According to Starch Research Professor of Psychology, Jerome Kagan, shyness has been found to be an inherited biological trait that can be detected in infants as early as four months. There are a number of factors that can help individuals overcome their shyness, so it isn’t necessarily a life sentence. Kagan’s research found that only […]
Category: kids
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Focus
I still marvel at how consumed we are with the cell phone. How did we ever live without it? More amazing is how tuned in some teens tend to be. I wonder if their heads and necks will evolve in order to improve image reception.
Last night, my youngest son, Chase, had an unusual request. While reading one of his ‘Big Nate’ books, he commented on how time-consuming and difficult it was to make a comic because of all the illustration but especially – the hand lettering (he had worked on his own comic page earlier in the day, so he was talking from […]
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Homework
It could be a bit of an exaggeration, but lifting my eldest’s backpack could be considered a rep in cross-training. Since the new high school policy — if you’re not a freshman — is ‘you don’t get a locker unless you request one’ he’s essentially lugging his locker on his back to every class.
I probably sound like Ward Cleaver when I remind my children how rough our lives were compared to theirs. It’s apparent that every generation has a horror story to tell their children to make them appreciate how good they have it. Ironically, we still make it a goal to want better for our kids than […]
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Holy Moses
I had the opportunity this evening to spend some time with the kids at Legacy United Methodist. This month the kids have been talking all about ‘Creativity’ so my wife, Suzanne, (Kid’s Ministry Director and frequent favor asker) asked me to come and demonstrate how to make a ‘flip book’ animation for the kids using […]
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Drawing on Reading
Author Jim Karn and I visited with Northridge Elementary fourth graders today about the process of writing and illustrating books. I had the opportunity to illustrate Karn’s book, Little Jimmy’s Life on the Farm Stories, and lately he’s been very active about sharing and promoting it. I’ve been fortunate to attend a few readings with […]
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Gen X-Box
If the repeated complaints of my boys were to be believed — that they were the only kids in the world who didn’t own a game system — then it would be reasonable to assume that I was the only dad in the world who didn’t. Well, no more. With my excuses waning and their […]
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Tee Ball
I always thought the game of baseball was exciting. Why does this not seem to be the case with six and seven-year old tee ball? Most of the poor kids, if not completely oblivious to what’s going on around them, seem genuinely bored with the game. Granted the hitting and fielding are certainly on the […]
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Fun Diversion
Our little beavers love the sight of water running in the gutters. Who can blame them? If they’re not recreating in the curb-side river with their leaf boats then they’re diverting it with little twig dams. It’s one of the first times a child realizes he can enjoy as well as influence the effects of […]