A Few Of My Favourite Books
Andrea Ramsay Speers
Looking for something to keep you busy over the next few weeks? Books can be a great way to get information, get inspiration and new ideas, and to keep momentum going between [...]
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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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Time To Think
Andrea Ramsay Speers
In the daily grind of making lunches, arriving on time, homework, and all of the other activities that fill our days, it can be easy to lose sight of our big-picture parenting [...]
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Raising Responsible Children
Andrea Ramsay Speers
When I ask parents what kind of adults they hope their children will grow to be, they often use words like responsible, respectful, and independent. Which is a worthy goal, [...]
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Doing What Works (And Quitting What Doesn’t)
Andrea Ramsay Speers
People have a tendency to think that if something should work, but it doesn’t, that the next step is to then do that thing harder, more often or more intensely. (For example, [...]
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Goals of Misbehaviour Part 4: Inadequacy
Andrea Ramsay Speers
This month wraps up our four month series of trying to answer that nagging question, “Why do kids do that?” Having looked at the “goals” of gaining attention, power, [...]
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Goals Of Misbehaviour Part I: Attention
Andrea Ramsay Speers
Have you ever looked at your kids and thought, “What are they thinking?!?” It’s a common parental response to outrageous, wacky, disruptive, or hurtful behaviours. But there [...]
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Family Meetings:Your One-Stop Solution For Discipline AND Fun
Andrea Ramsay Speers
If you’ve ever had a job, you’ve probably attended a meeting. And although it may seem somewhat unusual to apply this same strategy to “running” your family, family meetings [...]
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Catch Them Being Good
Andrea Ramsay Speers
It seems to be in our nature to notice the bad. Whether we’re cataloguing the things we would change about ourselves, the mistakes we have made, or why life isn’t perfect, we [...]
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