The Wedding - an important start...

Our son just got married this past weekend to a wonderful young lady he met at Valpo. Spent some time with them yesterday at her folks place and her dad shared an article from Christianity Today that has much wisdom in it:

The article is "Lord of the Wedding Dance" and references the YouTube video called "Jill and Kevin's wedding entrance". Almost 32 million hits and counting. Quite the phenomenon.

The article makes the critical point about what - more accurately, who - is the center of the ceremony. It is not the couple. It is Christ. And, by extension, the whole community - Pastor, families, witnesses, and of course the couple. Still lots of room for expressing individuality in the ceremony, but Christ is central.

It was wonderful yesterday to hear all the friends and family express to the newly weds, through their cards and personal notes, that wonderful truth over and over again. A marriage well started! Hooray!

Great Games

Search Institute has a wonderful resource for parents that can also come as a regular email - MVParenting.

Timely topics, age specific help and creative ideas. Current topic is on Great Games. Spend some time with your family playing.

Brain Rules

Check out my blog on the brain for a cool book and web site called Brain Rules.

Two powerful words: YES and NO.

I'm a big fan of Media Wise and Dr David Walsh. I posted on them recently, twice.

They are making a big push for their Say Yes to No book and parenting program. Excellent stuff. Right on the money. "Yes" is a powerful word. Parents need to affirm their kids. God's "Yes" to us in the forgiveness we have through Jesus is a great example for parents affirming their kids. But just as important is the word "NO". And many parents have a very hard time with that one.

From Media Wise - "Research proves it: self-discipline is twice as strong a predictor of school success as intelligence. We need to help parents foster this vital trait."

Self-discipline - translate that: "saying 'no' to yourself". It is learned by experiencing what "no" means. A real "no". Not 'turn up the volume' or 'ask the other parent' or throw a tantrum'... "NO" ... the end.

Interesting connection to another couple links about the Marshmallow Story. First video is David Walsh explaining it. Second video is the actual experiment.

Check out Saying Yes to No.

Digital Natives

I've posted on this before but re-read some of Marc Prensky's work and think it is worth parents and educators checking (or re-checking) out. I'd suggest reading both parts of his Digital Native/Digital Immigrants piece as a good place to start.

Is there really such a big difference in the kids of today? Prensky, Jukes and others say a resounding "YES"! The brain wires itself based on what it experiences. The current generation knows only the digital age. Prensky gives some interesting a persuasive arguments for a fundamental difference in the digital natives brains. And he argues that education has to change to keep up with the differences. I like how he doesn't argue that we give up critical thinking or teaching logic but I think he makes a powerful case for a fundamental change in how we do things - especially for those of us who are digital immigrants and "speak with an accent".

His article about "backup education" is challenging. And Ian Jukes gives some specific, helpful advice on closing the digital divide.

Parents need to be thinking about this and in dialogue with their children and their children's school faculty.

Mirror Neurons

I wasn't sure which of my two blogs to put this on - it has implications for brain and family.

Scientists are in the very early stages of learning about Mirror Neurons. Looks very interesting. Think about how our infants learn things. I remember for our own and for our grand kids, getting them to smile by smiling at them, or later to clap by clapping with them. Scientists connect it to empathy as well. And some early connections to Autism - perhaps the mirror neurons are misfiring.

Seems to reinforce the important role of parent on instructing the young - and on the importance of doing what we say.

Watch for much more to come. Here is a short video from NOVA on Mirror Neurons if you are interested.

An Unfair Advantage...

Parents have an unfair advantage that they may not be aware of or take advantage of when it comes to influencing their children.

I'm preparing some presentations on current brain research as part of our Fitz Family presentation these days and reminded again about the importance of patterns and the importance of repetition, along with the need for the brain to gear down and process. (you can check out more on the brain at my other blog)

What better time to gain influence with your children, to impart important messages, to show your love, to learn about their lives, than in the regular, simple ritual moments of life - like eating meals and going to bed. We eat and go to bed every day - we just may not be taking full advantage of those for building family. Making a simple change to take advantage of more/most of those times gives the parents powerful time with their children. Repeated patterns, connected to the other senses of smell, taste, and touch, and especially when done at the end of the day just before bed/sleep and major brain processing time... can't get much better than that!

Faith Ink and their Faith Five along with Youth and Family Institute know about that and give lots of resources for parents so they can take advantage of their powerful position for positive influence in the lives of their kids through simple, regular actions.