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A feelings chart is really any tool that helps a child expand their emotional vocabulary. It helps kids reflect on their feelings and describe them with more precision. “It can be a list of feeling words or a picture chart of words and expressions – whatever the child finds easier to use,” says Ellen O’Donnell, Ph.D, pediatric psychologist at MassGeneral for Children in Boston, instructor at Harvard Medical School, and co-author of the book Bless This Mess: A Modern Guide to Faith and Parenting in a Chaotic World....

She spun herself in circles, her dress blossoming into the shape of a flat circle. We were just about to head to our first daddy-daughter dance. The standard pre-festivity processes were commencing. “You’re my beautiful baby doll,” I fumbled out. “Yes,” she agreed. The night hit the notes of my Senior prom. We — the parents — were crying, while our kid oozed excitement. I figured, this go-around had to be a much smoother affair than the drama-filled event of my teens....

Despite the challenge, such discussions are often necessary to have. So what, exactly, is the best way to do it? How do you ask someone to change? What do you say? How much time do you need to give them to make said change? What goal markers should be placed along the way? Is it actually possible to ask someone to change or is this just a pipe dream that postpones the inevitable?...

“The trap with pride is the egotistical stuff,” notes Michael F. Steger, professor of psychology and director of the Center for Meaning and Purpose at Colorado State University. This makes for confusion. You’re left wondering what you can feel good about, what you should share with others, and whether it’s even okay to celebrate the little victories that you find as a spouse, father, friend, and colleague. The short answer is yes, you can revel....

“There is no reason for kids to drink juices,” explains Dr. Pauline Jose a family physician with California’s Proactive Health Labs. “Fruit juices really don’t have any advantages to them. If you want kids to get nutrients from fruits, serve them whole fruits.” Jose notes that along with the nutrients in whole fruits children also get great things like fiber and, yes, water. In fact, 20 percent of a person’s daily water intake comes from food (including fruits and vegetables)....

The first recession came swiftly. After a seemingly bulletproof housing market finally fell off the cliff, it was a steady trickle of depressing news: the federal takeover of Fannie and Freddie, the sudden demise of Lehman Brothers, the 11th-hour rescue of AIG. As the business reporter at a small Midwestern newspaper, it was my job to chronicle the local impact. Day after day, I’d write about how this or that employer had slashed its staff....

Why does it get to this point? “A small argument will spiral into something bigger if the friendship is dangerously low, if you looked at it like a bank account. And definitely if it’s bankrupt,” says Terry Klee, a leading couples therapist working in New York and Connecticut. “If it’s bankrupt, an argument will catch fire so much faster. It’s like dry grass. And, so the first step is prevention more than what you’d do if it happens....

Bad Playdates Happen to Everyone “Sometimes parents just think their kids will just play together, and it’s easy because they play at school, but remember – there’s quite a bit of structure at school,” says Dr. Roseanne Lesack, director of the child psychology clinic at Nova Southeastern University. “Teachers have quite a bit of oversight into those social interactions, and parents might assume that it occurs naturally, but sometimes it doesn’t....

Luckily, there a few ways that you can stave off the inevitable. Buy Local If you haven’t bought your pumpkins yet, make sure to buy them from somewhere local. This way you won’t have pumpkins that have been bumped and bruised by traveling around a faraway place. These shipped pumpkins won’t last as long as local ones. Make Sure You Scoop the Inside Clean If you’re not exactly sure where your orange gourd came from, that’s alright....

Having kids significantly tightened your wallet, but it also significantly increased your motivation to make the world better (assuming you’re, you know, not a misanthrope). Since they stand to inherit said better world, get them invested in the process of charitable giving early and often. You may as well start right now — last year, Americans donated more than $258 billion and 30 percent of those contributions came in December....

Lullabies are so effective that their use in neonatal intensive care units helps preemies sleep, feed, and even heal, according to research from The Louis & Lucille Armstrong Music Therapy Program at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. The researchers based their study on their use of “songs of kin,” which have a deep cultural, familial, or personal significance to a child’s parents. “We take that music and we create a lullaby by taking specific rhythmic meter and finding the correct range for the parent,” explains music therapist and clinical director for the program John Mondanaro, Ph....

“Hello,” they said, harmonizing over the speakerphone. “You there?” I was there. I was just taking a few moments to compose myself and not scream so loud that the receiver blew. A rage coursed through my veins like an electric storm; I felt like, at any moment, it would transfer through the device in my hand and give them a light shock. That wouldn’t have been the worst. I wanted to shock them....

But how do parents broach the subject of Kamala Harris’ singular historical American achievement? The answer is to dive into the “firsts” and connect them to the long struggle to reach those firsts. Who is Kamala Harris? Kids who see Kamala Harris will probably be drawn to her for the most superficial of reasons: She looks like a teacher or any mom rooting excitedly from the edge of a soccer field....

“Gee, I wish I had that.” My parents told me I used to say that as a kid after every commercial during Saturday morning cartoons. Fast-forward a few decades: Now I’m the dad to a 4-year-old, and I hear similar phrases almost every day ⏤ especially since kids get more screen time. We can’t watch a show or walk past the toy aisle at Target without at least one request for an action figure, board game, or Nerf blaster....

1. Think Harder About Chores With chores, two principles are crucial for building an equitable household: Children should help equally with household tasks regardless of gender Both genders can and should help with both outside and inside chores. First, try to keep in mind that chores are practice for adult living. If boys are allowed to continue playing video games while girls help in the kitchen, that’s the model for fairness that your boy will take into his adult life....

Thankfully, Mother Nature is happy to oblige. Early tomorrow (Tuesday) morning, the Eta Aquarids meteor shower will give stargazers a show worth watching, with about 10 meteors per hour expected to be visible at its peak in the Northern Hemisphere. The annual shower happens when the Earth passes through the debris trail left behind by Halley’s Comet. Their speed — 148,000 mph, according to NASA — makes them fast-traveling meteors, which means that they produce incandescent trains of debris that can last anywhere from several seconds to minutes when they collide with the Earth’s atmosphere....

Why didn’t Artemis 1 take off on August 29th? During the first launch attempt of Artemis I, the teams were “not able to chill down the four RS-25 engines to approximately minus 420 degrees F, with engine 3 showing higher temperatures than the other engines,” NASA explained in a brief following the failed takeoff, which was called off moments before the rocket was set to launch. In the following days, teams were able to practice a new procedure to ensure everything is working come Sept....

Explaining the new photo of the spiral galaxies with an intergalactic bridge like you’re 5: On November 3, the official Twitter account for the European Space Agency’s feed for the Hubble Telescope shared a video of two galaxies in the galactic triplet Arp 248 — known as Wild’s Triplet — which is 200 million light-years from Earth. In the video, you can see two swirls of galaxies. They look small, but they’re each a massive collection of billions of stars, their solar system, dust, and gas — like our Milky Way....

Governor Ron DeSantis said rescue efforts have been deployed, but entering high-risk areas may take time. “Some have called in, and those people are being logged, and there will be a response. But it’s likely going to take a little time for this storm to move forward so that it’s safe for the first responders to be able to do.” Hurricane Ian came just days after Hurricane Fiona rolled through the Caribbean, bringing with it the largest amount of rainfall experienced in 123 years, leaving almost the entire island of Puerto Rico without power....

READ MORE: The Fatherly Guide to Weed Larry is one of a very few African-Americans in the business, an issue not lost on him. He runs the business with his long-time friend and business partner Shawn, his wife, and their children. Recently, they’ve got their eyes on opening up their own dispensary and organizing community efforts. Larry got into this for a lot of reasons — largely, a life-long commitment to helping his community....