Sunny Side Upbringing A Month by Month Guide to Raising Kind and Caring Kids

by Dismondy, Maria; Luczak, Sarah

• ISBN13: 9781732841864
• ISBN10: 1732841861
• Format: Spiral Bound
• Copyright: 2020-03-01
• Publisher: Cardinal Rule Press

Summary

Sunny Side Upbringing is a simple parenting toolkit designed to make your life easier and more fulfilled by keeping your family values on the forefront of daily life. Parent educator Maria Dismondy took her greatest advice, research, ideas, activities, and educational resources from over the last 20 years and put them down on paper for us all to benefit from. The result is a month-by-month parenting resource (kind of like “a parent’s best friend”) that is loaded with enriching content that fosters creative parent-child interactions rooted in the values that matter most to you.

Author Biography

Guided by her background in research, Maria Dismondy is a trusted leader in the industry, a parent educator, and sought-after public speaker. She changed lives for 10 years as an elementary school teacher, is the author of nine children’s books, and is a mother of three. She lives on a little lake with her husband and kids in the heart of Metro Detroit. Sarah Luczak is the owner of Burlap & Pearls Photography. She is a lifestyle family and newborn photographer serving the Metro Detroit and Ann Arbor regions. Sarah has built her photography business by focusing on authentic and emotive images that portray the true connection found in the families she photographs.

Table of Contents

Introduction

• Personal note from author
• How to use this book
• List of what each chapter contains

JANUARY
Chapter 1: Goal Setting
A goal is something you are trying to do or achieve; it is the end result. The resolution is the process of deciding on the goal and figuring out how to achieve it. A goal often seems big, scary and out of reach. But when broken down into smaller steps, it feels more manageable.

FEBRUARY
Chapter 2: Love
At the end of the day, you need to decide what love looks like, feels like and means to you. Get clear on this and it will be reflected in the way you model love to your family. Let love be the guiding force in your daily life. 

MARCH
Chapter 3: Empathy
If we want to raise kind and caring individuals, empathy is the first step. Empathy is understanding someone’s feelings. Individuals who are empathetic are less likely to be judgemental and live their lives with integrity.

APRIL
Chapter 4: Friendship
To have friends, you must be a friend. Kind words are important, of course, but actions and facial expressions matter, too. 

MAY
Chapter 5: Honesty
The best way to raise honest children is to set a good example. When your kids lie (and they will, that’s life) explain how lying changes the way people think of you. Your reputation will be known as someone who lies and that can damage your relationships with friends and tarnish your credibility.

JUNE
Chapter 6: Play
Research continues to prove that our children NEED to play. Play is not limited to sitting down with a pile of blocks. With so many forms and types of play, the opportunities are truly endless.

JULY
Chapter 7: Creativity
Creativity is a life skill predicted to be in the top three most important skills needed from employers in the years ahead. Researchers on creativity have found that creative individuals become courageous inventors, fearless explorers, better problem solvers and critical thinkers.

AUGUST
Chapter 8: Problem Solving
It’s crucial we be proactive when it comes to teaching responsibility and independence. Watching our children fail can be hard, but allowing your child to be the one to clean up their own messes at an early age can go a long way in raising independent problem solvers down the road.

SEPTEMBER
Chapter 9: Fairness
“Fair is when everyone gets what they need and equal is when everyone gets the same thing.” We tell our children that things are not always going to be equal but we will do our best to make them fair.

OCTOBER
Chapter 10: Patience
Patience is a vague concept for kids. The act of waiting without getting crabby adds up to being patient and that’s tough for kids to grasp. But kids who learn to work for what they want and manage delayed gratification often do better in school and into adulthood.

NOVEMBER
Chapter 11: Gratitude
Gratitude is a learned character trait. The best way to teach our children to be thankful is to model it early on. There is research that suggests developing a regular gratitude practice can reduce your blood pressure and increase your overall immune system.

DECEMBER
Chapter 12: Generosity
We all want to raise our children to be kind and generous and modeling these behaviors and traits is the best way to pass these qualities onto your children. Be a good person yourself and they will want to follow in your footsteps.

BONUS CHAPTER
Tough Topics

• Children with allergies
• Family emergency kits
• Stranger Danger, Gun Danger, Drowning
• Screen Time
• Just Say No
• Moving
• Cancer
• Divorce
• Tough Topics in the News
• Resiliency & Adversity
• Bullying

EPILOGUE

• Acknowledgements
• Author Biography
• Photographer Biography
• Index