tools.

about a year ago todd was teaching on the fruit of the spirit @ our old church back in santa clarita. during that time i was reading a book about the fruit by jerry bridges called the fruitful life. (if you have never read it, please pick one up... it truly did change my life.) one of the things that it brought me to do was think about how i can implement the fruit of the spirit in a fun way into the lives of my kiddos && teach them discipline at the same time. i came up with this idea of happy/sad jars. the "happy jar" has the list of the fruit of the spirit. the "sad jar" has lists of things that each of my kids struggle toward. example: whining. complaining. hitting. hurtful words. strife. the list goes on. the idea is to get marbles (as many as you can) into the happy jar... without having them in the sad jar. i took ashlynn and jeremy to micheal.s and let them pick out the color of their marbles. they helped me decorate the mason jars. this, of course, makes the jars theirs. it becomes a since of pride for them. plus i have a jar with extra marbles up high... i caught ashlynn trying to give jeremy one for being nice. cute but not ok... they both got one for being so sweet... of course.

when we moved up to SLO, the jars got boxed and left amongst the garage. when we finally pulled them out (we waited so long i'm afraid to say), both ashlynn and jeremy were so excited. they counted their marbles in each jar.

heres how it works:

1. start with 5 happy marbles. (positive reinforcement)

2. when they exhibit the fruit of the spirit they get a marble from the "overflow jar", or if they have some marbles in the "sad jar", they get to remove 1 from that jar and put it into the "happy jar". RECITE with them the fruit of the spirit. a song or something catchy... we make it silly... this way they can learn the fruit.

3. if they do something that exhibits a negative trait, they take a marble from the "happy jar" and place it in the "sad jar". (unfortunately there are times when there are no marbles in the "happy jar", that again is when you would use the "overflow jar".

4. REWARD when they get to 10/20/30 "happy marbles". use whatever works for your kids. ashlynn wants "dollars". she is our saver. she has to keep them in the "happy jar" and not use them. they are there! she has $3!