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mentoring

Back-to-school articles

Best Back-to-School Articles for Parents: 2023

Back-to-school is always a time when parents and teachers revisit what is important for children and how to best support their positive development. This popular list of back-to-school articles, started in 2012, has been updated for the 2023-24 school year. Some articles focus on the challenges of schooling during the […]

Compass-Inspired
skeptic teenager

Skeptic or Cynic? How to Model Positive Skepticism to Children

Skeptics has been given a bad rap in modern society. Why? Because skepticism is often confused with cynicism. Let’s explore the distinctions and why it’s important to teach children the art of becoming a skeptic. A cynic distrusts most information they see or hear, particularly when it challenges their own […]

Curiosity
Perfectionism in children

Perfectionism in Children Can Be Moderated by Parents

In today’s culture of high stakes testing and tough competition for college admissions, perfectionism in children can be viewed as a desirable trait. But recent research shows that perfectionism can interfere with a child’s ability to achieve goals and shape their futures–the core of what it means to be resourceful. […]

Resourcefulness
Role models influence youth

How Role Models Influence Youth Strategies for Success

As teenagers grow to young adulthood, who are their role models? Who do they emulate? Why? One of the most popular articles at Roots of Action is What is a Role Model? Five Qualities that Matter to Teens. Collected from my research on highly successfully, civically-engaged young people, it describes […]

Resourcefulness
Coaching Youth Sports: Beyond Winners and Losers

Coaching Youth Sports: Beyond Winners and Losers

Coaching youth sports is a rewarding job, particularly for adults who see their roles beyond winning and losing. Coaches of youth sports are role models and key players in making sports experiences gratifying and beneficial for children and teens. According to the National Alliance for Youth Sports (NAYS), “sports participation […]

Resilience
Who is my role model?

What is a Role Model? Five Qualities that Matter to Youth

A positive role model serves as an example–inspiring children to live meaningful lives. Role models show young people how to live with integrity, optimism, hope, determination, and compassion. They play an essential part in a child’s positive development. Natalie, age 18, described her role model as a person with “a […]

Integrity
Science Experiments for Kids: Making Learning Fun, by Marilyn Price-Mitchell PhD

Science Experiments for Kids: Making Learning Fun

If you’re looking for creative science experiments for kids, we’ve got some great resources for you! Whether or not you have a budding ecologist, neuroscientist, or engineer, all children gain important abilities when parents support and encourage doing at-home, easy science experiments. For kids of all ages, the benefits are […]

Resourcefulness
50 Gifts that Grow Happy Kids, by Marilyn Price-Mitchell PhD

50 Gifts That Grow Happy Kids

Don’t you love the excitement an unexpected gift brings to a child? I remember the way my daughter eagerly anticipated the arrival of Santa Claus and how each gift brought joy to her face. Some toys or stuffed animals became favorites for many years to come. But most gifts brought […]

Compass-Inspired
Self-Awareness in a World of Constant Chatter, by Marilyn Price-Mitchell PhD

Self-Awareness in a World of Constant Chatter

Technology and self-awareness can seem incompatible. In fact, mobile devices often prevent us from seeing what’s right before our eyes. YouTube is filled with hilarious and sometimes scary videos of people unexpectedly falling into water fountains, walking into walls, or tripping off curbs. On a recent trip to the shopping […]

Self-Awareness
Mentoring Youth: Being a Good Teacher and Helpful Friend, by Varda Meyers Epstein

Mentoring Youth: Being a Good Teacher and Helpful Friend

Robert Moskovits began mentoring David* at a summer camp when David was 12. For the next four summers, the two spent time together during camp sessions, chatting about the deep stuff in life. Even after David was too old for camp, Robert stayed in touch, calling him from time to […]

Resourcefulness
Teaching Children Perseverance and the Value of Work, by Marilyn Price-Mitchell PhD

Teaching Children Perseverance and the Value of Work

America Rice, age 11, recently expressed her views about hard work and perseverance: “If you want something,” she said, “you have to earn it. Everything is not going to come to you just when you want it.” How do children grow up to think and feel like America Rice? How […]

Resilience