Janina Illustrates • Attainable Growth

Don't protect yourself from love....

Learn to Trust Don’t protect yourself from love.

Parents need to take care of themselves in order to be ready to tackle the next challenge that comes along - which is constantly. How do we even begin to get a moment to ourselves? Usually it's through stolen moments of screen-scrolling, and that is shown to actually drain our capacities, not refresh them. I read an interesting quote shared by my sister today, it said "Self-care isn't about hot chocolate and bubble baths, it's about having a life you don't feel like you need to escape from"....

Is Your “Self Care” Actually a Form of Avoidance in Disguise? Parents need to take care of themselves in order to be ready to tackle the next challenge that comes along – which is constantly. How do we even begin to get a moment to ourselves? Usually it…

How can you protect your 'Twen from all the things!?

Tech for Tweens So, your child has a device and you’ve heard about the scary things that are out there! Now what? Rule 1 – don’t panic (when you hear some bad thing) Brain’s natural re…

Avoid self-defeating behaviors in order to avoid a nuclear meltdown from your child....

10 Ways to Help Your Child to Behave in Public Avoid self-defeating behaviors in order to avoid a nuclear meltdown from your child.

Traditional marriages often fall deep into traditional roles, but this doesn't need to be the case. Let him hear from you. Married women have just as much right to choice as single women do. Yes, we are committed to the union, however, that does not mean we now give up all semblance of happiness at the altar of marriage. Do you realize what this "giving up" does to your marriage?...

Why Wives Shouldn’t be Passive Traditional marriages often fall deep into traditional roles, but this doesn’t need to be the case. Let him hear from you. Married women have just as much right to choice as single women do. …

I'm creating an online course, who's interested in joining my pilot program? I call it "Productivity for Dreamers".

You had a cute and spooky Halloween, NOW what to do now with all that sugar my kids collected?

It doesn't have to be ALL (let them gorge until they're sick) or NOTHING (confiscate it/throw out the forbidden fruit). I prefer to teach them a little and self-regulation.

TRY THIS INSTEAD:

Ask your child, "How many days would you like these treats to last?"
My six-year-old said, "Twenty-hundred!"
So I told her, "Then let's divide this into twenty-hundred bags!"
It was interesting to see her try to figure this out. She put about 30 pieces in the first bag and we could see that amount wouldn't last very many days! Soon we decided that 4 pieces per bag would be a satisfying amount, and plenty for one day, so she bagged it all up.
When she had finished, she counted up 21 bags of candy, and she jumped for joy! THREE WEEKS of , as long as she can control herself (and her siblings can control themselves) and only one day of sugar rush. We'll put her name on each baggie, and see how she does. There is probably a more eco-friendly way to accomplish this, but this is "budgeting" that she's learning, on a small scale. She's the one calling the shots. No matter what happens next, it's a learning experience, and I call it a win!

Does anyone else feel guilty in the produce aisle? 😂

This is a scheduled post!

This is a picture of what I'm doing today to keep my youngest girls motivated to stay on task with their school work (it matters to me that they're motivated, rather than forced, otherwise it's miserable for all of us!) This has been the best strategy so far.

You don't have to be an artist to create these simple traced-hand charts to help kids track & visualize tasks.

You don't have to have a fancy print-off, just trace their hands and be clear about which actions earn a sticker (or just have them color each finger or fingernail as they earn, if you don't have stickers). You can be super specific or not. Just keep it fun! The girls don't have 10 jobs each, we are just breaking bigger tasks into several smaller tasks here.

I threw in a little bonus for Lydia when she earned 5 stickers for the first hand, and the girls will earn a manicure from Mommy once they've adorned all 10 fingers. This system is better than what we were doing before, because it visually displays how much they're progressing overall, rather than receiving micro-rewards for each step in the right direction (or enduring the push-pull cycle!)

Traditional weekly fill-in-the blank charts were doing nothing for us, because they proved to be too abstract. Of course, a chart will never "do" anything for us. We have to refer back to it frequently, we are the ones to do the "work". Strategies fail quickly when we don't apply any effort. Having a visual strategy can really enhance those efforts, though!

My kids are self-paced, which has its own challenges, but I imagine visualizing a "countdown" could also be useful for those children who seem to have endless Zoom meetings.

I have a bonus tip which I've shared with some of my younger clients: Make tally marks as you listen to online lectures. Use two categories, label them something like, "Stuff I already know" and "Stuff I didn't know before" ~or~ "New" and "Review". This gives your brain something to scan for, and scanning requires a lot less effort (and motivation) than active listening does. Think of it like when you're in an environment with a lot of background noise and you hear your name; suddenly you're at attention! Your name is something your brain is programmed to scan for, without conscious effort.

Depending on the subject, your brain can be somewhat casually scanning for "novel information or application" in order to try to add up tally marks, which may be used to gauge how well you were listening. Extra credit if you actually write down what the new information IS!!

Have a better day!
Love,
Janina

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How I’m Helping My Kids Stay on Track for Homeschool This is what I’m doing today to keep my youngest girls motivated to stay on task with their school work (it matters to me that they’re motivated, rather than forced, otherwise it’…