Fostering Kids&#8217; Success

Dynamic assessment bridges learning and teaching, tailoring education to a child’s unique journey. It’s a collaborative process, adapting to diverse learning styles through a cycle of assessment, tailored teaching, and reassessment.

Children’s Downtime: Opportunities for Creativity, Engagement, and Self-Discovery

Discover engaging activities for children’s downtime, promoting creativity, exploration, and self-discovery, from co-creating brainstorming sessions to setting up a home-based science center.

Teachers’ Creativity

Discover why it’s important for teachers to use and demonstrate creativity, and how they can maximize a creative dynamic. Dr. Joanne Foster’s suggestions for enhancing learning environments provide a call to action for parents, too!

Children’s Creativity: Nurturing Autonomy, Pride, and More

Joanne Foster’s article delves into the ways creativity enhances children’s autonomy and pride, offering practical tips for parents to foster creativity, intrinsic motivation, and skill-building in their children.

Creativity: The Key to Healthy Parenting

In her interview with Dr. Joanne Foster, Dr. Dona Matthews emphasizes creativity in parenting, discussing its pivotal role in overcoming daily challenges and building strong relationships, and the importance of nurturing a child’s creative pursuits.

Fostering Children’s Creativity: Q and A

Dr. Joanne Foster addresses essential questions on fostering children’s creativity, highlighting its importance for learning, problem-solving, and imagination, and explaining how creativity develops progressively through diverse experiences.

Parenting for Creativity

Dr. Joanne Foster explores creative parenting, offering strategies to encourage children’s imagination, resilience, and creative expression, emphasizing the importance of diverse experiences and adaptive learning in a changing world.

Creativity and Young Children

Dr. Joanne Foster discusses the power of effortful momentum, including the importance of children sharing ideas, and using “tailwinds” (supports and supporters) to enhance creative impulses, and build upon opportunities for creative expression.

Kids’ Creativity: Two Important Questions for Parents to Consider

Joanne Foster discusses two vital questions about children’s creativity, focusing on its origins and nature, while providing practical guidance for parents to encourage and understand their children’s creative development.

A Few Good Links on Nurturing Creativity

What Kills Creativity in Kids?
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/what_kills_creativity_in_kids

Three Ways to Support Kids’ Intelligence and Creativity: What to Strive for When Life’s a Whirlwind
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/3_ways_to_support_kids_intelligence_and_creativity_what_to_strive_for_when

Differentiated Learning and Creativity Intertwined
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/differentiated-learning-and-creativity-intertwined

Sensible Ways to Increase Children’s Intelligence AND Creativity
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/sensible-ways-to-encourage-childrens-intelligence-and-creativity

Can Creativity Help Kids Get Through Challenge?
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/can_creativity_help_kids_get_through_challenge

Creative Opportunities for Families

The Lure of Kids’ Extracurricular Activities

Dr. Joanne Foster takes a thorough look at extracurricular activities. She focuses on the basics, and on key matters such as content, costs, benefits, and demands. Then she answers questions that parents have about suitability and choice, and she provides helpful resources, too.

Why Should Creativity Matter to Kids? What’s the Big Deal?

Joanne Foster’s article discusses the significance of creativity in children’s lives, highlighting five reasons why it’s essential for problem-solving, adaptation, enjoyment, skill development, and positive change.

Explorations and Discoveries

Joanne Foster’s article on ‘Explorations and Discoveries’ encourages diverse learning experiences for children, from nature exploration to real-life encounters, to foster curiosity, mindfulness, and a love of learning.

Reading and Children

Joanne Foster’s article, ‘Reading and Children,’ underscores the significance of daily reading for brain development, knowledge expansion, and familial bonding, showcasing the lifelong benefits of this fundamental activity.

Reading—and Parenting Book Clubs

Joanne Foster’s ‘Reading—and Parenting Book Clubs’ explores the empowering role of reading and book clubs for parents, highlighting the benefits of shared literary experiences in enhancing parenting and child development.

