Category Archive:
Great parenting tips

Is My Child Working at Grade Level?

is my child working at grade level

Recent news articles report on the discrepancies in test scores that are appearing in the comparison of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests and state test scores. An example of the most extreme difference is Mississippi’s scores. The state test shows that 87% of students are working at a proficient level compared to […]


Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

five why problem solving tool

”For whatever reasons my eight-year-old, Eric, is critical of everything his younger siblings do. Eric tells his sister that her coloring stinks. He tells his brother that his handwriting is messy. Last night Eric burst into tears because the peas touched his mashed potatoes. Nothing seems to make him happy right now,” Michael told me. […]


Children Seek to Create a Flow of Activity

children seek to create a flow of activity

Up. Down. Up. Down. Eight-month-old Dana stood holding onto the coffee table doing deep knee bends. Day after day, over two hundred at a time, perhaps thousands a day. In amazement, I watched as Dana tirelessly exercised. There was no way I could do a thousand deep knee bends in a day, or at least […]


The Indefatigable Spirit of a Child

Indefatigable Spirit

”There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.” ~Zen Proverb It is a gray drizzly morning in a week of gray drizzly mornings. I am content to wait in the car as my husband peruses the home improvement store. People enter and leave the warehouse building, trudging to their vehicles with packages and […]


Real Toys for Real Kids

real toys for real kids

“What do you want for Christmas?” I remember asking my fourteen-month old. Since she could say “momma” and “dada,” I thought, for some unknown reason, she could communicate her perfect Christmas gift as we walked down the aisles of the toy store. There have been many gift-giving holidays during which I’ve watched children play with […]


Be Prepared for Cousin Chaos

be prepared for cousin chaos

Holidays are times for large family gatherings. Often times family get-togethers have mild to horrible cases of cousin chaos. Cousins, who may see each other infrequently, vie for adults’ attention along with trying to figure out who’s who in the pecking order of the family. Little wonder that craziness can ensue. More than once, my […]


Five Steps to Problem Solving with Children

five step problem solving

“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?” […]


Making Dinner Time Enjoyable

making dinner time enjoyable

“What’s your most difficult time of day?” I asked Sue and Bob, parents of three children under the age of six. They had requested a conference for advice about table manners. “Dinner time,” Sue answered without hesitation. “Definitely dinner time. It’s crazy. The kids are up and down. They don’t eat what I’ve fixed. It’s […]


What’s Your Child’s Learning Style Preference?

what's your child's learning style

There are four basic ways we take in and process information: Visual involving the eyes, Auditory regarding hearing, Kinesthetic with movement Tactile using touch, taste and smell Each of us has preferences in the way we take in information. Most of us are highly visual, therefore much of our learning and teaching methods are visually […]


Using Synergy For Effective Parenting

Synergy

In the recent movie, In Good Company, there is a scene where the conglomerate’s big boss gives a pep talk using the idea of synergy as though it were a disease. Months ago I had planned to write about the synergy habit from Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. How dare Hollywood […]