Thanksgiving gives us the chance to focus on family and gratitude. How can we take time to reflect on the gifts our children bring into our lives today?
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If you worry and you can’t sleep, just count your blessings instead of sheep and you’ll fall asleep counting your blessings. – Count your Blessings, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, 1942 It’s true. People who think about what they are grateful for do sleep better at night. Psychologists have done research on gratefulness and found that …
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I spoke with the talented team at Pearson Education – sponsors of the NBC Parent Toolkit – about a hot topic as we approach this U.S. holiday. What do you do when family conversations are heated or divided around politics? Here’s how it begins… __________________________________________________________ “Affirm their strong feeling –‘I can hear you feel …
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Category: Building a Positive Family Environment, Modeling Social and Emotional Skills, Practicing Social and Emotional Skills Tags: Emotional Intelligence, Emotional intelligence at Thanksgiving, Emotional intelligence with family, Families fighting fair, holiday anxiety, holiday stress, Kids, NBC Parent Toolkit, Parents, Pearson Education, politics family conversations, Thanksgiving
To journey without being changed is to be a nomad. To change without journeying is to be a chameleon. To journey and to be transformed by the journey is to be a pilgrim. – Mark Nepo With a little forethought and supply gathering, you can set your kids on a mission to contribute to your …
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Check out my article “Promoting a Spirit of Gratefulness in Kids – A Tale of Two Letters” on today’s NBC Parent Toolkit Blog. It recounts an experience with my own son, relates it to the research on raising grateful kids and offers a number of simple ways to promote gratitude. Why should we be concerned …
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Category: Modeling Social and Emotional Skills, Practicing Social and Emotional Skills Tags: Grateful Rituals and Routines, Gratefulness, Gratitude and Kids, NBC Parent Toolkit, parenting and gratitude, Promoting Gratitude, Sense of well-being, Spirit of Gratefulness in Kids, Thanksfulness, Thanksgiving
Everything that is past is either a learning experience to grow on, a beautiful memory to reflect on or a motivating factor to act upon. – Denis Waitley It’s not unusual for our family’s thoughts and conversations to turn to those who are missing at our Thanksgiving table. A small family to begin with, it …
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Category: Building a Positive Family Environment, Modeling Social and Emotional Skills, Practicing Social and Emotional Skills Tags: Appreciating the past, Belonging, Connectedness, Contribution, Critical thinking skills, Exploring Ancestry with Kids, Family history, Gratitude, Grit, Persistance, Stories from the Past, Thanksgiving
“If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.” – Abraham Maslow If you only have kindness and compassion, you see every person with love. Recently I read about a Kindergarten teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary, where one of the school shootings occurred, and her response to that tragedy. …
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This month, in preparation for the Thanksgiving holiday, I am focusing on gratitude and how a family can instill gratitude in their daily lives. Help me with my research and contribute to our community! In what ways do you promote a sense of gratefulness in your family? Do you have any rituals that you …
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Every repast can have soul and can be enchanting; it asks only for a small degree of mindfulness and a habit of doing things with care and imagination. – Thomas Moore, The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life This photo depicts my father’s experience of Thanksgiving on a farm in a small town in Ohio. Though my …
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As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. – John F. Kennedy I came into the bathroom this morning a little foggy-eyed to put on my makeup and get ready for the day as my son was putting on his …
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Category: Building a Positive Family Environment Tags: Blessings, Giving, Gratefulness, Gratitude, Healthy attachment, Holiday season, NBC Education Nation Parent Toolkit, Politeness, Random acts of kindness, Responsiveness, Service, Templeton Foundation, Thankfulness, Thanksgiving
