A Fine Parent

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Missing Your Old Activity Schedule? Here’s a Positive Way to Look at It

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(This article is part of the Coronavirus Support series. Get free article updates here.)

Main-Image-Activity-Schedule.jpgMy family’s calendar was rather full. Then the word “CANCELED” began to cover the days one by one. No more church activities. No more field trips. All of the extracurricular activities seemed to disappear.

But was that a bad thing? Maybe it was time to break free from the busyness outside of our home!

Research shows too many extracurricular activities can have a negative affect on families. Kids need time to learn about themselves and explore their interests without being bounced from one activity to the next.

This article from Psych Central states that too many extracurricular activities can “potentially harm children’s development and well-being” in addition to putting “excessive strain on family relationships and resources.”

Yes, there are many uncertainties at this time. Things are really strange. People are scared. But maybe this is a good time to reflect on all of those extracurricular activities and intentionally focus on family bonding time. [Read more…]

Schooling at Home? Here Are the Best Tips from 7 Veteran Homeschoolers

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(This article is part of the Coronavirus Support series. Get free article updates here.)

Featured-Image-Homeschool-Article.jpgYou’re now schooling at home.

In several parts of the country, it looks like this may go on till the end of the school year.

Maybe some of you wanted to homeschool all along, and find the idea exciting. That’s great news!

But for many parents, school closures forced them to take on the sudden role of “teacher.” And that notion is daunting and overwhelming.

So what can parents do to ensure our kids are getting a decent education during this difficult time? We asked some long-time homeschoolers these questions so we could bring you the best advice:

How can we as parents make the best of the situation for our children and their education (as well as our sanity)? Can kids learn at home successfully while also having fun?

And what if my child is spectacularly unmotivated to learn anything from home at all? What do we do then?

Here’s what the experts had to say! [Read more…]

110+ FREE Resources for Kids to Use During the Coronavirus School Closures

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(This article is part of the Coronavirus Support series. Get free article updates here.)

Main-Image-school-resources-copy.jpgUnexpectedly homeschooling because of Coronavirus school closures?

Overwhelmed by the unrealistic Instagram posts of people’s daily schedules?

Deep breath. You can totally do this!

We’ve compiled for you a list of 110+ awesome free educational resources to make this super easy.

And here’s more good news: homeschooling doesn’t have to be anything like actual school to be educational. 

Click on a link (or three) below and start exploring with your younger kids.

And if your kids are old enough, you can give them the reins and let them explore what they find most interesting on this list. Language arts, math, chemistry, art and finances, it’s all here!

As a homeschooling parent, I’ve utilized many of these resources myself and have chosen these for you because they are:

  1. easy to use
  2. engaging and educational for the kiddos
  3. and best of all, free!

(Many of these are free all the time, some only while the schools are closed).

In my experience, I spend about 15-20 minutes per subject for elementary kids, but I don’t stop if they’re engaged and we’re delving into something in which they are showing a lot of interest.

Alright. Time to dive in. Click on any link below and let the learning joy begin!

PS: Do you have a favorite resource that I have not listed? Please let me know about it in the comments section below. Thank you! [Read more…]

How to Help Your Kids Move Beyond Their Comfort Zone

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(This article is part of the Positive Parenting FAQ series. Get free article updates here.)

Main-Image-comfort-zone-copy.jpgWhen I was a sophomore in high school, my parents sat the family down in the living room, opened up an enormous binder and asked my younger brother and me to pick a sister, any sister, from any country around the world.

We chose an eighteen-year-old, trumpet-playing, tall and strong-minded Finnish student who did, indeed, become a real sister to me over the course of the following year.

My parents had made rumblings in the past about hosting a foreign exchange student. We lived in a tiny, rural town in Central California, so they saw the exchange experience as a double-blessing: My parents could share the wealth of our small-town lives and the beauty of our diverse state while culturally enriching their own children’s lives. We had previously hosted a German teacher for a summer, and my brother’s baseball team had provided temporary housing for players from Russia — the USSR at that time. We were no strangers to strangers in our home.

But when the day finally came to choose the exchange student, I was nervous about the change. My life was filled with academics, sports and other extracurriculars, and my parents both had busy jobs in addition to being key participants in their children’s activities.

This experience was going to put me outside my comfort zone, and I wasn’t sure I would like it. Would there be enough room for another sister?  Would my parents have enough love to go around?  What would we gain by shaking up our seemingly comfortable lives?

As it turned out, quite a lot! While that year certainly came with ups and downs—as they do in any family—the lifelong friendship, the bond of sisterhood and the cultural experience I gained from having Karo in my life outshone all the extra squabbles over the shared curling iron.

It was such a worthwhile experience, that here we are, over 30 years later, preparing to choose another sister. Only this time, it’s my own family—my husband, myself and our three daughters. And this time, there will be no binder, no leafing through pages of possibilities, since we have already chosen our sister-for-a-year: Karo’s daughter from Finland. [Read more…]

How to Raise Kids Who Are Comfortable in Their Own Skin

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(This article is part of the Positive Parenting FAQ series. Get free article updates here.)

Kids-who-are-comfortable-in-their-own-skin-main-image_79134390.jpgFor weeks my children begged and pleaded to start karate. I finally caved in and signed them up for classes.

On the first day, the five-year-old stayed glued to my left leg for the entire 45-minute class, while the seven-year-old sunk to the back corner of his class and barely participated.

We went on this way for a WEEK!

They started asking to discontinue the karate classes, but I’d already paid for the first month.

I continued to take them.

And then slowly but surely, they started drifting to the middle of the class. They started remembering the moves and yelling their “HI-YAH” s along with everybody else.

Now they look forward to their classes and practice everywhere they go!

As parents, encouraging our children to have the courage to embrace their interests and helping them to try out new things they aren’t good at yet, isn’t always an easy task.

It is something we ALL have to do at some point or another, though.

It is a crucial step in helping our kids get comfortable in their own skin and having the fortitude to get past uncomfortable situations.

Here are a few other ways to raise kids who are comfortable in their own skin:

[Read more…]