The “Manner Tune-Up” for Kids
Parenting advice to boost our children's civility and teach manners in a sometimes ill-mannered world REALITY CHECK: A survey conducted by US News & World Report found nine out of ten Americans felt the breakdown of common courtesy has become a serious problem in this country. A huge seventy-eight percent of those polled said manners and good social graces have significantly eroded over the past ten years, and is a major contributor to the breakdown of our values in this country. What’s...
The Fine Art of Disciplining Other People’s Kids
Do's and don'ts when it comes to dealing with other parent's ill-mannered and ill-behaved kids in a modern-day sometimes too-litigious world When I was growing up and misbehaved I was set straight by the parent in charge, and if my friends misbehaved at my house there were held accountable by my mom and dad. But these days the parenting rules about disciplining other kids have changed. Parents are far much more cautious about disciplining kids who aren’t “theirs.” One reason is out of...
An A+ Parent-Teacher Conference
The right questions and what to do to boost your child's learning success. Parenting tips I shared on TODAY show. If you’ve just received a memo from your child’s school that your parent-teacher conference has been scheduled, you’re not alone. Over the next weeks millions of parents will be walking into those classrooms to sit down with the teacher to discuss their children’s progress. Educators realize just how important parental involvement is in increasing students’ learning success. Many...
Parenting 101: Eating Disorders in Kids and Teens
Rise of eating disorders in younger children and boys as well as teens; 14 eating disorders signs and advice for a dangerous trend every parent must know “An eating disorder? Impossible! She's too young!” “Not my daughter!” "Boys can't have eating disorders! That has to be the wrong diagnosis!" Disbelief is usually our first response when we read the headlines about anorexia, bulimia and binging. But the fact is troubling reports show that teens suffer from eating disorders. The disease has no...
The Five Building Blocks of Self-Esteem
The Five Building Blocks of Self-Esteem by Michele Borba, Ed.D. Author of Esteem Builders: A K-8 Self Esteem Curriculum for Improving Student Achievement Behavior and School Climate The following building blocks, based on the five components found in individuals with high self-esteem, are the sequential esteem-building steps incorporated into the curriculum, Esteem Builders by Michele Borba. BUILDING BLOCK STEPS FOR ESTEEM BUILDER Security A feeling of strong assuredness. Involves feeling...
Getting Smart About Teens and Medicine Abuse
The Medicine Abuse Project Launches Initiative to End Growing Epidemic: National Action Campaign Will Prevent Half a Million Teens from Abusing Medicine in Five Years Did you know that today in the United States, 2,000 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 will abuse a prescription pain medication without a prescription? [1] In fact, it’s easier than you would think. It can be as simple as opening a cupboard, drawer or medicine cabinet. I'm a huge supporter of the The Partnership at...
When Your Child Complains About His Teacher
6 Steps to Take When Your Child and his Teacher Just Can’t Get Along What should you do when your child doesn’t like his teacher? Should you call the principal or sit on the class? Or should you brush it off as a normal childhood grievance and move on? The steps to take to help you navigate this tricky teacher trouble You beat the back-to-school shopping blues, mastered your hectic morning routine, and haven’t had one homework headache to date. Then, just when this school year is promising to...
Nurturing Children’s Empathy
Children are hard-wired for empathy, but unless it is nurtured the trait may lie dormant. Parenting advice based on research that nurture our children's capacity to feel for others One Experience Can Mobilize Heart Several years ago, our youngest son brought a note homefrom his teacher asking for parent volunteers to chaperone a class field trip. His teacher, Cindy Hollinger, was encouraging her students to give up their Saturday morning to participate in a race called “Lauren’s Run” sponsored...
12 Ways to Find Out If Your Child Is Bullied and How To Help
What to say and do if you suspect bullying to help your child feel and be safe I know you’ve heard about bullying, but it’s a heart-stopping moment when you know it happened to your own child. But the fact is most parents whose children were targeted by a bully admit to me that they were not aware. If we want to help our children we need to be educated about bullying. We also need to learn what to ask our kids -- and how to ask -- in order to gather information to develop a safety plan. ...
A Way to Help Adults Realize the Destructiveness of Bullying
A fun activity that helps staff, parents students see all it takes is just one cutting remark to bring someone down! Over the years I've delivered literally hundreds of keynote addresses to schools and organizations around the world, but the "warm-up" activity to my speech in Corona Norco Unified School District this week has to be the most memorable. Corona Norco is a large district, 45 miles southeast of Los Angles in Riverside County. The district has 31 elementary schools,eight middle...
Teaching Kids to Be Smart Spenders for Back to School
Parenting advice to help kids become smarter spenders, stick to a budget, and learn the value of a dollar Do you sometimes feel like your kid’s ATM machine? Do you worry you may be giving your kid an allowance when he’s forty-five? Does your child spend faster than he saves? If so, you’re not alone. Financial literacy and knowing the value of a dollar (or a good deal) appears to be a subject many of today’s kids are failing. In fact, 180,000 U.S. kids aged 18 to 24 declared bankruptcy last...
