When my son was just four years old, he loved to investigate things around the house. He spent hours each day opening, spilling, touching, shuffling, dumping and tinkering. There was a lot he wanted to learn about and play with.

Sometimes he made choices which were not necessarily in line with my expectations. One time, while coloring, he broke a few magic markers open. He wanted to “catch the colors” hiding inside, he explained.

Children need time to play, tinker and discover. This is vital to growing and developing well. Very often in this playful process young children create messes and make mistakes. Having a safe home in which to make mistakes is vital to growing well. It is also important to the child that as parents we offer them guidance, limits and clear boundaries.

Children don’t really need to be told how to play or supervision that mimics a hovering helicopter. Children do however need to know that they can count on us, without a doubt, to provide them guidance and safety.

Gentle guidance or positive discipline is about honoring the needs of the child while providing safety, connection and confident leadership.

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It was a lazy Sunday afternoon.

My daughter was reading a book, I was folding laundry and there was music playing in the background.

I was humming to myself along with the music, when she looked up from her book and smiled at me. I smiled back and playfully replaced the words in the song I was humming with “I love you. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”

It was one of those silly, goofy, whim-of-the-moment things. But she beamed. Her smile could have lit up a city block. For a long while after she returned to her book, she still had the smile plastered on her face.

And I couldn’t help but think — we have literally hundreds of simple ways to show our kids how much we love them! During simple watercolor moments like these. And during the not-so-simple, definitely-not-watercolor moments as well.

So, I decided to make a list of all the different ways we can show our kids our unconditional love for them… during the times everything is nice and beautiful. And during those other times when things aren’t going quite as well.

Check it out –

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For about a year now, I’ve worked with many of you to put together a beautiful, custom-designed, parent-child journal. It is time now for the big unveiling…

The “Executive Summary” Version

And all this while requiring just a few minutes of your time, and done at whatever pace that works for your family’s schedule.

Got elementary school-aged kids? Then you don’t want to miss this!

What Makes the Connected Hearts Journal So Special?

You can walk into any bookstore and pick up a journal. So what makes this journal special? (And why should you absolutely get one for your kids? 🙂 )

The devil is in the details. And we have spared no effort. [Read more…]

So, on this site we talk a lot about being connected parents.

About guiding and supporting our kids in their journey through childhood, so they can grow up to be fantastic human beings.

Today though I want to take a step back and look specifically at those instances when we need to get out of the way so we can be better parents.

It was amazing how many situations I could come up with once I got thinking!

We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s dive right in –

#1 When Your Lid Is About To Blow

Let’s just start off with a bang.

Sometimes there are instances when we can get angry in a controlled manner.

And then, there are those when all sanity has left the building, and we simply want to scream, rant and rave not caring a hoot to what destruction it leaves in its wake.

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“I hate school!” your child yells as they storm off to their room.

Ugggh! Such a heartbreaking and exhausting statement.

School is an important part of every child’s life.

Irrespective of whether they go to a public school, a private school, virtual school, are homeschooled or have some combination of these, school is where your child learns the academic basics that will carry through with them into their adult years.

It is also where they get their first lessons in social development, problem solving, conflict resolution, planning and organization.

And when your child declares (repeatedly) that they hate school, it can be stressful and trigger all kinds of fear and frustration.

I understand it. I really do. It wasn’t very long ago that my son uttered those same words on a daily basis. I rarely ever heard anything positive about school from him.

We’ve gone through some challenging situations as parents, but this one was particularly stressful to me. First through public school and then homeschool, I had to figure out a way to help my child learn to love school.

I documented the whole process as much as I could, and I want to share the things I learned along this journey with you. Hopefully, something within it will resonate with you, and more importantly with your child.

Here we go –

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