2014 was a big year for Confident Parents, Confident Kids. This community moved from 275 followers to 23,000+ strong! Thank you for being an essential part of this important dialogue. Together our collective wisdom can strengthen our individual lives. What are your hopes and dreams for your family this year? Please write in the comment …
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Category: About, Building a Positive Family Environment, Modeling Social and Emotional Skills, Practicing Social and Emotional Skills Tags: Anger, Best of 2014, Confident Kids, Confident Kids Most Popular Posts, Confident Parents, Conquering fears, Family, Gratitude, Hopes and dreams, Impact of Stories, Smart Media Use
I’m frightened already! – Kimberly Allison, Mom and Challenge Participant At Halloween, our kids have the opportunity to select the identity they want to inhabit for one special night. Perhaps they choose to face their fears head on by becoming their own worst nightmare. Others will choose to dress as characters they admire and want …
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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
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. – John Fitzgerald Kennedy When I started to think about Thanksgiving and gratefulness this year, a memory flashed through my mind that I couldn’t and didn’t want to shake. It was the early …
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Category: Building a Positive Family Environment Tags: AmeriCorps*VISTA, Appreciation, Children Youth and Family, Empathy, Family, Giving, Grateful Daily Routines, Gratitude, Multi-cultural understanding, Native American Indian, Service, Thanksgiving
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
In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present. – Francis Bacon Truly wonderful the mind of a child is. – YODA, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones “I want to be Darth Vader when I grow up,” said E with grandeur as he strutted through the house with …
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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
Mostly it is loss which teaches us the worth of things. – Arthur Schopenhauer Vrrrwow… the sound of a light saber comes close and pokes me in the back. I have been play-killed by my son, sometimes seen as Darth Vader, on a typical morning in our house. “You’re dead,” he says. Yet he expects …
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That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong. ― F. Scott Fitzgerald When I was growing up, my neighborhood library held the “Super Summer Reading Program.” I so fondly recall weekly trips to the library with …
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Category: Building a Positive Family Environment Tags: Creativity, Experiencing nature with children, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Family, Family rituals, Joseph Cornell, Last Child in the Woods, Nature deficit disorder, Parenting books, Parenting strategies, Richard Louv
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
