For the Youth Connections Magazine’s summer issue, we are discussing how you promote responsible decision-making skills in our children and teens. The article offers some guidance on children’s developing sense of what to base their choices on, how parents can support that development along with specific age/stage tips for promoting this essential life skill. Here’s …
I’m gonna hold onto this couch and never let go! – E. Miller, Age 6 It’s the morning after our summer vacation at the lake. E awoke and said he had had a nightmare. “My school became a haunted village. A ghost dragged me around the grounds. And all of my school friends were at …
Category: Building a Positive Family Environment, Modeling Social and Emotional Skills, Practicing Social and Emotional Skills Tags: Back to School, child anxiety, Children, easing the transition back to school, Ending and beginning, Heightened emotions, helping child prepare for school, Morning routine, parents preparing for back to school, Routine
At some point, every child will experience the feeling of being different. From hobby interests to gender identity, some children will have a more intense experience of not being like the rest. And all children encounter others who are different. How will they view those contrasts? Will they be able to see the unique richness …
Category: Building a Positive Family Environment, Modeling Social and Emotional Skills Tags: "Made by Raffi", Amanda McBroom, Appreciating diversity, Children, children’s book author, Contribution, Courage, Craig Pomranz, Dealing with differences, Empathy, Feeling different, Gender differences, Kindness, persistence, Raffi, Role models, The Hunger Games, The Rose
The Universe is made of stories, not of atoms. – Muriel Rukeyser Rabbits and owls happen to be two of E’s favorite animals so when we read a story about a friendship between them, we were both eager for the tale. The good friends built their homes next door to one another but Owl couldn’t …
Category: Practicing Social and Emotional Skills Tags: Books with social and emotional themes, Children, Children's Literature and social and emotional learning, Discussion, Emotions, Friends, Making meaning, Mama Raccoon, Owl, Picture books, Rabbit, Reading with children, Relationship skills, Responsible decision-making, Self awareness, Self-identity, Self-management, Social awareness, Story books
I grew up with six brothers. That’s how I learned to dance – waiting for the bathroom. – Bob Hope “Are we there yet?” This is the common refrain from the backseat on the long road trip to Grammy’s house. We “moo” at the cows. We examine the red barns. We talk about the funny …
Category: Practicing Social and Emotional Skills Tags: Children, Creative thinking, Focus, Focused attention, Higher level thinking skills, Improved listening skills, Logic, Patience, Practicing waiting, Self control, Skills of waiting, Wait challenge, Waiting
This week, NBC Education Nation’s Parent Toolkit released the results from a “State of Parenting” survey they conducted in partnership with Pearson and Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRAI). Eight hundred and three American primary caregivers, parents and guardians of children ages 3-18 were interviewed by phone in English and Spanish last Fall. The results …
Category: About Tags: "State of Parenting" Survey, Children, children’s education, Communication skills, Family Dinners, NBC Parent Toolkit, Parent Values, Parenting Values, Parents and Education, Princeton Survey Research Associates International, Skills for Success, Social skills, Survey findings
Teachers arise from somewhere within me that is beyond me, the way the dark soil that is not the root holds the root and feeds the flower. – Mark Nepo “How old do I have to be to be a grown up?” E has asked a twice over the past few weeks. Sometimes to small people …
Category: About, Building a Positive Family Environment Tags: "Being Twelve", "Yardsticks", Child development, Children, Development, Developmental milestones, Developmental traits, Eight year olds, Empathy, Great Schools Milestones, Growth, Milestones, NBC Education Nation Parent Toolkit, Patience, Perspective taking, Problem solving, Regression, Seven year olds, Twelve year olds
– noticing others or environmental needs, feeling empathy and desiring a role in contributing to their or its well-being. About being service minded A service-minded person is both self and socially aware. She must know her own strengths and limitations. She sees what contributions she can make and how they relate to other’s unmet needs. …
Category: Modeling Social and Emotional Skills, Practicing Social and Emotional Skills Tags: Children, Chores, Contribution to home, Cooperation, Family chores, Interactive modeling, Modeling, Problem solving, Responsibility, Self awareness, Service, Service minded, service mindedness, Social and Emotional Skills, Social awareness, Teaching, Trusting connections
– honesty of mind : freedom from hypocrisy1 About Sincerity: Who “To be or not to be? That is the question.” Though Shakespeare questioned the choice of existence, the question of our authenticity may be just as important and fundamental. Psychologists have made numerous distinctions over the years attempting to define our sense of self. …
Category: About, Modeling Social and Emotional Skills, Practicing Social and Emotional Skills Tags: "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", Authentic self, Children, Courage, Elements of a Confident Kid, false self, Honesty, Logical consequences, Responsible decision-making, Self awareness, Self-identity, Self-reflection, Sense of self, Sincerity, Social awareness, Social identity, Telling the truth, True self
This fire that we call loving is too strong for human minds. But just right for human souls. – Aberjhani, Elemental: The Power of Illuminated Love In honor of Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d write about our love for our children and their need for attention. Of course, all children have a need for us …
Category: Building a Positive Family Environment Tags: Approval, Attention, Attention-seeking behavior, Children, Cooperative discipline, Developmental discipline, Difference between love and behavior, Focused attention, misbehavior, Misbehaviors, Positive Discipline, Teaching acceptable attention-getting, Unconditional love, Valentine's Day
