HeartWise Parenting
 
HeartWise Coaching
 

 

Sign up for Our Email Newsletter

Email:   

 

Explore and Learn

Parenting Promise

Tools and Gifts

Inspired Parenting Book

Recommended Partners

HeartWise eZine

 

About HeartWise Parenting

Articles Library

Resources

Press Room

About Us

Contact Us

 

Four New Tools Every Parent Absolutely Needs

WHY? - Your children model your self confidence, your values, and sometimes your style of communication. Find out how these tools can improve your family life, communication, and create more effective interactions. Learn More!

 

Moms of Toddlers

Download a free course from Inspired Parenting, entitled NURTURE YOUR CHILD'S GIFT - WITH MUSIC!

 

Praise

Dear Caron,
I am an RN and just started a new job in a mental health facility. The focus is on children and adolescence. We do a daily "group" with them. We may pick the topic the only criteria being "education" of some sort. I wanted to offer some valuable coping skills kids could use. So, I went to the computer and spent over an hour clicking on lists of Internet items looking for help. I was getting very tired and needed to go to bed. When bingo" I found your article on kids, trauma, and coping skills! I just wanted to say a great big thank-you for your helpful article!
Sincerely ,
Charlotte Rogers

 

 

 

 

 

Christine Louise Hohlbaum

12 Ways to Teach Your Children about the Holiday Spirit

Jesus’ birthday is the most widely celebrated one in the world, and yet many people seem so busy at this time of year. With budgets tighter than usual this year, you still want to make this celebratory season a special one. Children can be involved in preparing for this season of light with a few simple tips.

1. Create a book of thanks with your children. Ask your children what they are grateful for. Have the kids clip out magazine photos, paste photographs of themselves, their friends, family, pets, etc. onto several sheets of paper. Staple the paper together in the middle.

2. Integrate the message of giving into your craft activities. Free printable and coloring pages can be found at these sites:

  • http://coloringbookfun.com

  • http://www.free-printables.com/archive/Coloring/Holiday

    3. Make a loaf of bread together and give it to a neighbor.

    4. Go through your children’s closet together and donate items to a nearby homeless shelter.

    5. The National Database of Nonprofit organizations has a web site which features over 850,000 non-profits and their respective ratings. Check out www.guidestar.org to find your favorite organization. Donate a sum in someone’s name.

    6. Create your own Twelve Days of Christmas song and act it out.

    7. Make a calendar with old photos and write captions under them.

    8. Decorate holiday cookies with your kids, place them in colorful bags, and give them to friends as gifts.

    9. Start a new family tradition (for example, lighting the same candle every year, going for a hike, sledding, or making your own Christmas ornament for the tree…).

    10. Create your own crèche and read the story of Jesus’ birth from the Bible as you set it up.

    11. Reuse the tops of old holiday cards and send them as postcards. Have your children write cards to relatives and friends with you.

    12. Instead of making a wish list, ask your children to make a list of things that they wished someone else had. The list may not be long, but it will make them think.

    Have a happy, healthy, and loving holiday!
     

    Copyright © 2004 Christine Louise Hohlbaum. All rights reserved worldwide.

  • About The Author ...

    Christine Louise Hohlbaum, American author of Diary of a Mother: Parenting Stories and Other Stuff, has been published in hundreds of publications. Her popular parenting ezine inspires thousands of parents looking for laughter and a good dose of inspiration. When she isn’t teaching her eCourses The Journaling Parent or How to Market Your Book, she prefers to frolic in the Bavarian countryside near Munich where she lives with her husband and two children. Visit her Web site.

    Diary of a Mother: Parenting Stories and Other Stuff is a must read for first-time parents, parents-to-be, and their friends. (ISBN: 0-595-28040-4), June 2003, iUniverse, Inc. It can be ordered at all major on-line booksellers including www.barnesandnoble.com, www.amazon.com and affiliates, and www.booksamillion.com.

       
    ©2007 HeartWise Parenting