Stop asking Why and Start asking What Your 10 year old crashed her bike into your new car. Your toddler threw his toy at the puppy. Your son whacked his sister over the head with his toy train. And you say… “Why in the world did you do that?” This question assumes your child was thinking, […]
How to Have a Child in Bloom The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss is one of my favorite books to share with children especially at springtime. This book is a lesson in faith, hope, patience and care. The boy in the book has faith that the seeds he has planted will eventually sprout. Patiently he waits as everyone around […]
What is your current method for dealing with poor behavior choices?Odds are it involves some form of Time Out. When we look up what the definition of a time-out is we find this: Time out is a technique in which a child is removed from activity and forced to sit alone for a few minutes in […]
Your child’s outbursts in public can make you want to pull your hair out and run for the hills. They put you and your spouse on high alert and can even cause you to win enemies (the people sitting next to you at church) and lose your friends (the parents of the kid your child bit at storytime). The […]
Spending time with family around the holidays can add extra busyness to the already stressed-out lives we live day to day… Will our kids be polite? Will they eat all of Grandma’s green beans? Will we have to leave early to ward off the ugly behavior? Use these times as teachable moments to preview expectations and set up […]
Do you have monster-like-behavior lurking in your house? Whining, Screaming, gnawing at your emotions and patience? Like any monster, in order to survive, this behavior has to be fed a daily dose of sustenance. What are your giving to your child’s behavior that helps it survive? Is it a dollop of good old fashioned attention that feeds the wild beast? Is it your […]
If you read my Mealtimes Matter passage from my August Newsletter, then you know how important I think it is for families to gather around a table whether it be for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Call it my soapbox, but I have a few more ideas on how we solidify our families. These essential things […]
Although dinner time at our house may not always run smoothly, it serves as the number one factor that ensures our family’s success. Studies show that children who sit down with their family regularly ( for breakfast, lunch, or dinner) are more likely to do well in school, attain their goals, and succeed socially. This is because the family […]
We expect our kids to be big kids yet we end up doing everything for them. By letting your kids have more chances to do things for themselves and do these things with success we can hand over more power and control to them which is all they really want. Simple things like carrying their own dish to […]
The “it factor”… Stop it! End it! Quit it! Are you tired of these phrases? Whether they are coming from parent to child or sibling to sibling, these phrases have one thing in common… It Do you know why these phrases rarely work? Because they aren’t specific enough. Train yourself to be more specific in […]
