Practical Positive Parenting Advice and Resources
Each year, my son’s school puts out an email asking if anyone wants to decorate the classroom doors for the holidays. Families get to come in for the evening, use some school-provided background paper, and get to work! My son and I did it this year for the first time and had so much fun creating our own DIY Snow Globe together :)…
“Oh no! What are we going to give your teacher?” – I think every mom has found herself struggling with this phrase as the holidays approach. Whether it’s a daycare worker, babysitter/nanny/au pair, preschool teacher, or elementary school teacher; these caregivers/educators work hard to help your children grow and learn. We want to appreciate all that they do, and it’s fun for the child to give them something to show their gratitude and love. Below is a Teacher Gift Giving Guide for those special people in our lives…
This article is written by Katie Strohecker
For more on this topic, check out the full Gift Giving collection
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Want to enjoy your Thanksgiving meal without worrying about all the food preparations on turkey day? Get ahead of your holiday meal with these delicious and easy make-ahead Thanksgiving side dishes. …
We have all had those days where we feel like we’re in a slump. We’re extra tired, a little cranky, and definitely unmotivated to check off anything on our To Do list. Those days are normal and a part of being human, but… there are ways to help yourself feel better the next time you catch yourself in a funk!
There are plenty of articles out there filled with wonderful self care ideas, but often times they skip over the most important point, which is:
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Thanksgiving is such a special time of year! It gives a reason to pause, and allows us to take a moment to focus on everything and everyone that we are thankful for. This year as you gather with your friends and family to celebrate the holidays, consider trying to incorporate some wood burning into your tablescape.
Continue reading below for a step-by-step photo guide to creating the perfect Thanksgiving tablescape that incorporates wood burning….
I spend a lot of time picking out gifts every holiday season, but I often forget about stocking presents! Here is a list of 10 stocking stuffer gift ideas that can work for younger and older kids!
For more on this topic, check out the full Gift Giving collection
Crayons, markers, and stickers. Kids go through art supplies so quickly that they can always use more! Most of these items are inexpensive and fit easily into a stocking. Check out this free DIY Art Station for additional inspiration.
Chapstick, band-aids, and gum. Kids love to feel grown up and carry around their own toiletry type items, and now is the perfect time to buy these items and disguise them as gifts.
Kids loving going to their favorite places! These can be the real thing, or a certificate that you create and print out yourself. Your children will love knowing that they’ll get to go to their favorite restaurant or favorite activity in the near future.
These could be the small packs of animal crackers, pretzels, fruit snacks, or even candy. Your kids will be happy to munch on these while they open the rest of their gifts.
You can find tiny sets of characters from almost any TV show, video game, and movie online. These are perfect to squeeze into stockings, and there is something fun about collecting tiny toys.
Paperback books have enough bend that they can curve and slide into a stocking nicely. Or consider wrapping and laying the stocking on top of it.
Playing with silly putty or play doh never seems to get old. You could also put a few cookie cutter type pieces in the stocking as well!
These are all great options to put in the toe of the stockings. It is also an inexpensive option that is still entertaining for a wide variety of ages.
Tattoos are something that are sure to be a hit with your kids. Of course the downside is that your children might insist on a tattooed sleeve just in time for Christmas dinner.
These are often a big hit! You’d be surprised to find that simple things like flashlights and calculators can quickly become a favorite gift.
For more on this topic, check out the full Gift Giving collection
Thanksgiving is coming up and that means my children will have a full week off of school – yay! And shortly after that comes Christmas break, snow days (we live in the NorthEast), and too many days where it is simply too cold to leave the house. This year we will be staying close to home for much of the winter, so I need to make sure there is plenty for us to do together, especially on those family nights in at home!…
Practice Gratitude
Thankfulness… Gratefulness…
This time of year has many of us thinking about these two words. But what do they really mean to you and your family?
When I take the time to reflect on these words, I realize that they shift my focus. I find myself framing things in a more positive light and appreciating what I already have in my life. It is humbling to consider how much I already have instead of focusing on things that I wish for.
This article is written by Karissa Tunis
For more on this topic, check out the full Celebrate Thanksgiving collection
It is a helpful exercise to contemplate what you are deeply thankful for. Those things that you take for granted, but that bring you joy and fulfillment on a regular basis… My children, my family, my friends, feeling safe and secure in our own home, food on the table, clothes on our backs. The basics! Those simple things matter, and taking the time to appreciate them can bring us peace and appreciation – especially during a busy season of life.
And beyond those basics? Anything additional is really an added bonus!
Of course, I enjoy nice home decor, beautiful jewelry, and fancy dinners as much as the next person; but I certainly do not need them. They are a luxury that should be appreciated rather than taken for granted.
When we remove ourselves from our own bubbles, we remember that most of the world does not live like we do. Many people throughout the world get by with very little, and they still manage to live happy and fulfilling lives. Some of us (myself included) may have experienced firsthand the challenges of just scraping by, and it’s important to reflect on those experiences from time to time.