The “NATURE” of Creativity: Calling All Children!

Spring has burst forth, and people are finally starting to see some light. Provide opportunities for children to have sensory-rich experiences outside, perhaps in a wooded area, garden, or park, while exploring the world around them.

A Few Good Links on Creative Opportunities for Families

Curiosity in Children
https://www.firsttimeparentmagazine.com/curiosity-in-children/

Taking a Walk on the Bright Side
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/taking-a-walk-on-the-bright-side

Creative Expression: Are Some Kids Missing Out?
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/creative-expression-are-some-kids-missing-out

Creativity and Special Needs Learners
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/creativity_and_special_needs_learners

What Do Productivity and Creativity Have in Common?
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/what_do_productivity_and_creativity_have_in_common

Learning and Development

Intelligence Building: Learning Here, There, and Everywhere

Fortifying Parents’ Attitudes About Children’s Learning

Parenting involves encouraging and supporting children’s learning, development, and well-being – and parents’ attitudes are key to how that dynamic unfolds. Here are several ways to fortify those attitudes, alongside additional suggestions for parents to consider.

Intelligence: What’s Praise Got to Do with It?

In this article find out about the nature of intelligence, and what kinds of praise are most effective and encouraging—that is, beneficial for nurturing children’s advancement and their joy of learning.

How to Help Your Child Learn

Dr. Joanne Foster shares insights on nurturing advanced learning in children, emphasizing the importance of a balanced, enriching environment and the power of play in fostering curiosity and development.

Parenting in Times of Vulnerability & Challenge

This article offers strategies for parents to support children during challenging times. It covers creating a safe environment, managing emotions, and fostering resilience and creativity, helping kids understand and cope with feelings such as fear and confusion.

Enlightening Life Lessons

Dr. Foster’s ‘Enlightening Life Lessons’ explores the valuable insights children offer adults, emphasizing perception, curiosity, and spontaneity as key elements in learning and personal growth for both children and adults.

The Best Learning Environments

Each learning environment has its own unique features. Dr. Foster emphasizes the importance of nurturing aspects, including safety, appropriate challenge, encouragement, and more. Find out key elements of environments that foster kids’ advancement and joy.

Early Learning Essentials for Today and Tomorrow

Dr. Joanne Foster’s ‘Early Learning Essentials for Today and Tomorrow’ provides parents with essential tips and insights for nurturing children’s learning, emphasizing active engagement, supportive environments, and the promotion of curiosity and resilience.

Encouraging Children’s Learning: 7 Important Tips for Parents

Dr. Joanne Foster’s article offers seven vital tips for parents to encourage children’s learning, covering aspects like ensuring children feel important, spending time outdoors, self-care, consistency, pacing, and promoting fun and creativity.

Learning: What Parents Need to Know for 2023 and Beyond

In this article, Dr. Joanne Foster offers insights into how people learn, and what meaningful learning looks like. She discusses processes and practical tips for parents to help enhance children’s learning, offering suggestions that will continue to resonate for families well into the future.

A Few Good Links on Intelligence Building

Simple Pleasures
https://www.firsttimeparentmagazine.com/simple-pleasures

Young Children and Game-Playing: Ten Suggestions for Parents and Care-Givers
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/young_children_and_game_playing_ten_suggestions_for_parents_and_care_givers

In Appreciation of Teachers
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/in-appreciation-of-teachers

Setting Parental Expectations
https://www.firsttimeparentmagazine.com/setting-parental-expectations

The Best Teachers: What Do Parents Need to Know?
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/the_best_teachers_what_do_parents_need_to_know

Stoicism, Leadership, and Parenting
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/stoicism-leadership-and-parenting

Gifted Learning

Parenting Gifted Learners: Addressing Uncertainties and Misconceptions

Addressing uncertainties in parenting gifted learners, this article explores flexible perspectives on giftedness and effective strategies for nurturing advanced potential, including tailored educational approaches and the importance of continuous assessment.

