Even with all of its rewards and joys, parenting can also be incredibly draining – especially for those parents who tend toward introversion with a child whose interaction needs far exceed your own.  So how do you best parent when your child craves and recharges from interaction as much as you crave and recharge from solitude?  R.L. LaFever’s post “Tips for Introverted Parents Raising Extroverted Kids” is an article I’ve re-read and referred to several since I am the mother of at least one extroverted son and the wife to a very extroverted husband.

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Rule #1 for parents in math: NEVER again say, “I was never very good in math.” Especially never say in front of your child, “I was never very good in math, so I guess it’s no surprise that my child struggles, too.”

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My sister is 15 months younger than I am, and although we had our moments of getting along like the young girls you often saw sweetly passing the syrup to one another in pancake commercials, our more typical interactions involved some sort of screaming, hairbrush throwing, name calling, or all of the above.  Our weary mother was consistent in trying to make sure we treated each other with respect, and insisted that someday we would be the best of friends, but I could tell that we really wore her down.  When I became a mother of two, I prided myself that my boys seemed to generally respect each other and get along flawlessly – oh, what a parenting professional I thought I was – at least until my youngest realized he could take toys from my oldest, and my oldest thought it was a fun game to try to convince my youngest to give up the toys with which he was playing.  I conceded that I was not the parenting pro that I thought I was, but I was also relieved to know that sibling conflicts were quite normal, and could be managed in such a way that it would not have to drain every ounce of energy I had.

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Here’s the biggest non-secret in helping your toddler become a mathematician:

PLAY

That’s right, just play with your child. The second big non-secret:

MODEL

That’s it. No expensive electronics, no workbooks. Just the kinds of things moms and dads have been doing for centuries. If there’s any secret, it’s being a little big conscious of the three big building blocks to math knowledge that toddlers can begin to absorb.

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Energy: Parenting requires tons of it. Sometimes, our children seem to have more than we do. Being out of energy means being out of patience, whether we are 4 or 40 years old.

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Yesterday my older son gave me a drawing he lovingly created just for me.  Unfortunately, since the moment he chose to hand it to me was when I had just noticed my youngest son’s determination to lick his fingers that he had just stuck in the un-flushed toilet, I set down the drawing and darted to my younger son.  Moments later I had saved my youngest from E. coli (for now), but found my oldest in his room crying.  He told me that he felt like I didn’t love him because I just set his picture down without looking at it.  As a mother, this just crushes your heart, but I admit that I was a little taken aback as well.  I am not one who associates gifts with “love,” so I didn’t immediately understand the amount of emphasis he had put on his gift to me, or, in the words of Joline in an article about love languages on the blog Blissfully Domestic,, I was not being very “love-lingual” with my oldest son.

Read more on Filling Your Child’s “Love Tank” Much Cheaper and More Rewarding Than the Gas Station…

With the Thanksgiving behind us, our minds are now moving on to the flurry of winter holidays that invariably revolve around gift giving and receiving.  In an interview by Connie Colla with Dr. Mary Ann LoFrumento, author of the “Simply Parenting” series, Dr. LoFrumento gives tips on how to instill in our children a sense of philanthropy and how to teach them not to take what they have for granted.  Dr. LoFrumento suggests doing things like including all of your family members in the meal planning and preparation, talking about the meaning of the harvest and the importance of healthy food, and discussing how other children, even in our own communities, may have much less than they do.

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As a mother of three young children, I have often wondered what my husband and I need to do to ensure our children are raised with good morals, values, don’t do drugs, etc.  Aside from having their police officer father threaten to arrest them, it haunts me often as I see so many children and families struggling.  Where did they go wrong, and how can I steer my children in the right direction?  I’d like to keep them sheltered, living in a bubble, monitoring all of their conversations, and chaperoning every event I possibly can.  I know I can’t do that.  My parents didn’t do that to me and I turned out just fine.  So what’s the secret?  How do we, as parents, raise the best and brightest kids in today’s tough world?

Read more on How your emotions impact your child, from a mothers perspective…

The topic of this weekʼs Web Connections post is cliques. Within the Kidtelligent program , under the category “Tips for Being Best”, we discuss cliques in more detail. Now that the new school year is under way, we felt this information is timely and important for parents to discuss with their children. Please comment below on your experience with cliques. If after reading this post you found value in it, please share on your social networks.

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According to the American Psychology Association’s 2010 Stress in America Report …47% of tweens say they are sad when their parents are stressed.” (1) Stress is having a huge impact on American families, to the level that, “Psychologists caution that stress may become a public health crisis.” (1)

Read more on Web Connections: Kids and Stress, They Need Our Help Now More Than Ever…