by Donna | Jan 13, 2016
Donna Reish, author of fifty language arts and writing books and the Raising Kids With Character seminar and blog, brings you this “chore” episode of Wondering Wednesday. This week Donna answers readers’ questions about age-appropriate chores. Donna introduces some keys to teaching children chores at all ages, including the importance of a set chore time, thorough training, and the difference between working with the child vs. the child working independently. Then she delves into various age groups and what are appropriate expectations for each one—with thorough, consistent training and follow up.
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by Donna | Jan 8, 2016
Make your home a center—a center for learning, a center for growing up together, a center for spiritual formation, a center for relationship building, a center for caring—and your kids will know that you want to spend time with them. There is nothing that can stop a child who knew his parents loved to be with him!
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by Donna | Jan 6, 2016
Donna Reish, Character Ink Press author of fifty language arts/writing curriculum books and co-author/presenter of Raising Kids With Character parenting seminar (and blog), presents suggestions on how to spend more time with your kids in the upcoming year. On this Wondering Wednesday podcast episode, Donna answers parents questions about how to squeeze in more “kid time” in the midst of busy-ness, how to make each child feel special in large families, and more. Drawing on thirty-three years of parenting experience of seven children (ages seventeen to thirty-three) in a family in which both Mom and Dad have spent countless hours building strong relationships with their kids, Donna brings insights on this topic from very young to young adults.
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by Donna | Jan 5, 2016
We are the most balanced baby people I know! No extremes here of nursing a child on demand until age three —or of putting a baby on a four hour eating schedule while he’s still in the hospital at two days old! Somewhere between those extremes is an amazing way to parent babies and toddlers in which everybody (baby, parents, and siblings) enjoy each other and fall into a comfortable family rhythm that does not over-emphasize one child’s “wants” over another. And one in which wants and needs are differentiated and met as is appropriate. This is certainly not an article about baby and toddler training (check out our blog for more on that!); however, our parenting of our babies really did have something to do with the deep, communicative relationships that we developed with our children.
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by Donna | Jan 4, 2016
When we are asked those common questions of “What things did you do the most right?” and “What things did you do wrong?” (or any version of those), we immediately know a solid answer to the first one: One thing that we have done right in our parenting for thirty-three years is talk to our kids—all the time, about everything, never ceasing, without hesitation. We made time, and we always talked.
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by Donna | Dec 18, 2015
In addition to “If You’re Missing Baby Jesus,” we have also been blessed for many years with the Christmas story of the Christmas tablecloth or tapestry. This story is a story of hope, restoration, and God’s working in mysterious ways—and never ceases to give pause to all of us as we share in it.
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