Twice-Exceptional (2E) Learners

Dr. Joanne Foster discusses the unique needs of twice-exceptional learners, offering 15 strategies for empowering children with co-existing special needs, such as ADHD or dyslexia, through effective parenting, giftedness, and educational support.

Curb Your Complacency: Advocate for Gifted-Related Professional Development!

Advocating for gifted education professional development is crucial for enhancing teaching strategies. This article emphasizes the importance of advocacy in creating effective learning environments for gifted students, outlining roles for teachers, parents, and students in this collaborative effort.

More Challenge, Please

Addressing the challenge of under-stimulation in school, this article offers practical steps for parents to advocate for more engaging learning experiences, emphasizing the importance of matching educational approaches to each child’s unique strengths and needs.

Meeting Gifted Learning Needs and Fostering Children’s Effort

Discover the importance of meeting gifted learners’ needs with tailored opportunities and fostering their effort. This article highlights the key role of parents in guiding and supporting their children’s educational journey, emphasizing an Optimal Match approach.

Gifted/High-Ability Learners

This article offers valuable insights for parents of gifted/high-ability learners, providing 8 key guidelines to understand and support their child’s unique developmental journey, encompassing educational, emotional, and intellectual aspects.

« Older Entries

A Few Good Links on Gifted Learning

Requisites for Learning
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/requisites-for-learning-the-5-rs

Ambitious, Purposeful Kids in an Increasingly Chaotic World
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/ambitious-purposeful-kids-in-an-increasingly-chaotic-world

Creating a Culture Where It’s Cool to Be Smart
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/creating_a_culture_where_its_cool_to_be_smart

Dumbing Down: Why? What Are the Signs? What Can Parents Do?
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/dumbing_down_why_what_are_the_signs_what_can_parents_do

Motivation and Productivity

Procrastination: Tips for Parents and Kids

When Children Are Bored

Understanding and addressing childhood boredom, this article provides strategies for parents to foster intrinsic motivation and creativity in children, transforming idle moments into opportunities for growth, curiosity, and self-directed learning.

Overcome Procrastination: Five Suggestions for Kids

Offering five practical tips, this article empowers children and teens to overcome procrastination, emphasizing strategic planning, positive attitudes, and personal strengths to manage responsibilities effectively and cultivate a sense of fulfillment and independence.

Suggestions for Teens (and Others) Who Procrastinate

Tailored for teens and useful for adults, this article offers five effective strategies to conquer procrastination, encouraging a proactive approach towards personal goals, time management, and creative problem-solving.

Empowering Kids to Make Decisions

Empowering children in decision-making, this article offers ten strategies to enhance creativity and thoughtful choices, helping kids develop analytical skills, prioritize effectively, and embrace the creative potential in their everyday decisions.

The Truth about Children’s Procrastination

This article explores children’s procrastination, offering insights and practical strategies for families to address it constructively. It emphasizes understanding the underlying reasons and fostering an environment that encourages action-oriented and persistent behavior in children.

A Few Good Links on Procrastination

Are Procrastinators Creative?
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/are_procrastinators_creative

Children’s Tasks: What to AIM For
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/childrens_tasks_what_to_aim_for

Helping Kids Overcome Procrastination: Why Wait?
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/helping_kids_overcome_procrastination_why_wait

Busting Procrastination
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/busting-procrastination-1

How to Help Kid Get on Track—and Stay There: Eight Tips Revealed!
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/how_to_help_kids_get_on_trackand_stay_there_eight_tips_revealed

Productivity and Kids: What Do Parents Need to Know?
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/productivity_and_kids_what_do_parents_need_to_know

Kids Who CAN But WON’T: What Can Parents Do?
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/kids_who_can_but_wont_what_can_parents_do1

Helping Kids Advance Step-By-Step …

Flexible Pacing

Flexible pacing – applicable to children and adults – involves attention to needs, energy levels, comfort, and more. Discover three diverse perspectives on flexible pacing – and why it matters!

