well trained children

are the loveliest sort.

It's never to early to begin training your children to be lovely. Even toddlers can be taught skills in loveliness like picking up their blocks and putting them back in their basket. The task that is my favorite, I am practicing with my 17 month old right now. I am training him to make a smiling face upon command.  Sounds simple enough, doesn't it?  You may even wonder why you need to train a child to smile...

Well, children do have lovely smiles, naturally, don't they? The training is actually obedience and a change of attitude. I've been trying it out and it's working splendidly.  When my little guy begins a hint of bad attitude, let's say when he thinks he is too busy to stop for a diaper change, I smile and command him to smile.

It's like a stunning technique. He might begin to fuss but when he hears me tell him to smile, all he can think about is smiling.  Who doesn't want to smile? Of course, I'm sure it's encouraging when your momma is also smiling at you, right? Loveliness begets loveliness, I think.

I've also began to train him to put his hand over his mouth if he is fussing too much.  I have not been as consistent with that technique because, well, I'd much rather just see him smile. ;-)

*I am not that brilliant, therefore I did not think of this myself.  I am humble enough to recognize the voice of other's experience.