Parenting Our Children

Siegel explains that there are four ways that the brain is developing during adolescence that provide the groundwork for healthy ways of living.

How is character built? According to Tough, character is created by encountering and overcoming failure.

Starting to assess student readiness, interests, and learning styles at the very start of the school year will enable teachers to better educate their students in the manner that is appropriate for individual students.

Sara is pulling straight A's in all of her classes. She scores high grades on most of her exams and tests. You would think that she and her parents would be thrilled with her progress. But Sara is struggling in school despite her academic excellence. Socially, she is a wreck. While all the other girls easily group together during recess she has few friends, little social contact, and she is generally reclusive and shy around classmates and teachers.

While those who suffer from SAD syndrome generally begin to feel the effects once we change the clock and the days get shorter, these symptoms have been intensified by Covid-19 and the way that the pandemic has changed our life.

Most schools would have to stop doing almost everything they now do in the name of school improvement.

Do you ever wonder if your child has social skills challenges? Read through the statements below and check those that apply to your child.

Once he thought of what he wanted to say and began to write, he would freeze. That’s why he spent the first hour after dinner doing anything he could to avoid his homework.

With the passing of time people begin to look back on previous years and feel dissatisfaction (even if this is completely subjective and someone on the outside would think that they were doing great).

I once received a call from a forty-seven year old distraught mother whose seventeen-year-old son Moti had changed his style of dress, wearing jeans and refusing to wear a hat. She explained that he had gone through a difficult time in school and was now hanging around the house instead of studying in yeshiva. He was also mixed up with the wrong crowd and was associating with at-risk teenagers late at night on the street. She was very concerned as she had an older son who had gone "off the path" and was worried that Moti was going in the same direction. She believed that Moti could be helped if he would be willing to talk with someone.

Improving our social thinking begins with improving self-awareness, and is a skill that is used for much more than having successful social interactions.

Now, watching her daughter’s forlorn profile through the window, Miriam thought, Riki was once a good, happy kid. I don’t know what’s going on but I’m going to find a way back to that place. There has to be a way.

The brothers of Yosef referred to him as the "The Dreamer" (Beraishis 37:19). And, while the brothers seemed to have used the title in a disparaging manner, Yosef's life was, in fact, inextricably tied to dreams.

People who are emotional eaters use food to make themselves feel better. In other words, they eat to fill emotional needs, rather than to fill their stomachs.

"What do you mean, 'controlling'? This is called parenting! I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. I'm being responsible. I'm parenting my children the same way my parents parented me. If it worked then, there's nothing to question; it'll work now. Besides, look at me; I turned out okay!"

The disorder is far more disabling than people realize, and consumes untold hours and outputs of energy.

After returning from a year of studying in seminary in Eretz Yisrael, Feigi was ready to join the "real world." Seminary had been a wonderful, spiritually uplifting experience, but now it was time to settle down, find a job, and think about what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. Feigi started job hunting. She had excellent credentials and was perfectly qualified to start a career in any of a variety of fields. Yet despite her intelligence and willingness to work, she was unable to focus on a clear sense of direction.

If we start off happy, then we feel good about ourselves and what we're doing. If we feel good about ourselves, we look great.

Multi-generational families are making a comeback these days. For some the choice is made out of necessity because of the unstable economy, for others it is due to the physical needs of either the younger generation or aging parents. And then sometimes the decision to live this way is out of a mutual desire to be full and present participants in extended family life. For us it was a combination of factors that brought us to this point.

Chanie’s mother tried to salvage the situation by calling her daughter to the side and whispering a few succinct reproaches in her ear.

Jews have the distinct impression that there are moments in time that we can forego the holiness of the Beit Knesset and allow a frivolous, if not rowdy, behavior.

Imagine a child on a bicycle speeding downhill. The world is whizzing by. The road takes a sudden curve. The wind whips his face and his eyes blur with tears. Suddenly, he spots a ditch up ahead. He tries to brake − but the brakes don't work! As the bike's momentum increases, it is all he can do to keep from flying off. Obstacles in his path cry out for his attention. Everything seems out of control. What chance does he have to avert the tractor-trailer heading right toward him?

We all start life the same way – as babies completely dependent on others for even our most basic needs... The older we become, however, the more control we gain. We learn to communicate, move, and interact with others.

Many psychologists and educators theorize that girls are less likely to be diagnosed with ADHD because their symptoms differ greatly from those of boys.

Sometimes it is hard to name what you are feeling. Suddenly, you feel hot. You feel a bit of a burning session in your chest and on your neck. You can open a window to cool off, but you might not actually be addressing where that physical manifestation is coming from.

“Without a high school diploma, you couldn’t work as a garbage collector in New York City; you couldn’t join the Air Force. Yet a quarter of our kids still walked out of high school and never came back.” – Amanda Ridley

“Originality itself starts with creativity: generating a concept that is both novel and useful. But it doesn’t stop there. Originals are people who take the initiative to make their visions a reality…”

Provide opportunities for chesed. Get your children out there, helping those less fortunate or those in need.

How do we ensure that our students aren’t studying for the grade or the end-of-the-year pizza party? How can we get them to truly want to learn for learning’s sake?

Over the past few weeks we have been focusing on how necessary it is, especially today, that parents take an active role in teaching their children the Torah’s view on sexuality and modesty. We have pointed out how important it is that first images to fill a child’s mind in regards to these concepts be appropriate ones.