The Innovative Dad
A psychologist’s blog about raising and educating children through the lens innovation.
Raising Teens
Having an adolescent in the home isn't always a joy. In fact, it can be a regular challenge to deal with the emerging adult who has taken the place of the small child you thought of as your baby. Building and maintaining your relationship is a vital part of helping...
The Power of Gratitude
Sometimes, you don't know the power of a practice until you've had the opportunity to really use it yourself. I've written and talked about the power of gratitude on this blog and with patients, students, and their families. I've emphasized it with my own kids and...
Top 10 Blog Posts
Another year is in the books and it's on to 2020! Give all of the jokes that I've heard in the last 24 hours about 20/20 hindsight and 20/20 vision, I thought it was time to look back on the most popular posts on this blog over the last four years of blogging about...
Parenting Strategies to Kid Habits: Promoting Scientific Thinking
Helping a young child learn and grow means encouraging their scientific thinking - how they ask questions and express their curiosity and wonder at the world around them. The activities that we pick to do with our children can help this flourish, even without taking a...
Parenting Strategies to Kid Habits: Don’t Solve All Their Problems
As parents, we always want to swoop and solve all of our kids' problems. The challenge with steamrolling everything out of the way is that it greatly reduces our children's abilities to be resilient and develop grit. https://youtu.be/1La-VJ8NEmk More Problem Solving...
Parenting Strategies to Kid Habits: Building Basic Math Skills
Building basic math skills in our kids is not just important for future school success. Understanding math is a fundamental part of understanding the world around us. Even if you are math-phobic, you can still help your child see the math in the world around them....
Parenting Strategies to Kid Habits: Gratitude Games and Activities
Who doesn't want their kids to show more gratitude? Encouraging kids to be thankful can be a challenge, though. Turning it into a gratitude game or activity can make saying thank you just a little bit more fun. https://youtu.be/APwusZHhoqg More Gratitude Game...
Using Disruption to Improve Your Parenting
If you are anything like me, you hate disruption. As parents, we rely on routine and structure to keep our families as smoothly functioning as possible. Disruption to routines, whether planned or unplanned, creates stress, headaches, and pain. It is, therefore,...
Gratitude is something we all want to have and we want to have our kids to demonstrate it, too. But, in our busy world, it can be difficult to find the time and energy to say thank you. Using a gratitude challenge is one strategy to promote it....