Parenting With Teacher Nancy

Warmth in the home, is one of the biggest factors in human flourishing .  It's easier to have warmth for your child, but it takes more work to have warmth for your partner.  When it begins to cool between you and and your partner, this stress can negatively affect your children .  When in conflict, understanding the way you tend to respond to your partner/spouse, can help you make positive changes.  The Gottman Institute identifies the Four Horseman, the responses to conflict in a relationship, that can lead to apocalyptic results.  Luckily there are antidotes to keep this from happening, to help bring back warmth in your home. The Four Horseman: Criticism, Contempt, Defensiveness and Stonewalling The Antidotes to the Four Horseman  Extra How To Have A Better Relationship - NY Times This is a one minute read emailed to you to improve your relationship.  Pretty easy to read, challenging to practice, but worth the effort. Marriage Minute, Gottman Institute BOOK DISCUSSIO

Empathy is key to keeping healthy relationships.  As we're reading and discussing in Chapter 1 of this semester's  book , How To Talk to Kids. Empathy makes all the difference when dealing with difficult times with our children.  It does the same for our partnerships/marriages and every other kind of relationship with people we have (siblings, parents, co-workers, neighbors...).  Here's a nice little (3minute) animation that explains how it works: Brene Brown on Empathy In the video, she talks about the Four Qualities of Empathy : 1) Perspective Taking-- recognizing their perspective 2) Staying out of judgement 3) Recognizing and understanding emotions in the other person 4) Communicating the understanding of emotion. This chart can help us label emotions for our children (and others of every age whom we have relationships with), to communicate our understanding of their emotion. This Is How I Feel Today  (for young children) Emotions List (for everyone) Con

What happens to children when we tell them they are smart all the time?  Let's look at what the research says.  Overpraising can affect their effort, ability, the way they view themselves and more. How Not to Talk to Your Kids New York Magazine Here's a follow up to last week's discussion on language development.  Give this a try, and let us know if it worked. Talking Toddlers:  Seven Tips to Help Develop Language Skills By Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman BOOK DISCUSSION This semester we will be reading the classic parenting book,   How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk ,  by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish.   Please pick up the book, or audio from the library, bookstore or online. It is also available in multiple languages (Spanish, Chinese, Russian...). Our discussions will begin the week of February 12 and we will discuss one chapter a week.