My Daughter Learns the Difference between Happiness and Cake

"Mummy, I’m sad,’" my three-year-old said to me. "What’s making you feel sad?’" I sat down next to her and asked. ‘Ummm,’ she said, and I could see the confusion in her eyes as she tried to find the words to answer. Despite her knowledge of hundreds of words, and her almost constant state of conversation, you realise how limited a child’s speech is in moments like these … Happiness is the current obsession with my daughter … Read full article
Five Ways to Become Happier – Share with Your Kids
Tal Ben Shahar, expert on positive psychology and best selling author of Happier and Being Happy shares 5 simple but powerful ideas in this quick video about ways to be happier right now. These ideas can be shared with your children and also included in your everyday parenting approaches. Inspiring. Read full article
Emotional Literacy Belongs in Schools Too

There are many examples of individual schools in the United States, the UK and even in Australia, that deliver emotional intelligence curriculum to students simply because they have been fortunate enough to have the human and financial resources (and sometimes support from a University). This video example (is a) reminder of how and why a school uses emotional literacy to improve educational outcomes and the school environment. Read full article
Happy Children – Secrets of How They Think

Interviews with children about how they view their lives and the world around them. Elizabeth Gould, conducted wide-ranging interviews and now tells the children’s stories and reveals four distinct patterns of how these happy children think. Even though these happy children face all the usual ups and downs of childhood, including bullying and family issues, they have found a way to be happy and stay happy. Read full article
What Do You Most Want For Your Children?

One of the main reasons I changed careers (from lawyer to executive coaching and now parenting publishing) was because I became a parent. I loved many things about being a lawyer, but there were a few other things pressing on my mind and heart …I read Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence, Why It Can Matter More than IQ and felt instantly that the ideas in that book represented the path to what I wanted most for our children: happiness and fulfilment, people to love them and people for them to love. Read full article
Open Letter to Australian Prime Minister -Teach Emotional Intelligence in Schools
An open letter via video from parent of three boys, emotional intelligence expert and parenting publisher Yvette Vignando – asking for Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Minister for Education Peter Garrett to take action on including a quality social and emotional learning program in the Australian National Curriculum. Read full article
6 Parent Tips – Building Happiness in Children’s Lives – from Tal Ben Shahar

I like reading articles and research about what makes people happy. I read them with a critical eye for over-the-top advice that no-one could use and try to find things that are practical and sound like common sense….A Harvard professor, Tal Ben Shahar’s class on happiness was apparently the most popular on campus. No wonder – who doesn’t want to know more about that? Read full article
Sad Children Outperform Happy Children. Really?

Last year I was drawn to a series of articles referring to research from the Universities of Virginia (United States) and Plymouth (United Kingdom) suggesting that for children, happiness may not always mean good academic results. If you have read Martin Seligman’s work on optimism and its value for children’s wellbeing and later success in life, this suggestion could leave you scratching your head and wondering. Read full article
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