LET'S TALK about LIFE - digital conversation starters.
Family life happens at the dinner table. It's where we connect, learn about what’s going on in each other’s lives, help solve problems, and offer support. We celebrate victories and pass on family stories, values, and traditions. The single most important thing parents can do for their children's well-being and future success is to eat together and talk about life - because good conversations lead to good parenting moments.
It doesn’t matter if it’s dinner, breakfast, a bed-time snack, or hamburgers in the car. Two decades of studies confirm, year after year, that kids who share at least three or four meals a week with their parents are three times less likely to get involved with drugs, alcohol, smoking or risky behavior. They do better in school, have higher self-esteem, and stronger relationships with their parents. All the extra-curricular activities in the world won't make up for lost opportunities to talk about what's important. But most parents don’t know what to talk about.
Develop more positive ways of thinking.
10-MINUTE PARENT has created a unique set of conversation starters, called LET'S TALK about LIFE. They are strategically designed in a specific sequence to help children (and parents) learn the twelve most important MINDSETS for HAPPINESS and SUCCESS - in ten minutes a day. Just like learning to dance, play a musical instrument, or speak a new language, we build mindsets through repetition. By repeating similar thought patterns (in response to similar questions) during a thirty-day period, we rewire new, more positive and productive, ways of thinking into our brains. Eventually they become habits that continue with little thought or effort on our part.
Along with Optimism, Respect, Empathy, and Resilience, (shown above) topics also include Responsibility, Purpose, Kindness, Honesty, Gratitude, Mindfulness, Generosity, and Courage (see below). Click on any of the twelve LET'S TALK about LIFE images to purchase them individually on the shopping cart.
EMPATHY examples:
How would it feel to be something or someone else?
The EMPATHY conversation starters take us through a series of animals, people, and challenging circumstances, to help children imagine and understand how it would feel to be something or someone else. You start by asking your child to describe what it would feel like to be a fish, a bug, a snake, a monkey, or an elephant. Then you move on to people your child is familiar with such as mom, dad, grandparents, teachers, coaches, or maybe the neighborhood fireman. And finally, people who are handicapped, blind, or different in a variety of ways.
Mindsets are simply new ways of thinking that become habits.
After twenty to thirty of these brief conversations, the brain has already created new neural pathways that will eventually become habits. When your child encounters situations that call for empathy, she will automatically think about how someone else feels. Mindsets are simply new ways of thinking and behaving that become habits. It’s no different than learning how to play the guitar or dance the salsa. Whether it’s a physical skill or a mental skill, repetition builds new habits. This is why these conversation starters are designed to focus on one mindset a month rather than a variety of random questions. This gives the brain time to develop new neural connections that become permanent ways of thinking with repetition.
Eight more Mindsets for Happiness and Success:
Click on the SHOP button to purchase LET'S TALK digital conversation starters individually on the shopping cart.
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January - Resilience
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February - Kindness
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March - Purpose
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April - Generosity
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May - Optimism
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June - Responsibility
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July - Courage
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August - Mindfulness
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September - Empathy
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October - Honesty
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November - Gratitude
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December - Respect