Best Thoughts Academy is this week’s Racine County Eye Business Spotlight. As a high school teacher, Kate Martin was fueled with an idea to positively impact others. Her career in teaching came to a fold when she retired in 2015. While working in Racine with special needs students, conversations arose about the lack of resources […]
Tag: Kate Martin
Posted inThe Purposeful Parent
Rituals ground our children with loving nostalgia
We first ran this story back in October 2017 but we wanted readers to reconnect with it. Don’t underestimate the power of placing that ornamental display in the exact same place on the mantel every December. Don’t disregard the importance of getting the string of pink hearts out of the closet on February 14th. Don’t […]
Posted inThe Purposeful Parent
The Purposeful Parent: You’re too little to have real feelings…
“I’m sorry honey, but you’re not real yet and so we don’t have to honor your pretend feelings.” On many occasions I have observed adults making very callous and curt comments to children. I’ve seen teachers and parents act out right rude to a child and then turn to extend kindness to an adult. It […]
Posted inThe Purposeful Parent
The Purposeful Parent: Homework vs Home Play
Homework, huh, yeah What is it good for? Absolutely nuthin, uh! If you are not familiar with music from the 70’s you may not appreciate this ‘hysterically’ funny reference from Edwin Star’s hit song ‘War.’ For me it provides a perfect opening to an article about the grand myths of that time-sucker of a beast […]
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The Purposeful Parent: A family plan for digital devices-‘Screen Smarts’
I am a digital immigrant. I do my best to fit in and access the many benefits of the fast paced, ever changing technological world. However, teenagers and tweens find the sound of my digital talk to be hilarious! Evidently I have a crazy accent! I’m not alone. Parents approximately 35 years and older will […]
Posted inThe Purposeful Parent
The Purposeful Parent: Back To School Special
It’s back to school and have I got a deal for you! As a teacher of middle and high school students for 27 years I have become pretty knowledgeable about family practices in the homes of teenage students. I’ve spent years observing parents doing things that work for teens as well as things that don’t […]
Posted inThe Purposeful Parent
The Purposeful Parent: Now I lay me down to sleep…
Now I lay me down to sleep … Many of us are familiar with this opening line to a standard children’s bedtime prayer. It started out so peaceful and usually closed with invocations for blessings for those we love. Comforting and harmless, right? Well, I don’t know about you, but there was a part in […]
Posted inLife, The Purposeful Parent
The Purposeful Parent: Let Whatever You Don’t Want For Your Children Be A Non Issue
This delightful quote comes from best selling author and international speaker Esther Hicks, and it applies to adults as well as children. Let whatever you don’t want in life be a non-issue! How very liberating, right? So very simple and yet so very powerful! When we look at raising our children from this perspective parenting […]
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The Purposeful Parent: Less TO & FOR and WITH a Little More!
As I continue to work with groups of parents as well as individuals, I find that many adults are committing to more activities outside of the home. In addition to a full time job, some are also involved in volunteer work, part-time jobs, higher education, and hobbies. All of these extras are fine as long […]
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The Purposeful Parent: Child Expectations
How much should we expect of our children with regard to self-care and contribution to the family as a toddler, as a young child, as a teenager, and as an adult? This is an ongoing dilemma for most all parents beginning as early as post-infancy and continuing on through adulthood. It is the basis for […]
Posted inThe Purposeful Parent
The Purposeful Parent: Psychologically Based Myth Busting for Parents
Myth #3— Parents should reward children for good behavior. False. Punishment and rewards are simply opposite sides of the same coin. Both are forms of manipulation and both are responsible for teaching children that control lies somewhere outside of us rather than within. —Much like punishment, rewards can give the appearance of changing behavior for […]
Posted inThe Purposeful Parent
The Purposeful Parent: Psychological Myth Busting for Parents
It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so. Mark Twain For the next few weeks, the Purposeful Parent will be offering some insight into the inaccuracy of some of the most prevalent long-held beliefs about parenting and discipline — otherwise known as […]
Posted inCommunity, The Purposeful Parent
The Purposeful Parent: That Parent in the Mirror
In what ways might I as a parent, be allowing, promoting or creating this situation? I wonder how different my experience as a teacher and parent would have been had I not learned of this dynamic self-reflective question. It was first introduced to me by my mentor, Dr. Frank Alessi, fifteen years ago during a […]
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The Purposeful Parent: A Graveyard for Staplers
Teachers, I turn to you for validation— teenagers are destroyers of property! Am I right? Nothing is safe within the teen-zone. Whether in the classroom or the home, anything from a pencil to a couch, anything they can pick up or jump on is open game. If they can break it, smash it, tear it, […]
Posted inThe Purposeful Parent
The Purposeful Parent: I’m listening
What do the results of questionnaires and polls administered to teens over the past 50 years reveal regarding what they most want from adults? You might be surprised to learn that what they most desire is simply to have a caring adult… listen. Yes, believe it or not, they crave to have an audience with […]