Using Meditation to Help Your Children Focus and Relax

Using Meditation to Help Your Children Focus and Relax

Adults often commiserate about their busy schedules, hectic jobs, and difficulties managing their households and children’s activities. Yoga and meditation have become an important outlet for stress and anxiety for many adults. But do our young children also feel everyday stresses when managing major transitions, minor daily transitions, and busy, active lives? Meditation can be a great resource for kids …

How to Talk About Divorce with Young Children

How to Talk About Your Divorce with Your Young Children

Once you and your partner have reached a decision about your relationship, and choose to dissolve your marriage, one of the hardest steps is still ahead of you. If you have young children, communicating to them about your divorce in a way that makes them feel safe and loved is incredibly important. Say it simply. Toddlers and preschoolers do not …

How to Get Everyone Out of the House in the Morning

Tackling Dawdling: How to Get Everyone Out of the House in the Morning!

Ask any parent what the most challenging time of day is, in their family, and they’ll tell you that it’s the early morning hours. The hours between waking up and leaving the house are packed with a multitude of sticking points, from selecting clothing to eating breakfast to getting socks and shoes on. As a result, frazzled parents become even more frazzled, …

Talking About Mental Illness with Very Young Children

Talking About Mental Illness with Very Young Children

Mental illness can be hard for very young children to understand. If a parent, sibling, or other close family member is coping with depression, anxiety, bi-polar disorder, or another mental health issue, their change in behavior can be distressing to a young child. And if your child has been diagnosed with a mental illness herself, she is likely scared and …

Teaching and Modeling Respectful Behavior at Home

Kids do their best. When they’re in the toddler and preschooler stages, kids are learning an enormous amount about the world, and it’s all they can do to finish their dinner, sit still long enough to use the potty, and hold your hand when crossing the street. Adding kindness and generosity to their list of to-dos may seem like a tall …

Five Rules of Playground Etiquette and How to Enforce Them

The Five Rules of Playground Etiquette and How to Enforce Them With Your Child

The sun is shining. A breeze is blowing. Children are laughing as they stumble across a play structure at your local playground. Toddlers swing with their parents, squealing with happiness. But then someone pushes someone else. Sand is thrown in another child’s eyes. Tantrums occur, and feelings are hurt. Navigating your local playground can mean sticking to a few important …

Your Young Child’s Interests: How to Develop and Nurture Skills

Your Young Child’s Interests: How to Develop and Nurture Skills

When did you first notice your young child becoming keenly interested in a specific activity? Did he pick up a small keyboard, start playing, and eventually begin picking out notes that sounded almost like a melody? Maybe your little one started counting to five, and then ten, and has moved on well into the double digits, counting everything from dolls …

Parenting as Competition: How to Dial Back Pressure

Parenting as Competition: How to Dial Back the Pressure

Your neighbors’ kids are speaking Mandarin. Your daughter’s best friend is gearing up for her Olympic gymnastics debut. Your best friend’s kitchen is always stocked with organic foods, and she posts every healthy, gourmet family meal she prepares on Facebook and Instagram. Parenting has become a competition, and not a healthy one. Steer clear of participating in this particular competition …