Improve Your Child's Mind With These Two Sources

In our efforts to raise well-rounded children, one area we do not want to neglect in our children's development is their educational needs.

Today I offer two sources to help you provide more educational materials for your children.

The first source is a blog written by an author/educator. Who better to help increase your child's reading level than an author, a curriculum guide, and a teacher all wrapped up in one exceptional blogger? I just came across this blog written by Kate whose inaugural blog includes book recommendations that help children develop "Multiple Intelligences" -- spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and linguistic.

But Kate doesn't just provide lists of books for children to read; she also provides activities to help children develop those skills.

Expect more in the weeks to come from Kate Narita.

The next source I would like to recommend is a web site that offers various worksheets for children from preschool age to fifth grade. Print out math, English, and other pages for your children to work on every day as a supplement to what they're learning in school or as part of a home-school curriculum. My daughter-in-law uses this web site, and if you browse the site, you will agree that tlsbooks is a great help for parents and educators.
www.tlsbooks.com http://www.tlsbooks.com/

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Maybe you've already read this email, but I always believe that laughter washes over the soul to replenish it. And single parents need lots of replenishing.

Borrowed from somebody (wish I knew who you were) or maybe compiled from a lot of somebodies, are the following fun sayings from some very funny grandchildren:

1. She was in the bathroom putting on her makeup under the watchful eyes of her young granddaughter, as she'd done many times before. After she applied her lipstick and started to leave, the little one said, "But Gramma, you forgot to kiss the toilet paper good-bye!" I will probably never put lipstick on again without thinking about kissing the toilet paper good-bye.... 2. My young grandson called the other day to wish me Happy Birthday. He asked me how old I was and I told him 62. My grandson was quiet for a moment and then he asked, "Did you start at 1?" 3. After putting her grandchildren to bed, a grandmother changed into old slacks and a droopy blouse and proceeded to wash her hair. As she heard the children getting more and more rambunctious, her patience grew thin. Finally, she threw a towel around her head and stormed into their room, putting them back to bed with stern warnings. As she left the room, she heard the three-year-old say with a trembling voice, "Who was THAT?" 4. A grandmother was telling her little granddaughter what her own childhood was like: "We used to skate outside on a pond. I had a swing made from a tire; it hung from a tree in our front yard. We rode our pony. We picked wild raspberries in the woods." The little girl was wide-eyed, taking this all in. At last she said, "I sure wish I'd gotten to know you sooner!" 5. My grandson was visiting one day when he asked, "Grandma, do you know how you and God are alike?" I mentally polished my halo and I said, "No, how are we alike?'' "You're both old," he replied. 6. A little girl was diligently pounding away on her grandfather's word processor. She told him she was writing a story. "What's it about?" he asked. "I don't know," she replied. "I can't read.." 7. I didn't know if my granddaughter had learned her colors yet, so I decided to test her. I would point out something and ask what color it was. She would tell me and was always correct. It was fun for me, so I continued. At last, she headed for the door, saying, "Grandma, I think you should try to figure out some of theseyourself!" 8. When my grandson Billy and I entered our vacation cabin, we kept the lights off until we were inside to keep from attracting pesky insects. Still, a few fireflies followed us in. Noticing them before I did, Billy whispered, "It's no use, Grandpa. Now the mosquitoes are coming after us with flashlights." 9. When my grandson asked me how old I was, I teasingly replied, "I'm not sure." "Look in your underwear, Grandpa," he advised, "mine says I'm 4 to 6." 10. A second grader came home from school and said to her grandmother, "Grandma, guess what? We learned how to make babies today." The grandmother, more than a little surprised, tried to keep her cool. "That's interesting," she said, "how do you make babies?" "It's simple," replied the girl. "You just change 'y' to 'i' and add 'es'." 11. Children's Logic: "Give me a sentence about a public servant," said a teacher. The small boy wrote: "The fireman came down the ladder pregnant." The teacher took the lad aside to correct him. "Don't you know what pregnant means?" she asked. "Sure," said the young boy confidently. 'It means carrying a child." 12. A grandfather was delivering his grandchildren to their home one day when a fire truck zoomed past . Sitting in the front seat of the fire truck was a Dalmatian dog. The children started discussing the dog's duties. "They use him to keep crowds back," said one child. "No," said another. "He's just for good luck." A third child brought the argument to a close. "They use the dogs," she said firmly, "to find the fire hydrants." 13. A 6-year-old was asked where his grandma lived. "Oh," he said, "she lives at the airport, and when we want her, we just go get her. Then, when we're done having her visit, we take her back to the airport." 14. Grandpa is the smartest man on earth! He teaches me good things, but I don't get to see him enough to get as smart as him! 15. My Grandparents are funny, when they bend over, you hear gas leaks, and they blame their dog.

Enjoy! (And thank you Maryon, for sharing.)

Healthy Self Esteem or Conceited?

I believe that one of the most important tasks as a parent is raising children with HEALTHY self esteem. By that I mean children who respect themselves so much they would never consider risking their health or their spirits by engaging in activities that were sure to hurt them.

So when my oldest daughter was very young, I told her often how beautiful she was, inside and out, how smart she was, how this she was, how that she was, until I could come up with no more adjectives to accurately describe just how awesome I thought she was. I just kept repeating my compliments over and over and...

Then she went to kindergarten and discovered that other people didn't think she was as amazing as her mommy thought she was. As she told me decades later, she was "shocked" by how differently she was treated at school. And she wished I had never built her up to the point that she was let down so hard, she had to reconstruct her whole image of herself.

The reason I think I went so overboard was because my mother never complimented me. And my father didn't help my self image, because he tipped the scales so far into the opposite direction that I grew up believing I was stupid and ugly (children tend to pay more attention to negative input).

When I asked my mother years later why she never complimented me, she said it was because she didn't want me to get a big head. "You succeeded," I told her, "because now I feel like Beetlejuice at the end of the movie when the Indian sprinkled magic dust on his head and it shrunk to the size of an apple."

So does that mean we should endlessly compliment our children? No. We don't want cocky, conceited brats who think the world revolves around them. We want children who care, not only about themselves, but about others as well, children who are self-aware, but children who are also other-aware.

So what exactly is healthy self-esteem? When your child feels confident enough to speak in public without fear of getting pummeled, she has healthy self esteem. When your child can walk up to another child and offer to be a friend, he has healthy self esteem. When your child is able to express herself, she has healthy self esteem. If your child cares enough about himself to stay away from drugs and alcohol, or to engage in sex too young...well, you get the picture.

Years ago, in an attempt to raise my own self-esteem, I read numerous books on the subject and eventually developed a program to enable parents and teachers to work with their children in order to form healthy self esteem. I placed the program on Associated Content and I provide a link below.

Will this program guarantee that your child will grow up with healthy self esteem? No. You can guide your children to travel one path, but if the other parent insists on pushing them off that path by bashing, belittling, and degrading them, the best you can do is gently guide them back to the path of healthy self esteem and embrace them with warm hugs.

47 Ways to Build Your Child's (and Your) Self Esteem:

A Self-Esteem Pilot Program for Parents and Teachers

Do Children From Single Parents Stand a Chance?

Are our children doomed from the start because they're being raised by single parents? Are we doing everything humanly possible to raise responsible, loving adults? Do we feel inadequate as parents because we are single?

STOP WORRYING! And read this lovely story about a woman who raised her daughter alone and discovered that despite being a single parent, she managed to raise a beautiful, responsible, and loving daughter who let her mom know just how much she appreciated her.

Can a Single Parent Ever Do Enough? is a truly touching story. Please click on the link.