In the film Turning Red (2022), a young 13-year-old girl, Meilin “Mei” Lee, turns into a red panda whenever she has strong emotions: when she is angry, when she is sad and when she is excited. She begins to believe that strong emotions are embarrassing and tries to suppress her true self. In the film …
How Movies Can Help Families Wrestle With Emotions
In the film Turning Red (2022), a young 13-year-old girl, Meilin “Mei” Lee, turns into a red panda whenever she has strong emotions: when she is angry, when she is sad and when she is excited. She begins to believe that strong emotions are embarrassing and tries to suppress her true self. In the film …
Five Ways to Spark Your Daughter’s Imagination
People have described run-down imaginations in numerous relatable ways, from writers’ block to procrastination to a lack of creative juices. While it may seem like your daughter’s ever-present imagination never falters, even she can suffer from an occasional bout of burnout. Help your young one overcome this frustrating slump and spark her imagination with these …
How to Explore the Connection Between Nature and Art With Kids
In The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy, Michael McCarthy wrote, “There can be occasions when we suddenly and involuntarily find ourselves loving the natural world with a startling intensity, in a burst of emotion which we may not fully understand, and the only word that seems to me to be appropriate for this feeling is …
Why Parents Should Build Self-Confidence in Kids
Parenting expert and best-selling author Michele Borba, Ed.D. shares why parents should focus on building self-confidence in kids and offers tips to help. Dr. Borba is an internationally renowned educational psychologist and an expert in parenting, bullying, and character development. She is author of Thrivers: The Surprising Reasons Why Some Kids Struggle and Others Shine …
Feeling Out of Sorts? Start With Self-Compassion
We all have days when the harshest critic of our choices is ourselves. That’s why we need to model self-compassion for our girls as parents and caregivers. As life balance coach and speaker Renée Trudeau wisely points out in this article, instilling in your children the value of being kind to themselves can help them …
How to Nurture Creativity in Your Kids
Parents who want their kids to be more creative may be tempted to enroll them in arts classes or splurge on STEM-themed toys. Those things certainly can help, but as a professor of educational psychology who has written extensively about creativity, I can draw on more than 70 years of creativity research to make additional …
Giving Gifts That Make Your Daughter Feel Deeply Seen
Gift-giving is not a straightforward affair. I remember one childhood December at my aunt’s farm. It was a holiday gathering of adults upholding a variety of religious and non-religious beliefs and a clutch of over-excited children who knew that December holidays, for whatever reason, meant presents. My parents, exhausted from a long year with two …
Nine Ways to Help Girls Overcome Disappointment
From earning a low test score to losing a soccer game, it can sometimes be difficult for girls to cope when things go wrong. Parenting expert and best-selling author Dr. Michele Borba, Ed.D., shares insights to help them deal with tough setbacks and build resilience along the way. “We can’t—and shouldn’t—protect our kids from losses …
Part Two of Two Author Jessica Lahey: How Do You Do Music?
As parents, it’s hard not to feel excitement when your child begins to show interest in a creative outlet. And it becomes even harder to mask that enthusiasm when the same child shows they have a talent for the activity. But how do you react when they walk in one day and proclaim it’s been …
Part One of Two Author Jessica Lahey: Music to My Ears
As parents, it’s hard not to feel excitement when your child begins to show interest in a creative outlet. And it becomes even harder to mask that enthusiasm when the same child shows they have a talent for the activity. But how do you react when they walk in one day and proclaim it’s been …