I have an eight year old who has developed a bad attitude. His personality has changed over the last month or so. He was also saved about a month ago. I have been on my knees asking God to help me to understand what he is feeling, but I am not going to be disrespected. Yesturday, I took out the Bible and read Ephesians 6 to him. I could feel that the Lord was getting through to him. We have put much prayer into the decision to homeschooling and believe that this is a call from the Lord for our family. We have been preparing for the last 6-8 months. We are going to began homeschooling this fall, and I know that this isn't the only answer. I do believe that a bit of the problem is the things that he is exposed to at school. Another is his playstation. I guess what I would like to know is how to work toward helping him to be little, and just enjoy life with a happy attitude. It almost feels like he needs a change of routine or something.
Kellie

It's good you're praying, Kellie. That's the first best thing to do. Continue to set limits with him as he tries to spread his wings. Continue to model good behavior with patience during his outbursts. Reward his good behavior with positive encouragement.

Definately reconsider the Playstation. Monitor the games as he plays them and see how he responds. I notice with some of the simplest games my own 8 yo can become aggressive. I take those away. They can also frustrate. I found out the other day he threw away a Pac Man game because it frustrated him so much! I find this happens if he's not using a timer. I'm not one to say get rid of Playstation. Just don't let it become an obsession and don't let him play it more than 30 min. a day.

On a side note: There was a study that showed letting your children play electronics within 1 hour of learning/school would diminish the learning experience. The education wouldn't have time to take "hold" because it was being replaced by the games. I thought that was interesting. Since I learned this, I don't let my kids play until after at least 1 hour after school.

It seems your little boy has a lot going on, and it's only normal that he would be responding to all these spiritual, emotional, and physical changes. Just explain to him that what he's feeling is very normal, but that the way he is responding isn't appropriate. Help him to discover the ways that are appropriate like talking about his feelings, drawing/coloring what's going on, journaling if he's old enough to write. You can even make an emotion board with him. Write all the "feeling" words with him and really use your imagination (get a thesaurus and teach him new feeling words that he might not use). This will help him in sorting things out on the inside and better help him to communicate to you.

I'll be praying for you!
Terry

Hey McFlubber,
Thanks for ministering to a fellow homeschooler. I am very curious about the study mentioned that playing video games right after learning diminishes the learning. Do you remember where you read that? I'd love to have that study in my files.
Thanks for your help.
Christine