Counselor’s Corner February 2019 Mrs. Snaith PreK – 1st grade Contact Information Phone: (225) 381-3871 Email: lsnaith@aloysius.org Please don’t hesitate to call, email, or make an appointment! Top Parenting Tips: Last month I began sharing some of my favorite parenting tips for raising happy, healthy kids. Here are two more: The Importance of Chores A Harvard Grant Study found that participants who achieved the greatest professional success did chores as a child. Chores build self esteem, teach responsibility, and promote independence. Even young children are capable of basic chores. For a list of age specific chores, please visit the school counselor page on the SAS website. Let Them Fail While it may seem counterintuitive, it's one of the best things a parent can do. According to Dr. Stephanie O'Leary, a clinical psychologist specializing in neuropsychology and author of Parenting in the Real World: The Rules Have Changed failure is good for kids on several levels. First, experiencing failure helps your child learn to cope, a skill that's certainly needed in the real world. It also provides him or her with the life experience needed to relate to peers in a genuine way. Being challenged also instills the need for hard work and sustained efforts, and also demonstrates that these traits are valuable even without the blue ribbon, gold star, or top score. Over time, children who have experienced defeat will build resilience and be more willing to attempt difficult tasks and activities because they are not afraid to fail. And, she says, rescuing your child sends the message that you don't trust him or her. "Your willingness to see your child struggle communicates that you believe they are capable and that they can handle any outcome, even a negative one," she says. Source: https://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/want-to-raise-kids-who-thrive-science-says-do-thes.html Guidance Lessons Guidance Lessons this month will focus on conflict resolution and teaching students how to respond to teasing or unkind words.  First Grade students will hear the story Mookey the Monkey Gets Over Being Teased by Heather Lonczak.  Mookey is a monkey without any fur who gets teased by the other animals when he begins school.  He is empowered when he learns several coping techniques that stop the teasing.  In Kindergarten the story A Bug and A Wish by Karen Sheuer will be used to teach students how to respond when someone is unkind.  The assertive words used by the main character, Tyler, put a stop to the teasing.  The "magic words" learned by Tyler are "It BUGS me when you tease me, and I WISH you would stop." Students will role play various situations to practice being assertive.   Finally, PreK students will listen to Billy Bully: A School-Yard Counting Tale by Alvaro and Ana Galan.  In this story, Billy the Bull loses his friends one by one and must win them back by saying and doing kind things.