Parenting
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You probably already know how important it is for kids to indulge their creative side, but even when they’re up for being imaginative, many projects are mostly a lesson in following instructions. That’s certainly valuable, but true creativity also involves figuring things out for themselves. Neal Bascomb learned this lesson while writing his book, The New Cool . The author followed a team of 31 high school seniors in Goleta, California who, in the span of just six weeks working alongside mentors, built a robot for an international competition. “This project-based, interactive experience inspires kids like nothing I've ever seen,” Bascomb says.
Creativity for Kids - Activities for Kids at WomansDay
Does your child ignore every consequence you give him? This week, James Lehman gives you 10 specific ways to make consequences work—even for the most resistant child. When kids are faced with something unpleasant, they'll often act like it doesn't matter to them.
Kids Who Ignore Consequences - 10 Ways to Make Them Stick
© Alloy Photography for Veer I've made a lot of bad rules in the decade I've been a mom, from irrational threats ("No graham crackers in the house ever again if you eat them in the living room even one more time") to forbidding human nature ("You may not fight with your sister"). But occasionally I've come up with rules that work better than I'd ever contemplated. These made-up rules have an internal logic that defies easy categorization, but their clarity and enforceability make them work. Several of them are not, technically, rules at all, but declarations of policy or fact. And they're all easy to remember.
Quirky Ways to Get Your Kids to Behave
The Truth About Santa
A few months back, the Tooth Fairy got busted. She left a note for Alice up on her computer, and Lucy figured the whole business out. The Tooth Fairy cursed her need to write notes in elaborate fonts and tried to come up with a cover story, but it didn’t fool Lucy. To her credit, Lucy has kept the secret from her little sister, who still hasn’t lost a tooth and deserves to wake up with money under her pillow. But the Tooth Fairy knew it couldn’t be too long before Santa was similarly unmasked. She didn’t know when or how, but she knew the days of magic in her house, at least magic of a certain sort, were coming to an end.Parenting Tips-The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin at WomansDay.com
Blog post excerpted from Gretchen Rubin's website Happiness-Project.com . One of my Twelve Commandments is “Lighten up,” and I have a lot of resolutions aimed at trying to be a more light-hearted parent: less nagging, more laughing. We all want a peaceful, cheerful, even joyous, atmosphere at home — but we can’t nag and yell our way to get there. Here are some strategies that help me: 1. At least once a day, make each child helpless with laughter.
Vision Problems | Eye Didn't Know That!
Common Signs of Children’s Vision Problems Preserving healthy sight for a lifetime begins with early detection. Common signs of possible vision problems in school-aged children include:How to Get Your Toddler to Go to Bed - and Stay There | The Nanny Godmother
A number of readers have told me of their struggles to ensure a good night’s sleep for their children and themselves. Summer writes: Hello Nanny Godmother! I hope you can help me.
Motherhood More Depressing Than Ever
Dispatches from The Department of Obvious Things! American women who are full time stay-at-home mothers fare worse on mental health assessments than their counterparts who attempt to balance working with motherhood. So, the way to avoid depression in mothers is to make sure that they're working outside of the home? Not so fast- those ladies are depressed, too! The findings were presented yesterday at a meeting of the American Sociological Association.
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One of the perks I enjoy as a parent is being able to dole out interesting punishments when my kids stray from the straight and narrow. Usually, our children are aces when it comes to knowing what’s expected of them, but every now and then they get this crazy notion that they can outsmart us. I love seeing their best laid plans unravel before my very eyes. Even when I know I’ve got ‘em, I enjoy watching as they feverishly dig themselves a deeper and deeper hole with the shovel of deceit.
Image via John Cave Osborne To be an effective parent, you must also be an effective communicator. Yet being an effective communicator doesn’t necessarily make you an effective parent. After all, there’s the little issue of what, exactly, it is that you should be communicating to your children.
7 Things Every Parent Should Discuss with Their Children and 3 Things They Absolutely Should Not
NEW YORK -- Stores are trying everything they can think of to disguise the fact that you're going to pay more for clothes this fall. Some are using less fabric and calling it the new look. Others are adding cheap stitching and trumpeting it as a redesign. And the buttons on that blouse? Chances are you're not going to think it's worth paying several dollars more for the shirt just to have them.