Positive Discipline Parenting Blog
Sproutable's Positive Discipline blog.
Real tips. Real talk. Read & grow.
Latest post
8 Fun Things to do with an 8 Year Old
I’ve always been drawn towards working with young children, and I simply don’t have as much experience with the older elementary crowd that I do with the littles. Luckily, because of Positive Discipline, I know[...]By Danielle Taylor
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Saving My Sanity Through Sleep Routines
Whether it was 2 weeks, 4 months, 15 months, or 3 years, the only way we survived was through our crazy routine. We had to change it to keep up with their rapid stages of development, but ultimately, holding on to that structure created, wait for it... GOOD SLEEPERS. Yep, there IS a light at the end of the tunnel. It is never perfect (this morning I woke up to my 7-year-old in her sleeping bag next to my bed) but comparatively, it is CIVILIZED.By Julietta Skoog
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A Brave New World of Solid Food
Eating healthy and enjoying food is part of our family culture. My partner and I love making intricate meals with a variety of spices. Our spice cabinet is one of my prized places, with four shelves stocked full of global deliciousness. When my child started solid foods at 6 months, we had two family values […]By Alanna Beebe
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Airports, Planes and Poop: How I survived my first solo flight with a baby
Are you flying solo with your baby? Here are some tips and tools for flying with infants. At 7 months I was finally ready to take a solo plane trip with the baby. My other half was in Colorado for work, so we decided to visit him for a long weekend. Luckily, the flight from Seattle to Denver is only a couple hours but as any new experience with the baby, it was a logistical challenge I was a little anxious to tackle. The prep...By Alanna Beebe
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Want to Raise Happy Kids? Teach Gratitude.
Ask any parent what they want for their children and they will likely say, “I just want her to be happy.” It is what we strive for within our own lives, and what we anguish over for our children. It guides education decisions, discipline, and even shopping. Lately there has been a surge of books, documentaries, and research that lay out the “guide” to happiness, with a common theme arising again and again: gratitude.By Julietta Skoog
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An Open Letter to the World ~from a mom of a transgender child
“Humans are diverse and beautiful just like our planet. We are so lucky to live in a world where there are not just one or two or even three ways of being, but so many we can’t even count them. Humans aren’t just boys or girls. Gender is a spectrum. It’s like a rainbow of possibilities. First, there’s how we identify: girl, boy, neither, both, or more! Then, there’s how we want to express ourselves through our clothes, hair, etc.”By Alanna Beebe
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Calming Tantrums
Ah, the tantrum. This is a sharp trigger for adults. The last straw that ultimately makes US display our own grown-up version of a tantrum. Tantrums are burned in my memory like a scrapbook. The one on the way to sign the mortgage papers (no reschedule there), or the one in front of 25 parents I teach, or the one in the restaurant on vacation (I think my tantrum in reaction was bigger than hers).By Julietta Skoog
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Positive Discipline Family Meetings
On more than one occasion, you will find my husband rescuing somebody from a seemingly crazy person. That crazy person would be me. It is HARD. Whenever I get into a casual conversation about parenting I find myself wanting to offer what to me, has been the biggest game-changer and secret sauce of the last […]By Julietta Skoog
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Special Time, a Super Tool to Stop Attention Seeking
I have a secret. I am not enough. Yep, not enough. No matter what the self-help books and Instagram quotes say, I will never ever be enough. My kids will always want more. Once I realized I am THAT loved by them, and THAT important to them, I stopped trying to chase the “end.” One more game, one more hug- nope, they will never be filled. This is a GOOD thing. It means that our open channel of attachment, love, and connection is always flowing. It also means I am human and so are they. This is when I started implementing, with fidelity, the simple Positive Discipline tool called Special Time.By Julietta Skoog
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How to Talk to Kids about Social Distancing
We can’t expect young children to truly understand what social distancing looks like in public spaces. Just like any skill, we have to break it down into small steps and meet them where they are developmentally. It’s important to understand that the ability to inhibit our actions actually comes from a very high-level brain function […]By Julietta Skoog
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5 Ways to Use the Wheel of Choice
The Positive Discipline tool Wheel of Choice not only sounds like a carnival game, it is also a way to find the fun, teach independence, and increase intrinsic motivation through choice. We can all use a little bridge to support us through transitions, and this is especially true for kids.By Julietta Skoog
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