A few interesting articles that popped up in my reader recently. Worth a read for parents!
Why Children Need Chores: Doing household chores has many benefits-academically, emotionally and even professionally.
1. Watch your language: thank your children for “being a helper” rather than “helping”.
2. Schedule chore time.
3. Game it:start small and have young children earn new “levels” of responsibilities, like going from sorting clothes to earning the right to use the washing machine.
4. Keep allowances and chores separate: money can lessen a child’s motivation to help, turning an altruistic act into a business transaction.
5. Types of tasks matter: chores should be routine and focused on taking care of the family (like dusting the living room or doing everyone’s laundry), not self-care (tidying one’s bedroom or doing personal laundry). Let children help in choosing tasks.
6. Talk about chores differently: instead of saying, “Do your chores,” say “Let’s do our chores.”
7. Give chores a PR boost: Don’t tie chores to punishments, talk about them positively.
9 Things Every Parent with an Anxious Child Should Try
My children have often struggled with separation anxiety (going to school or primary classes alone, etc). I thought some of these tips could help me to handle the situation better and help me to coach them through their anxiety.
1. Stop Reassuring Your Child: Use the FEEL method-Freeze, Empathize, Evaluate, Let Go
2. Highlight Why Worrying is Good: worry is perfectly normal, it can help protect us
3. Bring Your Child’s Worry to Life
4. Teach Your Child to Be a Thought Detective: Catch your thoughts, collect evidence, challenge your thoughts
5. Allow Them to Worry: worry openly in limited doses, then put them away
6. Help Them Go from What If to What Is: live in the present time
7. Avoid Avoiding Everything that Causes Anxiety: use gradual exposure
8. Help Them Work Through a Checklist
9. Practice Self-Compassion
8 Things Top Practicers Do Differently : what does “practice smarter, not harder” really mean?
As a piano teacher and a parent of piano students, I thought the results of this research study were interesting. “The researchers note that the most striking difference between the top three pianists and the rest, was how they handled mistakes.” The one key strategy=strategically slowing things down.
“Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.” -George Bernard Shaw –