They grow up too quickly. One of the rituals I have instituted in my family is to look at pictures together – it is an opportunity to keep the memory of shared quality time fresh. Everyone has figured out how to shoot lots of pictures cheaply with a digital camera, but I have struggled for a while what to do with them. For a long time, they just lived on my computer and it required some effort to actually look at them.
This has changed since I connected my computer with my TV and my stereo to convert it into a media center. Now I can flip through my picture collection on my TV which is much more convenient. I’ve set my screen saver to a slide 
show of random pictures, which automatically initiates picture sessions. I can react to them when the opportunity is right.
With this I had the choice how to manage my media collection. The two contenders for me were Media Center for Windows 7 and Google’s Picasa.
Perception is more than seeing. It is mixing the stimuli with existing concepts to see things that are only partially there. This is what enables you to see the letter “E” to the right, or to understand a conversation over a bad phone connection. Being good at this helps to pick up on subliminal clues that eventually become part of important concepts about motivation, emotions, and actions of others – a skill whose importance can not be overestimated.
How do you train this in the car academy?
What do a galaxy far, far away and your living room have in common?
It turns out, quite a bit. In fact, Star Wars has so many layers that I can only present you with a sampling of ideas for discussion after watching this movie. Pick the ones that will make the most sense to your child.
The Importance of Self-Control
If you always wanted to become a Jedi, you first need to have power over your own emotions. Without impulse control, you will be absorbed by the dark side, and you will be the slave to your skills, not their master.
How do you obtain this level of mastery? It is implicit in the advanced age of Obi-Wan and Yoda that experience and long practice are required, along with long term mentoring by an experienced master. This becomes a bit more explicit when Yoda starts training Luke.
To train your child, I suggest to set up “tasks” to learn self-control, the exact details should be adjusted to your child’s personality. If she is shy, ask her to go and talk to a person of authority. If she is impulsive, ask her to have her favorite candy sitting next to her bed for two weeks, but not touch it. You get the idea.
read more…
Praise is so powerful. It makes us proud. It focuses our attention on the feature that was cause for the praise. It helps define us.
Parents who praise are not stigmatized (unlike parents who punish). No wonder, then, that parents use this powerful tool liberally. But as Po Bronson points out in his recent book, it is important to know how to do it correctly.
The two key questions to ask are when to praise and what to praise.
Let us start with the latter. We are all tempted to praise our children for how beautiful, intelligent, strong they are, and we find all kinds of other laudable qualities in them. We mention it to them to make them feel more confident, to help them survive in today’s competitive environment (and, of course, because we enjoy saying it). What happens in their minds when they hear the praise? read more…
A bag of popcorn, a soda and a nice movie – what better way to spend a rainy Sunday?
If you are watching the movie with your kids, you should take the opportunity to talk with them about it. Surprisingly many movies – even the ones that apparently are mainly entertaining – offer the chance to talk about some fundamental aspects of the human conditions. And the best manage to create an emotionally charged atmosphere that makes the message stick.
To get you started with this, I will post a number of example movie discussions over the next few weeks as part of the “seen together” series. Sit back and enjoy.
Trust is the most important good. Do not break promises, agreements or rules.- All rules and decisions are man-made and up for discussion. If discussion fails to resolve a disagreement, the parents win.
- Create family rituals. Family needs time, memories and cohesion; rituals deliver all three.
- Never go to bed angry. Conflicts are normal, but talk until you understand the other position, even if you do not agree with it. read more…
Matilda told such Dreadful Lies,
It made one Gasp and Stretch one’s Eyes;
Her Aunt, who, from her Earliest Youth,
Had kept a Strict Regard for Truth,
Attempted to Believe Matilda:
The effort very nearly killed her,
And would have done so, had not She
Discovered this Infirmity.
For once, towards the Close of Day,
Matilda, growing tired of play,
And finding she was left alone,
Went tiptoe to the Telephone
And summoned the Immediate Aid
Of London’s Noble Fire-Brigade.
read more…
Outliers is a book about people who are off the charts successful – what is the root cause for their success?
Frequently, it is attributed to talent, genius, or other inherent traits. There is evidence that the attribution of success to intrinsics is harmful. Gladwell goes one step further and makes the point that it is really not primarily the intellect that makes a genius successful, but the circumstances.
An example: most professional hockey players are born in January, February, or March. That’s odd, because there are not actually more births during that period. So what is causing this?
Here is something interesting I would like to share with you. The image to the right holds an entire baby naming theory.
According to this theory, there are 3 major factors to think about when naming a baby: uniqueness, fit, and goodwill.
Uniqueness is fairly self-explanatory, according to this graphic it depends on the name’s frequency (how often the name is used) and its cyclicality (is the name becoming more frequent right now – is a fad developing?).
Today, children get on average 1 hour of sleep less each night than they did 30 years ago. Kindergartners get 30 minutes less.
What are the consequences?
