Read This With Your Kids!: Scaredy Squirrel at Night

Scaredy Squirrel at Night is just one of the many books in the Scaredy Squirrel series. While I'd recommend any of the books, this one stands out for it's emphasis on the importance of sleep.

Sleep etiquette is so often overlooked and undervalued in it's importance in mental health and overall wellbeing. Scaredy Squirrel at Night tackles that head on.

Those side effects are so simply, yet beautifully laid out. Plus, those side effects are not restricted to children, they even happen to us parents.

But don't worry (spoiler, sort of), there is a section on the side effects of getting enough sleep.

When you read this book, here are some talking points:

What helps you feel calm and relaxed?
Do you see how Scaredy is trying to stay up, what keeps you up at night?
When you feel tired, where do you feel it in your body?
How can you tell you are tired?
Have you had bad dreams? What made you feel better?

After you have had a conversation about sleep, you and your child can fine tune their bedtime routine to better ensure a good nights rest.

You can most likely pick up a copy of Scaredy Squirrel at Night at your local bookstore, if not, Amazon is always an option.

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Five tips for helping our children and all of us feel better about our bodies

First off- I know I’m a man. I know the way I interact with the world and the experiences I’ve had are unique to having been embodied as a male. I know my brain, chemistry and development is a little different and I in no way presume to be able to fully understand the experience of being a girl or a woman in the world. Further, I think any discussion of bodies can be intimate and vulnerable and as such I’m cautious in even writing something, especially as a man writing about female teenage bodies.

But here’s the thing- I’m not really writing about bodies- I’m writing about brains. There are some small changes that we can all make in our parenting or interactions with young people that can go a long way towards promoting healthy body image. Sadly, concerns about our bodies are common and can dramatically impact how well we do in the world around us.

It turns out we are not great at guessing how we look to others. Authors of a German study a couple of years ago found that about 50% of …

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The Invisible String by Patrice Karst is an important reminder of how we are connected to those we love and care about.

The Invisible String is about two children who get scared from a storm during the night and seek out connection with their mom. Their mom then shares an important lesson she learned as a child about an invisible string that connects us to those that we care about, no matter how far away they are, or if they have passed on. We can feel and send tugs on the invisible string when we need a douse of connection.

While reading a book to our child is awesome as is, stopping to ask some questions can help with comprehension and the ability to personalize the story. So here are some talking points:
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Children and Loss: How to support children when bad things happen

Loss is a painful but inevitable part of life. Children regularly experience small losses like misplacing a favorite toy, changing plans away from something they were looking forward to or not being allowed the candy bar they had their heart set on. Sadly, childhood often also includes more intense loss like a beloved friend moving away, a pet dying, disasters such as flooding or house-fires, the reorganization of a family unit through divorce, or the death of someone close to us.

We can feel a variety of emotions when new lose something we care about. Sadness, or emotional pain, is always at the core of this. Sadness is a powerful and uncomfortable emotion. We love our children and don’t want them to hurt. However, it is important to remember that sadness is a healthy response to loss.

When we lose something rewarding to us we feel sad. We feel sad as a way to promote continued engagement with the things we find rewarding. If we did not feel sad we might be less motivated to search …

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