If you had an imaginary friend as a child you know how special they were to you.  For many of us, however, parenting or guiding a child with an imaginary pal may be a novel experience or even challenge.  Dave McGinn discusses the many benefits to a child having imaginary friends. Here are a few tips on what to do (and what NOT to do) when you are faced with a face you can’t even see!

“In generations’ past, discovering your child’s bestie was a rainbow-haired elf or invisible flying dolphin would be cause for alarm. Now, Dave McGinn finds, researchers are tallying the many benefits – from better social skills to heightened creativity in adulthood – associated with these flights of fancy”

Full Article Here…

Here is a feel-good article to round out the month of December as well as 2015! Uno the Therapy Dog is a special breed of the canine variety. He spends his time volunteering at Children’s Sibley Heart Center giving children the comfort they need to feel brave and smile through their fear.

Every day, Uno accompanies Clark at work, helping the chaplain provide spiritual and emotional support to patients and their families in Children’s Sibley Heart Center at the Egleston campus near Emory University. For two years they have made their rounds together, visiting patients and their families, as well as warmly greeting doctors and nurses.

Sometimes, when everything else seems to fall short, Uno is the one thing that can reach the sickest children.

“He has gotten kids out of bed when nothing else seems to work,” said Clark. “Sometimes it’s as easy as asking the child if they want to take Uno for a walk.”

Full article here…

In light of this months tragic attacks in Paris, it’s so important that we know how to broach the topic of terrorism with our children. In this Article, Lindsay Layton highlights the strategies of professor emerita Judith A. Myers-Walls, of Purdue University.  Myers-Walls offers tips for parents and educators with students in elementary school through high school.

The key, Myers-Walls says, is not to ignore what happened but not to focus heavily on it. Maintaining routine is an important way to reassure young children. Events are happening in the world, but they’re still going to go to school, they’re still having lunch, they’re still playing with their toys. Reassure them that they are safe, that the event did not happen near them, it involved a relatively small number of people and there are many adults who are keeping them safe.

Full article here…