Top Ten Compliments Your Children Need to Hear

June 11, 2013

Since my last two posts were related to compliments and constructive criticisms, I thought it would be great to add this list of compliments children need to hear.

Courtesy of imom.com:

1. Compliment their character. We live in a world where integrity is neither consistently taught nor widely expected. When our children demonstrate honesty, kindness, trustworthiness and reliability, that’s a great time to take them aside and offer a sincere compliment.

The ABC’s of Good Character

2. Compliment obedience and respect. It’s too easy to fall into patterns of disapproval, where the only time we notice is when kids do wrong. Rather than waiting for disobedience or disrespect (then coming down like a ton of bricks) try noticing obedience and respect: “I don’t always remember to tell you, but you are an awesome young man, and I appreciate the way you treat your mother”.

3. Compliment them for simply being part of the family. “Every time I see you, I’m thankful that I’m your Mom.” Kids need to understand that they are valued simply because they are.

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Teaching Children to be Honest Yet Respectful

June 11, 2013

I have a regular guest over for dinner who, until last week, has made a point of being elaborate in praise over the way I cook my meat. Last week when I invited this guest to join us for dinner, she asked me whether it would be possible to add some flavour to my chicken as she felt it was a bit bland.

Many people would be quite angry at the request, but in truth, the request itself didn’t bother me at all. What bothered me was that she had previously lauded something which she never really liked in the first place. She obviously did it to make me feel better about my cooking. But I don’t want false praise, I want the truth. I am happy she was finally truthful with me about my seasoning skills, because had she not, I wouldn’t have realised.

There is a habit among many of us to avoid conflict by not being candid and up front with others. Many hide their true feelings, let resentments simmer under the surface and fail to address hurt feelings so as to avoid a major scene and a war of words. This isn’t a healthy practice. In fact, it is being disingenuous.

There is a way to be truthful and constructive whilst at the same time considering the feelings of others. There is a way to be honest and communicate important issues without causing acrimony. We must teach our children to say what they mean and mean what they say within such a context. That way, relationships will be based on trust, people will know where they stand, apologies can be offered and accepted for indiscretions and communication can proceed without intrusive boundaries.

Yes, it is crucial that matters are raised in a respectful and courteous manner. Yes, judgements must be withheld when they are petty and without purpose. But the last thing we should teach our children is to be phoney in order to avoid conflict.

Click on the link to read The Children of Today Show a Lack of Respect For Authority

Click on the link to read Is There Anything Better than an Inspirational Child? (Video)

Click on the link to read Instead of Teaching a Baby to Read, Teach it to Smile

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Posted in Child Development | 2 Comments »

The Call to Stop Telling Your Children they are Beautiful

June 10, 2013

 

Children, like adults have an innate need to feel attractive. It isn’t a manufactured one, it is completely natural. Sure, magazines and other mediums offer an unrealistic and extremely narrow version of beauty, but even without them, human beings would still obsess about their appearance.

That’s why advising parents not to make positive comments about their child’s looks is not constructive. It is based on the assumption that a comment on this issue, whether it be positive or negative, instills in the child an unhealthy message about the importance of looks in the real world. That is absolute baloney! In actual fact, those parents who choose to be silent on the issue risks that very consequence. Because after all, children are very perceptive. They know that parents compliment when there is something there to compliment and become silent when they have nothing positive to say on the matter. Children will just assume that their parents’ silence is due to their average appearance.

The key in life is to be moderate instead of extreme. Instead of limiting your compliments to be solely about looks and instead of saying nothing at all, how about making the child feel good about all aspects of their being such as their intellect, their sense of compassion, their individualism, their values …. and yes, even their appearance.

Click on the link to read School Official’s Solution to Harassed Teen: Get a Breast Reduction

Click on the link to read Self-Esteem Crisis Even More Serious than the Obesity Crisis

Click on the link to read Our Young Children Shouldn’t Even Know What a Diet Is?

