Girls That Create is excited to share a guest excerpt from Dr. Vanessa Lapointe’s book Parenting Right From the Start: Laying a Healthy Foundation in the Baby and Toddler Years. Dr. Lapointe is a mom, registered psychologist, parenting educator, best-selling author, international speaker, and a regularly invited media guest. Founder and director of The Wishing Star Lapointe Developmental Clinic, she has been supporting families and children for almost 20 years, and has previous experience in community mental health and the school system. The Importance of Development Awareness in a Fast-Paced World How many times have you sat in a restaurant and watched a child under the age of six receive a scolding for not sitting still during a meal? Or heard a three- or four-year-old admonished for not sharing? Or observed an eight-year-old punished for having a meltdown when asked to take out the garbage? Or witnessed a fourteen-year-old get grounded for freaking out when told they couldn’t hang with friends on a Friday evening? The parental response of punishment and consequence for such actions is not an uncommon occurrence in our world. Yet each one of those examples represents a child with an underdeveloped brain responding exactly as they should according to their stage of development. Many of us fall into the trap of expecting a child to absorb and adopt adult behaviour even though the human brain doesn’t fully mature until sometime in the mid to late twenties. That six-year-old fidgeting at the dinner table is incapable of sustained focus and attention; the three-year-old simply …

Nothing shuts down creativity faster than hunger. It’s easy to forget about eating when one is lost in a meaningful project. This also applies to kids, so it’s important to stave off “hangry” episodes by being prepared. Here are 10 easy snacks to help your child’s imagination. 10 Easy Snacks to Help Your Child’s Imagination Popcorn: We’ve come a long way from when popcorn was only available in the movie theatre or with a microwave. There are lots of single-serve bag options. Just make sure you’re paying attention to what’s been added. Simple ingredients and flavors made from real food are what you’re looking for (it is recommended children younger than four not be given popcorn). Dark Chocolate: The magic word is flavanol. A plant nutrient found in many foods and drinks (including dark chocolate), flavanols have been shown to improve blood flow to the brain and heart. Dark chocolate has more flavanols than milk chocolate. Frozen Grapes: A staple in our freezer during the hot Texas summers, but also great year-round. Put grapes in a ziplock bag and then toss them in the freezer. Your kiddo will love the sweet, cool taste while snacking on these. If your child is younger than four, cut the grapes in half. Granola Bars: So convenient, but you have to carefully scan all the ingredients in store-bought bars. Pay attention to how much saturated fat and sugar are in each bar (I try to never go over six grams of sugar, aka 1.5 teaspoons in a bar). This past summer I received …

It’s back-to-school shopping time, which means things could be said in the dressing room that will make your blood run cold. No, not expletive language, but your daughter harshly criticizing her body. Witnessing a child unleash physical self-deprecation will break any parent’s heart. How can you help your girl have a healthy body image?  It’s no secret consistently putting down one’s appearance harms social, physical, and emotional growth. What’s a caregiver to do in a world filled to the brim with doctored “perfect” images? For starters, understand that self-esteem and body image are two separate things. Self-esteem is how we think and feel about ourselves as a total package. Body image is how we think and feel about our body; it’s just one piece of self-esteem. Five Steps: How to Help Your Girl Have a Healthy Body Image 1. Know that how you personally view your body plays a role in how children see theirs Do you stand in front of the mirror and nitpick everything you don’t like about your body? Your child will think she should do the same…that this behavior is part of growing up. Do not body bash yourself or make negative statements about the weight and body size of others (including celebrities). In addition, tell your daughter what you love most about your body. Express gratitude for the things it makes possible. 2. Have a blunt talk about media’s depiction of girls and women, how advertising works, and the truth about altered images A “perfect” body does not exist. Neither do magical products …

Sometimes we love the Internet…sometimes we hate it. Regardless of our feelings, all of us need to be having multiple talks with our girls about Internet safety. Luckily many resources exist, including Google’s “Be Internet Awesome” curriculum. Its purpose is to help families develop online healthy habits through five key areas: Smart: Share With Care Alert: Don’t Fall for Fake Strong: Secure Your Secrets Kind: It’s Cool to Be Kind Brave: When in Doubt, Talk it Out Below are several pieces of “Be Internet Awesome” and other resources to aid you with raising well-informed and empowered Internet users. Google’s Family Guide and Tips  Packed with valuable stuff, the Family Guide and Tips (using the five areas mentioned above) encourages family discussion, learning, and thinking about maneuvering the online world together. Download the Family Guide Download Tips Google’s Wellbeing Family Guide Maintaining a balanced screen life can be hard. Past generations simply switched off their televisions. Today, disconnecting means parents and children are prioritizing the quality of time they spend together. The Digital Wellbeing Family Guide sparks dialogue about screens and what it means to balance online time with the physical world. Download the Digital Wellbeing Family Guide LifeKit Podcasts Internet and Screens Recently NPR produced a series of LifeKit podcasts about kids and screen time. Doctors and experts share science-backed advice with host Anya Kamenetz in these three excellent episodes: Can Screens Help Your Child’s Brain? 4 Tips To Get The Most From Kids’ Media 5 Strategies For Coping With Screen-Obsessed Kids Parents, Check Your Own …

