The Franklin Institute has added 45 spots to their K-6 Discovery Camps in August!
Summer Reading Ideas
From The Very Hungry Caterpillar to Sailor and Fiddler: Reflections of a 100-Year-Old Author, check out the Washington Post’s list of the best books for ages 1 to 100:
Let’s Hear It for Boredom!
“There are activities and summer camps galore to fill children’s time and supply much needed childcare when kids are out of school. But psychologists and child development experts suggest that over-scheduling children during the summer is unnecessary and could ultimately keep kids from discovering what truly interests them.”
Talking with Kids about Sex and the Internet
Dr. Corinne Masur
This post is not pro-porn.
It is also not anti-porn.
It’s about porn and your kids.
In an earlier post we talked about the likelihood that if you have a child who’s computer literate, he or she has probably either stumbled across porn online or watched it purposefully.
A recent study found that 80% of American teenagers aged 14 – 18 have watched porn. Little is known about how many younger children have watched, but as was mentioned last time, many 8-, 9-, and 10-year-olds have also been curious enough to find some porn on the internet.
This leads to the unfortunate reality that we parents should talk to our children about porn. And one of the first questions we need to ask ourselves is, what message is porn sending our children? Of course this is part of a much larger question about what messages our children are receiving from media in general. But we’ll leave that question for another post.
So:
What messages do our children get from porn about what a healthy body looks like?
What messages do our children get from porn about what sex is?
What messages do our children get from porn about what relationships are like?
And then we must ask ourselves, what messages would we like them to receive? It’s our job to
start providing those messages in ways that they can hear.
Books for Supporting Kids through Grief, Loss, and Healing
In partnership with the New York Life Foundation, First Book has curated a list of books to help children “build resiliency, offer comfort and validation, introduce coping techniques, and help guide conversations about grief and loss.”
These books can’t be bought from First Book unless you’re employed by a non-profit that serves an economically disadvantaged population, but they can be purchased at all the usual places (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.):
And for other books on grief and loss, check out the “Resources” section of this blog!
New York Public Library’s List of Funny Books for Kids
The Power of “Yet” Part 3
Julie Nemeth, Ph.D., is a mother and therapist who lives in Philadelphia with her husband and two sons. As a licensed psychologist, she maintains a private practice in Center City, specializing in fertility issues, pregnancy, and parenting, as well as healing from eating concerns and childhood trauma.
Parenting beyond the ABCs
Although much of the material on Growth Mindset and the Power of Yet (see my previous two posts) focus on children’s academic development, these concepts also inform children’s social and emotional development! To address this, Carlye Nelson-Major, the person who first introduced me to these concepts, and I discussed, at length, three aspects of emotional intelligence, including:
* tolerating anxiety
* acquiring empathy
* exercising forgiveness Continue reading
The Power of “Yet” Part 2
Julie Nemeth, Ph.D., is a mother and therapist who lives in Philadelphia with her husband and two sons. As a licensed psychologist, she maintains a private practice in Center City, specializing in fertility issues, pregnancy, and parenting, as well as healing from eating concerns and childhood trauma.
Four Principles of Parenting with the Power of Yet
In her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Dr. Carol Dwek talks about parenting from a Growth Mindset (see my last post for a definition of this concept). She devotes almost an entire chapter in her book to this topic and the Internet is full of information – on-line courses, power point presentations, workbooks, videos (a couple great ones by Sesame Street) and books for kids of all ages using the concept of the Growth Mindset.
Knowing that I learn best in dialogue with others, I reviewed many of the websites and then, turned to the person who first introduced me to this concept – Carlye Nelson-Major.
Carlye is a long-time educator and expert in child development. Additionally, she is a mother of two adult children (and a grandmother of three young children). Recently, I had the privilege to discuss with her “the power of yet” and how parents can nurture a Growth Mindset in their children.
Here are some of the many topics we explored along with four essential components of parenting with the power of yet: Continue reading
The Power of “Yet” Part 1
Julie Nemeth, Ph.D., is a mother and therapist who lives in Philadelphia with her husband and two sons. As a licensed psychologist, she maintains a private practice in Center City, specializing in fertility issues, pregnancy, and parenting, as well as healing from eating concerns and childhood trauma.
A few days ago I overheard my two boys playing with a balloon in the next room. My younger son’s voice began to quiver from tears as he explained that he couldn’t hit the balloon high in the air. My older son quickly responded, “not yet.” As I heard this, my heart filled with joy! My older son understood that a little word like “yet” gave his brother hope that someday, with practice and persistence, he would hit the balloon higher.
I spoke about the power of yet in my last entry (https://thoughtfulparenting.org/2018/10/15/reflections-of-starting-school-again/)
In that blog post, I noted that by simply adding the word “yet” we could tell our kids we believe in them. The Power of Yet was introduced and developed by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D. in her groundbreaking book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.
To bring the Power of Yet into our lives as parents it is essential to develop a nuanced understanding of a Growth Mindset. Continue reading
A Day in the Life…
Thoughtful Parenting 