How to Teach Your Seven Year Old Responsibility

Responsibility means being dependable, making good choices, and taking accountability for your actions.

Ideas for Managing Family Time

Families have a lot going on. Juggling school, work commitments, extracurricular activities, and social engagements can feel overwhelming at times. Staying organized, incorporating breaks, and prioritizing health are ways we as parents can take control to ensure the kids and grown-ups alike feel productive and positive.

Inspiring Your Child’s Imagination

Has your child ever flown a unicorn right out of the house? Forged a peace treaty with thimble-sized aliens? Or become the first person to open a fast casual fondue restaurant on the moon?

Keeping Kids’ Minds Sharp During Vacation

It might sound odd, but one of the best times to encourage learning with your kids is on vacation. The reading battles of home are far behind them, and your relaxed mindset puts you in the perfect state of mind to have fun with learning, rather than enforcing it like a teacher.

Kids and Exercise

When most adults think about exercise, they imagine working out in the gym, running on a treadmill, or lifting weights.

But for kids, exercise means playing and being physically active. Kids exercise when they have gym class at school, during recess, at dance class or soccer practice, while riding bikes, or when playing tag.

Kids and Food 10 Tips for Parents

It's no surprise that parents might need some help understanding what it means to eat healthy. 

The good news is that you don't need a degree in nutrition to raise healthy kids. Following some basic guidelines can help you encourage your kids to eat right and maintain a healthy weight.

Kids Regressing? Help Them Cope With Stress During Coronavirus

Are the kids going to be okay?

That’s the collective worry I sense from parents when I scan parenting sites and my social media feeds. We are nervous about how this pandemic will affect our children’s wellbeing now and in the future. Since young children aren’t likely to say, “Hey Mom and Dad, I feel stressed and need help right now,” what should parents be looking for? And when we do see signs of distress, how do we support our kids in a way that builds resilience?

Learning at Home: 5 Steps to Plan Your Day

On our first unexpected day together at home, my daughter and I scrambled to put together a plan for a routine and learning activities that she could do while I worked from home.

Learning at Home: 5 Steps to Support Authentic Learning Projects

“Mom, I found the tiniest snail ever in the yard!” After a morning of virtual school meetings (and, let’s be honest, needing a break myself!), I sent my children outside with no particular plan. I felt guilty that I wasn’t able to structure this time, especially with in-person school canceled. I had forgotten that boredom and unstructured play are great for children’s creativity, build independence, and offer stress relief.

Learning at Home: 9 Early Literacy Activities

When I was trying to help my children navigate the exciting journey of learning to read, all I really wanted was for us to have fun. I love books and reading and wanted them to have the same joy. I knew that just by talking, reading aloud, singing and listening to my boys as babies, toddlers, and then preschoolers, I was helping prepare them to read.

Living Apart, Parenting Together: Collaborating with Your Co-Parent

First, the good news: Children are very adaptable.

Low-Stress Tips for Virtual Learning Routines

My family is a month into virtual learning with four young kids. As we get into a virtual school routine, we’re learning what helps us stay connected and on-task in this new normal.

Making Mistakes is Part of Learning

It’s so hard to watch our children struggle, fall, and even fail. However, for learning to take place, struggling and failing are part of the process. As parents, we want to protect our children from hardships, so we may think hovering and plowing through dangers up ahead will somehow help them. However, removing every potential obstacle takes away opportunities for our children to learn. And making mistakes is part of learning.

Managing Emotions as Parents

One of the hardest things about being a parent is always having to be the grown-up in the relationship. On our best days, we’re able to be the calm in the middle of our child’s storm. But it’s not always easy — like the time my daughter plugged up the toilet with generous amounts of toilet paper. As I was mopping the bathroom floor, my toddler son stood in the doorway asking me repeatedly if I wanted to see a magic trick.

Most Effective Ways to Help Kids Who Are Too Hard on Themselves

As a parent, you want your children to feel happy and confident about themselves. You also want them to have a healthy self-esteem. But at some point, your children may say things about themselves that will cause you some concern. Negative statements about their physical appearance, academic performance, athletic ability, peer interactions, or overall existence may be unexpected and unsettling as a parent.

Motivating School Aged kids to be Active

The Hour of Power

Sixty minutes — that's how much physical activity kids should get each day. But as kids get older, increasing demands on their time can make getting a full hour of exercise a challenge. And some kids get caught up in sedentary pursuits like watching TV and surfing the Internet. Even doing a lot of studying and reading, while important, can contribute to inadequate physical activity.

Motivating Teens to Be Fit

In the teen years, kids who used to be bundles of nonstop energy might lose interest in physical activity. Between school, studying, friends, and even part-time jobs, they're juggling a lot of interests and responsibilities.

But kids who started out enjoying sports and exercise tend to stay active throughout their lives. So they might just need a little encouragement to keep it going during the teen years.

Nightmares

It's not clear at what age kids begin to dream, but even toddlers may speak about having dreams — pleasant ones and scary ones. While almost every child has an occasional frightening or upsetting dream, nightmares seem to peak during the preschool years when fear of the dark is common. But older kids (and even adults) have occasional nightmares, too.

Nine Steps to More Effective Parenting

Raising kids is one of the toughest and most fulfilling jobs in the world — and the one for which you might feel the least prepared.

Here are nine child-rearing tips that can help you feel more fulfilled as a parent.

Nine Ways to Help Soothe and Comfort Your Child

During tough times and stressful situations, it can feel as if our worlds have been turned upside down. Your children look to you for guidance and comfort — so this is a great chance to show them that, even in times of unease, your family is in this together no matter what. And don’t forget self-care: being kind, patient, and understanding to yourself in uncertain times helps create a calmer family environment and builds children’s sense of security. We hope these tips remind you that you are strong and that you can help your children and your family through these complicated times.