Words That Build Not long ago, my husband and I were asked to share with a group of parents what we would do again in regards to raising our kids. We began asking ourselves if we had to go all the way back to the beginning (20 years ago) and start over, what would we choose…
Splink 1: HELP! Ask your kids to complete a job that is too hard for them. (Give them a hard puzzle to complete. Ask them to stack ten blocks without them falling down. Give them a hard math problem to complete. The activity will depend on the age and skill of each child.) As they…
Dr. Chinwe Williams, a licensed professional counselor, talks with Carlos Whittaker (author and speaker), and Kristen Ivy, about how to help kids cope with anxiety. Anxiety and stress is a normal and unavoidable part of life, especially when experiencing something new or transitioning to a new phase. The way you acknowledge and respond to a…
Growing up, whenever I got in trouble, my punishment was being sent to my room. To an introverted kid, this was a delight. I just curled up with some good books and got lost in my imagination for a while. My oldest boy, Asher, shares this same affinity for quiet time. When sharing a room…
Conversations Happen Over Blueberries and Bathwater “My husband died when my children were in preschool. He was sick for twelve hours with an illness the ER doctors misdiagnosed, and he died on our bedroom floor two days before Christmas. Overnight, my children lost their dad and I became a 31-year-old widow.” These are the…
Splink 1: Staying Together Go outside and play Blob Tag. The object of the game is to tag all players, making them part of the Blob. The game starts out as an ordinary game of tag except that as players are tagged, they join hands with the Blob (the person who is “it”) and…
So you might have noticed there’s this tension in parenting. Okay . . . you may have noticed, there are 1,000 tensions in parenting, but today I’m going to focus on just one. What tension you ask? The tension between the parent who wants to enforce the rules and the parent who wants to focus on…
If you were asked to share with a group of parents things you’re glad you did as you were raising your kids, what would you say? My husband and I were given this opportunity recently at our church. Over the next five posts, I want to share with you the five choices we’re glad…
What does it mean to have faith on this parenting journey? September will mark 16 years since autism came into our lives. J was 22 months old. In the very early days, faith meant trusting God for healing. People prayed and encouraged and gave us timelines for God’s miracle. “By 6 he will be healed!”…
Splink 1: Go and Find Play Sardines, a variation of Hide and Seek. Choose one person to hide while everyone else closes their eyes and counts to 25. When the counting is completed, each person searches for the hider. When someone finds the hider, he or she doesn’t say anything but quietly crawls into…