[Read a similar post on Celebrating Hard Work and Healthy Risk-Taking in Children with Jennifer Hill.] What if all the horrible things we think might happen, probably won’t?  I’ve been saying that to myself often. Every time I look at my baby and see a potential disease, developmental delay, bee sting. I keep reminding myself […]

To learn more about this, read my previous post on Systematic Ways of Teaching Reading. Something that I hear a lot is:  “I just want him to feel confident in reading like I did”  or  “I just want him to love books and cuddle up next to a book, like I did when I was […]

We often think of literacy in a traditional sense: it’s reading chapter books, learning spelling, and practicing handwriting. You may be worried that reading comic books “doesn’t count” or that texting among kids (with all those wonky abbreviations!) isn’t real communication. You may wrestle the tablet from your kids after too much “screen time” because what could […]

“Kids these days don’t like to read – they just want to be in front of a screen!” “I loved reading as a kid, but my child would rather do anything than sit down with a book. Where did I go wrong?” “My kid gets extra frustrated with reading homework. They just won’t put any […]

We want our kids to do well in school. So, we often focus on all the traditional metrics of academic success: Is she completing her homework on time?Is he studying diligently for his tests?Is she behaving in class? But these questions leave out the bigger picture, and forget about the overarching goal that should be […]

It takes so much to just get our kids through the day: we want them to do better in school, get enough sleep, eat healthfully, enjoy some extracurriculars, and have enough time to relax. When our kid acts out, we often think about how we can restructure the things above. Do we need more rules? Higher expectations? […]

I often hear this from parents whose children are struggling with reading.. “I feel so guilty, I know I should have read to him more when he was younger.” “I was so much better about reading with my other kid.” “I’d read to her more if I wasn’t so busy. She’s struggling because of me.” […]

It’s no surprise that we learn better in positive environments, so making time to meaningfully celebrate accomplishments (however small!) with your child is fun in the short-term and helpful in the long run. Maybe your child brings home a great test they were worried about, earns their next belt in karate, or makes it to a higher […]

I hear this all the time from parents. You sit down to help your child with their reading homework, and almost immediately it’s an argument. …Whether it’s “you’re not explaining it how the teacher would explain it!” or they insist “just tell me how to spell it!” …Or you ask them to write their spelling words, and there […]