Around this time of year, thousands of high school seniors are anxiously sitting by the mailboxes waiting for the acceptance and rejection letters from colleges.
Chances are your child will be accepted into more than one college. How do you help him decide where to go?
Aside from the practical concerns of cost, location, and course of [...]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6P2w5GkXmU[/youtube]
We are exactly like that!
When we look at this, we realize how ridiculous us moms can be! It’s a wonder our kids listen to us at all! We have to laugh at ourselves more often. It puts everything into perspective.
If you think about it, it’s not easy to be a kid.
There’s peer pressure of looking good, talking right, and acting cool. There’s pressure at school to take tests, to not get into trouble, and to not look like a fool.
And when your child comes home, what pressure does he face? Parents yelling? Siblings quarreling? [...]
A baby asked God, ‘They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?’
God said, ‘Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you.’
The child further inquired, ‘But tell me, here in heaven I don’t have to do [...]
This is the fifth article in the series on Effective Discipline
What every parent wants to know is how to get their children to do what you tell them to do.
Although getting your kids to obey is certainly a part of parenting, the last 4 posts in this series on discipline explained that parenting is [...]
Three days ago, my 18-year-old daughter underwent maxillofacial surgery – more commonly known as jaw surgery. Her under-bite was protruded to such an extent that it affected her eating and speech as well as her facial structure. We’ve been anticipating this surgery for the past 2 years, waiting for her jaw to completely grow [...]
There is a general consensus that teenagers nowadays are materialistic, selfish, and have no worthwhile goals in life.
We don’t want our teenagers to go down that road.
Yes, there is hope!
The Rebelution is a movement started by two teenage boys to challenge other teens to go against the grain of that culture. Their motto is “DO [...]
In this podcast, we are continuing our interview with Vanessa with Q and A.
Looking for good reading material?
Vanessa Van Petten has put together a list of 50 Best Mom Blogs based on recommendations from her audience.
I am honored to be listed among the best moms in the blogsphere!
Forget the laundry. Bring your nursing your baby while you read some humorous and definitely helpful writings from moms.
Who can best understand the mind of a teenager than someone who was a recent teen? Vanessa Van Petten, a 22-year-old young lady, lived through the teenage years not too long ago and lives to tell it!
Fifth graders were talking in my class today:
Student A: I’m going to do my state report on New York. I went there last summer.
Student B: I’m going to do my state report on New Mexico. I’ve never been there, but it seems like a good state.
Student C: I’m going to do my state report on [...]
This is the fourth article in the series on Discipline.
There are many methods we can use to enforce rules and encourage good behavior. Before we go into those, there are 5 Principles of Discipline that should be applied to any system you choose to use. Whether we are dealing with young children or teens, discipline [...]
“What! You got a F in the class??!!”
What is your reaction when your child brings home a bad report card, a poor test grade, or a note from the teacher?
After you go berserk and raving mad, then what should you do?
Before you ground your child for the next 5 years, analyze the situation carefully before [...]
Today’s article is written by Peter Aldin, founder of Great Circle Life Coaching. For over a decade, he has provided coaching, workshops and training that assist people to sharpen their personal and professional relationships and communication. Peter and his family live and work in Melbourne. I love his light-hearted (and helpful) look at fatherhood [...]
Whether it’s your hamster, your goldfish, or your family dog, it is not easy for a child to face the death of a pet. It is even harder for a parent to have to explain it.
At one time we had 6+ hamsters and 2 dogs. Now we are down to one rabbit.
We grieved the hardest [...]
I was at the high school today teaching a freshmen class. The girls in the class are about 15 years old. But I swear, some of them look like they can be 25! The amount of makeup they wear is why cosmetics is a billion dollar industry.
I suppose we have the Paris Hiltons and the [...]
This guest post was written by Jared Hoylman, the blogger behind DadThing.com, and most importantly a Dad to a one year old boy named Ace. You can immediately tell that Jared is passionately committed to being a good Dad, which is what drew me to his blog. Enjoy.
I wrote a post the [...]
This is the third article in the series on discipline. This one deals with younger children. Disciplining older children will be the topic of the next article in this series.
In approaching the subject of discipline, our idea is to think of what to do when a child misbehaves.
But the best defense is a [...]
Kids don’t know anything about the economy nor do they care. They could care less about unemployment, recession, or foreclosures.
But kids should be very concern about the economy. Do they know that it has a great impact on their personal lives? Their family vacation, their college fund, the amount of Christmas gifts they get, and [...]
How many Gen Xers do you know would choose to deny himself of a big house, nice car, vacations, choose to live on $38,000 and give away the rest of his $200k+ a year salary, choose to live in a lower economic neighborhood to share God’s love?
In our culture of excesses and accumulation of toys, [...]
