Click the link below to see how some communities are training teachers to get to the root of disruptive behavior, instead of just punishing it. What If Everything You Knew About Disciplining Kids Was Wrong?
Take time to LOOK and LISTEN. Give each of your kids a little one-on-one time each day. I know that life is busy. I get it that you are already feeling like you are being pulled in ten different directions at once all day long. But all people need validation and empathy. If we…
Whether you want to be able to enjoy adult conversation and not have to be interrupted to attend to your preschooler playing under the table, or your throat is sore and you just don’t have it in you to yell across the room to your 5 year old gawking at the dessert display, or…
Kids gloss over once we start to lecture. They tune out and hear nothing. But this is important stuff that we need to tell them, right? Then keep it super short. Get out a notebook and write out all that you would like to say to your child on a particular subject. Then grab…
I like analogies. I realized, this morning, as I was weeding the garden, that our garden is a good analogy for parenting. Many times we think that our *stuff (insert garden or children here) is just as lovely to others as it is to us. We are so enamored by our stuff that…
Last week we took a trip to Nashville to visit my mom. On the way there, we brought our 5 year old niece to stay with grandma for a week, and we picked up my 17 year old son to bring him home from visiting grandma. I made up two Take-Along Bags; one for…
Chores help kids develop self-efficacy: the feeling of believing in oneself. People who have high self-efficacy are empowered. They are not afraid of challenges; they know that they can accomplish things. They don’t get discouraged when they fail. They figure out what they need to learn or practice so they can be successful next…
Kids have considerably more stress now than they did 15 years ago. Between the pressures to achieve academically and socially, kids today are feeling stress from the time they wake in the morning until they finally fall asleep from exhaustion at the end of the day. One of the main reasons for this…
13 Reasons Why. For parents of tweens and teens. The new Netflix craze: 13 Reasons Why is getting a lot of response. Some think it’s abominable and sensationalized and glorifies suicide. Others think it’s integral to changing the mindset of society and useful for inspiring kindness. I’ve written a series of discussion questions for…
One of the most important tenets of parenting is Mindfulness. Responding, not reacting. Taking notice of your own emotions; accepting their validity; and responding from a place of intention, rather than reacting from a place of frustration. This can be the most challenging part of parenting, but is so important. Kids are wired to…