Category Archive:
Children’s basic needs

Do The Hokey Pokey

hokey pokey

In the gardening shop I looked up to discover a sign over my head. ”What If The Hokey Pokey Is What It’s All About?” For whatever reasons, I started to laugh. Uncontrollably. My husband came from across the store to see what could be so funny. For weeks afterwards Mark and I had a running […]


Teaching Forgiveness

teaching forgiveness

“Forgive and forget” is a phrase that is given as advice. As a child, I remember being upset over a transgression and yelling, “I don’t want to forgive her, and I won’t forget it!” Forgive and forget seemed to mean that I should pardon the misdeed and pretend it never happened. That, in my mind, […]


Hungry Planet

hungry planet

A museum exhibit, Hungry Planet, shows photographs of 12 families from around the world along with the food they ate for a week. These photos excerpted from the book, Hungry Planet, are by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio. You might be familiar with other of Menzel’s work, Material World, a picture book depicting families around […]


Bringing Something to the Table

bringing something to the table

As I was getting ready to go on a picnic with some friends, the phone rang. “What can I bring?” my friend asked. Earlier I had suggested that I bring the food and that my friend take care of the drinks. After going through the menu, she suggested bringing another dish. In that moment, I […]


Paying Attention to the Right Stuff

paying attention to the right stuff

In my elementary and junior high school years I always sat in the back row. Except in my seventh-grade English class. I wondered why I inevitably sat in the back against the wall. Alphabetical order, I presumed. The back-row perspective allowed me to observe everyone in my classrooms, and even as a second grader I […]


Ask Children For What You Want

ask children for what you want

The bestselling book The Secret talks about the problem of not having a clear vision of what we want. We spend the majority of our time avoiding or getting rid of stuff in our lives that we don’t want. Wherever we place our focus, that is what grows. The more we direct our attention on […]


A Thank-You Walk

thank you walk

”I’m worried that my four- and six-year-old will be spoiled. They have such a great life–plenty of love, food, toys and money. I want them to be thankful for what they have,” Melinda said. Melinda understood that helping her children cultivate an attitude of gratitude was important to her children’s present and future happiness. Too […]


Children Love Quiet

children love quiet

Somehow between Madison Avenue and Hollywood, and all the places where kiddie culture is fed, we’re given the view that children are rowdy and eternally needing to be entertained. Picture a scene of children getting out from school. What do you imagine? More than likely it’s children shouting and running from the school building. Though […]


Brains Need Plenty Of Quiet Time

brains need plenty of quiet time

A sign in my father’s office read, ”Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.” Ungrammatical, but it captured the essence of my father. My dad spent a lot of time thinking and planning, but he didn’t hesitate to take the down time of ”just” sitting and doing nothing. Dad understood what was […]


Don’t Be a Pop Quiz Parent

pop quiz parent

At the neighborhood barbecue, I squirmed in my lawn chair. I was embarrassed, not so much for myself, but for Erica, the six-year-old at our table who was being grilled by her father, Tom. ”How much is 6 times 9?” Searching for the answer, Erica looked up at the pavilion ceiling, then down at her […]