Stress, Family Wellness, and Student Success

September 10, 2010

If children live with hostility, they learn to fight. If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive. If children live with acceptance, they learn to love. If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence. If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them. – From […]

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Make Conscious Choices for School Success

August 27, 2010

“Things are going to be different this school year!  We’re going to __________________________________.” How would you fill in the blank?  What do you really want for your child this school year?  Better grades, more friends, less homework hassles?  Being more organized, less stressed?  More peaceful and productive?  How so – what will that look like […]

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The Single Best Parenting Tip?

July 23, 2010

Two moments of awareness today that I want to share with you. First, as I was reading a magazine at breakfast this morning, I came across a full page ad for the Fresh Air Fund – showing two kids playing in the ocean surf.  The words across the top of the page spoke to me […]

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How are You at Timechoicing?

June 25, 2010

Just yesterday at our clinic, I spoke with three families who were distraught about nothing more and nothing less than the pace of their lives.  Let me tell you about it. First scenario.  There was the mother of a 15 year old girl who had come to us recently, very concerned about her daughter’s increasingly […]

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Memorializing What?

May 28, 2010

It’s Memorial Day Weekend.  Do you know where you mind is?  How about your heart? You’ve got an extra day off from work; the kids have the day off from school.  So what are you doing with this gift of time?  Tend to the garden, go to a park, have a cook-out, catch up on […]

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A Family’s Spring Fling

May 21, 2010

I went outside yesterday morning to take our daughter to the bus and stopped dead in my tracks.  “Ahhhh.  Feel that?” I asked Hannah.  “Do you feel that?  That’s what Spring feels like!”  It was a glorious, crisp morning with the sun coming up over the mountains spraying our lush green fields and woods with […]

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What Motivates Us – and Our Children

May 14, 2010

Food.  Sex.  Sleep.  That about covers it.  Need anything else to satisfy your deepest longings?  All animals, including we humans, share in these basic drives.  The drive to survive.  But beyond these basics, what else drives us as human beings?  What motivates us to behave the way we do?  And more often on the minds […]

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Caring for Kids Starts with YOU

May 6, 2010

I know a mom (do you?) who gets up at 6:00 every weekday morning to begin her routine as the family field general.  She makes the kids’ lunches, signs permission notes, makes sure game uniforms are out of the dryer, and checks backpacks for homework.  Getting iPods and cell phones turned off for a minute […]

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The Best Kept Secret for Student Success

April 30, 2010

What’s the single biggest predictor of success – at school, at work, at sports, at life? It’s not ability.  It’s not heredity.  I’ll tell you what it is. Persistence.  Effort.  Perseverance. (Hey, why use just one word, when three will do?) Put ‘em together, you’ve got PEP! Yeah, putting PEP into your kid’s life is […]

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Teaching Kids Respect – Part 2: Conscious Consequences

April 22, 2010

conscious (n.)  aware, sensible, deliberate. consequence (n.)  result, outcome, effect. Okay, last week you set up the situation with realistic, positive expectations, empathy, and encouragement.  Now, either your kids will respond respectfully and cooperatively, or they won’t.  Your job is to provide immediate feedback that teaches them to keep making better choices in the future.  […]

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