April Value Wrap-Up

Hi fellow mommies and women out there –

I would like to introduce myself:  My name is Megan Stewart.  I am the oldest of seven children, my youngest sibling being my 19- month-old sister. I grew up in a loving and involved home with two extremely devoted parents who continue to set an incredible example to me of selflessness, gratitude, optimism, and love.  We are lucky enough to live very close to one another, and get together with our children often.  Although our situation is unique, we feel very fortunate to be a mom/daughter team sharing the role of mother.  Our kids are best friends and I feel so blessed to have someone I trust so much live so close by when there is an emergency (and believe me, when there are 6 children 4 and under, there can be many emergencies!).  My mom, Mary, and dad, Bryce, have been happily married for 27 years and have seven children.  I am the oldest, and my sister, Melinda, is 22 and happily married with a darling little boy, Jayden, who is 8 months.  My brother, Jesse, is almost 14, Nathan and Josh, the twins, are 4 ½, Hallie is 3 ½, and Abby is 20 months.  Yes, my parents are extremely busy!  But their home, although there can be lots of chaos and craziness, is full of love, and we love to visit as often as we can and relish in the laughter and adventure that can be found with 6 small children and one incredible and fun big brother/uncle.

 My husband, Wes, and I have been married for 5 ½ wonderful years.  I have been a stay-at-home mommy to two beautiful boys for just over four years now.  Kolton is 4, Micah is 3, and we have another little one on the way that is due on June 28^th.  Before I was a mom, I was a nanny while Wes was in school.  I took care of two different families at that time.  One with two girls ages 8 and 3, and the other with two boys and a girl, ages 11, 9, and 6.   I was told nannying would “fill the void” of having my own kids until Wes and I felt “ready” to start our family, but I think it actually had the opposite effect on both of us.  We loved those kids so much and got a small glimpse of how wonderful and fulfilling parenthood can be and decided to start our family sooner than planned.  It’s been challenging – especially in the realm of finishing school, student loans and such, but it has been a decision that we have never regretted.  Being a mom is tough, and sometimes lonely, but we all know how unbelievably fulfilling and incredible it is as well.  Motherhood is a great adventure, full of more challenges and personal growth and fulfillment than any other job I can imagine.  What a blessing (and responsibility) it is to be a mom!

My mom and I joined the Power of Moms board just a month ago.  We are very excited to be involved with such an important cause and to be learning from and meeting so many amazing women!  We feel that teaching children values is so important, and one of the most valuable (no pun intended) gifts we could give our children.  We seem to live in a world where values are very much under attack, as well as the family in general, and we feel teaching our children the importance of values will help them grow to be good people and guide them throughout their lives.  We are excited to embark on this adventure together and hope that bringing two perspectives into the mix will help and relate to more people.

This has been a hard article for me to write – probably both because it’s the first time and also because of how important my mom and I both feel it is to teach children values. 

The value we began with was April’s value, which was unselfishness and sensitivity.  I did a little research and defined it as being aware of and responsive to the feelings of others, generous, and altruistic.   I initially made a small list of things I thought would apply to unselfishness and sensitivity.  My list included things like sharing, service, patience, asking my children about how things made people feel, how they could make others feel happy, saying “I’m sorry”, working on not tattling, helping others, cleaning up after themselves/others.  Making a list really helped me get my creative juices going and think of different ways to teach the boys about unselfishness and sensitivity.  I then was able to create a “game plan” of different ways I could teach these things to small children.

Some things I thought of were role playing, stories, positive reinforcement, family home evenings, and visual aids.  We role played different scenarios at family night one week and it really seemed to help the boys get an idea of the value and what it meant.  We role-played such things as someone falling and getting hurt, someone sick, someone fighting, etc.  We listened to a few stories on CD throughout the month that had many cute stories, songs, and examples for the boys to listen to and understand.  We listened to “Alexander’s Amazing Adventures’ – Unselfishness and Sensitivity” and also “Standin’ Tall – Service”.  There were many cute stories and great ideas for the boys to soak in.  I especially liked the idea of the kids keeping a “service log” in the “Service” CD.  I then opened a cute book I had of different children’s activities and they talked about “helping hands”.  I found a few songs, “One Little Girl” and “Sharing” from Brite’s “I Have a Song For You” CD, and we listened to those and talked about “helping hands” and the boys gave some ideas for ways they could help others and be sensitive to their feelings/needs.   We made “helping hands” to hang up every time we caught them doing something pertaining to the value each month.  That was a really great thing for them and they really enjoyed it and got into hanging the hands on the wall.  It was fun for me to see how much they really can do when they are so young.  They notice so much more than I ever realized, and talking about it each day, doing the “helping hands”, and listening to them notice little things on their own was really fascinating!  They are smart little whippersnappers!   It taught me a lot also.  They would start to notice things like my patience or even the lack of patience sometimes.  I noticed how much they model what I do each day and felt myself very aware of what I was doing each day that pertained to the value (patience, speaking kind words, serving others, being a considerate driver, etc.).  It was definitely good for me to think about also.

We had a few different family friends go through various hard things throughout the month, and it was fun to be able to help my boys participate in things like bringing dinners, flowers, writing cards, sharing little treats, and speaking kind and loving words throughout the month.  Boy oh boy was it ever sweet to see two little people bring desert to someone’s door or help someone bring groceries in from the car!

The last thing we did throughout the month to help reinforce/teach the value of the month was books.  I am such a sucker for a good children’s book, and I’ve noticed with my kids they definitely retain more from things like stories and songs.  Here is a book/story list of the various things we read and discussed together throughout the month:

The Rainbow Fish

The Giving Tree

The Berenstain Bears and the Golden Rule

The Good Samaritan

The King’s Highway

The Peacegiver (this one was for me and not read with the kids.  I think it would work for a teenager.)

We loved having the month of April to focus on being unselfish and sensitive.  We would love to hear stories of things you tried and what you learned.  Values are so important and so beneficial to all of us.  I hope you enjoyed reading and are feeling inspired to jump in and teach your children the value of the month.  Two heads are better than one, and we would love to hear all your creative and amazing ideas and feedback about how you are teaching your children the value of the month.   

We will be back soon for some ideas for May’s value: kindness and friendliness.  Feel free to email or comment with any questions of feedback!  We’d love to hear from you!

 Love and Hugs, Mary and Megan