Chances are if you’re reading this website, you love your child. It kind of comes with being a parent. It seems when a new little one is delivered to us, a big new bundle of love is delivered too. But what do you LIKE about your child? Most parents don’t really stop to think about […]
Anne Dunlea
Journaling
JOURNALING Journaling can be calming and revelatory. It can clear your mind and help you release built up feelings of stress and negativity. It can help you build positivity and nurture qualities like resilience. The act of writing is quite different from just sitting and thinking about things. Writing involves language and deeply engages the […]
A new look at quality time
Worried that you don’t spend enough time teaching your child and boosting their school and life success? Here’s a new look at quality time Last fall, Patrick Ishizuka, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, published a report exploring what 21st Century parents consider important in rearing their children. It was based on an […]
NEW QUOTES ARE COMING SOON! I’ve been juggling lots of work and took a pause from posting daily quotes. But if you’re missing them, please send me an email letting me know you enjoy them and would like to see them again and I’ll gladly make them a priority. OR, if you have some experience […]
Use Breathing to Blow Away Blow-ups!
You can teach your child this simple breathing technique to help them manage emotions, feel calmer and gain more skill in self-regulation.
Insights on Discipline Part 5: Learning from the natural consequences of behavior
In this final article in the five part Insights on Discipline series, I explore some of the ways children can build a sense of responsibility and self-discipline from experiencing the natural consequences of behavioral choices they’ve made. Experiencing the results of behaviors is another way to learn For the most part, the articles in this […]
Insights on Discipline 4: Guiding Development With Positive Parenting
What Is “Positive Parenting”??? “Positive Parenting” is a widely embraced approach to child rearing, sometimes also called positive discipline, that focuses on trying to understand the reasons children behave as they do and guiding them in ways that are positive and kind rather than punitive. If you enter the term in your search engine you […]
Insights On Discipline Part 3: State Expectations and Offer Guidance In Advance
Offering guidance to children in advance of events is a way of preparing children to be skillful. It is setting them up to be successful rather than to struggle with incompetence and a lack of information. On first reading, you may think I mean that parents should design situations where their child is bound to […]
Insights on Discipline Part 2: What We Can Learn From Behaviorism
A little background Behaviorism held sway throughout the first six decades of the 20th century. It’s based on the idea that human and animal behavior can be explained and taught by training, or conditioning, through a system of rewards and reinforcements. It does not consider emotions, feelings, individual skills, or personal volition. The big names […]
Insights on Discipline, Part 1: Introduction
What “discipline” means It’s pretty easy to equate “discipline” with punishment, or trying to stop poor behavior, but as you probably know, discipline does not mean punishment. It’s really important to remember that as parents. We sometimes hear that military leaders strive to “maintain discipline.” That suggests controlling people with punishment or with nasty consequences […]