Homework battles often top parents’ list of struggles with their kids long before the COVID pandemic made many of us homeschool teachers. The academic pressures our kids are facing is extreme. Academics and learning are certainly important. However, your child’s mental health and your relationship with them is always more important. Remember to keep those […]
Empathy With An Upset Child Can Look Like This: 8 Empathetic Statements
Using empathy when our kids are upset can be hard. It’s hard to remain calm when they’ve made a sad choice or when we are exhausted from the demands of parenting. Empathy and connection are the foundations of parenting. Empathy is your parenting superpower. The more we can relate to our kids, the deeper […]
Executive Functioning: Vital Skills for Our Kid’s Success
I can get exhausted keeping track of everything for all our kids. Life certainly gets easier when they learn to manage their own lives more. But that skill set won’t just happen on its own. It needs to be fostered. Helping our kids develop their Executive Functioning (EF) skills will make everyone’s lives easier and […]
Creating a Family Standard
I encourage you to make time for family meetings. When things are calm, you can discuss expectations and consequences if necessary. You can openly discuss your expectations on behavior and following rules. Your kids can even be part of the boundary making process. You can also see where your kids may be lacking in the […]
Preventative Parenting
Preventative Parenting Taking a few moments to consider Preventative Parenting steps and working to include these into your family life, can decrease many common childhood misbehaviors. When we fall into the trap of thinking we need bigger and better consequences, we often fail to miss how easy it is to prevent undesired behavior. The key […]
Easy Family Conversation Starters
Our relationship with our kids is the foundation of our parenting. We need that strong attachment and firm relational base. One of the best ways to foster this relationship is through conversation. Here are a few of our favorite easy conversation starters with kids. These can be adjusted to any age. Have fun and answer […]
Quick Tips to Renew Your Parenting
Over the years we have worked with many parents on renewing their parenting. Here are a few of our favorite quick tips on renewing your relationship with your kids and your overall parenting. Parenting Support Sent Right to Your Inbox! […]
Emotional Intelligence: The Key to Raising Healthy Adults
Emotional Intelligence The Key to Raising Healthy Adults Teaching emotional intelligence to our kids is one of the best things we can do for them. Emotional intelligence is one of the keys to raising a successful and emotionally and mentally healthy adult. It is also a huge preventative parenting step. The better we teach our […]
Boredom Does Not Need a Quick Fix
Summer is here. Kids are out of school and parents everywhere are about to hear the phrase we dread (and I don’t mean, “Can I have another snack?”). “I’M BORED!” I am thrilled to have our kids out of school for the summer, but the boredom will soon ensue. When kids go from […]
Key Thing Kids Need to Become Successful Adults
What are your memories of chores as a kid? Fun, punishment, tedious tasks, moments of growth? How we view many of these things from our childhood will dictate how we parent our own kids. And despite how we may feel on some things, there is research on chores that cannot be denied. The longest […]
Helping Kids Process Through Tragedy
Unfortunately, many children must face devastating events during their childhood. Thankfully, these events don’t have to be as tragic and disheartening as they often seem. Our family experienced this firsthand when we lost our home in the 13th largest wildfire in California history. The Carr Fire destroyed almost 1100 homes and burned 229,651 acres in […]
How Are You Feeling, Momma? Book Review
How Are You Feeling, Momma? Sometimes we are sent a person who we know didn’t come into our life by chance. Sometimes we read a book or have a discussion that changes the way we think. How Are You Feeling, Momma and its authors are exactly these things. I became familiar […]
Calming the School Morning Rush
Calming the School Morning Rush By: Emily Scott, PhD Another morning of begging our TKer and first-grader to eat something before school. Another morning of rushing to get dressed. Another morning of running out the door by 7:30. Another morning of getting frustrated that a school water bottle was left outside. After […]
The Messy Life of Parenting Book Review
Book Review of The Messy Life of Parenting By: Lori Wildenberg There are few people I have come across who have a true heart for helping others, coupled with knowledge and compassion as they reach out to other’s hearts. Lori Wildenberg is one of those people. Because of these characteristics, I jumped at the […]
Unbound Book Review
We all have different paths to motherhood. Whether we like our path or not, we are set on a course designed for us. Sometimes our path is easy, and others are more difficult. We are often taught lessons we don’t want to learn and experience setbacks that break our hearts. Often, we find ourselves wishing […]
Never Allow Someone to Make You Feel Like a Bad Parent
Don’t ever allow someone to make you feel like a bad mom or parent. Whether you work from home, go to work, or stay home with your kids. Whether you breastfed, bottle fed, or did a little of both. Whether you have one kid, or five. Whether you had a natural […]
The Advantage of Affection
We have long been taught that holding our babies is good for them. We are taught to meet our baby’s needs and show them warmth. Unfortunately, that physical touch often stops when our children outgrow infancy and toddlerhood. Touch is often considered inappropriate past a certain age, and especially with certain genders or […]
Parenting on the Same Page
When two people come together in marriage or a relationship raising children, their differences are often highlighted. We see many couples who come to parenting classes seeking help working as a team and being on the same parenting page. This is a very admirable thing to do. As parents, it is important to work […]
5 Day Love Your Child Challenge
5 Day Love your Child Challenge! We are excited to spend 5 days focusing on loving our children and working on our relationship with our kids. As their parent, you are the most important influence on them, more so than teachers, peers, the media, or anything else. Ensuring you have a strong relationship with […]
How Parental Stress Impacts Kids
Parental Stress: What it Does to Your Children If cold and flu season teaches us anything, it is that kids pick up everything. This is not limited to only germs, though. From the time they are in the womb, until they are young adults, our kids can even pick up our stress and anxiety. […]