The pace of activities and anticipation of summer can add to a sense of frenzy in these final school days. Children are excited about vacations and swimming. Parents are ready to shed the early morning commute to school and the pressures of homework duty. It’s tempting to race blindly forward into the sunshine without …
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Category: Building a Positive Family Environment Tags: capability, Competence, ending the school year, kids and summertime, Learning, metacognition, parents celebrating end of school year, parents supporting change, parents supporting transition, persistence, school year reflection, support for transition, transition from school to summer
When it comes to homework, attitude can make all of the difference. Children can bring worries or beliefs to their homework that we, as parents, may or may not be aware of. “The other kids all know this already but I just don’t understand it. How will I catch up?” “I’m just not good at …
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Category: Building a Positive Family Environment Tags: Autonomy, children's sense of competence, Competence, kids and hard work, parents and homework, parents and learning, parents promoting autonomy, parents promoting competence, parents supporting homework, promoting hard work with kids, work ethic
Extracurricular activities – whether before school or after school or in the community – are implicitly optional. They are, as the word implies – “extra” – in addition to school. As a parent, the choices can be freeing and helpful or confusing and challenging and perhaps, a little of both. And to add to the complexity, our …
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Category: Building a Positive Family Environment Tags: After school programs, Before school programs, children's interests, Children's safety, Choices, Competence, Cooperation, Extracurricular activities, Free time, Music, Quiet Time, Social and Emotional Skills, Sports, Teams
Our bravest and best lessons are not learned through success, but through misadventure. – Amos Bronson Alcott “The driveway is too bumpy.” “I hate wearing bike helmets!” and “I don’t want to ride with training wheels” are all of the “reasons” my son vehemently cites for not learning to ride a bike when his friends …
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Category: Practicing Social and Emotional Skills Tags: "I can" belief, Autonomy, Carol Dweck, Competence, Consequences, Failure, Fixed mindset, Frustration tantrum, Gratefulness, Growth mindset, Learning, persistence, Self-agency, Sense of agency
helpful /help-fel/ making it easier to do a job, deal with a problem willing to help other people1 About Being Helpful and Being Helped: The ability to help others requires self-awareness and social awareness. The helper must identify ways in which he can contribute to solving other’s problems or promoting another’s well-being. He must also have …
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Category: About Tags: Being Helped, Being Helpful, Compassion, Competence, Connection, Empathy, Modeling, Self awareness, Sensitivity, Service, Social awareness, Social justice, Social rules
Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability. – Sam Keen As school ends and summer begins, we are sitting outside and dreaming of the many delights the season brings. We have big plans to read, swim, blow bubbles, build sandcastles, catch fireflies and sit and watch the clouds. Last year, I put together a summer …
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The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it. – John Ruskin How does praise – the expression of a favorable judgment[i] – fit with raising a confident child? Is it good or bad? Is there such a thing as too much or too …
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How can the sun always be on fire? Where does the fire come from? asks E, my five year old son. I don’t know, I say. Good question. Papa Dave will know. He’s tall so he knows everything, asserts E. – Conversation at our house last week At all ages and stages, kids admire and …
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