One of the best things we can do for our kids is to teach them to practice gratitude.
We can start teaching this valuable life lesson at a young age, and we can engrain this important life lesson in our kids from the beginning. If we all believed that life is a gift in and of itself, and the rest is just a bonus, our world could be a very different place!
Feeling grateful is the antidote to feeling entitled. And that’s something that we could all use a little dose of from time to time.
When I was 16 years old, I took a missions trip to Romania with a team of people from my church’s youth group. During our few days of travel, our plans changed, and suddenly we found ourselves living, not visiting – but actually living with children who were looked down on as some of the lowest in their society. We were at an orphanage. From first glance you would have thought it was a mix of young boys and girls, but we quickly discovered they were all girls up to about age 16.
We spent several mornings picking up the broken glass bottles from the yard that the drunks had tossed over the fence the night prior. We shared their meals of very little and unappealing simple food. And we used a hole in the ground for a toilet, took our cold showers as quick as possible, and played outside with only the toys we had brought them. It was very hard to keep composure at all times, and to not have a decent hotel room to go back to at night and regroup was emotionally difficult. We were there completely living in it 100%.
These children were at first very shy and insecure. But they had hearts of gold! They quickly took to us, and eventually offered us their only possession – a teddy bear that someone had donated over a year prior. We of course could not accept their sweet gesture, but it stuck with all of us. Here were children with absolutely nothing, and their greatest gift – this teddy bear (many still in their original wrappers) were being offered to us! How incredibly selfless these kids were, and how grateful they were that we came and cared.
One day we decided to take the children into town to McDonald’s for a happy meal. The whole outing was quite an ordeal, but we eventually made it. These children had never been on a school bus before, never traveled into the city, and most definitely had never enjoyed McDonald’s.
While sitting across from two of the girls that were very malnourished, I watched as they cautiously opened their happy meal bags. First they pulled out their french fries, which to them looked very foreign. But before either of them even took a bite, they offered one to me. I politely declined and encouraged them to try it. They both ate their fries between giggles. Once finished, they rolled up their bags to save their burgers for later.
Inside I was crying for them. The more nice things we tried to do for these children, the harder it became. I ended up using a translator to explain that the cheeseburgers would not last forever so they should go ahead and enjoy them now.
My trip was filled with many more moments like this. To us it’s something that is so simple, and yet often taken very much for granted. But to these girls, it was probably an experience they will always remember. And it will always remind me to practice gratitude myself.
Our hearts broke when we had to say good-bye at the end of our trip.
Returning home was not easy. Coming back to the United States with such privilege left me feeling incredibly guilty! As I slowly transitioned back into my old life, things were very different. I felt so guilty taking a hot shower for the first time, so I turned the water cold instead. Sitting on a toilet made me emotional, and I started crying when I drove past McDonald’s.
Eventually I transitioned back to my normal routine, but I still often think back to that entire experience. If you have ever lived without necessities, then you realize just how important they really are! The rest is just a bonus.
When my children are old enough, I hope to take a family missions trip similar to the one I experienced. It’s one thing to tell my kids that a lot of children around the world do not get to experience what they do, but it’s a completely different experience to show them that first hand.
I recently read an article that stated the “#1 thing that you can do to ensure you raise a good child, is to teach them to be grateful.” – WOW!!
As I have taken some time to reflect on this statement, and my own life, I am finding that point very powerful! If we each believed that life is a gift and everything in it is truly a blessing, how different would our world be?
I am a huge believer in teaching children manners, and at the root of that is a lot of gratefulness. Using your pleases and thank you’s, respecting other people and their belongings, being humble and kind, it all ties into being thankful and grateful.
This holiday season, I encourage you to look for ways to teach your children the meaning behind these powerful attributes. While I don’t expect you to jump on a plane and head to a struggling country, I encourage you to look for inspirations around you.
Click here to read a list I compiled of simple things you can do to teach your children to pay their blessings forward, and/or to be grateful for what they already have.
For more on this topic, check out the full Celebrate Thanksgiving collection
This time of year I love looking for ways to teach my children to give back, help others, and make a difference. I believe that if we can teach our children the value of meeting basic needs, and show them that necessities are essential and not to be taken for granted, then the rest just becomes extra blessings.
I want to teach my children to be thankful for what they have. To realize that not everyone is as lucky as they are. So when you are blessed to have more than you need in life, to share it with others and pay it forward.
My goal is to teach this throughout the entire year, but especially over the holidays! Thanksgiving is not just about eating turkey and shopping the Black Friday deals; but it is about truly being grateful for what we have in life, and helping others less fortunate enjoy it too. …
As you’re getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner, try this simple, fun, and interactive option for place settings! Make your guests feel extra special by simply printing out multiple copies of these Thanksgiving place cards, and write in each person’s name below the line so that Marie’s place setting will say, “Thankful for, Marie”
Then… you can also instruct your guests to write down what they are thankful for on the inside of their place setting, then go around the table and share.
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