Kim Olver wrote an article, "Getting What You Want in Parenting."  Enjoy the read.   more »

I found this article by Terie Ellingsen.   If you want parenting success, don't put your children down but practice a communication that is affirmative and positive. How do you do this in practice?  Click on the word 'article' above to read the entire article.

 

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There are two areas over which parents have no control: getting a child to eat, and choosing a child's friends.  Today, we'll look at fussy eaters.  You know them well; they don't like what you're serving and expect you to get them something else.  if you do this, you are setting yourself up for problems--problems that don't easily go away.

If a child doesn't like what you're serving, don't make a big deal over it.  Let the child know what the choices are for food this meal.  If he or she doesn't like it, your child is free to go to his or her room until the meal is over.  What would he or she like to do, stay at the table and eat with the family, or go to the bedroom.  Either way, it's the child's choice so it won't create a battlescene at the table.

If the child leaves ...   more »

Take the pointer finger of your right hand and draw a large, imaginary figure eight on it's side on the wall.  Make sure you're crossing over your mid-line, moving your finger way over to the left and then, over to the right.  Do this three times with each hand, and then three times with both hands.  It will help you and your child focus more and remember better what you read.   more »

If you have a child who seems to take forever to do something, wait until he or she wants to do something, like watch TV, play a computer game, visit a friend, play outside, etc.  Then say,

"You know, I've noticed you really like to pick up your clothes slowly, or get dressed slowly, or clean the kitchen slowly.  Before you do what you want, I made a bet with myself about how slow you can do something.  I'm going to give you a task to do and I want you to do it only in slow motion.  I'll time you and then see if you could move as slow as I think you can."  If you do it in less time than I think, you'll have it to do it as fast as you can next time. Do you think you can do it really slow?

Then, give the child ...   more »

Dr. Charles Sophy wrote an article called

R - E - S - P - E - C - T: Four Tips For Teaching Your Child Respect

he has some good ideas to consider of you want to raise your children to act more respectful.   more »

The second part of Fiona Gibson's article on fighting children tells you what to do when you have children fighting.   more »

The Parenting Process has a great article on dealing with a child's negative behaviors while eating in a restaurant.  Good common sense approach for parents to become more successful at helpin g their children to behave.   more »

Fiona Gibson wrote a great article on children fighting with one another. I think you'll find it useful.

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Paul and Gail dennison have written a small, paperback book, Brain Gym.  In it is an exercise called "gravity glider."  It not only helps with reading comprehension, it's good to do after sitting at the offie all day and before playing in a sports event like baseball or soccer.

Sit on a chair or sofa.  Cross your ankles.  keeping your knees relaxed, bend forward and reach out in front of you with straight arms.  Let your arms glide down toward your feet as you exhale.  Glide arms up as you inhale.  Repeat, moving arms to the left and up, right and up, and then center.  Change your legs and repeat.  For most people, their body feels lighter and more relaxed.

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Another brain gym exercise from Paul and Gail Dennison's book, Brain Gym, is called "Thinking Caps."  It's good to do to help your child (and you) improve attention and listenting.   Gently unroll your ears, three times from top to bottom.  Start at the fold of the ear at the top and gently use your fingers to unroill the fold on both ears at the same time.   more »

If you have siblings who fight often, put yourself into super nanny mode and tell them calmly to do the following:

Sit down on the floor, cross-legged facing each other.  You have to keep your hands in your lap and not touch the other person or he will win.  Now, stare at each other for awhile.  Let your eyes show your sibling how angry you are.  great!  Now, make the silliest face you can at the other person without making any noise.

Give a couple more silly suggestions and you will usually see the children laughing instead of staying angry.  When this happens, you know you have stepped into your super nanny shoes, feeling more confident and successful as a  parent

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Parents who act like a super nanny have an amazing ability to take a child's negative behavior and tunr it into something positive.  Here's a suggestion for dealing with children who love to mind everyone else's business and tatle on them:

Tell your child in the mornng you're puttigng him or her in charge of counting the number of times, people in the family smile, burp, say thinak you, etc.  At the end of the day, the child will report to you that one behavior.  If the child. comes to you about soemthing else, calmly remind him or her they are only in charge of the behavior chosen for that day.  Anything else doesn't count.

Try it and see what happens.  I'm sure you'll feel more confident as a super nanny parent.

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Another brain gym exercise from Paul and Gail Dennison's book, Brain Gym is called belly breathing.  I use it whenever I'm feeling tense or nervous.  Standing up, I rest my hand on my abdomen and thenblow out all the old air in short, soft little puffs (like blowing a cotton ball).  Then, I breathe in slowly, with a dep breath, filling up my abdomen like a balloon.  I do this for about 4-5 times and always feel more relaxed and calmer.   more »

You can help your child do better on tests by showing uim or her a brain gym activty called the cross crawl.  It's fun to do it with music in the background for fun.  I've had kids skip to the music.  When the left foot is off the ground, the right hand is in the air.  When the right foot is off the ground, the left hand is on the air.  This takes concentration and practice for some.

This gets both sides of the brain working together and will help you feel more open to learning new things and being relaxed.

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Brain Gym, written by Paul and Gail Dennison, is a small, paperback book loaded with exercises you can do with your child to help the brain function more effectively.  I'll be sharing some of the exercises with you ovr the next few entries.

Brain gym exercises have been developed that help with:

reading skills

writing skills

math skills

thinking skills

self awareness skills

study skills

Successful parenting happens when you can help your child to focus better on school work or tasks and to use both sides of the brain together to improve thinking abilities, which will always help with school work.

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Many parents refer to Proverbs 13:24 when disciplining their children.  The verse reads, “If you refuse to discipline your children, it proves you don’t love them.”

What many parents don’t realize is that the word ‘discipline’ actually means to instruct.

 

When we discipline our children, we want them to learn from their actions and choices, so they don’t make the same mistakes over again.  When parents send their children to time out or spank them and the same negative behavior continues, it’s time to change tactics.

 

If your child repeats the same behavior, make the consequence fit the crime.  For example, if a child hits another child, have the consequence be to do something for the hurt child; do his or her chore, or use a toy that belongs to the child who hit a sibling.  That’s a natural consequence that hits the child ...   more »