Wow! It's been quite a week - yes, already. We've been struggling quite a bit lately with Kaylen not telling the truth and telling lies.
Yes, there's a difference, but yes, she does both. She tries to get around things by just not telling the whole truth. But after 2 1/2 years with us, we know her too well. We start asking questions, and then the lies come out too.
We've talked and talked until we were blue in the face, she's had punishments,lost privileges she's cried, we've prayed together. You name it, we've tried it all - it just wasn't getting through.
Until tonight.
It started with she and I working on her homework pages this evening (yes, even in Kindergarten the send home a few worksheets each week). For the last one, she had to get out a book. Her library book she'd checked out was sitting right there on the table next to us, but she didn't want to read it. I asked her why, and she gets this attitude and says she's read it 5 times already - at the library before she checked it out. I kind of looked at her funny, and said, "You mean, you looked through the pages 5 times?" She says, "No, I really read all the words 5 times!"
Now, the book is called "The Mysterious Giant of Barletta." It's got LOTS of words in it - and lots of big and difficult words that I know that's not possible. If I read it to her, it would probably take me 10-15 minutes - so I know she didn't read it 5 times during the 20 minutes she was at the library. So, I sent her to timeout and said she could come out when she was ready to tell the truth. Instead of realizing that she was caught and I was already 100% sure that she wasn't telling the truth, she threw a fit and continued to tell me that she really did read it 5 times. Well, the punishment escalated with her continued lying, until she realized she wasn't getting out of it and finally told me the truth.
I thanked her for telling me the truth, and then I asked her why. She said she wanted me to be proud of her for being a good reader. I told her I was already proud of her reading abilities - she's an awesome reader already, but I know that she doesn't know some of those big words, and that's OK - I know she's still learning. I told her it really didn't matter - I don't mind that she hasn't read it 5 times already - in fact, I like it when she picks out books that she hasn't read before so she can learn more or hear more interesting stories, etc...
Then I talked to her about the rules. We have many rules. Wash your hands after you go to the bathroom. No playing at bedtime. Use your manners at meals. Tell the truth. Say please and thank you. But I told her that the rule about telling the truth is more important than many of those other rules. It was so important that God put it in the Bible. It's one of God's rules! That's how important it is. Then we prayed together, asking God help Kaylen to tell the truth...
We've done this before though. I know she understands what we talk about. But does she really? She doesn't see the importance of it. Somehow it just doesn't sink in. Us talking about it being important in her mind. How do we get through to her?
Well, Jock got home from work right about the time we were praying together, so he knew what we'd talked about.
Then at dinner, it rears its ugly head again - not 15 minutes later!
(to be continued...)
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