Challenge

Hard to believe, but these sweet little faces can cause mass chaos in this house.  Especially, when they are all asked to do work together to clean.   Corbin tries to make them all: do it, do it right, do it right now.  They other two don't like to be bossed around, and one of them moves like a turtle.  This causes Corbin a LOT of stress, and they end up fighting/hitting/slapping/kicking, etc.  This morning, Kevin told them all they were going to be issued a special challenge, that would result in one grand prize winner.  The challenge was to see who could accomplish the most housecleaning in 15 minutes.

Well, they were off.  They started out doing just an okay job, and needed a few reminders to do the job right the first time.  But, they all got into it and worked soooo hard!  We had our metal patio chairs inside, left over from Thanksgiving. Boston saw Corbin hauling them out and around to the back patio, and decided to help out.  He grabbed a chair and ate up the majority of the 15 minutes trying to haul it around the house to the back patio.

When the 15 minutes were up, the kids lined up and were asked what they had accomplished.  They went down the line and told in fine detail every movement they made.  Kevin then asked them, "Ok, now what did you do to help another sibling in accomplishing a task?"  All three were confused at first.  This wasn't the challenge, was it?  Each thought and were able to come up with 2 or 3 things that they had done to help out another.

Kevin then asked each kid who they thought should be the grand prize winner.  Through the course of all this questioning, hearts were softened and it was no longer about who had done more.  Each of the kids wanted the other to win!  NONE of them picked themselves to win.  Each told how they thought one of the other siblings deserved to win.  Kevin and I were both reduced to tears.  What a teaching moment for the kids AND parents!!

We had them go upstairs while we deliberated and decided they all 3 had displayed different attributes of true winners.  Here are the results:

1. Boston-Determination. He knew he didn't have much time, and those chairs were extremely heavy.  But, he stuck with it and finished the job, even though he knew doing so would lessen the jobs he was able to do to win. He also helped the other 2 with a few things 

2. Brityn-Attitude.  This girl generally has a good attitude when asked to do ANYTHING!  She was happy and willing to take on this challenge.  She didn't complain, and even made it fun with her quirky sense of humor.  She also helped both her brothers with some little things.

3. Corbin-Leadership.  Corbin led by example.  He dug in worked like a very thorough tornado.  He didn't judge the works of anyone else, or point out flaws in others approach.  This inspired the other two to work hard.  He also found time to help the other two with a thing or two.

This was an amazing spiritual/learning experience for both the kids AND the parents.  It was a wonderful way to start out our Sunday morning.

The reward ceremony ;)