10-Minute Life Lessons for Kids, Jamie Miller Harper, 1998 ...

[Pages:1]10-Minute Life Lessons for Kids, Jamie Miller Harper, 1998

Parenting is one skill where no degree is required but expertise is expected. If a weather forecaster predicts the weather correctly 50% of the time she is heralded an expert. If a professional baseball plyer hits the ball more than 30% of the time (3 out of 10) he is considered a potential hall of famer. Meteorologists go to school for years of training. Professional ball players practice for hours a day. But, when the first child is born in a family, parenting begins without a user manual, without any guarantees, although there is U-Tube.

The ultimate challenge for parents is how to ensure their children are grounded with values that will last a lifetime. Learning how to balance a checkbook or make tacos or sew a button on a shirt or apply for a bank loan are valuable skills for a child to learn. Yet, the soft skills, the interpersonal skills can guide a child and adult daily for a lifetime: priorities, self-worth, attitude, honesty, kindness, cooperation, and other foundational traits. Yes, these traits are caught more than they are taught. As Dr. Kevin Steede reminds us, "It's not a question of if you're going to parent, it's a question of when. Pay the price now with your time and attention, or pay the price later for expensive rehabilitation."

Jamie Miller provides an extremely practical resource for parents who ask, how can I better teach values to my children? How can I get my son/daughter to understand the importance of respect and manners or developing positive habits? First, the child observes the behaviors of his first teacher, mom and dad. Second, the child listens to the words of her mentor. Third, the child waits and expects the parents to set boundaries, establish clear guidelines for behavior, and provide loving correction and encouragement. When parents daily talk the talk and walk the walk they provide a moral compass by which the child can live.

Yet, some life lessons need reinforcement. A child says, "I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand." Jamie Miller shares "52 fun and simple games and activities to teach your children honesty, trust, love, and other important values." Life is much like a maze, and for our children it can be very confusing at times. Therefore, children need guidance from their parents and guardians and mentors (including classroom teachers) to steer them in the right direction. This book describes a load of easy-to-do activities to affirm positive values. These activities require no training and little preparation. The items used in these visual life lessons are household items like candles and yarn or string and paper clips and pencils and salt and pepper and laundry soap. Many of these activities can be used across a spectrum of ages and could be repeated or tweaked and re-taught to stress certain traits. Although this is developed for use by families, it could easily be used in schools for teaching character traits, such as "Character Counts."

For many children "learning usually takes place in the day-to-day experiences of living, shared moments of discovery, planned and unplanned events and activities, and stimulating hands-on adventure." Nevertheless, sometimes parents need an assist. The activities in this book can lead to conversations with children and understanding about life-long values and beliefs. Give some of these activities a try with your kids and grandkids.

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