Category: Children and Family Advocates

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Tiny Tips for Moms and Dads #69 Home Schooling is not limited to Monday thru Friday- 8-3

Home schooling is a natural part of engaging as a family. Learning takes place in all aspects of what we do with and for our children.

Home school

I know that the privilege of being able to home school your child is not always feasible for some parents! But there are ways to intercede in your child’s learning experience and take charge of what you want your child to learn and be exposed to! There are gaps in our institutional educational system that we as families can fill in. School or learning is not confined to Monday thru Friday- 8-3! There are teachable moments that happen organically and there are opportunities for us as parents and grandparents as well as extended family and the village we create and sustain to support our children.

I have been blessed as a grandparent to participate in home schooling our grandchildren, and after 34 years of teaching children and teaching teachers in training to teach children, I get to have the honor of teaching our grandchildren to love the gift of learning! One of the most critical gaps in our educational system is not integrating the need for curriculum that is eclectic, focuses on the needs of individualized learning, and the role of social emotional develop that needs to be engrained in the overall curriculum. We have a world that is evolving in some unknown direction at warp speed! We have a responsibility to step in and slow down the life our children are being engulfed into!

They need time to discover who they are and what they are passionate about. And we need to be present for them so that as they engage with the world in and out of school, we are afforded the depth of observation that can take place in the home schooling environment! I don’t want to generalize and say that every home school program is perfection because each of us are doing it differently, but opportunities are there to invest daily in the education of their children.

Those parents that can’t or chose institutional programs must still keep these elements in the forefront of educating their children! I will confess the most difficult challenge I had as a parent was how and where to educate my Nikki! I listened to her and followed her direction. At 4 years old she told me she had to go to a school where they talked about God everyday. So she started out in the Lutheran schools and by 3rd grade she decided she wanted to go to Catholic school and did so thru her college education! It was a fit for her! You have to find the fit for your child!

P.S. I don’t know how she found out about Catholic school because we were not Catholic! But it was sooo Niki!

Ua is an influence in his sister Aoluna’s life everyday and he takes being part of her world seriously

The beauty of learning is that it is limitless and shared with this we love!

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Tiny Tips for Moms and Dads # 39 – Everybody Gets Mad, Sad, and Disenchanted, But We Don’t Have to Live in Those Emotions-Just “Push the Magical Reset Button” And Let the Emotions Frizzle Away!

Second generation of knowing how to process and validate their emotions!
These two characters know all about the “Reset Button”!  It has been a tool to help our children process through their emotions.

Children can have a difficult time navigating through their emotions and if I am being truthful, it is part of our human design to be challenged by dealing with our emotions throughout our life’s journey.  What we have to do as parents and caregivers of children, is to support them and guide them through the incidents that pop up and take them off their balance and control.  We want them to learn to be comfortable and in control of the feelings that run through them.  We don’t want them to be fearful and embarrassed about having a melt down or temper tantrum, feeing emotional of sad.  We want to support them with tools that will aid them in processing through their feelings and find a resolve to what might be overwhelming and unbearable for their age and maturity. 

We taught our children that they have the power and ability to reset the situation. We help them to process what they are experiencing by allowing them to have time and space to express themselves.  Sometimes it takes sitting in the feelings till they can verbally express themselves. Sometimes it means holding them in the embrace of your tender arms and whispering words of love to ease their stress. Sometimes it involves finding alternative ways other than verbally communicating, and we might have to come up with more creative ways for them to sort through their feelings.  I like “gentle reprocessing” which entails art, to bring to light what is transpiring so that words don’t get in the way. 

It will take trying different modalities to find out what resonates with each child.  Sometimes a family can come up with a safe way to process feelings and experiences that impact their emotions that are a clue for everyone to know that they need time, space, and support.  For our family we have the children visualize a “reset button” that is part of their belly button.  When we move through the emotions, we suggest pushing their “reset button”, take a deep breath, exhale, and start a new when they are ready.  Their mind, heart, and soul, have to align in harmony in order to be able to feel a sense of relief and resolve.  Trust me when I say, developing a ritual or modality for shifting through and resolving their emotions and feelings is a gift that will support them throughout their life. 

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Children and Family Advocates Children's Bill Of Rights Early Childhood Education Embracing the Gift of Parenthood Heart 4 kids Advocacy Organization Parenting Tips TINY TIPS 4 MOMS AND DADS

Tiny Tips for Moms and Dads #37 Bullying, Violence, and Racism is Self-Destructive and Can Disease the Soul!

We have a big job ahead of ourselves as
“guardians” of our precious children.

So much of what our children are experiencing in this “new world order” is fused with bullying, violence, and racism and we know as adults that it imperative for us as “guardians” of our children to protect them and give them the tools to navigate through the maze of illusions, deceptions, and untruths that try to capture the imagination and soul of our children.  Our responsibility is to cultivate in our children compassion, the ability to be kind, thoughtful, respectful, and non-judgmental of other people. 

Children are not born with feelings of hatred, violence, or racism.  Those traits or actions are taught and imposed by other people in a child’s world of influence.  They come into this world as a clean slate.  They come here to be loved and guided.  They come here to learn, to explore, to discover the world that they have to live in and be a part of.  We have the chance to influence them during the most important developmental time in their life.  We have a chance to instill the values and behavior in our children that will support them in being who they are designed to be.  They were designed to be loving, caring, gentle of spirit, kind, and receptive of being healthy in their perception of what life and people should be like.  Life will challenge them and try to “take them out of themselves”, as our ancestors use to say.  We therefore have to fortify them with the character skills that will sustain them in being their authentic selves. 

We have to be observant in what transpires in their interactions, especially with their peers.   So much is revealed during “play”.  This is the time we can use to have a “teaching moment” with our children.  Firsthand, real-time experiences are the best way to integrate a conceptual lesson.  There are children’s books that can also support us in sharing the concepts we want to instill in our children’s character development.  I realize that what makes “Tiny Tips for Moms and Dads”, different than other parenting books and media content, is that my focus is on helping parents support the character development and spiritual essence of their children.  I understand the significance of this area of human development and how it impacts the overall life journey of our children.