Index: Skills

A friend of mine asked me what she could do for her teenage exchange student. This student was in the middle of a multiple, day-long teenage tantrum. The mother had told her exchange student that she couldn’t attend a sleepover because the family doesn’t do sleepovers. The teenage exchange student, in turn, became very emotional and quite upset. There are… Read more »

“If our society is coming apart at the seams, it is because the tailor and the seamstress in the home are not producing the kind of stitching that will hold under stress. In the name of giving advantages, we have too often bartered away the real opportunities of our children.” (1981, Be Thou an Example, Gordon B. Hinckley)In these modern… Read more »

I remember one day talking with a dear friendabout parenting.She told me that for about a monthshe was doing so good with the Teaching Self-Government principles in her home.She said she really saw results whenever she remembered the principles and used them.Then she said that her family went on a trip for a week.On the way home from the trip,… Read more »

Parents and school administrators have requested that I make a short, free curriculum that parents can use to help their children navigate some of the social issues children are often forced to encounter at young ages. This curriculum is basic but deep, and it’s a principle-based lesson plan to help parents prepare their children to be free-thinking, discerning, loving, and… Read more »

“My daughter takes 10 minutes to actually say ‘OK’ to an instruction. How do I speed things up?” If it’s taking 10 minutes for the daughter to say “Okay” to an instruction, then she is having a power struggle and isn’t actually following the instruction. how could you do it better?… Read more »

(Nicholeen will be a featured speaker at this event! This event is not hosted by TSG.) COME AND ENJOY a two-day Expo devoted entirely to the display, sale and discussion of educational materials with entire exhibit hall displays of materials by the best Christian, secular and specialty publishers. At perhaps no other time do homeschooling families feel a need to… Read more »

Several years ago, my family had a tradition of occasionally deciding we were on vacation for a week. That meant we took a break from our regular routine. We did it a few times a year to focus on getting all of the yard and garden work done. One day that we spent doing lots of yard work is particularly… Read more »

The other day I was attending a very heated legislative committee meeting in Utah where changes to the way state school teachers teach about sexual health were proposed. I recognized someof the legislators were not acknowledging the real solution to the problems facing teenagers. Debate and public comments on the proposed changes went on for hours. Lawmakers didn’t like the… Read more »

FAMILY I ran into a stranger as he passed by, ‘Oh excuse me please’ was my reply. He said, ‘Please excuse me too; I wasn’t watching for you.’ We were very polite, this stranger and I. We went on our way and we said goodbye. But at home a different story !… Read more »

A mother recently asked me how to help her daughter feel motivated to do anything besides sit around the house. She isn’t alone. With the new quarantine lifestyle, many families are thriving with the increase of family time, personal time, and relationship-building. But, even the most involved parents can still find that their child might not be looking joyful or… Read more »

Two sisters, Becky and Sara, didn’t always get along.On the day Sara got baptized, Becky approached her older sister and said, “I think it’s stupid you got baptized.”… Read more »

There are sometimes when an argument is a natural consequence of a bad behavior. Do I stand back and let them or continue to be a referee between them?… Read more »