Directing Kids’ Energy When Indoors

As I watched kids of all ages, bundled in hats and gloves, burst out of the school building at pick up time yesterday, I thought about the exercise they weren’t getting (during indoor recess) and the energy my son would need to exert when he got home. The snow continued to fall and he had …

On NBC’s Parent Toolkit – “Second Chances – Teaching Children about Forgiveness”

    In this busy holiday season, tensions and conflicts can arise easily. And old wounds can resurface as we encounter family and friends we may not see regularly. This is an ideal time to think about how you are encouraging forgiveness with your family members. Read the following and gain some simple ideas. Put …

On the Ashoka Changemaker Education Series – “How Can We Help Children Develop Gratitude?”

Thanks Ashoka Changemaker Education for sharing my article on Medium! Check it out… How can we help children develop gratitude? 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 …

Redefining Giving for Our Family

How Can Giving Become Personal and Meaningful? Several weeks ago, my husband, son and I were zipping to the mailbox to drop in a few letters before going downtown to a symphony concert. My husband pulled up and I hopped out of the car to mail the letters. As I approached the mailbox, I noticed …

“Promoting a Spirit of Gratefulness in Kids…” on NBC’s Parent Toolkit

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 …

Exploring the Past to Appreciate the Present; A Simple Family Thanksgiving Experience

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 …

Elements of a Confident Kid… Coping Skills

coping to maintain a contest or combat usually on even terms or with success to deal with and attempt to overcome problems and difficulties About Coping Skills: Though all babies are born with a brain rigged for the flight or fight survival instinct, the interpretation of sensory input determining what is a real threat does …

Without Saying a Word

What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say. – Ralph Waldo Emerson When I silently hold out my hand in a high five signal toward my son while I am on the phone, he understands that I need five more minutes to talk and then I will find out what …

“Fall” In Love with your Family in November

“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. …

True Terror – Helping Kids Deal with their Fears

Courage is mastery of fear not the absence of it. – Mark Twain It’s flu shot day. I have a feeling that today will go smoothly. But two years ago, it didn’t. And I notice a sense of dread creep up on me like a zombie in a haunted mansion. E asked about whether shots …