Tip #149 from 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents (McKinley, Trombly) - Dear Abby

 


Today's tip for parents from two talented teachers comes from 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents by Cindy McKinley Alder and Patti Trombly.

                                          

 

#149

Move Over, Dear Abby

 

He that never changes his opinions, never corrects his mistakes,
will never be wiser on the morrow than he is today.
~Tyron Edwards

 

Many times your child has probably come to you with a problem or question in which he needs your opinion or advice. Today, try asking your child for his opinion on something. Depending on his age, choose a real situation in your life that you could ask his opinion about. It could be very simple or more complex such as, “I was really bothered by the way the repair man talked to me today in the shop. I’m thinking of calling his superior. What do you think?” Giving advice and having adults and peers listen to them seriously increases children’s self-esteem and confidence level.

Give your child an opportunity to practice giving advice by creating and writing his own advice column. It does not have to be a real column for the school newspaper (although that would be great!) but one that he can write in his own journal. He can consider a problem a character has in a book he’s reading and write a column suggesting an action to take to help solve the character’s problem. If he enjoys giving advice, he can also attempt to solve the problems of characters from movies or television shows that you deem appropriate. You could participate with him and begin by writing to him as the character. Here is an example:

“Dear Mr. Advice,

My name is Momma Bear. Lately, I think someone has been breaking into our house. The person is not causing any big trouble but is doing little things like eating our porridge. Once, the person broke my son’s chair. I think the intruder might be a little girl. Once, I caught a glimpse of her long, golden hair. What should I do? I would appreciate your advice.”

Have him look over the advice columns in newspapers or magazines (You may want to preview the selection first!) Suggest that he pay particular attention to the way the person giving advice “speaks” to the person asking for advice. Encourage him to treat the character from the book or movie with respect and take the problem seriously, just as he would want someone to listen to him and take his problems seriously. You and your child (or whole family) could even take turns writing problems and advice back and forth to each other. (Have a drop-off spot at your message center.)

Being aware of other people’s problems and assisting them in solving them can help your child understand and use empathy with his family and friends, thus making him a more compassionate, caring human being—of which the world can never have too much!

 

 


     Cindy McKinley Alder                                            Patti Trombly

 

For more posts about the authors and their books (this is not the only one), click HERE.

For excerpts from more books, click HERE. 

For more excerpts from 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents, click HERE.

          For more posts about books about parenting, click HERE



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