I read recently that children with good mathematical skills are more likely to grow up to earn more, stay in school longer and are more employable. It seems logical then that we as good parents should be encouraging our kids to be as good as they can at math.

The problem a lot of us have, is that we weren’t that good ourselves, or at the very least didn’t enjoy it that much. Okay, I don’t actually fall into that category, I actually did enjoy math, but I’ve known plenty of other parents who didn’t like it. read more

This past weekend I was the designated parent to take Jay, my son, to his weekend classes. To help him with his Chinese studies, he attends extra classes. On Saturday, he has a group class with about ten other kids his age. And on Sunday, he has a one-on-one session. Both classes are two hours ling and end just before lunch. Normally SO, my wife, takes him, but this weekend she was busy with work, so it fell to me to be his chauffeur, or at least accompany him since we don’t have a car.

On Saturday as we left the school he asked if we could have McDonald’s for lunch. It’s a fairly typical routine. Since we walk past it to come home, we quite often have lunch there on the way. When we arrived though, it was too crowded and Jay decided we’d just eat at home. read more

Do you ever have the feeling that the more you try, the less you accomplish? We put so much effort in, only to fail time and time again. Then we just give up and go with it, and what do you know, we’re all having a good time. I’m talking, if you haven’t already worked it out, about entertaining our little ones.

There’s been plenty of times, whether with my son, Jay, or one of my nieces or nephews, where we’ve planned an activity. Everything is in place. We have everything we need. We’re there and ready for it. And it bombs. They’re not interested. And we didn’t really want to do it in the first place. read more

It’s difficult watching our little ones grow. Sending them out into the big bad world of school. Hoping they’ll have fun and make friends. Don’t we all want to help our kids make friends like we did at school? Let’s look at some of the things we can do to help them.

1. Trust Them

It can be difficult to let go, but we can’t actually force our kids to be friends with who we choose for them. Kids, in general, have good instincts. And if they say they don’t want to befriends with someone, we should listen. It also works the other way. If we don’t like someone they do, maybe should back off and give it a chance. After all, if we force them to stay away from somebody, it’ll most likely backfire and they’ll want to be friends with them even more. read more

Let’s face it, we all want our kids to be the best they can be. Better than all the rest. Top of the class. Best on the sports team. Outstanding in every way. In other words we want them to be perfect in everything they do.

The question is, is it really a good idea for us to push our children to be perfect? Or are we sabotaging them by doing so?

Unfortunately, by pushing them to perfection, we may actually be pushing them away from it. See, when we tell them, or show them, that we want perfection, and they fail to reach our goals, it demoralises them. The result being, they don’t even want to try because they know they can never do good enough. read more

From the moment we bring our baby home from the hospital, there’s crying. At first it’s simply a process of discovering what they need, a change, food, sleep. But over time the reasons our kids cry change and develop. When they cry it may be because they’re sad, angry, scared, anxious or even happy. How we respond to them is important both in stopping the crying and to help them to develop ways to deal with the emotions in the future.

One of the things we shouldn’t do is to tell them not to cry. I know I’ve done it, and in retrospect it’s counterproductive. What we’re doing when we say, “don’t cry,” is that we don’t understand or don’t care about them. It may seem to them that we’re saying their emotions are invalid or unimportant. Even if the reason seems trivial to us, it’s not to them. Plus it takes away an opportunity to help them deal with their emotions in a helpful manner. This can have ramifications for a life time. read more

I’ve talked before about what to do when a child gets angry. How to deal with it and what to say. If you want to check it out, you can find it here. Today though, I wanted to talk about preventing our kids from getting angry. First I’ll show how it works, and then we’ll talk about how we got to that point.

It had been a long day for Jay, my son. He’d started the morning with a tuition session. It was only two hours. Normally he’d come home afterwards to play games and relax at home. Perhaps he’d have lunch out first, but not always. read more

I can’t sing. I can’t dance. And I can’t play a musical instrument. How do I know? Well, since I was young I’ve been told I can’t. So obviously I can’t, right?

That seems to be the problem. Since I, and many others are told from young that we can’t sing. Or at least told we don’t have the talent to sing or play music. This makes us believe that’s true. But is it really true? That’s the question some people are asking now. Are we creating self-fulfilling prophecies by telling our kids that they can’t sing? And even if we aren’t creating that, are we stopping them from enjoying an important part of their lives. read more

I’ve always had a bit of a reputation as someone who is calm and patient, especially with kids. Other people’s kids at least. See, once my son, Jay, came along, that all seems to have changed. No longer am I the person who could put up with whatever might happen. My inner Hulk seems to be constantly looking for excuses to raise his ugly head, and the yelling starts. Fortunately, for both Jay and myself, I’m starting to learn to tame that monster, and I wanted to share some of the techniques I’m using to do that. read more

I suffer from anxiety. There I said it, and I’m still here. Sure, my heart’s racing, my breathing’s shallow and I’m starting to sweat quite a bit, but I’m handling it. It’s something I’ve dealt with since childhood and I doubt I’ll ever get over it.

What about the kids out there who are suffering from it now though? What can we as parents do to help them? It’s a bit late for me, but if you have a child who’s suffering from anxiety, here are a few things I wish people around me had known while I was growing up, and some tips on how to handle it. read more