An Education in Life: Taking Advantage of Teachable Moments During the School Years
Not all lessons taught during the school years involve textbooks. And theyโre not all taught by teachers in classrooms. In fact, most important lessons are taught by us parents, and we do our teaching at home, in the car, in…
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year…for Teachable Moments
The holiday season is upon us, and although some things will probably be different this year (Thanks, 2020.), there will still be plenty of hustle and bustle to manage for ourselves and our families. But what if we did more…
Much More Than a 5K
My family and I just participated in our fifth Hearts of Compassion 5K. This annual event is a tremendous fundraiser for families who are in the process of adoption. It was a great help to our family when we were…
ELECT to Have Teachable Moments with Your Kids
The harvest is ripe for teachable moments with our kids during election season! Seriously, they’re everywhere, just waiting to be picked and used. Parents, are we looking for them? The obvious one is to make sure our kids understand that…
My Family’s Favorite DIY Costumes
In our family, we donโt go all out for Halloween. We do think itโs fun to get dressed up in costumes and go ask our neighbors to give us candy, but thatโs about the extent of it. Oh, and we…
Parenting a Puppy
Several weeks ago, my family decided that two dogs just weren’t enough for our family of seven humans. And so we added a third dog. A Golden Retriever puppy, to be precise. His name is Dallas, and he’s just about…
Let’s Take Responsibility…And Pass It on to Our Children
Responsibility. Itโs a quality that we all desire for our children. We parents must realize, however, that responsibility is something that must be taught. And we are the ones who must teach it. Start Early The key to raising responsible…
True Confessions
We used the train-your-baby-to-be-on-a-schedule-and-sleep-through-the-night-so-that-you-can-sleep-too-and-everyone-is-much-happier-this-way method with each of our children. One night we heard baby Callie crying in her crib. I honestly donโt remember how long or short she cried, but we knew that she wasnโt hungry and didnโt need…
We Need Community
We were a couple of months overdue for our daughterโs one-year โwell-babyโ checkup with the doctor. We had recently moved to a new state and had not yet met with a pediatrician. โItโs not a big deal,โ I thought. When…
Points on Parental Publishing
When I was around five years old, I remember helping my mother make chocolate chip cookies. I so badly wanted to add the eggs to the batter, and I remember thinking so hard about the correct way to ask my…