parenting
Creating a Memorable Main Character in Your Children’s Book
As a children’s author, I’m often pleased to find that I’ve inspired children and adults to write children’s stories of their own. A question they wonder is what exactly makes a good children’s book. It’s important that a children’s book have a charming protagonist with whom readers can identify. It seems that children tend to literally identify with characters they love; in their imagination and games, they often pretend they are indeed the beloved protagonists of their favorite movies, TV shows, and books.
So what qualities should a children’s story protagonist have? If you study the most popular children’s stories of the last few hundred years, many characters have a superhuman trait or superhuman power, but at the same time they have a human frailty about them which most people have in common—such as a fear or anxiety about something or something in their life that is causing them stress. In Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack is a regular, poor boy with magical beans, and Harry Potter of course finds that he is a wizard. Jack’s magical beans and Harry’s magical genetic endowment delight children, while Jack’s hard circumstances and the fact that Harry is an unloved orphan earn the sympathy of children everywhere.
In Danny the Dragon, I sought to have these same qualities, and I have met many children who truly love and identify with Danny. Of course, some wonderful children’s books lack a traditional protagonist, such as Goodnight Moon or some very delightful counting and alphabet books. This is why nailing down what makes for good children’s books can be a challenge!
More Studies Support Health Benefits of Friendship
Other research suggests the health benefits of social support. One study, published in the journal Cancer, followed 61 women with advanced ovarian cancer. The women with lots of social support had much lower levels of a protein linked to more aggressive types of cancer, and higher levels of a protein that boosted the effectiveness of chemotherapy.
In 1989, David Spiegel, MD, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, published an influential paper in Lancet, showing that women with breast cancer who participated in a support group lived twice as long as those who didn’t and reported much less pain. Sheldon Cohen, PhD, a psychology professor at Carnegie Mellon University, has shown that strong social support helps people cope with stress. Other studies have demonstrated that less connected people tend to die sooner after having a heart attack than people with a strong social network and that having a large social network may even reduce chances of catching a cold, even though you’re probably exposed to more viruses when spending lots of time with others.
“Friends help you face adverse events,” Dr. Sheldon Cohen says. “They provide material aid, emotional support, and information that helps you deal with the stressors. There may be broader effects as well. Friends encourage you to take better care of yourself. And people with wider social networks are higher in self-esteem, and they feel they have more control over their lives.”
Take advantage of these findings by increasing your social network! There are plenty of people out there to strike up a friendship with and plenty of health benefits to look forward to as your friendships blossom.
Tina Turbin
Pesticides Are Shown to be Linked to ADHD
As a concerned mother and a children’s author who cares very much for families and children, I found the following article to be both appalling and at the same time refreshing to know that such a critical issue is being exposed.
While it has been known that pesticides used for our food and vegetable supply pose a variety of health risks, the fact that these same pesticides are linked to so-called ADHD in children is a truth that every parent needs to know about.
Click here to read the full article. Afterwards, browse through this section of my website for MANY helpful tips, resources and information to improve your family’s and your children’s quality of life.
I hope the above information helps you.
Tina Turbin
Turn off the TV—Tips for Families
Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does—television, that is. One of the best decisions I made years ago for myself and for my family was to cut down on television drastically. At first this may seem like a daunting task, but with a few simple tips, parents find it’s much easier than they suspected it would be.
First of all, there is the matter of reducing the amount of TV your family watches to just a few shows a week. In order to do this, I recommend a family meeting to discuss your goals as a family and as individuals. Then take an honest look at what everyone is getting out of television. Everyone will agree that they should watch less TV and spend more time pursuing their own goals. With a meeting like this, your kids and spouse will be much more likely to go along with their new lifestyle of less TV because they’ll understand the reason behind it.
I highly recommend implementing a service such as TiVo ® to help keep TV watching to a minimum. After deciding on the reasons for watching less TV, each family member can decide on a handful of shows to watch together as a family, plus a personal favorite or two, to watch only during designated watching times—Friday nights or Sunday afternoons, for example.
Finally, come up with stimulating alternatives. Take the kids to the library or play board games. Have larger, longer family dinners at the table. Keeping everyone busy will get their minds off this missing element in their lives. I highly recommend using this time to get the kids to strengthen their reading skills and develop a strong interest in reading. Soon you might find that your family—gasp!—may prefer reading over watching TV.
Tina Turbin
Encourage Social Skills in Children: Danny the Dragon Author Offers Tips
One of the ways parents can increase involvement is by supporting their child’s education and helping him achieve academic success. An important part of this, which parents don’t often think about, is teaching your kids the social skills they’ll need to succeed in school. Here are some tips for parents on how they can send their child to school with the social skills they need to successfully interact with teachers and other students.
First, it’s important to teach your child to ask for what he needs. How can he get help unless he’s able to admit he doesn’t understand something? A great way to instill this in your child is to practice it at home.
One of the most important things you can teach your child is manners. Teachers may attempt to teach students politeness and social skills, but if it’s not being practiced in the home, the child will not successfully absorb these lessons. Your child should be taught when to say, “please,” “thank you,” and “excuse me.” Have him practice sharing things, taking turns, and waiting his turn in line.
Point out good examples of behavior to your child when you see it. If you’re watching a movie or out in public, you can say to your child something such as, “Did you see how the man held open the door for the lady? He was being a gentleman.”
Finally, rehearse at home anything your child may feel awkward saying or doing with other people. In such a way, you’ll be able to get your child interacting with others with ease.
Success in school isn’t only determined by academic skills and knowledge. By following the helpful tips above in the time you spend with your child, you’ll notice an improvement in your child’s education experience in no time as they become more comfortable in their learning environment and better equipped to flourish in it.
Ways to Get Your Kids Reading
First of all, start young. Studies show that reading to your child should begin before the age of six months, as soon as they’re able to enjoy the images and pictures inside of their books. Collect some board books, either buying them at the bookstore or getting some hand-me-downs from friends and family. All children have varying attention spans and you should keep in mind not to push too far past these limits in their attention and not force them to read, as children tend to dislike things they are forced to do not on their own determinism. Every child is different and sometimes it takes time for his interest in reading to develop and his attention span to lengthen.
Next, get your child reading on his own, but at his own speed. Studies show that kids are not ready to read at the same time. Sometimes kids don’t begin reading until six years of age, but with patience, he may still turn out to be an able, avid reader. Homeschooling the first few years is often a good way of ensuring your child isn’t forced to begin reading before he’s ready, which can leave him at a loss.
You must also set a good example yourself. I know from being the mother of three grown children how easy it can be to let your kids turn on the television or play a videogame or to zone out yourself in front of the TV. However, it’s important to show your children how much you cherish reading by taking them to the library regularly, checking out books for yourself, and turning off the TV for family reading time, where everyone can read together or, as your kids get older, read their own books separately to themselves. An environment enriched in reading is crucial in building an appreciation in children for reading and strong literacy.
The use of aids such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and the internet is imperative. Keep a couple of good dictionaries around, simple children’s ones as well as more advanced ones, to help them learn new words and how to spell them. When they are reading about something they don’t really have much familiarity with, such as certain animals, show them pictures online or take them on a field trip to see what they’re reading about up close. This will make them more interested in what they’re reading and teach them how to teach themselves things, fostering a love for learning in them.