Click on the link to read Charity Pays for Teen’s Plastic Surgery to Help Stop Bullying

Click on the link to read Most People Think This Woman is Fat

Click on the link to read It’s Time to Change the Culture of the Classroom

Click on the link to read Sparing Young Children the Affliction of Body Image

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How Safe is Your School?

June 9, 2013

Horror: Armed police arrested a man suspected of giving a machine gun to children after this shocking image was taken at a school playground in Leicester

Here is an idea – instead of ranking schools according to standardized testing scores, rank them according to how well they meet safety standards. Surely one of the greatest fears a parent of a school aged child would have is that something might happen to their child while at school.

Just looking at the frightening picture of a man showing off his machine gun through a pool fence masquerading as a school security fence, makes me wonder how well equipped our schools are at securing our kids from people like this:

Armed police arrested a man suspected of giving a machine gun to children after this shocking image was taken at a school playground.

‘Ashamed’ parents ignored youngsters’ revelations that a man with a gun had been in the Morton playground, Leics, and dismissed their children’s stories.

The next morning a mum-of-three was sent this harrowing picture – apparently taken at the park at about 6pm the previous day – showing a man brandishing an automatic gun.

Children ran home to tell their parents about the man – who had even given the weapon to an eight-year-old boy to hold.

Armed officers surrounded the play area and eventually arrested a 57-year-old man in Brighton Road, Northfields, in connection with the incident after ‘imitation’ firearms were recovered. The 26-year-old mum, who did not want to be named, said: ‘When the picture was sent to me on Tuesday morning I just could not believe my eyes.

‘I felt so shocked and worried but also guilty because my eight-year-old daughter had been at the playground when it happened and told me there had been a man with a gun.

‘She said he had even given it to a boy to hold. I am ashamed to say I didn’t really pay any attention to her, but after I saw the photo I called the police.

‘They came round and I showed them the photograph.’

 

Click on the link to read The Call to Lower the Age of Consent in Order to Protect Pedophiles is a Disgrace

Click on the link to read It is Shameful to Claim that Paedophilia is NOT a Crime

Click on the link to read Dad’s Letter to 13-Year Old Son after Discovering he had been Downloading from Porn Sites

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Hilarious Spelling Mistake

June 8, 2013

The child tried to write “T is for Tights”

 

Click on the links below to read some other hilarious spelling related posts.

 

Click on the link to read How Spelling Mistakes can Turn a Compliment into Something Quite Different.

Click on the link to read Why Spelling is Important at Starbucks

Click on the link to read The Ability to Spell is a Prerequisite for Getting a Tattoo (Photos)

Click on the link to read This is What Happens When You Rely on Spell Check

Click on the link to read Hilarious Menu Items Lost in Translation

Click on the link to read The 15 Most Commonly Misspelled Words in the English Language

Click on the link to read Who Said Grammar Isn’t Important?

Click on the link to read Why Spelling is Important

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Posted in Literacy | Leave a Comment »

Sexism in Teaching?

June 6, 2013

English teacher Eppie Sprung Dawson has been told she won't face prison after she was caught having sex with a pupil

The message must be sent to the judicial system that teachers should pay the ultimate price if they are found to have been sexually active with their students, regardless of whether they are male or female.

Whilst I have no evidence to suggest that the reason a female teacher was spared jail for engaging in a sexual relationship with her student partly because she was a woman, I ask the following question – Can you see a male teacher spared jail due to the excuse of being abused as a teenager? Somehow I don’t think so.

A teacher who admitted having sex with a pupil had been abused when she was a teenager, a court heard yesterday.

Eppie Sprung Dawson, 27, was targeted when she was aged between 13 and 18 by a man 29 years her senior, a sheriff was told.

Yesterday, Dawson was told she would escape a custodial sentence after earlier admitting having sex with the 17-year-old boy in the front seat of her car last December.

She will have to return to court to learn her fate next month, but a sheriff told her she had breached a position of trust, although she had not abused anyone.

