Tom Sawyer

This summer at the cabin I began reading Tom Sawyer to the boys.  The jargon is a little hard to understand, so I translate to modern English as I go, but the message and adventures are timeless.  From the 5 year old up to the 12 year old, they love the story!   James broke out the bb guns for the first time and Jimmy decided to go native after he had his first experience shooting a soda can.  Lots of fun for the boys!

Recently I overheard an older man instructing a younger man in the three stages of dealing with people. He described them as

Telling, Yelling and Asking.

He suggested that we tend to start out telling people what to do. Then, when they don’t respond favorably, we yell. When we find that doesn’t work, we begin asking. People tend to respond better to asking than telling or yelling. The advice given was to move to the asking stage quickly to save everybody a lot of frustration and grief.

This works with your kids too, believe it or not.