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Respect Starts With Words
Respect has been called “the single most powerful ingredient in nourishing relationships and creating a just society” and referred to as “the glue that binds people together and holds together one’s self-confidence.” [1] As parents, the words we use with our children today affect the adults they become tomorrow. Consider the story of Marc, who as a child was verbally taunted by his physically present, but seemingly emotionally absent father. Marc ‘s earliest memory of time spent with his father is one of them being in the backyard,...
read moreSpirituality Equals Happiness in Kids
While it’s widely accepted that adults who consider themselves spiritual tend to be happier, have better coping skills and experience less incidences of depression, studies now show that the same is true for children who identify themselves as being spiritual. In a study of 8 to 12 year olds, Dr. Mark Holder from the University of British Columbia in Canada and his colleagues Dr. Ben Coleman and Judi Wallace found that children who feel that their lives have meaning and value and who develop deep, quality relationships – both measures...
read moreCoaching Kids Through Chores
Putting one’s house in order can help get your child’s inner self in order too. Remember how good it feels to fold and put laundry away for the week. The inner sense of achievement can be easy when a child completes a task, and does it well enough to receive your appreciation and thank-you for a job well done. Coaching your kids to complete chores helps to establish a sense of self-worth in them. Feeling like their contributions matter to the successful operations of the household can make them feel valued and more connected to their...
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Coaching Kids on Friendship Building
Providing opportunities for peer interaction and play nurture connections that blossom into friendships. Building friendships isn’t something that every child learns how to do naturally. In fact learning to be a friend and cultivating a friendship are learned skills that promote good social, mental and emotional health as they grow and develop. Fortunately, we can coach our children on building friendships by: 1. Helping our children grow comfortable around others. Attending playgroups, mommy and me classes, or local library story times...
read more5 Bully Busting Tips for Coaching Kids to Deal with Bullies
Sadly, bullying has become a social norm for our nation’s children. In fact, according to Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, about 23 percent of children in grades 4-6 have been bullied several times or more. So while your child may not be a victim of bullying right now, chances are that at some point, she or one of her close friends will be. So what can you do to coach your child to deal with bullies? Here are 5 bully-busting tips: 1. Coach your kid to put on her brave face. When children stand up tall and send the message that they are...
read moreCoaching Kids Through Homework Hassles
Set your child up for success in the daily homework department. Choose to help your child manage homework in an easy way to avoid struggles. After a long day, neither parent nor child wants to hassle over homework with their school-aged child. By the end of the school day, most children are wiped out both physically and emotionally. It takes a lot of energy to make it through a 6+ hour day with constant stimulation, growing expectations and intense periods of required concentration, so it’s no surprise that doing additional work after school...
read moreNurturing the Self-Identity—Your Child’s Snapshots of You
Do you ever wonder how your child sees himself, and which images of you replay in her mind when she daydreams or think of you? When I speak to my children, I keep in my mind that as they see my face, my eyes, my expressions, their brains are clicking snapshots of me. Simultaneously, children are also associating feelings with those snapshots. All these information bits are stored in his or her brain and transforms into a child’s image of self. Have you ever consider if your child sees himself the way you see him? Children’s identities...
read moreCoaching Kids to Be Honest
“Where did you get that?” I don’t know. “Did you just hit your brother?” No. “Who colored on the wall?” It wasn’t me. If you’re the parent of a child in early elementary-school, you’ve likely heard all of these lines by now. As parents, of course we want our children to always tell the truth, but as we know, telling the truth isn’t always so easy. Fears of getting into trouble, embarrassment from committing the crime and wishing we truly didn’t do it, are all reasons that children, and even adults, may opt to lie...
read more5 Ways to Teach Your Child to Respond to the Needs of Others
Imagine three children on the playground. Child one falls off of a swing and lands hurt, on the ground. Child two and three, in shock, stop and stare. Child two immediately goes to the hurt child and cries with him, while touching his hand. Child three, after a moment of watching, goes back to swinging on the next swing over, like he was doing before. Child two is the better friend, right? Not necessarily, but he’s definitely better at being empathetic. Empathy is the ability to understand the feelings of others and at some level, feel...
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