Tag Archives forsunshine parenting

Raising a Book Lover

When I was four years old, I amazed my Pre-K teacher by flawlessly reading aloud Are You my Mother? by P.D. Eastman. Not only did I read every word correctly, but I had appropriate inflection in my voice. Child prodigy? Um…actually, no. My mom had read that book to me so many times that I…

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10 Parenting Tips from Camp Counselors

At one time in their lives, many of the parents I know were camp counselors. Those same people have told me that their time spent as counselors was great training ground for parenting. Among other things, they learned to comfort, encourage, set goals, and resolve disputes — all things we experience daily in our lives…

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Book Review: Age of Opportunity

“…nothing will ever feel as good as it did when you were a teenager.” -Laurence Steinberg, Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence What are your most vivid memories? When you hear a song from your high school years, do you still know every word? Did you do something dangerous as a…

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Raising Grateful – not Entitled – Kids

grate•ful:  feeling or showing appreciation; thankful. en•ti•tiled: believing oneself to be inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment. An interesting juxtaposition occurs in November and December. Immediately following a month where we focus on being thankful, we launch into the biggest consumer month of the year. The shopping carnage now begins on the very same day we…

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Is Your Child’s Sport Their Passion or Yours?

I recently watched a documentary about four athletic kids and their parents. These parents had, according to their own descriptions, given up their careers to dedicate their time and money to their athletically talented child. In each case, the parent was visibly angered when their kid missed the basket or didn’t make the putt. There…

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Let Your Son Go!

I started listening to the Dr. Laura radio program a few decades ago while living in Los Angeles. Callers ask Dr. Laura Schlessinger questions, and she offers them blunt guidance and reprimands. Recently, I rediscovered her show on XM radio (Stars Channel 109). I especially enjoy listening to her when my fifteen-year-old is in the car with…

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Who’s Not Ready for College?

This is the text message I sent to two friends last week who were dropping their children off at colleges on the other side of the country: “When can we have our first MMD/MMS (mothers missing daughters/mothers missing sons) meeting? For both of them, this is their first child to leave home to go away…

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