Edited by Mimi Rothschild
But what can I do when my homeschooled child has a temper tantrum, or refuses to eat a meal time, or refuses to do his schoolwork? What can we do to ease this and other types of behavior that appear rebellious to parents and may have become a favorite past time for the child as a means of gaining negative attention from the parents. Children have manyways o getting what they need. They can appear at times vary at step two at pulling out and using just the one that will be the most irritating at the precise moment. The child, through these tactics, is really saying that he wants to be the center of attention for a while.

Sometimes parents take the attention-getting antics of the child too seriously. What can parents do with these trying times,? A good principle to keep in mind is that there are some things that a parent must learn to it nor. A next-door neighbor of ours used to tell us. You see too much where your child is considered quite seeing so much. Some of the behavior problems of your child which were you so much will be taken care of by time and the process of the child growing up. This neighbor was not a child psychologist and yet we have found that he was giving a sound advice.

Things will go a lot smoother if we can understand of a six-year-old will usually act like a six year old, and that when the same child gets to be 10 years of age he will usually act like a 10-year-old. To say to the child don’t be childish is about as effective as saying don’t breed. All children can vote missed the mark at times. This is because they are children and need time to learn how to conform to the requirements of their social world, time to learn how to control their emotions, time to learn how to get along with other people, time to learn how to make the most time. If parents can remember this, it will help in keeping the child’s behavior in proper perspective.

When the homeschooling child’s behavior becomes too unruly. Too frequently, it might be a good idea to look at his daily routine. Does he have enough opportunity to play with other children? Is there enough variety in his day? Does he have space and equipment for active play? Is he fenced in with too many unnecessary restrictions? There is a difference between the child’s natural exuberance and his misbehavior. The youngster is by nature adventuresome, curious, energetic cop, inclined to explore. When he has these tendencies curbed by parents who are too restrictive, the child naturally responds in some form of a bilious behavior.

In coping with the behavioral patterns which say “I want your attentio”, homeschooling parents sense of humor can be indispensable. Give the child’s attention temporarily and then channeled the incident into something amusing.

Another means of avoiding complex problems over his unacceptable behavior is by setting up a set of rules for conduct which the child clearly understands. If the child can see with these rules are not simply that are made necessary for the welfare of all concerned. And by the very nature of the situation itself, he is much more likely to go along with them. A word of caution: if the rules are too numerous to rigid and unsuited to the child’s present level of development, he is likely to thumb his nose at them, figuratively and perhaps even literally.

In all of this effort to deal with the child who is missing the mark, the parent who can retain his emotional equilibrium, is the parent who is in the best position to win. In order to keep his emotional control, it may be necessary for the parent simply to walk away from the situation and not deal with it until he has cooled off and until he can get the proper situation into proper focus. Here again a sense of humor can be a valuable tool. A smiling parent who can see, and can lead the child to see, the ridiculousness of a situation can often change and emotion packed atmosphere into a serene one and can do it much more satisfactorily than a scowling and threatening parent.

There is no more dynamic power in a child’s life than the need for his parents wholehearted approval and recognition. The child may hide the truth so that it is not easy for a parent to perceive it. He will often relinquish some of his strongest and most wholesome urges in order to adhere to parental instructions, if he knows that disobedience for the sake of independents will gain for him the disapproval of his parents. Even the child’s “I hate you” is the desperate plea of the youngster who has a worthless peeling that he is so hopelessly trapped by his extreme need for approval and acceptance that it compels him to acquiesce to the domination of his parents. Because they are children, children will fail to measure up to our expectations sometimes. How we as parents behave when our children misbehave is the real test of parenthood. If we can pass the test most of the time, we can breathe a sigh of relief by feeling that we are normal parents after all.

A mother and her son were admiring some baby chickens. The son picked up one and held it so tightly that it almost smothered. It struggled a until it succeeded in escaping. Casually, the mother said, if you hold a cheek to tightly, it wants to get away. Try holding one gently. The next little chick nestled quietly in the Sun’s open palm, while the mother injected a timeless truth: you know, son. People are the same as chicks. If we told those we love too closely to us, Bailey. They will struggle for freedom. Hold them with open hands and they won’t feel smothered.

That mother had shared a truth that valuable football parents: when are chicks, our children, missed the mark, let us deal with them with the open hand of overall love, understanding, and honesty.