modeling positive behaviors for our children

Modeling Positive Behaviors for Our Children

By / 6 minutes of reading

We’ve talked a lot about responsibility, kindness, honesty, and helpfulness around here lately. And these are definitely values that are worth teaching to our kids. Although, in thinking through how to implement these character qualities, we’ve hit the same point each time:  we as parents must be modeling these positive behaviors for our children. We all want our kids to be decent people. We’d like for them to be strong, capable of handling life’s problems. These are worthy goals, but if we only talk about these character qualities, our words will not do much. We must live this kind of …

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change the world

A Day to Think About How You Can Change the World

By / 4 minutes of reading

Nelson Mandela International Day is a day to remember that each person can have an impact on the world. It is observed on Mandela’s birthday, July 18, each year, and it has been celebrated officially since 2010. While Nelson Mandela was a controversial figure, he did indeed positively change the world, and your kids can learn good things from his historical work in South Africa. The purpose of Mandela Day is not to be a huge public holiday. Instead, it is a day to honor Mandela’s legacy and his values through community service. It’s a day to think about how …

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camping with little ones

Camping With Little Ones Can Be Simple and Fun

By / 4 minutes of reading

Camping is a favorite summer activity for many people. The outdoors, whether in the mountains or at the lake, attracts us with its scenery and its simplicity. However, even some of the most committed campers take a break when children come into their lives. It seems to get much more complicated when you are camping with little ones. When something becomes complicated, we’re less likely to do it. If camping with kids has become complicated, the only solution is to find a way to simplify it. Let’s look at a few ways to simplify camping with little ones. The first …

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bring more kindness into our world

Let’s Bring More Kindness into Our World

By / 5 minutes of reading

Kindness can be an overlooked character quality. Sometimes we think it’s an automatic thing, so we don’t work to develop it in ourselves or in our kids. Unfortunately, we’ve seen more than enough evidence that kindness is not always valued in our world. So how can we bring more kindness into our world? Can we make kindness become part of our culture? Part of our culture? That sounds like a very tall order. Can we really change our culture with our own families’ values? It does sound a bit overwhelming, doesn’t it? But don’t let that discourage you from making …

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kids love to learn about the rainforest

Kids Love to Learn About the Rainforest!

By / 3 minutes of reading

Did you know that June 22 is World Rainforest Day? Rainforests can be so fun to learn about with your kids! With such a variety of animals and their beautiful and unique plants, there is so much to engage and inspire our children. Kids love to learn about the rainforest, and it’s a great way to fill these summer days! The Animals Mountain gorillas, the sloth, jaguars, parrots, poisonous frogs, howler monkeys, and the enormous anaconda are some of the animals you can learn about here at The Rainforest Alliance.   At Rainforest Animals, you can find simple one-page descriptions of …

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Do you know the colors of the Rainbow?

By / 4 minutes of reading

One of my favorite Signing Time earworms (i.e. song that sticks in your head on repeat) is “The Rainbow Song“. It’s a great song for practicing basic color identification. It’s fun to sing, easy to remember and relates colors to everyday items in our world. “The Rainbow Song,” like any earworm, is not without it’s hazards. If you are a ROYGBIV fan, like I am, beware. This song comes with the added challenge of not using spectrum of light to define color order. The lyrics mention purple before blue. Even so, this song will have you ready to grab a …

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balance responsibility and fun

How to Balance Responsibility and Family Fun

By / 5 minutes of reading

Summer can be both a fun and a crazy time for parents. Our kids are free from school or pre-school, and they have fewer pressures in their schedules. However, we parents can feel the pressure of more on our shoulders. We face our normal jobs, our regular daily work, plus the extra responsibilities of keeping our kids occupied. Many of us would like our kids to learn some responsibility during these summer months as well. So how do we balance all of this? What if we found a way to balance responsibility and family fun?  Decide between the necessary and …

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have fun with fruits and vegetables

It’s a Good Time to Have Fun with Fruits and Vegetables

By / 4 minutes of reading

The spring and summer seasons give us so many wonderful fresh foods to enjoy. With such a variety of colors and flavors, it’s a great time to help your littles learn about fruits and vegetables. It’s a good time to try some new ones too! You can have lots of fun with fruits and vegetables! Start with your favorites You can begin your learning fun with your kids’ favorite fruits and veggies. In the Signing Time Dictionary, we have several signs for fruits and vegetables, like apple, banana, carrot, grapes, lettuce, orange, peach, pear, and peas. Have your kids learn …

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Helping your preschooler get ready to read

Helping Your Preschooler Get Ready to Read

By / 3 minutes of reading

It can be daunting to think about helping your preschooler get ready to read. I think that teaching my kids to read was a task I dreaded as much as I dreaded potty training. The success when it was accomplished was equally celebrated as I sighed a relieved, “Whew, another one down!” And, just like when I finished potty training for good, when I finished teaching my youngest to read, my happy thought was, “I never have to do that again!” It’s a job worth doing, but we’re happy to be finished with it. While helping our preschoolers get ready …

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Ways to Fight Your Kids' Summer Boredom

Let’s Get our Children Playing Outside

By / 5 minutes of reading

Does anyone else struggle to get your kids to play outside? The stereotype holds true at my house. My kids have to be convinced, prodded, and forced to get outside. And then, after the struggle to get them outside, what happens? Most of the time, they end up loving it, and then they don’t want to stop playing outside. This struggle is totally worth it, because there are so many benefits to children playing outside! The Benefits Preschoolers need to stay active throughout the day. Of course, anyone who has spent time with a preschooler is very aware of this …

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