Teaching Kids Art Through Picture Books

Usually I am recommending picture books. But sometimes, we need some practical help from the trenches when we are in the middle of raising a family well. Do you want some parenting wisdom from people who've been there and have helpful things to say? I know I did 34 years ago when I began this journey; and now that my own kids are having kids, I find myself wanting to brush up on things I've forgotten when it comes to raising kids. It's also great to check out what is recent and relevant for today's parents. I've asked my older and younger parent friends to recommend some of what's been helpful for them, and put it together in a list you can print to take to the library to link to Amazon. I hope it's helpful! This list is 10 of my favorite recommended books for parenting; podcasts and other resources will be another topic! And please feel free to leave a comment on your favorite parenting books.

Download the list here!

Happy reading,

Jennifer

 Is learning supposed to be fun? Most kids and adults think of learning something new as a bit of a chore. It sometimes feels daunting; a mountain to climb requiring a lot of hard work and effort. But what if we could instill a sense of adventure and reward and fun into learning? What if learning generated excitement instead of dread? It is possible to do this. Here are three ways to teach kids to love learning.

        1. Feed their interest-Start at the library and let kids browse the non-fiction books in the children’s section. What are they interested in?

One of our sons was interested in the Titanic. That led to reading all the library books about shipwrecks, watching DVD’s about shipwrecks, which led to reading about finding buried treasure. Did that seed planted about adventure and travel eventually lead to him becoming a pilot? I don’t know, but it didn’t hurt.  Check out bunches of...

Are you a New Year's resolution kind of person? Do you make goals at some point for your kids and your family life, or do you mostly go with the flow? I haven’t always written down my family goals, but I do tend to be goal oriented-I find I get stuff done more when I have time to gather my thoughts, hopes, and dreams, and write them down. Sometimes they just live in my head and I veer my actions toward them instinctively, and sometimes they live in my head and just annoy me because I do nothing about them. 

Goals are signposts. If our actions repeatedly line up on the road the goals are pointing to, we form habits that help us achieve the goal. For example, we might have a goal to exercise 3 times a week this year.  We join the YMCA. Then we go once-it takes a huge amount of motivation because it is unfamiliar and takes extra time. We go again because it felt good.(repeated actions, forming a habit)  Pretty soon we are carving out time 3 times a week, and it is...