Happiness At Home: Emotional Survival Guide For Teens
Andrea Ramsay Speers
This month’s newsletter is written for teens. If you are a teen, this is for you. If you know a teenager, please pass it along. This month, we will explore the hardest things [...]
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Out-Of-The-Box Encouragement
Andrea Ramsay Speers
We’ve talked before about how important encouragement is for kids. It contributes to healthy self esteem, it fosters courage and a willingness to make a mistake but try again, [...]
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How Do We Define “Mental Health”?
Andrea Ramsay Speers
How do we know if we are mentally healthy? What exactly is “mental health”? These are questions that maybe we should ask ourselves. It seems hard to expect to achieve a [...]
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Hands-On Parenting: Too Much Of A Good Thing
Andrea Ramsay Speers
I first became aware of the term “helicopter parent” many years ago. It was in an article by Amanda Robb in the July 2008 issue of O Magazine. The term was coined by former [...]
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Whose Work Is Housework?
Andrea Ramsay Speers
Not many of us relish doing housework. Most of us hardly get a kick out of cleaning the mini-blinds and baseboards. Kids? They tend to enjoy it even less. But if we all [...]
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Fears And Phobias
Andrea Ramsay Speers
Kids develop fears. It could be separation anxiety as a toddler, a fear of clowns as a preschooler, or a dread of public speaking as a school-ager. About one in 30 children [...]
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Whose Work Is Homework?
Andrea Ramsay Speers
If it was meant to be fun, it wouldn’t be called homework, right? But does getting assignments and essays done have to be such a battle? In fact, that’s the last thing it [...]
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Bribes Versus Rewards
Andrea Ramsay Speers
Here’s an interesting question: what’s the difference between a reward and a bribe? Many would say that the distinction comes down to the use of the word [...]
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The Importance Of Attachment
Andrea Ramsay Speers
“Attachment” is something that parents, particularly of babies, think about. How do we help our kids develop healthy attachment, and how do we know if we’re doing it right? [...]
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Encouraging Respect In Our Kids
Andrea Ramsay Speers
“Respect” is an important word for parents. We want our kids to respect us as parents, respect all we do for them, and respect other people. We want them to [...]
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