Family by God&#039;s Design

Raising Children Happiness

Raising happy children takes intentional effort these days. Perhaps it always has. Fortunately, a study from the University of Bristol suggests seven basic practices that can promote happiness…and so raise our children’s happiness. In this study, 51% of the participants maintained the practices that promoted happiness and reaped the benefits “during the following years.” We...

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May 7, 2022

Take Your Teen From Screen Time to “Exer-Time”

We hear a great deal about the potential impact of “too much” screen time on our teens’ mental and emotional health. An international study published in August of 2021, however, offers a more nuanced look at screen time and a possible “antidote.” Specifically, this study (summarized here) utilized data from over 577,000 adolescents between 11-years-old...

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Building Your Children’s Impulse Control for a Lifetime

We all want our children to develop the ability to control their impulses, to practice “response inhibition” at the appropriate times. After all, good impulse control contributes to better academic success, goal achievement, occupational success, and social relationships. A study published in 2021 suggests an interesting way to help children gain impulse control that will...

Family Shepherds

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November 6, 2021

Help Children Learn with These 2 Surprising Twists

You can encourage your children to learn their schoolwork (and anything else really) with these two surprising twists. Give them a break. Neurobiologists have found that taking a break while learning and studying helps us retain the information for a longer period of time. Sure, cramming may get a person through the test (there is...

Family Shepherds

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April 10, 2021

Exercise Your Depression

Families and happiness seem to go hand in hand. At least it appears so in Facebook posts and television commercials. But we all know families experience hardships and struggles as well. In fact, our family members might struggle with depression and that depression may deepen in times of stress like we are experiencing today. If...