Ziglar also states that there are two times during the day when we humans are more receptive to positive comments about ourselves - the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night.

Think about this. Most families - no matter whether the children are in the public school system, in private schools, or home schooled - find that their early mornings are utter chaos. Breakfast, if there is one, is often snatched and eaten as adults and children run out the door. Imagine what a difference it might make in our own lives and in the lives of our children if we woke just a few minutes earlier each day so we could spend time in meditation before the day really began. We would certainly start out on a more peaceful journey if we did that.

What if we worked to make our child’s day more peaceful from the very beginning by being more organized?

What if we made a point of offering affirmations for each family member as the day began? That might help them survive the chaos of the rest of the day.

Having busy kids doesn’t make them happier or smarter. In fact, it’s probably putting more stress on them than they need. How many kids really need to be in every sport during every season? How many kids need to take four kinds of dancing lessons? Perhaps some of those activities could be cut from their schedules in favor or more family time.

Family meals used to be an excellent way for families to stay in touch and to have family discussions. It was also a great way for kids to learn to respect the wisdom of parents. With all we’re finding out about how unhealthy fast food is, home cooked meals would probably be better for our families anyway. What if we tried to have at least three or four evenings with family meals and family discussions?

Children used to be tucked into bed with a story book, perhaps a song or two, and prayer. Shouldn’t our children be afforded at least some of that? Remember, affirmations given at the beginning and end of each day are more palatable and more believable.

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