Jul 28, 2015

The Beauty and Woes of adoption



I want to share this post to shed some personal light on adoption.  I wasn't adopted, but my father was adopted when he was only five or six years of age, I asked him to share his adoption experiences with me so that I can get an understanding of his up bringing.  Let me back up  a little bit.  I wasn't raised by my father but we united when I was around forty-three years old.  After we united, we began talking and sharing our life experiences with each other, and he told me he was adopted, so me being me, I wanted to know the whole story the good and the ugly.  He told me that he was adopted at the age of five or six and he had two other siblings and couldn't remember their names because he was too young to remember. I felt really sad for him.  He told me that they all were adopted by different families and he wanted to try to find them and his mother and father.  He told me about the harrow of being raised by strangers! He even remembered his first day with his adopted family and how they all starred at him when he came inside and how scared he was because he was with people he didn't know. He told me that when he god older, he got spankings every single day because he would break the rules.  Knowing what my father childhood was like naturally brought tears to my eyes, and I felt so bad for him.  Looking back at what he told me four years ago, may not have been as bad as it could have been. Had he stayed with his biological family,  who knows, it's possible that he could have had an even worse experience than what he had.  At least they cared enough to encourage him to finish high school. Adoption can be a beautiful thing for a child or children.  A lot of children have be shuffled around from foster home to foster home, and they just wish that someone would adopt them so that they wont be shifted from place to place like they're less than humans. Do you know someone who was adopted that would like to share their views on this subject? If so, I would love to hear what they have to say.
Minnie

Jul 25, 2015

Here are fifty positive words to use to help children feel loved and valued



Of course every parent wants their children to feel valued, but sometimes we don't know the exact words to say to make them feel valued and loved.  During my training as a preschool teacher, I learned some valuable lessons about helping a child feel valuable, respected, and loved unconditionally. During training, the instructor gave everyone a sheet of paper that names at least  fifty ways to help your child feel good about themselves, but remember, your comment to that child needs to be a  sincere one. I started purposely using some of these words instead of negative ones with my child and grandchildren, boy, I really get better results from them when I do.  I wanted to share them with all of you because one of our roles as parents is to build up our children and their sense of self value and self worth, and these words will be an investment that will be well worth the effort because we want to raise positive children, don't we?   Please feel free to leave comments to let me know of any more words that may help children feel valued and loved.
  1. WOW
  2. WAY TO GO
  3. SUPER
  4. YOU'RE SPECIAL
  5. OUTSTANDING
  6. EXCELLENT
  7. GREAT
  8. GOOD
  9. NEAT
  10. WELL DONE
  11. REMARKABLE
  12. I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT
  13. I'M PROUD OF YOU
  14. FANTASTIC
  15. SUPERSTAR
  16. NICE WORK
  17. LOOKING GOOD
  18. YOU'RE ON TOP OF I
  19. BEAUTIFUL
  20.  NOW YOU'RE FLYING
  21. YOU'RE CATCHING ON
  22. NO YOU'VE GOT IT
  23.  YOU'RE INCREDIBLE
  24. BRAVO
  25. YOU'RE FANTASTIC
  26. HURRAY FOR YOU
  27. YOU'RE ON TARGET
  28. YOU'RE ON YOUR WAY
  29.  NOW NICE
  30. HOW SMART
  31. GOOD JOB
  32. THAT'S INCREDIBLE
  33. HOT DOG
  34.  YOU'RE DYNAMITE
  35. YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL
  36. YOU'RE UNIQUE
  37. NOTHING CAN STOP YOU NOW
  38. GOOD FOR YOU
  39. I LIKE YOU
  40. YOU'RE DARLING
  41. YOU'RE A WINNER
  42. REMARKABLE JOB
  43. BEAUTIFUL WORK
  44. SPECTACULAR
  45. YOU'RE SPECTACULAR
  46. YOU'RE PRECIOUS
  47. GREAT DISCOVERY
  48. YOU'VE DISCOVERED THE SECRET
  49. YOU FIGURED IT OUT
  50. FANTASTIC JOB