Sheriff George Jamieson added: ‘You were there simply to teach but you have been called into temptation and you have committed adultery – your marriage is gone, and your career as a teacher is gone.

‘What you have been charged with is breach of trust, and I cannot see that there is anything to be gained by a custodial sentence.

‘Had it not been for the fact that you were this young man’s teacher, there would have been no criminality.’

I just don’t understand that last sentence. Isn’t the fact that she was his teacher a clear ‘game changer’. So what if she wouldn’t have broken a law had she not been his teacher – she was his teacher!  And the notion that she has been punished already due to the breakup of her marriage and the demise of her career is laughable. I have no sympathy for both losses because a person that cheats on their partner and abuses their position has shown through their actions that they didn’t value either.

And back to my central argument. If it was a male teacher, would he be given the same latitude?

Click on the link to read Teacher Strip Searches Students in a Bid to Catch them Cheating

Click on the link to read Students Asked to Submit an Assignment Arguing that ‘Jews are Evil’

Click on the link to read School Instructs Students on How to Become Prostitutes

Click on the link to read Some Teachers Just Desperately Want to get Fired

Click on the link to read The Case of a Teacher Suspended for Showing Integrity

Click on the link to read Primary School Introduces Insane No-Touching Policy

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Posted in Professional Conduct | Leave a Comment »

6 Methods For Getting Kids to Cooperate

June 6, 2013

Courtesy of lifehacker.com.au:

Invite, Don’t Demand

We all want our children to “ask nicely”, but the truth is that’s easier said than done. My question is, where do you think they learned to be demanding and inflexible? Oh yeah, from us! If we want our kids to cooperate, then we’ve got to be the bigger, more mature ones and lead by example. Contrary to popular belief, asking nicely, inviting, and working together to find a solution to a problem doesn’t teach children to be more defiant or disobedient, instead, by doing these things you’re laying a foundation of trust and teamwork that your kids will soon learn to rely on.

Use this quick test to figure out whether your request is actually a demand. Ask yourself, “Would it be OK if they answered ‘no’ to this request?” If not, then you’re not actually inviting or asking, you’re demanding or requiring a specific behaviour. That’s OK some of the time, especially if safety is an issue, but remember, the more demands you make on your kids, the less true, internally motivated cooperation you’re likely to get.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t have expectations of your children. It’s just that when those expectations aren’t met, it’s helpful to see that as an opportunity to problem solve together, rather than an excuse to punish them into submission.

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As if Naming Your Son ‘Adolph Hitler’ Isn’t Bad Enough

June 5, 2013

 

naz1

I’ll go out on a limb and suggest this man isn’t in the running for “Father of the Year”:

A white supremacist appeared at court on Monday dressed in full Nazi uniform as he tried to convince a judge that he was a good father – despite having named one of his children Adolf.

Heath Campbell, who had four children, asked the judge to be allowed to see his 18-month-old son Hons.

The self-proclaimed Nazi, from New Jersey, has given three of his children Nazi-inspired names but claims he is fit to be a father and has never abused them.

Campbell, a swastika tattoo clearly showing on his neck, told NBC10: ‘I’m going to tell the judge, I love my children. I wanna be a father, let me be it.

‘Let me prove to the world that I am a good father.’

He said that he had never abused his children and had only named them. He has not seen his children in two years and the eldest three have been adopted.

The 40-year-old white supremacist appeared at a hearing in Hunterdon County Family Court in Flemington, NJ this morning. His regalia included knee-high black boots and swastika patches.

He told the TV station that whether wearing his Nazi uniform might sway the judge’s decision, depended on the judge.

Bethanie White, a member of his organization ‘Hitler’s Order’, was with Campbell at court – also covered in swastikas.

Adolf Hitler Campbell, six, and his younger sisters Joycelynn Aryan Nation, five, and Honszlynn Hinler, four, were taken into custody in January 2009.

State officials also took another son, Hons Campbell, from his parents Heath and Deborah Campbell just hours after he was born in November 2011.

