Editor’s Note: This is one in a series of articles by well-known parent adviser and Baton Rouge resident Jill Rigby-Garner. She has been featured on numerous television and radio shows and has received praise from students, teachers and experts like Dr. Laura Schlessinger.

As much as we hate to admit it, with the pressures of adulthood, we often lose the pleasures of childhood. How many times have you witnessed a child open a package, pull out the gift and then, without hesitation, lay the gift aside to pull on the ribbon and tear the paper? And what about the request to read the same book twice every night for weeks? Such contentment in repetition. (It makes me wonder if we teach children to want more as they grow up.)

Watch your children play outside. That sense of wonder. That expression of surprise. That little mouth opened wide at the discovery of a new treasure of great worth—a rock! Chasing a butterfly. Watching a hummingbird. Don’t your children invite you to join them?

Do yourself a favor, and delight your children at the same time, by being a kid everyday in some small way. While your children work on their ABCs through homework from school, you can work on your ABCs through heartwork at home!

The ABCs of Heartwork:

Always smile—it helps you feel better when you don’t feel like it

Blow bubbles—walk in the house with a bottle of bubbles in hand

Color in a coloring book—instead of reading one night, get out the crayons

Draw a self-portrait—Let the children put your picture on the refrigerator

Eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with milk for supper

Finger paint—yes, use your fingers, not brushes

Giggle until your sides ache

Hide and Seek—ask your kids to play before they ask you

Ice cream cones for everybody

Jump rope—learn the Double Dutch

Kick a can down the street

Look up at stars at night and the clouds in the day

Musical chairs—rearrange the chairs after supper and turn on the music

No TV—don’t turn it on!

Old-fashioned Hop Scotch—draw the diagram on the driveway and invite the kids to join you

Paper airplanes—challenge the kids to a contest

Questions—ask silly, silly questions

Race around the block

Scissors, Rock, Paper

Take a walk without your watch

Uncontrollable laughter

Ventriloquism, try it!—it’s not as hard as it seems

Walk barefoot in the grass

Xylophone, if you dare! Kids love this instrument

Yodel, try it!—this is as hard as it seems

Zoo animal sounds—find out who has the best tiger growl.

I promise your children will do their homework, if you’ll do your heartwork!

Jill Rigby Garner is an award-winning author, accomplished speaker, family advocate and founder of Manners of the Heart . For more practical ideas and inspiration on how to instill manners in your child’s heart, visit www.mannersoftheheart.org .