Internet Safety Every Parent Should Own

  One of my friends choked back tears as she poured out her broken heart. Her son, who she thought could not access pornography on the home computer, had done just that. Her tears came from knowing how hard she tried to manage the internet and her children’s safety, and yet the ugly pictures defeated her goals once again. My Friend Isn’t Alone Over the past ten years, I have also faced the challenge of our own internet safety in hopes of protecting my young men from the powerful tide of porn. Over the years I have tried just about …

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How to See Eating Disorders in Kids

On the day she shared her story with me, Katie Kluke’s blue eyes were full of hope. She wore a soft gray sweater that draped easily around her slender frame. Her voice was calm as she told how she once used her Daddy’s stability wrap to encircle her girlish self, making her feel wonderfully “small.” She recounts how she didn’t want “thunder thighs” or the way they made her look: not petite, even in second grade. By 8th grade, family stress stirred the lies in her heart and mind and a full-blown eating disorder in her body. The United States …

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Back to School!

Each year, when summer comes and school lets out, it makes me reflect on my childhood summers. You know…those summers that seemed to last forever? I think about all the wonderful days I experienced growing up. We all had so much fun. Forced to be outsiders, we actually got exercise by running around playing tag, kick ball, or roller skating. We circled the neighborhood subdivision on our bikes until dark and the bugs hit our teeth, or Mom rang the bell to come home. Our parents never worried about us. Because a high level of trust in one’s neighbor existed, …

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Easing Your Kids’ Back-to-School Nerves

  We’ve all experienced the first day anxiety of something…You know that YUCKY feeling you get on the first day back to school when your stomach is turned upside down doing somersaults like it’s in the Olympics. As a former school teacher, I have seen that agonizing look of fear on so many faces on the first day of school. You know that YUCKY feeling you get on the first day back to school – 10 ways to ease your child’s nerves Click To Tweet  Believe it or not, most teachers go to great extremes to help ease their students’ …

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kid's summer reading

5 Easy Ways To Encourage Summer Reading

Summer. Just the smell of sunblock can bring all the images of summer rushing in. Thoughts of swimming, grilling, snow cones, watermelon, late nights and lazy mornings come flooding in. And, of course, the joy of freedom from government tyranny, errr, I mean school. And for our family, there is one more really important part of summer – books. We are readers all year long, but summer kicks it up a notch. My ten-year-old daughter has been scouring Pinterest for fifth grade summer reading lists for weeks. She’s compiling her own this year (which means I won’t have to fight her …

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How to Talk to Your Child about Divorce

  It’s an unfortunate truth in society today: half of all children will go through the break-up of their family, and their parent’s divorce. Though it’s obviously not God’s ideal, it does happen, and needs to be approached with grace from those on the outside, as well as those on the inside. One of the biggest mistakes parents make while going through a divorce is leaving their child out of the conversation. They have suffered a loss as well, are grieving as well, and need someone to work through it with them. So, how do you talk to your child about …

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The ADHD Bill of Rights – A Must Read for Every Parent

Can I be honest for a minute?  I have been lonely, angry, and guilt ridden. I know it’s summer, I know we are all busy, but what made issues for me more intense was realizing I had no one who understood what I was going through. Maybe they didn’t want to. Who knows? But, when you’re a mom of a child with ADHD and processing disorders, it’s a new ball game.  When you’re a mom of a child with ADHD and processing disorders, it’s a new ball game. Click To Tweet The rules of cause and effect don’t apply. Discipline …

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Words are Powerful

Our words can bless or curse. Wound or heal. Build up or tear down.  Words. Are. Powerful. I came across an article the other day about a seventh grade boy who posted on Instagram that he was planning on committing suicide on his birthday. This young boy had been severely bullied. He had been wounded by other students’ words and actions. While being hospitalized for treatment, the boy’s mom got an idea. She asked people on Facebook to send her son words of encouragement. He received THOUSANDS of responses. All uplifting and hopeful. The words of affirmation, affection, and love all …

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Heroes at Easter

When Easter comes around some of us struggle with the dilemma of how to approach Easter with our children.  Christmas is pretty easy.  It’s the time Jesus was born as a baby. Children understand that.   But Easter? How do we explain the significance of Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection, so a child can understand it?  And then to compound these issues, how do we handle the Easter bunny, which is the part of Easter that children do relate to, but which has nothing to do with the true meaning of Easter?  How do we explain the …

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