For Single Parent Families - Three Steps for Dealing With the Holiday Blues

Holiday blues can easily become a factor in bad economic times for single parent families and for single parents specifically with no spouse to talk to and no one with whom to share enjoyable activities.

Guilt feelings can also arise if you see others buying gifts for their children and you are unable to do so.

Or maybe you're just not be able to buy what you would like your children to have. However, these feelings, especially the blues, need to be identified for what they are - a negative way of thinking about your current situation instead of reframing the situation to your and your children's advantage.

Instead of allowing your children to complain about what other parents are buying their children, as a single parent, take the children aside and make sure they understand the true values of the Holiday Season which includes Christmas and the embarking on a New Year.

1. A first step is to help the children understand that the Christmas Season is not just for giving, but also for receiving. Giving can be demonstrated by getting in contact with elderly family members and neighbors and making their holidays pleasurable by creating simple Christmas cards and sending it to them, offering to go to the store for them or with them, or asking them if they need help in setting up their Christmas tree or decorating their home.
2. A second step is to activate your social support network. If you haven't talked with your friends, relatives, or neighbors in the last two weeks, do so now. Find out what they are doing for the Holidays. Maybe they're going to some parties that you can get invited to.
3. And, the third step is to take some time and identify several low-cost or no-cost fun activities that both you and your children can engage in. In every major city there are several museums and almost every one of them have several free days during the year. Chances are there will be some free days during the Christmas Season. Also consider the local park districts. They are already supported by your taxes and many have activities for both adults and children such as volleyball, basketball, roller skating, and ice skating.

In summary, reframe your thinking about the Holiday Season. View it as a time for both giving and receiving.

Give the little things, a card, a helping hand, a phone call, and receive the thanks and appreciation from those you have given to.

Look for the simple activities that you can enjoy both at home and away with your children. And plan for the coming year. Decide how different you want it to be and begin to make it so.



Share your simple activities that you enjoy at home with your children during the Holidays,
Leave your comments below.

10 Ways to Read for Personal Growth

If you are like most people you have to read a lot of material, at home or at work, just to keep from getting buried in paper. 

Considering all the reading materials you get and the demands on your time during the  course of a day, if you read all this information word for word, you'll wind up spending all your time reading and not have time for anything else.

These 10 Ways to Read for Personal Growth will help you to experience reading, not as a chore to be put off as long as you can, but as an enjoyable and satisfying skill.

1. Take at least one minute to review the material before reading it. First, skim to get a feel of what the piece contains, then the introductory material, section and chapter titles, index, and any other signposts. Next, treat the body of the text as a series of paragraphs, each paragraph being a self-contained unit with his own message to convey.

2. Read by paragraph. As soon as you have grasped the message, move immediately onto the next paragraph and repeat the process.

3. Become an active, rather than a passive reader. Instead of reading individual words, actively search out the important, descriptive, and meaningful ideas. Don't get bogged down in details. Move rapidly over the material.

4. Develop the knack of concatenation (linking two things together). Stop reading one word at a time and develop the habit of joining several words and repeating them as one unit. Learn to read by thought units rather than by individual words. You should take in between four and six words in a single glance.

5. Don't linger or reread words, phrases, or sentences. As difficult as it may be to break this non-productive habit, doing so will pay tremendous dividends. One way you can do this is to place a small slip of paper over the lines you have just read.

6. If your time permits, read at least one hour every day. Break it up into 20 minute segments, if necessary, and both select your reading materials carefully and read at optimum speed. Get rid of distractions and concentrate on what you are reading.

7. Eliminate poor physical habits such as sounding out the words in silent reading.

8. Watch for the signpost in reading. Signposts are words or phrases which tell you in a split second whether there's going to be an abrupt change in the author's trend of thought or whether, on the contrary, the writer is really going to add more details to what is already been said. 

Some of the common turn about signals are: but, despite, on the contrary, however, nonetheless, yet, and rather. When you see these words you know instantaneously that the author is about to introduce a thought that is in opposition to the one he has just stated.

9. While you shouldn't sacrifice comprehension for speed, make a conscious effort to increase your reading speed. Still, make sure you understand what you are reading.

10.Reinforce what you read. At the earliest opportunity, think back on what you learned in your last reading session. Review the important points and any related information relayed by the author.

To make it easy, here are five questions you can ask yourself about what you read, 
What was the piece about? 
What important information was presented? 
What, if any, opinions did the writer present? 
What is your opinion of the piece? 
Name one element of the piece that makes it stand apart. 

This procedure helps to firmly implant the information in your memory.


Did you find this article to be helpful? Leave your comments below.

Bad Teaching – Six More Signs and What to do About It - Part 2

As a parent, it is your duty to save your child from bad teaching and bad teachers.

If you live in a large city, teachers are invariably protected by both unions and a dysfunctional and lumbering bureaucracy.

Always keep in mind that the unions are there to protect the interest of the teachers – not your child. The unions are interested in salary increases and retirement benefits for the teachers and protecting them from getting fired. They are not interested in assuring a quality education for your child. You, and you only, as the parent must make sure that your child gets a quality education.

If by examining these next six signs of bad teaching, you determine that your child is being shortchanged and having his or her achievement dampened, you need to take action, perhaps even to the point of getting your child out of that particular school. In a future post, I would tell you what to do get your child out of a bad teacher’s classroom if your child is remaining in the school.

Now, here are the six more signs of bad teaching that I referred to in my previous post:
1. The teacher shows little knowledge of the subject matter that she is supposed to be teaching.
2. The teacher lacks basic academic skills – – that is, she sends home notes with spelling and grammatical errors.
3. The teacher makes little effort to maintain discipline.
4. The teacher doesn't focus on academic goals.
5. The teacher shows no interest in communicating with parents.
6. And, the teacher exhibits unsound character or unprofessional behavior.

Refer to these six signs of bad teaching as well as the seven previous bad teaching signs if you if you intuitively believe that your child is a victim of bad teaching. Keep in mind that both the union and the bureaucracy defends bad teachers and only you as the parent must make sure that your child gets a quality education.


Share your experience with bad teaching.

Leave your comments below.