Nobody likes to make mistakes. They’re annoying, frustrating, and sometimes even embarrassing. And they often make us feel like we’ve done something wrong. Unless we change the way we think about them. And when we do, we can discover that mistakes are one of the most powerful teaching tools we have. Consider your child being in charge of making a class poster for the school play. He brings home the poster board and stencils and begins to work. “Do you…
Needs vs. Wants: Let’s say you’re in the dentist’s office with your child and you’re waiting for your “turn”. 🙂 You pick up a magazine and start flipping through it. This is the perfect opportunity to play the needs vs wants game. By the way, this works best if you use a child-friendly magazine like Parents or FamilyFun. “Hey, look at this cool yo-yo. I like the designs on it. What d’ya think? Would they be a need or a…
Have you ever thought about how kids learn to speak a pretty complex language? And when I say ‘speak’, I mean all the intricacies that go along with it…body language, inflection, nuance, …in addition to vocabulary and sentence structure. It’s a pretty amazing feat and, yet, we all learn how to do it pretty seamlessly and without formal instruction. Much of it happens indirectly. Our kids are absorbing what we do – it’s how they learn to operate in the world. And while absorbing…
This is Ryan right before he left to go on his first interview for a busboy position at the local sandwich shop. He was nervous. Very nervous. I knew he would be, so a few days before the interview we began role-playing. I wanted him to feel comfortable and confident that he was qualified for the job. Although it’s always hard to know exactly what questions are going to be asked during an interview, there tend to be some standard…
My niece stopped by for a quick visit on her way through to Burning Man. She was driving my sister’s 2003 Honda Accord. “Yup, it’s my car now,” my niece smiled. I knew she had been having problems with her 1993 Toyota Tercel . But I didn’t know what the problems were. “So what happened to your car?” I asked. “I ran out of oil.” Really? That’s what the problem was? Not an old transmission or faulty spark plugs? But…