Kids Flag Page Review... Discover Your Child's Heart!

Kids are a funny species, especially when they are your own.  We tend to think of them as little versions of ourselves, at least I did.  I love my daughter with all of my heart, but I get frustrated with her at times.  She is extremely creative, but can get distracted easily.  It's hard for her to stay on task.  I'll ask her to clean her room, get her started, and 5 minutes later I'll find her sitting on the floor writing in her notebook!  

"Abby", I say, "aren't you supposed to be cleaning your room?"

"Oops." That's her answer... "Oops, I forgot." 

How could she possibly forget?  It hasn't even been 10 minutes!  This is a very intelligent little girl, a gifted student... how could she forget?

Abby doesn't operate the same way that I do.  I used to get so frustrated with her until one day when God decided to knock me over the head with this little gem:

"Abby is not you, Jenny.  She is a unique creation, made by Me, and is just the way she should be.  You need to accept her just the way that she is and learn how to best love her."  

Wow.  Why didn't I realize that before?  Abby is Abby, she is not a little Jenny.  She has personality traits and characteristics that make her just who she is, and she is amazing.  But it took God speaking directly to my heart for that to really sink in.

A couple of years later I found myself at The Relevant Conference standing in front of the Family Matters booth, looking at a game of sorts called Kids Flag Page.  Here's the tag line that caught my eye...

     "Consider this the operating manual that SHOULD have come with each of your kids, BUT DIDN'T."


Huh?  Sounds interesting.  At closer inspection I found that Kids Flag Page is a bit like The Five Love Languages.  Have you ever read that?  Great book.  Kids Flag Page is a tool for parents, teaching how to tailor our parenting styles to each of our children, depending on how they are motivated.  Each child is motivated by different things.  Would you like to know what motivates your child, what makes them tick?  This is exactly what Kids Flag Page does and it does it in a really fun way that gets your child involved.

Kids Flag Page will ultimately categorize your child into one of four countries: Peace country, Fun country, Perfect country, and Control country.  This is done by letting your child work through a series of 36 different cards, each with a specific characteristic on it.  Your child will categorize it as "Always me", "Sometimes me", or "Never me".  After narrowing down their 6 favorite "Always me" cards, and then picking their very favorite of the six, there is an easy scoring process and your child finds out what their Home country is and what their Adopted country is.  Because of the nature of this process, it is best suited for children who are at least 6 years old.  Abby is 7 and it was just perfect for her, she understood it easily.

We found that Abby's home country is Perfect country and her Adopted country (the other country that she is comfortable hanging out in) is Fun country.  She was really into doing the activity and was excited to see what "country" she lived in.  The great thing about Kids Flag Page is that it doesn't end there.  Abby got to decorate her own flag page with stickers and I took notes on a bookmark, for referencing later on.  There is also a separate book for parents that goes into detail, explaining what all of it means and how to connect with your child in a way that will motivate them, encourage them, and help them to feel secure, loved, and understood.  As the book quotes...


     "Our biggest jobs as parents is discovering and connecting to what is going on inside our children's hearts.  It is within their hearts that they are formulating their view of life, love, God, themselves, and others."


What I loved about Kids Flag Page was how it involved Abby.  This was not just me marking of a questionnaire about my daughter.  This was Abby telling me about herself.  Too often we tend to label our children as we see them, but Kids Flag Page allows our children to give us a peek into how they feel about themselves, and that is valuable!  I cannot wait until Luke is old enough to do this with, because... phew, I could use some help there!


I highly recommend Kids Flag Page for all parents who want to help set their children up to lead meaningful lives.  God made each of our children unique individuals with unique motivations.  W should be doing our best to learn more about what they need from us.  Thank you to Family Matters for providing The Kids Flag Page as well as a new appreciation for my daughter and how truly wonderful she is!

Disclosure: I was given the Kids Flag Page in exchange for this review.  All opinions are my own, based on my experience with the Kids Flag Page.