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…
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…
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…
Teamwork in the Family
My husband likes to refer to our family as “Team Partridge” or “Team Peartree.” Teamwork is essential to family life, and I am understanding this concept more and more as my family has grown from five to seven members in…
When the Saints Go Marching In…Wearing Snuggies
Note: This post was first published in 2012 in my “Growth Spurts” column for Parents & Kids Magazine. In light of today’s match-up between the Saints and the 49ers, I felt that it was time to re-share it! My son…
Gratefulness: Teach Your Children to Look Beyond Themselves
An attitude of thankfulness is sometimes hard to find in our increasingly me-centered society. Attitudes of selfishness and entitlement seem to run rampant, while attitudes of service and gratefulness are often squashed or might even be considered to be weak.…
Confession
A few nights ago, I hit a very low point in my parenting. I was exhausted, worn down, and battle-weary. My buttons had all been pushed, and my triggers had all been triggered. I was tired of hearing lies, tired…
It’s So Tempting…
Have you seen video clips of the marshmallow test? You know, the one where they put a big marshmallow on a plate in front of a kid and tell him that if he can wait 15 minutes without eating that…
Do-Overs
Remember when we were kids, and there would be a disagreement over a game, and we would end up calling “Do-over!”? Well, we are trying to do more of that in our home. Specifically, we have been using this method…
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…