Lasting Lessons from the Olympics and Paralympics

This article will inform and inspire parents and kids as the 2024 Games unfold in Paris, and as the world appreciates the epitome of excellence, and the impactful stories about what drives the athletes!

Praising Children

Dr. Foster’s ‘Praising Children’ guides parents on effective praise, emphasizing its importance in fostering children’s effort, resilience, and passion, while being mindful of their comfort level and the impact of praise.

Great Expectations (And What to Do if They’re NOT So Great)

Explore how setting ‘great expectations’ can positively impact children’s learning and development. This article delves into managing expectations that are fair, respectful, and achievable, helping parents guide their children towards success without overwhelming them.

Children and Choice

Dr. Joanne Foster emphasizes why making choices is empowering, and she discusses what to reinforce. She guides parents in supporting their children, and provides several tips relating to fueling curiosity, discovering strengths, decision-making, ramping up the fun, and more.

Is Experience the Key to Learning and Creative Expression?

Dr. Joanne Foster discusses the critical role of experience in children’s learning and creativity, exploring how diverse experiences shape development and offering strategies to enhance kids’ growth through new experiences.

« Older Entries

A Few Good Links on Helping Kids Advance

“AHA!” Moments
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/aha_moments

Encouraging Purposeful Pursuits
https://www.firsttimeparentmagazine.com/encouraging-purposeful-pursuits

Kids Confused? Help Them Go from Perplexity to Purpose
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/kids_confused_help_them_go_from_perplexity_to_purpose

From Disappointment to Joy
https://www.firsttimeparentmagazine.com/from-disappointment-to-joy

BIG Picture Thinking
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/big_picture_thinking

Creating Forward Momentum
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/creating_forward_momentum

What’s Your Child’s Potential? (And Does It Really Matter?)
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/whats_your_childs_potential_and_does_it_really_matter

Children’s Well-Being

Meeting Challenges in Today’s World

25 Parenting Tips For The New Year

I hope this list stimulates thought, inspiring parents to share their strengths—and ultimately empowering children to build upon theirs, too. These 25 suggestions will hold families in good stead throughout the entire year!

Kindling Kindness in Children

Dr. Foster’s article shares strategies to help children appreciate kindness, from discussing its meaning to reinforcing kind actions. It emphasizes cultivating empathy, compassion, and caring attitudes in children through hands-on activities and discussions.

Children’s Emotional Well-Being: Eight Practical Tips for Parents

Foster’s article provides parents with eight practical tips to enhance children’s emotional well-being, emphasizing understanding emotions, fostering resilience, and building strong relationships to support children’s growth in a nurturing and emotionally healthy environment.

Love Will Find a Way

Dr. Foster highlights the significance of cultivating a love of learning in children, covering aspects like inquiry, books, and nature. This article offers practical advice to parents for nurturing curiosity, reading habits, social connections, and appreciation of the natural world.

Building Confidence

Foster’s article delves into building children’s confidence, explaining its roots in environmental interactions and skill development. It offers strategies for parents to enhance their child’s self-perception and behavior, focusing on nurturing individual interests and a sense of achievement.

Tenacity

Empowering children’s learning through tenacity, this article guides parents in extending learning parameters and nurturing creativity. It emphasizes the importance of stretching beyond conventional methods, with practical strategies for fostering robust learning

A Few Good Links on Meeting Challenges

ABCs of Cultivating a Love of Learning—For Children
https://www.firsttimeparentmagazine.com/abcs-of-cultivating-a-love-of-learning-for-children/

Finding the Joy
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/finding-the-joy

Embracing Uncertainty
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/embracing-uncertainty

Help Children Embrace New Beginnings
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/help-children-embrace-new-beginnings-2

Reflective and Thought-Provoking Pieces

What Strengths Can Dandelions Teach Children?

Dandelions offer unique lessons on growth, resilience, and purpose. Learn how these ubiquitous plants can teach children about nature’s cycles and personal development through everyday observations and engaging discussions on their underestimated value.

