Boredom as a Teaching Opportunity
Dear Parents, You and your kids are currently in the midst of the summer wherever you may be and your kids are probably complaining about boredom every now and then. I know about this all too well. The teens and tweens tell me about this. Parents complain about not knowing how to handle it. Oh the irony. During the school year many kids wish that they had free time to worry about. I remember being a teen and also being told to clean out my closet when I complained about bored
The Magic They're Missing
Just be yourself. Every parent has said those words to their child at one time or another. Just be you and everyone will love you! For many years of childhood, those words can ring true. Then come the preteen years and our children must wonder what the heck we were talking about. It's hard to tell a child who stands out that just being themselves will work out when they are living the opposite. My son Jack is one of the most unique, insightful, hilarious, and creative individ
Boy Designs Dragon T-Shirts to Raise Autism Awareness, Unleashes his Inner Knight
In fairytales, dragons are usually the villains. But for one boy in the real world, they're the heroes. Santino Stagliano is a 10-year-old with autism who designs dragon T-shirts to raise awareness and money for the Center for Autism in Philadelphia, Today.com reported. The hand-drawn designs have helped the 10-year-old come out of his shell, and he now shares his dragons through his own nonprofit. "I think it's really helping to spread awareness and the message that children
Should Kids Play with Their Food? Of Course!
Junky, processed food and afternoons spent in front of tech are taking a toll on our kids' health, with everyone from Michelle Obama to the United Nations looking for solutions. But what if the path to healthy eating is simpler than we think? The key ingredient is play -- something at which our kids are already experts. When kids are involved in the process of growing, harvesting, and cooking without the pressures of "are you going to eat your spinach?" they experience those
Study Looks to Tap Strengths of ADHD Students
People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), some studies suggest, are more creative and more willing to take risks. Those traits are exactly what the field of engineering needs, say a team of researchers, but the traditional model of teaching is driving away potential pioneers in the field. With funding from the Research in Engineering Education, a program of the National Science Foundation (NSF), they're embarking on a study designed to find a better way to
Controlling ADHD is Impossible, Managing ADHD is Important
By Lisa Aro, author of the blog, "Living a Distracted Life" It's rumored that Japanese General Isoroku Yamamoto said the following about the attack on Pearl Harbor: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." Although there is no evidence he actually said this, the message resonates with me. There are few things that awaken my own sleeping giant more than people who belittle our family's experience with ADHD by telling me that