Study Shows Alcohol Ad Standards Violations Most Common in Magazines With Youthful Audiences
There is one irrefutable research-based finding no parent should ignore: the earlier kids start to drink, the more likely they are to have alcohol problems later in life. In fact, kids who start to drink before the age of fifteen are four times more likely to report the criteria for alcohol dependence. I've spent the last month training youth counselors dealing with substance abuse - I flew to Seoul and am just back from Germany. I am very concerned about the epidemic of substance abuse with...
Five Educational Lessons I Learned from Kids Around the World
Why I'm proud to serve as the Goodwill Ambassador for the One Laptop per Child Project I’ve been a teacher, writer and researcher for over thirty years and like many, I’m haunted knowing that millions of children on our planet will never receive an education or walk into a classroom. Imagine! I’ve pondered again and again how we can give poverty-stricken kids-especially those living in remote areas where teachers, textbooks, classrooms or even running water don’t exist-a chance for hope. I did...
Top 10 Reasons We Must Build Our Children’s Moral IQ
OUR REALITY CHECK: Moral Intelligence is what helps our children act right with or without our guidance, and the best news is that this critical and too often overlooked intelligence can be taught. Let's make sure our children develop both strong minds and caring hearts! Here are 10 reasons why we must build our children's Moral IQs (and most especially in today's racy, too fast, too soon, raunchy world). 1. Nurtures Good Character The foundation to good character--or "moral...
How to Create a Moral Legacy for Your Children
REALITY CHECK: “Results-Driven Parenting” is what I call using how you choose to respond and what you choose to reinforce in your daily interactions with your children to produce real and lasting change in their social, emotional, moral, cognitive, or behavior. The technique is based on solid psychological principles, is simple to use, and yet is the one tool I find parents don't use nearly enough. Instead, we're a bit too much "auto-pilot" in our approach without putting the brakes on nearly...
Summer Activities are Essential for ALL Kids
Many kids look forward to the summer as an opportunity to take a break from studying and just have fun. The summer is a great time for a change of pace and the new school year seems a world away. However, more reports show that when children stop eating healthy and learning over the summer they are behind when school starts again – this is also known as a "summer slump." Reality Check #1: Numbers show that children gain weight 2-3 times faster over the summer and they can lose up to two months...
Bullied: What Every Parent, Teacher, and Kid Needs to Know About Ending the Cycle of Fear
A review of Bullied: What Every Parent, Teacher, and Kid Needs to Know About Ending the Cycle of Fear, by Carrie Goldman THE REALITY CHECK on BULLYING: Statistics reveal that at least 25% of kids have been bullied online One in five teens has been bullied at school More than half of bullying behaviors will stop in less than ten seconds when another student intervenes. Last summer I received a phone call from a mom in Chicago named Carrie Goldman. She was writing a book about bullying, she...
9 Sure-Fire Ways To Get Kids Reading
Parenting tips to beat the "Summer Reading Slump" and rekindle that great love of the reading REALITY CHECK: Are you aware of that kids can lose an upward of three month's worth of reading progress during this summer break? Are you also aware that according to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average American teenagers spends two hours watching TV each day and just seven minutes reading? The famous "Summer Reading Slide" is well documented and shows that learning declines in most kids during...
Easy Ways to Make Family Memories
Research shows that doing simple rituals enhances our feelings of togetherness and family belonging by almost 20 percent I loved reading that research because it proves that SIMPLE things we do with our kids on a regular basis not only work best but also--let's get real on this one--are what our kids often remember most. We get so darn caught up in trying to "do it all" or spend money on the fancy outings or vacations. And years later when you ask the kids, they usually tell those researchers...
Seven Deadly Parenting Styles
21st century child-rearing approaches proving toxic to effective parenting and our kids' emotional well-being From June Clever to Desperate Housewives Ah the joys of raising our next generation! Frankly, I can’t imagine any other job that is more challenging and rewarding; frustrating and joyous than parenting. It’s perhaps the most significant role we’ll ever have (we’re talking about raising a human being for Pete’s sake) and also the only one that doesn’t require a single credential. And...
Secrets to Thawing a Teen’s Cold Shoulder to Rebuild Your Relationship
Parenting advice to open up communication, rebuild a relationship with your teen or know what to do when your son or daughter starts to pull away and give you the cold shoulder Let’s face it: teens really are a different species --and for a variety of reasons. Raging hormones, stress, sleep deprivation, growth spurts, self-consciousness and neurological wiring are just a few factors that make teens super sensitive, moody and irritable. So let’s have a little empathy—they are stuck in...