Parenting

• Soothing Sibling Rivalry

  Jealousy, competition, favoritism, difficulty sharing To some extent, each of these branches of the tree of “sibling rivalry” grow in every family. “Where two or more children are gathered in one family, there contention will be also” isn’t in the bible, but it sure seems like it could be!

• Happiness is an Attitude of Choice

  Many times in the past few years I have been asked, “If you could only teach one idea to every kid you taught in your 29 years as a teacher, what would that idea be?” My answer has always been the same! If I could only teach one idea to every kid I ever taught it would be that “Happiness is an attitude of choice!”

• Lessons in Baseball

  As an 11-year-old, I was addicted to baseball. I listened to baseball games on the radio. I watched them on TV. The books I read were about baseball. I took baseball cards to church in hopes of trading with other baseball card junkies. My fantasies? All about baseball.

• Overscheduled Children

  Like the childhood obesity problem, the subject of “superkids” gets plenty of press these days. Time devoted the better part of an issue to it. Newsweek featured an article titled “Busy Around the Clock.” Articles with titles like “Whatever Happened to Play?” “Pushing Children Too Hard,” and “Are You Over-Scheduling Your kids?” show up in print media and on the Internet. Books with titles like Hyper-Parenting: Are Your Hurting Your Child by Trying Too Hard? are appearing on bookshelves.

• How Lazy Parents Make Happier Kids And Stronger Marriages

  My mother always said that the best parents are lazy parents. Her theory, as I understood it, was that lazy parents don’t jump up every time their kids need something so that children learn to entertain themselves, enjoy themselves, and become more independent.

• Why Even Your Older Kids Need A Car Seat

  State mandatory car seat laws have saved thousands of children’s lives. However, there are still 1,800 deaths and over 280,000 injuries every year due to people either not restraining their kids or more likely – not restraining them properly.

• Helping Children With Autism Learn

  Imitation is a very crucial conduit through which the one- to four-year-old child normally takes in a tremendous amount of information. Throughout that period of development when language has not yet been established as an internalized means of narrating and planning behavior and problem solving, imitative schema (maps) guide typically developing children through practice and mastery of new skills.

• Middle School Blues

  The middle school years are tough on adolescents, and by extension, can also be rough on the whole family. Having guided two sons through those murky waters a few years back and now watching a daughter emerge from this age, I have learned a thing or two about the Middle School Blues.