Ten Engaging Questions to Ask Your Child

mother with daughter hugging and talking

Asking Questions that Make Kids Think As a school counselor, I often talked with parents who were concerned about their inability to engage their children in meaningful conversations. They’d ask, “What did you do at school today?” and get the standard response:  “Nothing.”  They’d learn from other parents or the teacher about significant events or…

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Personality Styles and Successful Relationships

Understanding Personality Can Be Key Sometimes soft skills are hard and understanding personality style can make the difference between success and failure in relationships. Here are some examples: You are a supervisor of a small department and one person in particular… drives you insane.  You just cannot understand how to communicate with her. Her attention…

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Got a question?

Here’s how to ask it to maximize your results In a previous post, I revealed the secret to getting what you want in life… Spoiler alert: simply ask for it. If asking for what you want is so easy, why don’t more people do it? How hard can it be to ask a question? Turns…

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Handle parent-teacher crucial conversations effectively

crucial conversation

Four tips for crucial conversations with parents In my years as a school counselor, I coordinated and lead a lot of parent-teacher conferences.  Lucky for me, I worked in a school with an amazing, dedicated team of teachers who came to those conferences prepared and eager to serve. It’s an important mindset to cultivate. However,…

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4 Steps to Better Communication

father and son

Using Communication to Change Misbehavior In my last post, I wrote about connection, the first of the three steps taught in the Parent Encouragement Program by author, Kathryn Reynolds Lewis. The second step outlined in her  book, The Good News about Bad Behavior is communication. It is important to note that communication follows connection. How often…

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