A court denied the Campbells’ appeal to have their children returned last year.

naz2

Click on the link to read Tips For Parents of Kids Who “Hate School”

Click on the link to read 20 Reassuring Things Every Parent Should Hear

Click on the link to read When Children Say Too Much

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24 Reasons Why Young Children Make us Smile

June 3, 2013

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This year I have taken leave from teaching in order to assume the position of stay-at-home dad. It is a big job and whilst I miss teaching, I have enjoyed spending the extra time with my children, doing school runs, taking my 1-year-old for walks in his stroller and watching him develop.

There is no doubt that young children can make us smile like nothing else. Below is a list written by writer and blogger Melissa Sher:

  1. That big breath before blowing out the birthday candles.
  2. A bedtime routine for a baby doll.
  3. Pasghetti. Handburgers. And other perfectly imperfect mispronunciations.
  4. Babies in sunglasses.
  5. Babies in hats.
  6. Baby thighs.
  7. Babies.
  8. A 4-year-old wearing his Halloween costume to school in April.
  9. An inability to whisper.
  10. Homemade birthday cards.
  11. Handmade jewelry.
  12. Conversations with imaginary friends.
  13. A big smile with only two bottom teeth.
  14. Flushed cheeks and damp hair after a nap.
  15. Waving “bye bye.” But doing it backwards.
  16. Left shoe on the right foot, right shoe on the left.
  17. A book read out loud by a child who can’t actually read.
  18. Galoshes. With a tutu.
  19. Songs sung in the bathroom.
  20. Freshly combed wet hair.
  21. Closing one’s eyes to disappear.
  22. The hand motions to “Itsy Bitsy Spider.”
  23. Their sense of wonder.
  24. And their innocence.

 

Click on the link to read Tips For Parents of Kids Who “Hate School”

Click on the link to read 20 Reassuring Things Every Parent Should Hear

Click on the link to read When Children Say Too Much

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Principal Rewards Students for Reaching Reading Goals

June 2, 2013

 

nate

Now that’s the kind of Principal our children so desperately want and need!:

The Chicago Public Schools District may be amid turbulent times, but that hasn’t stopped teachers, students and administrators from doing amazing things.

Case in point: Principal Nate Pietrini slept on his school’s roof last week in an effort to excite students about reading.

Pietrini, of Hawthorne Elementary Scholastic Academy, told students that if they did a certain amount of reading in the month leading up to the school’s “author week,” he would camp out in a tent on the school’s roof. The students reached the goal, so Pietrini got out his camping gear, pitched a tent and took to the top of the building.

The principal proved he actually slept on the roof by broadcasting two video webcasts during the night. He read students bedtime stories in each of the webcasts. He told The Huffington Post that 350 students logged in to watch.

During the school’s “author week” students and teachers are supposed to celebrate the joys of reading and writing. He said he believes the roof challenge motivated kids to take author week — and their reading assignments — seriously.

“I had several parents look at me and say, ‘I used to have trouble getting my kids to read but now they’ve been doing it … this may have turned a leaf for them,’” Pietrini said over the phone.

He said that his young students were all for the challenge.

“Probably 2-3 weeks before [the night] I slept [on the roof], I would have kids coming up to me everyday saying ‘you’re gonna sleep on the roof mister,’” Pietrini said.

While Pietrini said he would gladly sleep on the roof again next year, he said he may let students decide what he should do to incentivize reading in the weeks leading up to author week.

“I’d be more than happy to do the exact same challenge or even find something even a little more risqué or dangerous. I may put something out there for our student council to make that decision,” Pietrini said. “I’d absolutely do it again next year.”

Click on the link to read Proof that Teachers Care

Click on the link to read The Short Video You MUST Watch!

Click on the link to read Is There a Greater Tragedy than a School Tragedy?

Click on the link to read School Shooting Showcases the Heroic Nature of Brilliant Teachers

Click on the link to read Meet the Armless Math Teacher

Click on the link to read The Case of a Teacher Suspended for Showing Integrity

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