Book Club | Child Wise

We are reading through the book On Becoming Child Wise by Gary Ezzo, M.A. and Robert Bucknam, M.D. Any direct quotes are printed in bold type.

Today we are looking at the first half of chapter four, "The First Principle." Before I move on, let me explain why "The First Principle" is the title of the chapter when we will be examining principles 4-6 in this chapter. "The First Principle" refers to the Golden Rule which is the basis for moral training in our children. When they are going to make a choice or decisions "The First Principle" should be the first thought that pops into their head.

Having said that, let's move on.





Child Wise Principle #4
 
Instill morality into a child and his behavior will fall into place.

We believe moral education should not only be the priority of early training but is absolutely essential for optimal intellectual ans emotional development, as well as advancement of natural skills.

As a believer in Jesus, our moral standard and moral code is set by the Bible. I have found with Addie that because we have used the Bible as the basis of all of her moral upbringing, most of the time, when we are correcting her, all we have to do is refer her back to God's Word to show her where her mistake was. Last night, I discovered that she now just assumes all of our house rules come right out of the Bible.

But also as she is now making more choices in how she is going to respond to us, we are finding ourselves referring her back to the Genesis account of Adam and Eve and the choice they had to make, whether to obey God or listen to the devil. And it is beautiful to see her choose to obey God (and her parents, as a result) because she understands what our referral point is. Like her mother and father, she does not always make the right choice, but correction is easier when there is an Absolute to bring her (and us) to.