Accentuate The Positive

accentuate the positive

“If I tell Ginny not to do something, she just looks me in the eye, and does it.  She seems defiant.” Sam, Ginny’s dad, told me at a company picnic. Ginny, an almost four-year-old curly headed brunette, ran over from the swings at the park.  “Ginny, how about playing a little game with me?  I’m […]


A Secret Of Good Teaching

A secret of good teaching

Between the ages of birth to four-and-a-half, children are in a sensitive period for refining their senses.  Children at this age are capable of learning to discern hundreds of qualities of the things around them.  Perfect pitch is acquired before the age of six.  Too often adults stop giving information after certain basics are mastered. […]


Empowering Children To Collaborate

Brotherly and sisterly struggles

“Stop!” I heard six-year-old Alan tell a couple of three-year-old girls.  “I think you’ve got a problem.” Lila and Susan, the three-year-olds, were tugging and grunting to see who would get possession of a puzzle.  Alan continued, “I think you both want to do this puzzle by yourself.  Do you want to work this out? […]


My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys

my heroes have always been cowboys

You can take the girl out of Oklahoma, but you can’t take Oklahoma out of the girl. Even though I left Oklahoma in 1964 when I was eight years old, I still join in at every opportunity for a rousing chorus of Oklahoma! I guess I came at a good time in my Grandfather Earl’s […]


Choosing Thankfulness

choosing thankfulness

At a conference I noticed an unusual number of people wearing purple plastic wristbands. I didn’t think much about it, imagining that the bands must be in support of a worthy cause. When I returned home from the conference I stopped by my neighborhood bookstore. At the checkout register sat a bucket full of purple […]


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 […]


Misbehavior Meets Needs

misbehavior meets needs

Misbehavior. That’s when you don’t act the way I want you to when I want you to. But what about when I do what I want when I want to do it? Some might call it personal prerogative. Others might say it’s a double standard. One of the interesting aspects of human behavior is that […]


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 […]


Giving Positive Directions: The Verb Game

giving positive directions

A funny thing about the mind; it takes a while for our minds to figure out how to ”don’t.” ”Don’t hit your baby brother.” The young child doesn’t have the thinking skills or experience to consider what to do instead of hitting his baby brother, much less redirect the energy and anger to a positive […]