Putting one’s house in order can help get your child’s inner self in order too. Remember how good it feels to fold and put laundry away for the week. The inner sense of achievement can be easy when a child completes a task, and does it well enough to receive your appreciation and thank-you for a job well done.
Whether we agree with standardized testing or not is a non-issue when it comes to our children in the classroom. They have to take the test, regardless of our personal opinions. If you want to know more about STAAR and how it compares to TAKS, there are some great resources on the Texas Education Agency website. Here are some tips to help your child through STAAR testing week.
It is so important to show kids we love them every day of the year. While many of these we do naturally, we might not do them often enough or sometimes we just need to vary our routine and go the extra step to show our own children and the children we meet how special and unique they are!
You will notice that some of the ideas on this list apply to all children we know, not just our own. Whether you are a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, friend, caregiver or teacher you can have an impact on a child with any one of the ideas on this list. Children thrive when they are reminded of how much they are loved and valued, not just by their parents but by others in their lives as well.
I recently received a wonderful book for review called Top 100 Napkin Folds. Now that temperatures are cooling down in Dallas, it’s time to think about outdoor patio parties on cool fall evenings or a birthday party for you child at a local park.
My daughter loves making any party special; that might include creating place cards for the guests, writing out the menu or fun napkin folding so I was delighted to flip through the 100 examples of napkin folds in this book. The illustrations are incredible and the instructions are easy to follow. Holidays are right around the corner, too. This book would make a great gift for your favorite hostess.
Big thanks to Maggie Savage, the publisher and recipe developer for BalancedPlatter.com, for her permission to share this fabulous recipe for pumpkin pancakes with you.
Did you go to the beach this summer? Did you kids bring home buckets full of sea shells, even the broken ones? Does your book shelf look like mine? Only the nicest shells get a place on the book shelf, the rest our outside in the garden and that pile is growing quickly. Here’s another shot of some we collected recently that were washed and laid out to dry in the sun. All these beautiful colors definitely make me think about fun sea shell crafts I have done over the years!
Setting and Achieving your Goals
by Kathy Garland
Have you ever wondered why people make New Year’s Resolutions and goals and then give up a month or two later?
There are many reasons why this happens but we are going to focus on one that will make a huge difference for you in your ability to reach your goals.
Hopefully you had time to rest, reflect and regroup after the holidays. If you are starting the year with an energy deficit, to develop a practice of completion increases your mental energy and helps you tap into more of your personal power.
Completion unleashes new energy to give you the focus you need to reach your new year’s goals.