Brave Wonder

Dr. Joanne Foster’s ‘Brave Wonder’ highlights the importance of respecting and learning from children’s creativity and curiosity, both at home and in educational settings, fostering reciprocal learning and nurturing environments.

Will My Child Be Like Me?

Dr. Foster’s article delves into how children’s interests develop, influenced by parents’ activities and encouragement. It highlights nurturing a child’s natural inclinations through diverse experiences, using Roberto’s story as an example of guided skill development.

Early Morning Musings

Dr. Foster’s “Early Morning Musings” reflects on mornings as a time for reflection, creativity, and setting the tone for the day. She emphasizes the importance of mindfulness and personal growth in these tranquil early hours.

Cultivate a Love of Reading

Dr. Foster’s article emphasizes the transformative power of words, advocating for reading as a key tool in children’s development, fostering bonding, brain growth, and a broad understanding of the world through literature and imagination.

A Few Good Links to Reflective and Thought-Provoking Pieces

Let’s Be Honest
https://www.firsttimeparentmagazine.com/lets-be-honest

Children’s Learning: Questions for Reflection
https://www.firsttimeparentmagazine.com/childrens-learning-questions-for-reflection

Reading to Kids: Ten Reasons it Matters, Ten Ways to Do It (By Dona Matthews and Joanne Foster)
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/going-beyond-intelligence/201411/reading-kids-ten-reasons-it-matters-ten-ways-do-it-0

Sharp Minds: Financiers and Creators
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/sharp-minds-financiers-and-creators

Cursive Writing: A Just or Lost Cause?
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/cursive-writing-a-lost-or-just-cause

Too Invested in Your Child’s Activities and Performance?
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/too_invested_in_your_childs_activities_and_performance

Interviews with Interesting People

What Drives Children’s Creativity? An Interview with Artist Rina Gottesman

Interviews

Joanne Foster’s dialogue in ‘What Drives Children’s Creativity?’ explores the parallels in creativity between writers and artists, emphasizing the role of play, discovery, and spontaneity in nurturing children’s creative expression.

Hope: Interview with Dr. Matt Zakreski

Interviews

Dr. Joanne Foster’s ‘HOPE’ explores the concept of hope in children’s lives, offering insights from Dr. Matt Zakreski. The article discusses the definition, importance, and impact of hope on children’s well-being and creativity, emphasizing its role as a guiding principle for a better future and as a catalyst for positive action and creative expression.

Interview with Julie Skolnick, Author of Gifted and Distractible

Interviews

Dr. Foster’s article discusses nurturing creativity in ‘Gifted and Distractible’ children, offering insights from Julie Skolnick on creative strategies and approaches to support twice-exceptional learners’ unique needs.

A Few Good Links to Interviews with Interesting People

Challenges of Creativity: A Second Interview with Artist Rina Gottesman
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/challenges_of_creativity

Crafts and Creativity: Interview with Hope Saul
https://www.creativitypost.com/conversations/crafts-and-creativity

Appreciating Music as a Foundational Aspect of Creativity: Interview with Modern Composer Hanne Deneire
https://www.creativitypost.com/education/appreciating_music_as_a_foundational_aspect_of_creativity

Some of My Favourite Articles

The Wonder of Words

Dr. Foster’s ‘The Wonder of Words’ explores the significance of language in learning, encouraging parents to help children appreciate and use interesting, expressive words, and to balance simplicity with complexity in communication.

Creative Expression: A Source of Solace and Strength

In this article, Dr. Joanne Foster discusses how creativity can help children cope with difficult times, and she offers strategies to empower them to think and act—and to harness passions, resilience, and optimism for emotional well-being.

Mentorships and Kids

Dr. Joanne Foster explores mentorships. She describes their benefits, offers guidelines on how to structure a mentorship, reveals where to find a mentor, and addresses many considerations, including answering key questions for children and parents—and she provides resources, too. .

Reflective Habits of Mind—And Kids