Precious Gifts

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Your family is a precious gift.  Think about your life without family.  Your husband or your wife.  Your children.  Your parents.  Your siblings.  Your cousins, aunts and uncles.  Your grandparents.  How empty would your world be without these precious gifts in your life?  Do you tell your family that you love and appreciate them?  If so, how often?  If not, why not?

One of the primary components required for developing healthy family relationships, is thechristmas-present-83119_960_720 expression of admiration towards one another.  Not just when a special occasion arrives, like a birthday or a holiday, but every day.  Every day is a new day and a chance to speak loving thoughts to those that you care about the most.  Can anyone tire from hearing ‘I love you’ or ‘You are beautiful’?  No.  I don’t believe so.  Understand that your expressions of admiration build a fortress that helps guard relationships against difficult times.  Every family faces difficult moments.  Protect your family with a fortress of love.

Your family needs to regularly hear your compliments.  Stay focused on their individual strengths.  Tell each of them what makes you proud of them … today.  Tell each of them what makes you grateful that you have them in your life – today.  Keep speaking your praise towards them and watch what happens.  THEY will achieve greater goals in their lives.  THEY will begin speaking praise over others, including praise over you.

If you cannot find anything complimentary to say, don’t say anything at all.  Smile upon your loved one. Wait until the storm passes within you.  When it does, proceed with expressing your love and your appreciation for them.

Set the example.  Treat your family with respect.  Watch over your children by giving them your undivided attention.  You will unwrap many gifts this holiday season.  Unwrap your most precious gifts, your family, with love and care.

Do you have some thoughts of your own on this topic?  Please leave your comments below.

By, Joanne Henig, President / Co-Founder / Author / #evolution

 

Teaching Your Child to be Generous

The jury is still out on whether or not children need to be taught to give. A study by Notre Dame University showed that children as young as two years old start to show spontaneous helping behavior. Another study by the International Journal of Cognitive Science – Cognition – showed that helping proactively comes naturally to young children. On the other hand, another Notre Dame-funded study revealed a correlation between a particular gene variation and less generous behavior in preschoolers. Whatever the outcome, if you feel your child needs lessons in compassion and generosity, here are some things to remember. You can also catch the Joy Kids Express which offers suggestions on how to share the joy with all the wonderful children of the universe.

  • Start at home – Like other types of behavior and attitudes, a child will tend to do what it sees the parents doing. If your child sees you sharing, volunteering, and helping others, chances are the child will try to emulate your behavior.
  • Talk the walk – Even if you show a good example by being generous, talking to your children about generosity helps a lot. Research by Indiana University – Purdue University showed that, even with good role modeling, talking to children about generosity increased the probability of giving by 18.5% compared with not talking.
  • Use what’s around you – Take advantage of situations in your community to teach community workgenerosity to your child. Volunteer work, donating used clothing and toys, contributing to charitable organizations, spending time to help younger kids in school – these are just some of the ways to instill a spirit of giving in your children.
  • Put them in other people’s shoes – Broaden our child’s horizon by discussing other people’s needs with him or her. This will help create the ability to empathize with others, and empathy is a prerequisite to learning how to give and share. Joy Kids Universe believes this will also establish a long-term foundation for generosity in your child that will last all his life.

 

The Benefits of Building Friendships

We normally think about our children’s friends as other children whom they play and have fun with, like Casey Rose and the Joybug. But, friends play a more important role in your child’s emotional, social and academic development. They can promote positive and happy emotions.

Friends help your child do better in school. Research conducted through UNC-Chapel Hill showed that, even for students in the first grade, interactions with peers and academic achievement are linked to each other. Further research revealed that, as early as 3 – 5 years of age, peers have an influence on the literacy and language skills of children, and helps them learn freely and joyfully each day.

Friends help your child become a better person. Self-confidence, generosity, and social competence are among the traits that are positively related to having friends. On the flip side, research has shown that children with psychiatric problems have a limited circle of friends, and do not participate often in activities with friends.

The type of friendship changes as a child grows up. Pre-school, children become friends by spending a lot of play time together, sharing toys, and enjoying the same activities. Research shows that when the child enters school, the time spent with peers triples. Children at this age tend to make friends with others of similar gender, age, race, beliefs and attitudes.Joy Kids Making Friends

A “best friend” is somewhat different for a child as time passes. Ask a pre-schooler who his best friends are and the list gets longer until he reaches 11 years old. Then he becomes more choosey. In one oft-cited study, children in the first grade mentioned having common activities as their reason for considering someone a best friend. By the time they reach the eighth grade, the most important criteria for a best friend became the person’s character. Other criteria were: common activities, loyalty, commitment and acceptance. Interestingly enough, none of the children in the study mentioned physical attractiveness as a reason for choosing a best friend. Casey Rose is outgoing and curious, she’s eager to explore the unique universe around her with her best friend, the Joybug.