We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience. – John Dewey January is always a time in which my family and I reflect on the past year and dream about our hopes for the future. We try and step back and look at the big picture before diving into our specific plans …
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Category: Building a Positive Family Environment Tags: Family, Learning, Meaning, New year, Open-ended questions, Parent, Parenting goals, Purpose, Reflection, Self awareness, Values
Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself. – Elie Weisel Our busy lives require that we move quickly from one activity to the next with our children. Get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush teeth, put on coat, grab the backpack, go to school, go through …
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Category: Modeling Social and Emotional Skills Tags: Anger, Children, Cooperation, Family, Kind and firm, Logical consequences, Parent, Preventing power struggles, Reframing, Routines, Self discipline, Thinking about thinking
Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little Cheep, cheep, cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more. – From the musical, Music Man (1957) It is easy to forget that the music of our speech, our tone of voice, communicates just as much as the actual content of what is …
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Category: Building a Positive Family Environment, Modeling Social and Emotional Skills Tags: Calm environment, Children, Dealing with misbehaviors, Emotion, Family, Home, John Gottman, Nonverbal communication, Paraphrasing, Parent, Reinforcing positive behaviors, Self awareness, Tone of voice
Everyone has butterflies when they are starting something new. Just make sure you visualize them flying in formation and you’ll be fine. – My Dad, David Smith from a Dale Carnegie Public Speaking Course If you are a parent, you are likely in the middle of clothing and supply shopping preparing for the first day …
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We come to love not by finding a perfect person but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly. – Sam Keen As my gift to you, myself and all Mothers for the celebration of Mother’s Day, I am sharing an excerpt from the Pulitzer Prize winning author, Anna Quindlen’s little book with a big …
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Try to see it my way, only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong While you see it your way, there’s a chance that we may fall apart before too long. We can work it out. We can work it out. – We Can Work It Out, The Beatles[i] If you …
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Your children are not your children They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself… You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. – Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, 1923 Parenting in the year 2013 is a great balancing act. We know that the fear …
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Category: Building a Positive Family Environment, Practicing Social and Emotional Skills Tags: Alfie Kohn, Choices, Confidence, Edward Ryan, Family, Helicopter parent, Lev Vygotsky, Motivation, Parent, Responsible decision-making
If it is his privilege to be independent, it is equally his duty to be inter-dependent. ― Mahatma Gandhi All children have to deal with and understand the paradox of separateness and connection, of individuality and belonging. In utero, babies have no sense of separation. They are physically connected to Mom through the very liquid …
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Category: Modeling Social and Emotional Skills, Practicing Social and Emotional Skills Tags: Bullying, Classroom, Education, Family, Friendship, Home, Parent, Preschool education, Self awareness, Self-management, Social awareness
It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in the movement there is life, and in change there is power. – Alan Cohen How …
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Productive collaborations between family and school, therefore, will demand that parents and teachers recognize the critical importance of each other’s participation in the life of the child. – Sara Lawrence Lightfoot Teachers gain plenty of experience over time having difficult conversations about students with parents. However if you are parent, you may only experience …
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Category: Building a Positive Family Environment, Modeling Social and Emotional Skills Tags: Coaching, Communication skills, Education, Family-School Partnerships, James Comer, Parent, Parent-Teacher Relationship, Relationship skills, Teacher, Yale Child Study Center
