Commandments of Good Parenting

Good parenting helps foster empathy, honesty, self-reliance, self-control, kindness, cooperation, and cheerfulness. It also promotes intellectual curiosity, motivation, and desire to achieve. It helps protect children from developing anxiety, depression, eating disorders, anti-social behavior, and alcohol and drug abuse.

A parent's relationship with his or her child will be reflected in the child's actions including child behavior problems. "If you don't have a good relationship with your child, they're not going to listen to you. Think how you relate to other adults. If you have a good relationship with them, you tend to trust them more, listen to their opinions, and agree with them. If it's someone we just don't like, we will ignore their opinion."

Connecting With Your Preteen

Staying connected as kids approach the teen years and become more independent may become a challenge for parents, but it's as important as ever  if not more so now.

Courage:Raising a Courageous Four Year Old

Courage involves making good choices in the face of fear or obstacles. It’s another term for bravery. Remember: Bravery doesn’t mean fearlessness. It means we do not let fear hold us back from exploring new opportunities, developing our skills, and doing what is right. For a four-year-old, courage might look like meeting a new teacher, trying an activity for the first time, or talking about situations that make them feel scared.

Developing Your Six Year Old's Problem Solving Skills

To solve basic math operations — and more complicated ones down the road — kids need problem-solving skills and number sense. Number sense is the ability to understand what numbers mean, how they relate to one another and how they can be used in real-world situations. Because six-year-olds can count to higher numbers, they can also be challenged to work on higher number operations. School-aged children focus on addition and subtraction at first, and then eventually reach multiplication (in the form of skip counting) and division (in the form of equal shares).

Early Art: What it Means and How to Encourage It

Toddlerhood provides a valuable window of opportunity for kids to learn and develop the skills they need to succeed in life. Early literacy doesn’t just revolve around teaching children how to recite letters, read, and count – art can have a profound affect on their literacy, and development as well.

Eight Easy Ideas to Add Math Into Your Daily Routine

“I don’t like this rice, anymore. It has green things on it,” my preschooler said. She had eaten that exact rice almost every week and often asked for seconds. But as my daughter became more independent each day, she began to relish in her new decision-making skills. More foods were crossed off the menu by my newfound picky-eater.

Eight Indoor Activities to Release Kids' Energy

When my daughter was young, it took a lot of mental energy , creativity and time to come up with new ways to get our energy out inside, especially during bad weather days, extended weekends or even as part of our every day routine. Physical activity is important for children and adults alike. Getting regular exercise helps keep our bodies healthy, sets up positive long-term habits, supports restful sleep and helps children be prepared to learn.

Eight Tips to Help Children Enjoy Hybrid or Virtual Learning

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned so much of our daily in-person work into a more virtual environment for many families. As a business owner, pediatric psychologist, and parent coach, I currently see 100% of my clients virtually. My husband now works virtually. My two children in elementary school are doing virtual learning.

Eleven Simple Self Care Habits for Kids

Self-care isn’t selfish — it’s a basic need of being human! By teaching your child simple acts of self-care and including nurturing routines into your family life, you can show that taking care of ourselves, and each other, is important.

Eleven Simple Self-Care Habits for Kids

Self-care isn’t selfish — it’s a basic need of being human! By teaching your child simple acts of self-care and including nurturing routines into your family life, you can show that taking care of ourselves, and each other, is important.

Empathy in Action: How to Help Your Five Year Old Treat Others With Compassion

Compassion means we care about others, treat them with kindness, and feel a strong desire to help people in need. Compassion is empathy in action. For a five-year-old, compassion might look like giving a hug, making a card, or saying something kind to help a friend or family member who is feeling sad or upset. Noticing someone else’s distress and wanting to respond is the foundation of compassion.

Empathy in Action: How to Raise Your Eight-Year-Old to Treat Others With Compassion

Compassion means we care about others, treat them with kindness, and feel a strong desire to help people in need. Compassion is empathy in action. For an eight-year-old, compassion might look like giving a hug, making a card, or saying something kind to help a friend or family member who is feeling sad or upset. It can also look like reaching out to a peer who has been left out – or hearing about a community need and wanting to do something to help others, even if they do not know them.

Empathy in Action: How to Raise Your Six Year Old to Treat Others With Compassion

Compassion means we care about others, treat them with kindness, and feel a strong desire to help people in need. Compassion is empathy in action. For a six-year-old, compassion might look like giving a hug, making a card, or saying something kind to help a friend or family member who is feeling sad or upset. It can also look like reaching out to a peer who has been left out – or hearing about a community need and wanting to do something to help others, even if they do not know them.

Encouraging Independent Play for Toddlers and Preschoolers

I think every parent of a preschooler has had that moment where their child is bored but everything they suggest is a no, or their child wants to draw with crayons… but only with Mom or Dad, not alone. Sometimes this whole idea of “independent play” seems like it’s a parenting myth.

Encouraging Kids to Enjoy Nature With All of Their Senses

For children five and six years old, running, yelling, leaping, tumbling, swinging and generally being boisterous and silly are what the outdoors are all about. Just being outside — especially when the space is unbounded with unexpected sights — can be a sensory overload. And for caregivers, it can be a challenge to slow the pace of their play when you want them to fully experience what nature has to offer.

Encouraging Kids to Exercise

When most adults think about exercise, they imagine working out in the gym 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, while riding bikes, or when playing tag.

Encouraging Optimism in Children

“I’ll never be able to ride a bike! I’m just no good at anything!” your child says as he throws down the bike and drops to the ground in a sulk.

Engaging in Your Child's Learning at School

Education is a team effort. You and your child's teacher can work together to support your child's learning success.

Essential Social Skills to Help Your Child Find Success

When my children were toddlers, we spent a lot of time grappling with two ideas. First, that you can’t get what you want all the time. And second, that what you do has an impact on the world around you.

Every Child Is a Reader (Even If They Can’t Yet Read the Words)

In early September, my first grader sat on her bed thumbing through a picture book that was way above her reading level. “I’m reading this book all by myself, mommy! I’m reading the pictures. My teacher says that’s one way to read a book.”