Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Praises makes a difference

It's final exams period here, Jared has just completed his, but Ryan has two more weeks to go. Thankfully it's not the other way round, because it would be impossible to motivate J to press on if his brother was all done and relaxing, like J is now!

As usual it was a struggle with J through the past two weeks of intensive revision. He tends to be inconsistent in his daily work, so there were a lot of tears (him) and incessant nagging (me) while we help him catch up. But interestingly (and thankfully) he is more matured this year, and now has the desire to do well (he wants to enter his brother's secondary school). Except that the spirit is willing but the flesh is still weak (!) So I had to be his study buddy and sat with him all day and revised with him. Needless to say, he did not enjoy my company very much, lol!

I'm not sure if I'm the norm or not, but I'm guilty of scolding more than praising my children on most any given day. There's so much I can find to nag them about, lol! The situation got far worse the past few exam revision weeks, naturally.

So it was time to apply the 'home training lesson' I took home from Bible Study Fellowship entitled "Amazing results will happen when children hear positive words and encouragement from you". It suggests that we need to practise praising at every chance and even listed a compilation of phrases like:

"I'm so impressed! I really like that! You amaze me! I thank God for you everyday! I'm glad you thought of that!"

I came up with some praises of my own:

"See, you did it! Great task completion! Good attention to detail! You're so creative! Nobody can do that in our family except you! I'm glad you took the initiative! That's very thoughtful of you! I love your attention to detail! Great job tidying up! I could tell you put in a lot of effort! That's impressive, you know, ..."

It was easy to come up with praises once I got going. The boys responded so differently to praise compared to nagging..haha..Hate to admit that I needed a simple reminder to practise what I always knew was so important. And so I'm now happily practising finding every opportunity to praise my kids (and hubby too!). It's definitely rubbing off, on them and me. Pray I keep it up!

11 X 8.5 Layouts
In the comments to my last post, a question was posed asking it I would ever consider doing 8.5 X 11 templates for those who prefer that format? Well, as you know I only want to make templates from layouts I make for myself, but guess what? When I started out digiscrapping, I made layouts in the 8.5 X11  format so as to be able to print them out on my home printer. And I've been wanting to go back to update and complete the layouts from our trip to New Zealand in 2005 for a photobook. Your comment encouraged me to start working on them and I'll post the templates too!

Here's the first two layouts I dug out, they were both on a flat blue (photoshop color-filled) background (did not have access to much scrapbooking supplies then), which I decided now to discard, in favour of my current favorite white background. I was already using the linear style then! And ever since, double pages! Haha!
I can't get over how tiny the boys were, just 5 years ago! Jared just sat beside me and told me some of what he remembers from that day, he was six then. We huffed and puffed, coaxed and cajoled the boys up the hill, and I remember how proud and exhilarated we all felt when we got to the topafter 5+ hours. And that amazing, breathtaking view!

You can download both templates here

And I've happily completed more Hokkaido trip layouts. We arrived in Niseko train station enroute to the Niseko Ski resorts. It was a one carriage train that fetched us away from the city into the country, stark and completed snowed out, so utterly beautiful.
Credits: foliage by Elisas bits, paper by Cinnamondesigns, and alpha by Krista Hartley and word art by Paislee press.

Now this Onsen experience is quite another story, after much deliberation, we decided we just could not bring ourselves to join in the public onsen (bath) so we spurlged on one night in a room with it's own onsen pool! It was an experience alright, the water was lovely with a faint mineral scent and color, but I couldn't take the heat and felt faint after 20 minutes (lol). We thought the boys would not go near it, but they loved it!
Credits: petals by Ajay Abney designs, word art and backgroun paper from rejuvenate by sahlinstudio, paint splatter from Cafe J.

And the next two layouts are just us trudging around in the abundant snow the next morning, making our first little snow man (we had not imagined it was so hard to make him big and round!)

 Credits: word art by Ali Edwards, snow flake and 'snowball'by Dani Mogstad, blue paper by A Victoria
This is now available as part of Template Pack 7 in the store. Thanks for your interest!

51 comments:

  1. I love your templates! Thank you! :)

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  2. Beautiful pages! Thank you for the new template, too.

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  3. Thank you for the templates! Good luck to your son on his exams.

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  4. Thank you so much for sharing the templates. Appreciate that. Are you doing BSF this year for the study of Isaiah? I am a school program leader and love it!! Have been a part of BSF for 15 years. Great way to study the Bible. Thanks for all your sharing and encouragement.

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  5. Thank you so much for such great templates! Greatly appreciate them!

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  6. You are SO right; praise makes a huge difference for kids, adults and the best praise is when we praise the Lord!

    Thanks for all you share.

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  7. I love your templates and your layouts but sometimes I get even more from reading your blog like I did today. I just got done nagging my daughter because she let some homework assignments slide without doing her usual best work. I really needed this reminder, I feel like God put this post in my life right now because I needed to hear it! So thank you!

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  8. What a great commentary! I was going to say "yes, I'm VERY guilty of this too..." and "don't forget the hubby" but you beat me to it. :) It's always nice to have a reminder, and I love your templates also!! :) ~Jen

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  9. Can so relate to the nagging vs. praising. Though I found as "I" got older the praising became easier, LOL. Do love all your layouts and thanks for the template.

