The adventures of Michael the 5 year old......

In going through my blog I must have forgotten to post this one....  This was a summer adventure with Michael.

The adventures of Michael the 5 year old......
I have a 5 year old who is all boy, adventurous, free spirited, and curious.  This combination can be quite dangerous. He is afraid of no one  and nothing.  And well yesterday he proved this to all of us once again.  On Saturday we get the house ready for Sunday doing chores and such and so as each chore was finished the kids were eager to play with their friends.  As I let them go out side I told them we would be leaving in about half hour to go to a park in town and play.  I packed lunch and and gathered what we would need and then loaded everything into the van.  I called all the kids together  to which all the kids answered ecxcept Michael.  Michael, I was told by the kids, went on a bike ride on the neighbors bike.  So we loaded up in the van with the exception of Allie who was to wait at the house just incase we missed Michael and he came back to the house.  And so began the next painful hour of searching for a 5 year boy who by the way was bare foot as well.  We eventually recruited the neighbor kids and two other dads in our search.  I had a feeling that I should call the police after searching for 30 min.  I stopped at a friends house and we called the police to report him missing only to be relieved that an officer had found him.  What a relief for me.  The next ten minuets were very long.  I was glad that he was safe but I just wanted to hold him and see that he was OK.  As the police officer pulled up there Michael was in the back of the Police car, eating some cookies.  His eyes were wet with tears, and he was now happy to be in his mothers arms and for that fact I think I was happier.

Now to teach this little boy of the importance of staying near his mother and asking to go somewhere.  My plan to have him be a little more dependent.  How does one teach a 5 year old to be dependent when he has pretty much been independent.  With love and gentleness, with patience and kindness.  With fasting and prayer.  I do not want ground him to a specif place for him to stay.  I want to create a safe and controlled enviroment where he can learn and choose to make good choices.  The other children have never had a problem for they learn fast what they can and can not do, but this is the third time that we have had this problem with Michael in the last week and a half.  The punishment was being grounded and staying in sight of an adult.  This has deffenantly not worked.  So I have added onto his staying in sight.  He has to ask to do any thing.  I want him to learn that he has to ask before he does anything.  Even though he can go to the bathroom on his own or color at his leaisure I think it is important for him to learn that he must ask.  And so the reason for having him not be grounded to sitting on the couch.  It is his responsiblity to ask permission before he does.  I explained to him that these small choices that he was making in our home was a good place to learn because it was safe and nobody would hurt him.  If he continued to make good choices here then when he was able to go out side the ablity to make good choices would be eiasier.  I then explained that if he were to make a bad choice that Mom would deal out the natural consequence  for him.  It would be hard for him to understand but as we both learned together with love and prayer that he would understand the princilpe of obedience.  Through charity the blessing of obdience is obtained and understood.  The blessing of obdeince if understood correctly is for our safety and protection.