jon

Editor’s Note: Stress chart adapted from Tim J. Myers’s fantastic new book, Glad to be Dad. Pin it and test your friends! Pin it and test your friends! Like the article? We bet you’ll love this book: After staying home with his two sons for a year and his daughter since her infancy, Tim Myers […]

Each week I participate in a parenting podcast where parents submit questions.  There is one topic my co-host and I get week after week: “Help, I’m losing my teen.”  To give you an idea, here is a question I received last week: “Help! I feel like I’m losing my 17 yr old son to rebellion…I’ve

Doctor’s visits can be scary for children. Do we blame them? A lot of us adults avoid the doctor’s office, and we actually understand that medical professionals are trying to help us. Add in children’s fears of new people and places, and you have a very frightening place for a child. Here are some tips

Currier and Ives’s nostalgic landscapes. Firs bedecked with ornaments, lights, and tinsel. Santas of all shapes. Snow. Snow. Snow. Holy scenes with churches and nativities. Greeting cards like these arrived to our homes during the Christmas season, an expected and anticipated tradition of keeping in touch with the special people in our lives at this

Costumes, parties, and sweet treats. Most kids love the excitement of Halloween and its slight thrill of spookiness, but kids who have experienced significant trauma may have mixed feelings about this shivery, scary holiday. For traumatized children, grotesque masks worn by strangers, noisy crowds, and being outside after dark can stir up stressful memories of

Comedy has been the mainstay of my professional life for many years so I am admittedly prejudiced, but it seems that humor often gets a bad rap.  A suggestion that a sense of humor belongs in the boardroom, the executive offices, the various departments, or even on the assembly line, is frequently met with skepticism

Children’s lives these days are often planned down to the minute.   They go from school to after care to sports or dance. They take music lessons or participate in scouting.  They have homework.  Even weekends (especially weekends!) can be jammed with tournaments, practices, and tutoring.  Not surprisingly, free play for school-age kids has all but disappeared. Decades ago, it

Children are born liking sweet foods. And as they grow, toddlers are already testing their decision-making abilities and learning to decipher what is and isn’t food. They’re starting to learn that a lint ball from the corner isn’t tasty. As a result, it’s natural, for many children to become picky eaters. So how can we

Before the title for my book A Land Twice Promised: An Israeli Woman’s Quest for Peace,was ever finalized (indeed before I even finished writing the book), my publisher Familius sent me a draft of the book cover to look at. It came into my inbox in the middle of the National Storytelling Network annual conference

Author Mary Potter Kenyon published her NaNoWriMo project Coupon Crazy with Familius in 2013. Using her success, she’s helping fellow authors learn the next steps after completing NaNoWriMo. 1.  How long did it take you to edit/ revise your manuscript? “Coupon Crazy” was a big project that required a lot of research, and interviewing couponers