: North Texas Kids : Your family guide to raising happy, healthy kids

Raising Emotionally Healthy Children: Acceptance

Third in a Series of Articles on Raising Emotionally Healthy Children

Read the first article in this series: Respect

Read the second article in the series: Important

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Guest Post from The Children’s Project

The third critical emotional need of children is to feel Accepted. Accepting children means listening, trying to understand them, and accepting their right to their own points of view, feelings, desires, opinions, concerns, and ideas. If we act in a way that condemns or ridicules feelings or opinions of children, the implication may be that there is something wrong with them. When that happens, you reduce the chances of their listening to you and of your being able to influence them.

Top 40s Singer Offers Tips for Parents of Kids with Big Dreams

Does Your Child Want to be a Star?

If Sydney Rose, 20, could talk to the young contestants who wowing audiences on shows like “The Voice” and “The X-Factor,” she’d tell them: Even if you don’t make it to the end of this contest, if you have a vision and a talent, don’t ever give up!

The singer/songwriter whose debut pop single, “Breaking Rules,” hit No. 15 on the national radio Top 40 chart earlier this fall, says she tried to put her dream on hold – and couldn’t.

“I’ve been in love with music all my life,” says Rose (www.sydneyrosemusic.com). “I’ve learned it’s an important part of who I am and you can’t ignore that, no matter what your age.”

Baby Gear: How to Beg, Borrow and Save

How to Save on Baby Gear & Equipment

According to data collected by the USDA, the average middle-income, two-parent family spends $12,290 to $14,320 annually on their child. In addition to housing, health care and clothing, there’s no question baby gear contributes largely to that annual expense during the early years. Carriers, car seats, cribs and strollers can all add up to a big expense for first-time parents.

Happily, experienced parents know a thing or two about saving on everything from baby formula to car seats. Before you max out your credit cards in preparation for your bundle of joy, consider these tips to save on all the baby gear you need.

‘Me Time’ for Mom

Making Time for YOU is Essential to Good Parenting

By Amy Egan

When we are pregnant, have a new baby, and into the child’s toddlerhood, we have to put our little one’s needs before our own. We put ourselves on the back burner–a necessary sacrifice we are often happy to make. Then, once our kids are about two years old, they tend to have not only needs, but wants, and lots of them. It becomes so important around this time to make sure we are fitting in some ‘me time’ for mom. Taking care of ourselves comes in many forms; getting our nails done, having dates with our spouse (especially important!), nurturing our social relationships and interests as well as having firm boundaries with our kids.

If you wonder what the benefits to our kids are by taking care of ourselves, check out a few I have listed below:

How to Nurture Your Baby’s Curiosity

Interactive Ways To Encourage Baby’s Curiosity With Objects

From birth to 2 months, baby’s tiny hands are usually found clenched in fists. According to this parents.com article, How Baby’s Hand Skill Develops, by 3 to 4 months baby “has developed enough muscle coordination to get a grip on small objects placed in front of him.” Free, wiggly fingers combined with a new curiosity may mean you have a “new” baby on your hands; one that is far more interested in objects now than he was a month ago.

How to talk to your kids about the ‘Birds & the Bees’

When should you talk about sex with your child?

by Cheryl L. McKinzie, M.S., M.A., LPCI

Imagine the following:

You are in the kitchen making an after-school snack for your son and his friend. They have your iPhone. You hear noises from the iPhone that are vaguely familiar. When you take your iPhone back from your 9-year-old son, you discover that they were watching adult content on YouTube. What do you do?

Or imagine this scene:

It’s spring break, and several parents bring their kids to the office (no babysitters!), and put them around a computer in a back office. These kids range from 8 to 10. They find porn on the internet. How do you handle this?

Should these scenes be your child’s introduction to sex? What is an appropriate introduction to this oh-so-touchy topic?

‘The Hobbit’ Illustrates Value of Adventure Tales for Pre-Teens

Juveniles on Brink of Personal Journey, Says Youth Advocate

It’s only appropriate that fantastical genres of storytelling are often geared toward pre-teens, says writer Elayne James.

“It’s an extremely impressionable time, with the wonder of childhood firmly established and a dramatic transformation about to take place,” says James, author of “Destiny’s Call,” the first installment of the fantasy series “The LightBridge Legacy,” (www.lightbridgelegacy.com).

It’s also not surprising that the “Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy from 2001 to 2003 was one of the most successful in film history – and that fans were eagerly anticipating director Peter Jackson’s return to Middle Earth on Dec. 14 with the release of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” she says.

In addition to being masterfully interpreted on the big screen, many of us were attached to the story from the books, which are often introduced during the middle school years. The narratives and personal experiences we have during preadolescence tend to stay with us more than those from other phases of life.

Researchers frequently cite pediatric neuroimaging studies, which show that during the ages of 11 and 12 our brain development is at a fundamental stage. A four-month journey across America at that age left an indelible impression on James. The trip culminated in New York City which became the launching point for the “Tolkien-esque” adventure in her most recent novel.