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  10. Thank you for your generosity in sharing. Really appreciate them and love your layouts. I used your template 199 at
    http://yanlowson.blogspot.com/2010/10/tree-trimming.html
    Thanks

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  11. Thanks so much for sharing your awesome templates and your fabulous stories! I was just talking to my hubby and a friend about the power of positive words!

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  12. Many thanks for sharing your templates!

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  13. Th♥nks so much for sharing!

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  14. Your templates are so cool, and I love to see your pages of your adventures!

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  15. Thanks so much. I love using your templates all the time.

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  16. Thank you SO much for sharing your templates. I find myself coming back to them over and over again. I love using a lot of photos to tell the story. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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  17. I can't even imagine you as a critical person, you are nothing but kind and full of praise with me :) But I am glad you feel you are growing in this area. Love the new pages, and how awesome that you did some 8.5x11's, people are always asking for them! I'll be sure to put up your new freebies in my next post :)

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  18. Thanks for sharing your templates

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  19. Thanks, Yin! For the templates and the wise words. I, too, find myself critisizing much of the time. Thanks for the reminder and encouragement! :)

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  20. Thank you for another wonderful template, and for a timely reminder about praise! You are a blessing to me.

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  21. Love your templates and your pages are to die for

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  22. Thanks for yur template gifts!
    I miss that you not write here so often :( .. i like reading about you and your family!
    Hope your son things will be good!!

    Please tell us if you are going to have a BIG sale when is "black friday " at usa.. so i can buy some of the templates i not have from you!

    a Hug from Colombia

    Soffy

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  23. I think we all have to be reminded that positive encouragement is needed just like correction. Don't be to hard on yourself either. From what i can see you are a great mom...admittedly i'm thousands of miles away...lol! Good luck to your son on his exams! Thank you for the freebies they are much appreciated!

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  24. Thank you for the templates!
    cj

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  25. Thank you very much for the templates. Great layouts!

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  26. Thank you for the free templates. I am very much of a linear scrapbooker as well, and can see many uses for these!

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  27. Thank you for the reminder to praise more! We all need that reminder from time to time. God's blessings on you as you endeavor to bless your family! And thank you for the wonderful templates, too!

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  28. Thanks for the 8.5x11 templates! I also needed the reminder about praise...having some issues with a kiddo and I think this is what I needed :)

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  29. Thanks so much for the 8.5x11 templates - they are hard to find. I am enjoying your blog and plan to read it often.

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  30. Thanks for the great templates!

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  31. I love your templates and use them a lot, over and over. Thanks for these new ones. It is very sweet of you to share so generously.

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  32. Love your new pages and your blog. Thank you for sharing!

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  33. Honestly, I think your templates have really taught me a new style of scrapping, and I'm grateful for that!

    I think I need to remember the positive reinforcement with my daughters, too. It's so EASY to criticize, and even though they are grown, they need compliments and positive statements, too!

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  34. Hello Yin, I want to congratulate you for your beautiful LOs and templates. I am passionate for your photobooks. I would love to make one, especially the project 365 days, but I am very doubtful about how to ordering the print of a layout and I'm afraid of doing someting wrong and losing money.
    You already have experience in that, so, do you could one day make a post about it? Eg, about the format to send the LO (png, jpg, psd), to the program site, what size (3600X3600, 800X600), in RGB or CMYK, how to take care of the cut line to not make mistakes, etc..
    Thanks

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  35. Wow-not only are your templates awesome, but your examples for how you used them are completely inspiring. thanks for getting my creative juices going!

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  36. Always so excited to see a new post from Yin! I needed to read the 'praising vs. nagging' advice today. I am going to join you in choosing the positive over the negative.

    Love the layouts...I learn so much just by looking at how you put together your pages.

    Thanks for the freebies!! Hugs!

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  37. I really love your templates, thank you!

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  38. love your templates! looking forward to more 8.5 x 11's. thank you!

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  39. Rachel (Rach3975)October 24, 2010

    Thank you so much, for both the reminder and the templates. I'm used to converting 12x12s to 8.5x11, but it's a nice treat to have them already in letter size!

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  40. I love your templates! Thank you so much for posting them for us to use!!

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  41. Hello!
    I wanted to tell you thank you! I am a mom to 4 and we homeschool, and I wanted to make a year book. Your templates are so perfect!! I bought a set of them and downloaded a whole bunch of the free ones.
    I have been giggling and scrapping, I am in awe of how yours turn out, but I just wanted to say thank you!!!

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  42. Thanks for freebies! you can see here what I realize with your templates: http://mescrapsmavie.canalblog.com/archives/2010/10/24/19418943.html#comments

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  43. just want to say that i LOVE all your layouts. wish i could be as good, but that's far from happening! you really have great talent! God is good! :)

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  44. thank U much--always enjoy your templates! :)

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  45. Thanks for sharing the templates! Love them =)

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  46. Thank you so much for sharing your talent!

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  47. Thank you for your generosity.

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  48. thank you for the template. You are such a talented photographer!

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  49. Thank you for the template!

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