Making Children Feel Special
With permission from Vicki Lansky author of “Practical Parenting Tips”
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Use your child’s name often in conversation and make use of nicknames only if he or she really likes them. And use the name in other ways – wooden letters on the wall of the child’s room a sign on the door, a puzzle, a homemade placemat.
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Make each child a SPECIALIST in the family – your “favorite two-year-old,” the “exercise leader” or the “nature scout.” (Some parents disagree with this suggestion and the next one, saying that other children feel left out. They suggested instead that parents should praise a child’s ACTIONS and avoid even good labels).
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Share a special secret with each child. It could be a “middle child” club, if both parent and child qualify, or a code word that no one else knows. (Those who disagree with this suggestion try to plan daily one-to-one sessions with each child instead.)
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Tell your child stories in which he or she is the hero. Or investigate the specially printed, personalized books that use the names of the child, siblings, friends and pets.
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Write about your child…with your child. Keep a joint diary, let the child draw illustrations, and cover the pages with clear contact paper to preserve them. Sometimes read a page or two to the child at bedtime.
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Share baby record books and photo albums with children, so that they can enjoy their own growth and development.
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Keep a regular “baby” drawer or box into which you drop an anecdotal record of your child’s life several times a year and perhaps even a letter you wrote to the unborn child while you were pregnant. The drawer or box serves as a place to store the child’s artwork as he or she grows older, and going through everything once or twice a year is fun for all.
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Tape-record your child’s voice, as he or she sings, recites or just converses with you, and play it back with your child, expressing your delight again at his or her verbal skills.
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Let the kids entertain you with plays they make up. Give a child a wooden spoon or a single beater from a mixer as a “microphone” and prepare to clap a lot as she hams it up.
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Surprise your child with a large, inexpensive blowup of a favorite photo of himself or herself.
