Gratitude for Pets/Animals
What a wonderful gift from God animals are! Have you and your family spent much time thinking about this? There is so much to appreciate about the animals in our world–the variety in their appearances, sizes, colors, strengths, and abilities;…
Avoid the Summer Slump with Teachable Moments
Just as teachers want children to avoid the “summer slump” of digressing academically June through August, we as parents don’t want our children to forget what WE have taught them either. That’s why it’s so important for us to look…
Better Than Sit or Stay: How Pets Help Us with Teachable Moments
Raise your hand if you joined in the “Pandemic Puppy” trend! [Picture me raising my hand.] Yes, my family decided to add a third dog to our family unit over the last year. Among our three pooches are three different…
Let Them Witness the Fitness: Getting Your Kids Involved
It’s February now, so how is everyone doing on their New Year’s resolutions for health and fitness?! If you’re not where you’d like to be, I’m sure you’re not alone. Sometimes family life can be what makes it difficult for…
An Education in Life: Taking Advantage of Teachable Moments During the School Years
Not all lessons taught during the school years involve textbooks. And they’re 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…
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…
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. It’s 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…
Trust: We’re Either Building It or Breaking It
We talk about trust a lot around our house. We believe that, pretty much all the time, we are either building or breaking trust with one another through our words and actions, whether we realize it or not. We stress…
Training
There are days when I don’t feel like doing all that is required of me as a parent–particularly in the area of discipline. Some days I am just really tired, and I think, “I only want to love my kids,…
