Search Results for: blog what is your teaching style

Positive Parenting Might be your Style

Parents today have a plethora of parenting styles to choose from. Have you figured out what your parenting style is yet? If not, then perhaps Positive Parenting might be your style. Positive Parenting is a style that is intended to lessen stress and form healthier relationships between parents and their children. It is not an authoritarian parenting style. Other phrases that have been used to describe Positive Parenting include: positive discipline, gentle guidance, or loving guidance. Physical punishment, such as spanking, is absolutely not a part of Positive Parenting. It isn’t about “teaching your child a lesson”. Instead, this parenting … Continue reading →

Homeschool Blog Focus: Brighton Park

  Brighton Park is a 2012 Circle of Moms Top 25 Homeschool blog, a Siemens Top 50 Farm Blog, and was recently featured in the Jan/Dec 2013 issue of Hobby Farm Home Magazine. Meet Katie Katie is the face behind Brighton Park.   Katie is a pediatric speech language pathologist.  Her homeschool curriculum is a hybrid of Catholic/Waldorf, or as her kids call it “Crafty Catholic”. She is a mom of five beautiful children, including twins with special needs. In addition, she is a yoga teacher, crafter, gardener, decorator, and backyard chicken keeper.  She loves inspired homeschooling and artful homemaking. You … Continue reading →

Teaching Toddlers Empathy

One important skill that we as parents can help our children to learn is empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and experience the feelings of others, and to respond in helpful ways. No child is too young to begin learning about empathy. In fact, you have probably been modeling empathy for your child since the moment that she was born by being sensitive to her feelings and responding to her needs. As your toddler grows, she can begin to build on the empathy that you have shown her by reaching out to others in a caring way. Of course, … Continue reading →

Talk to Your Kids About Voting

It’s the week of the big election. In just a few days we will find out who will lead our country for the next four years. The fate of our country is in our hands. Have you talked to your children about the importance of exercising your right to vote? For most of us it will be many years before our children are old enough to vote, but if you start talking to them about it now, they may begin to realize the importance of it. I have been amazed at the things children are hearing about the election right … Continue reading →

Teaching Kids to Love Reading

My son has always loved reading. If he had it his way we would read at least 20 books before bed each night. But this love for reading didn’t happen overnight. From the first night I brought him home from the hospital I’ve been reading stories like I’ll Love You Forever, You Are Special, and Dr. Seuss’s classic Mr. Brown Can Moo. After being in the womb for so long hearing my voice was soothing to him. He loved hearing the different cadences as I read his favorite stories. My mother instilled a love of reading in me and now … Continue reading →

Teaching Responsibility One Step at a Time

Today Logan and I embarked on a great adventure. While this adventure was more for fun, it is definitely one of those teaching moments you never want to pass up. This afternoon I made the crazy decision to take my son to the pet store. Like any four year old, Logan wanted to bring the entire store home with us—the cats, the dogs, the birds, the guinea pigs, the mice, the fish, the turtles, the frogs, the snakes, he wanted them all. Seeing as for the time being we are still living with Grandma anything with fur was out of … Continue reading →

Teaching Values to Your Children

Yesterday, my 1st grader came home and told me that a girl at school was being a bully at recess. Of course, I asked a million questions trying to get more details regarding what happened. It seemed to me after talking about it for a long time, that this other 1st grader was trying to tease my daughter because of something that my daughter said. I finally realized that it was mostly innocent child’s play (although a little aggressive), but at the same time, I used it as a teaching opportunity to tell my children again that if they don’t … Continue reading →

Care of Your Washing Machine

You never realize how much you appreciate an appliance in your home until it breaks down. At the same time, you don’t realize how much you appreciate Mr. Handyman until he figures out how to fix it. A couple of weeks ago, it appeared that my washing machine was done. It was making a loud clunking sound and when it was finished with the final cycle, the clothes were sopping wet. It was bad timing (isn’t it always?) with a trip we have coming up. Buying a new washing machine was not in our budget. Thankfully my husband was able … Continue reading →

Teaching Children to Do Own Laundry

Once my children turn 13 years old, they become responsible for their own laundry. I had been a little more generous with my youngest son (you know how that can be…the whole “it’s my baby” thing). But the past couple of weeks, I have finally been strong enough to let him deal with the repercussions of letting dirty clothes pile up on the floor. Not wanting to wear dirty clothes for school today, he threw in a load of wash last night. Thankfully I decided to watch how he was doing it. I had taught him how to use the … Continue reading →

Teaching Tolerance

When I married my ex-husband I knew we may have a few issues when it came to raising our son. My ex-husband is an atheist and believes that religion would inhibit any happiness he found here on this Earth, while I have a deeply rooted faith in God and find an indescribable joy in such testimony. I have been blessed that he has allowed me to take my son with me to church each Sunday. I have tried to instill strong values in my son from a young age and thankfully he has supported me in doing so. Even with … Continue reading →