Books based on real people pack an emotional punch. Not only do nonfiction stories help girls by teaching history and allowing them to see the world from different viewpoints, they provide role models and inspiration. My oldest recently came across the story of Virginia Hall in the book series Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls. She’s quite taken with the decorated American spy who thwarted the Nazis during World War II (I’m confident there’s a Virginia costume in our future). Girls need to have exposure to diverse people who have pursued dreams and overcome adversity. Through nonfiction stories they learn they’re not alone in their feelings and that others who came before them discovered ways to cope and respond to hardships. Luckily, we live in an age where there are as many tales as there are children’s interests. Is your girl concerned about the earth? Tell her about Rachel Carson, an environmentalist who wrote the book Silent Spring. Does she worry about making her voice heard? Suggest she explore the world of Sojourner Truth. Reading real stories encourages self-reflection, empathy, emotional intelligence, and offers a front seat to observing life lessons. They’re a win-win for anyone wanting to boost a child’s reading list. Activities To Do With Girls Have your child write on a sticky note the names of the people they’re reading about. Arrange the names in chronological order, along with the years the people lived. Take time to sit down with your child; ask her to share the stories she is reading and what she likes …

Maybe you stepped on paint one too many times. Or found countless markers missing their caps. Perhaps you are constantly breaking up sibling ruckuses because the youngest is “borrowing” art supplies from the oldest and not putting things back. Whatever the case, you know it is time to make your girl her own art space at home. Lucky for you, the talented Jany Lee at Savvy For Life has several ideas on setting up a fun and functional art space geared towards young children. Affiliate links used in this post. Art Space Top Needs A durable table that is stable and easy to clean Storage for creative materials such as markers, crayons, chalk, washable paints, glue, tape, stamp pads, stamps, twine, ribbons, scissors Place and materials to display artwork and creations Task lighting, which provides increased lighting for tasks (think lamps) Art Space Color Schemes Red represents courage, strength, and excitement Yellow represents creativity, friendliness, optimism, and confidence Blue calms the mind, helps with concentration, and is great for creative exploration Purple enhances the imagination and inspires creativity Green is associated with balance, creative thinking, inventiveness, and innovation Storing Supplies  IKEA is Lee’s favorite shop for organizing tools and her top choice for bookcases is the IKEA Kallas (the bookcase must be secured to the wall, can be laid horizontally or vertically, and you can customize the cubes with different boxes) Mason jars are very affordable containers for holding materials, as are small tin buckets or flowerpots Woven baskets on the floor or under an easel can provide …

It inevitably comes, the school project where your child must interview someone. Whether for career day, a research paper or family genealogy project, asking questions can make youngsters feel queasy. However, interviewing others is a skill that lasts well beyond the school-age years. Here are five tips to help your girl interview someone for their life story. 1) Emphasize the importance of research  Knowing background information about a person or topic is the best way to create questions. It also shows respect towards the person being interviewed (and their time) and will make the interviewer feel more confident. Talk with your child about how they’re preparing for the conversation. 2) Discuss what it means to listen, to truly listen to someone There are many adults in the world who struggle with this, even though listening comes up again and again as one of the most important skills for leaders. Tell your kiddo body language is important and that they need to both face forward and make eye contact with the person they’re interviewing. Nonverbal feedback, like nodding, also goes a long way. Recommend your girl not interrupt someone who is sharing a story or thought, even if what they’re saying doesn’t seem relevant. It could be a stepping stone to something valuable later in the interview. 3) Suggest open-ended questions and paying attention to details What was that like? How did it make you feel? What did you learn from that? These are open-ended questions, which makes for good dialogue. If your kiddo is going …

Why Girls That Create? Several years ago, I became part of the team behind WONDER WOMEN! THE UNTOLD STORY OF AMERICAN SUPERHEROINES. The documentary film explores the enduring legacy of Wonder Woman and how powerful women are often portrayed in mainstream media. It also encourages girls to be creators of the media they want to see. Fast forward to 2019. The need to nourish and inspire girl creators is just as necessary now as it was then. Although women currently comprise half of the U.S. population, mass media continues to show them in much smaller numbers. This underrepresentation is also true for women who are behind the scenes, creating. That is why I launched Girls That Create in 2019. This online platform exists to support the parents and caregivers of future female creators.  Consider The Numbers • A 2019 report found 69 percent of news wire bylines (AP and Reuters) are snagged by men; 31 percent by women. (Women’s Media Center) • In 2018, women comprised just four percent of directors working on the top 100 films, eight percent on the top 250 films, and 15 percent on the top 500 films. (Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film) • In a recent study of 820,000 exhibitions across the public and commercial sectors, only one third were by women artists. (The Art Newspaper) • Another 2019 study on the music industry revealed female songwriters and producers are vastly outnumbered. Across seven years, 12.3 percent of songwriters of the songs were female. More …