Hold It in Your Brain!
While teaching have you ever walked the plank with small children? It goes something like this. You get everyone on the carpet with a quiet mouth. Everyone is criss-cross-apple-sauced. Then one raises their hand. Do you call on this one child? You know you could lose the captivated audience but you do it anyway. You call on the one hand.
The child says, “It’s my mom’s birthday.”
I say, “Well, happy birthday to your mom!” It goes down hill from there.
Another child raises their hand. You call on them. “It’s my dog’s birthday.”
Then another child is reminded that it’s his uncle’s cat’s birthday and so on. Before long, you have spent 15 minutes learning about everyone and literally their dog’s birthday. Then someone raises their hand and asks permission to go to the bathroom. To remedy this I began saying this, and it worked so well the first time that I continued using this phrase.
Can you hold it in your brain? I hold my clenched fists beside my temples to resemble holding my thoughts in my brain. It works wonders for self control! I hope this idea is a gift to you!

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