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Fairness: Listening to the whole story

Teaching children about listening is more than just getting them to listen to us as their parent or teacher.  If we would like to help them to develop good leadership skills, then we must also teach them to listen to the whole story.  Listening to the whole story prior to coming to a conclusion will save ourselves from embarrassment and our relationships with others.  Here is one way we may be able to do that.

To start conversations with a child you may want to use what I call, “What if”  questions.  “What if I walked into the room and I saw _______standing in the middle of a big mess?”  Who would I might think made the mess?  If I saw that I might want to say to ________ “clean up!”  Is that fair?  Would it not be a better question to ask, “what happened?”  and hear the whole story?  We may find out that someone else made the mess, or that the person was in the middle of cleaning up the mess.  Listening makes things fair.

Practicing this ourselves and taking the time to help our children see how and why we ask such questions will help them to do the same as they come into situations with their friends.

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Helping Kids with Cancer, James K.

Dear Mr. Joe,
My name is James K. and I’m in the 9-12 year old class on Mondays and Wednesdays at Balanced Life Skills. One of my friends in school told me about his cousin who has suffered with cancer for three years. Each year he participates in the St. Baldrick’s Foundation fundraiser. St. Baldrick’s helps children with cancer. I decided to help too, and I found out that one in five children diagnosed with cancer will not survive.
I’m trying to raise money to help stop children’s cancer, and I was wondering if anyone at Balanced Life Skills wanted to make a tax-deductible contribution of any amount. On March 12th at Fado’s Irish Pub in Annapolis, I will deliver all the money I raise and that’s when they are going to shave my head! In a show of support for children with cancer who lose their hair during treatment, fundraisers go bald. I can’t believe Mom and Dad are letting me. They said it’s for a good cause, and that my hair will, eventually, grow back.
You may also access my event webpage if you wish to make an online donation.

http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/mypage/participantid/424611

For more information here is a St. Baldrick Fact Sheet describing the Conquer Kids’ Cancer Project and The St. Baldrick’s Foundation.

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Clean up project by Cameron W.

completed job!

I picked up trash at the beach with two trash bags.  I started at the entrance in the woods, then I went to the playground, then to the rocks and thats when I found a pile that someone must have left there when they were heading to the beach.  Then I went to the beach and I found sytrafoam, milk bottles tops, plastic bottles, beer bottles, and all sorts of stuff.  I ended up with two bags full.

cleaning up
cleaning up!
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Safety Tips for Kids: Broken Glass

If we make a mistake and drop a plate or glass and there is broken glass on the floor our children need to KNOW that walking on or touching broken glass is not safe and will cause serious injury.  Even the sound of broken glass, children should be taught the following.

TEACH:  Stop, Freeze, Look to see where the broken glass is and call for help.  Do not move until help arrives!

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Using Failure as a Growing Tool

A series of post's on leadership in the familyWatching your son or daughter trying to accomplish a task that brings with it a reward that they want very badly is very hard for a parent.  In our school as a child is demonstrating their jumping rope, performing a form or some other skill, many parents have told me they have sat on the side holding their breath, hoping for success.  For all parents though just this one thought:

Success does not mean avoiding failure.

In fact, with the right attitude, failure is neither fatal or final.  It can be the springboard to success.

All of us fail.  The only way we will not fail is if we do not try anything.  The question is how will we fail?  How will we view mistakes?  If we are to be a success we must learn to fail in the forward direction.  In other words our mistakes must not get inside our head and stop us from giving it another try.

When we are teaching our children about success –  we can also teach them about the power of failure.  Learning from their mistakes, thinking about how to improve ourselves and the situation, focusing on the rewards of success will keep our children and ourselves from becoming negative in our attitude and mind.  Failure can be a great learning experience, an opportunity for growth and character building experience.