Does your young child enjoy making up elaborate tales about what did (or did not) happen? Do you ever find your toddler “reading” a book to himself, remembering words or making up his own? Do your kids want to hear the same family stories over and over and over?

Do you ever feel concerned that they are “living in a dreamland” or not learning to tell the “truth”?

The good news is: They are normal! Storytelling is a natural part of our human experience. Young children learn from connecting with us through storytelling, both from reading and verbally. And they don’t always know how to distinguish a “true” story from one that is “made up.”

When your children tell you stories, listen for the truth in their words, even when some of the story is not “true.” They are sharing with you their desires, experiences and interpretations. There is so much to learn from the way they playfully interact with the world!

As early human beings, it was our verbal abilities and storytelling (creating of culture) that distinguished us from other species. We told stories to create a sense of belonging, to define meaning and to preserve our shared values.

I recently read a lovely essay written by a mother who began reading to her daughter as a newborn. She was delighted to discover that this ritual of reading and re-reading stories gives her daughter the confidence to tell her own stories. "Her six-year-old voice transforms into a seasoned storyteller, intoning mystery, suspense, humor, even love, as she reads aloud," Leslie Constans wrote.

Who are the little storytellers in your home? Tell us about what you are doing to support them in learning this important skill.

As you may have noticed, there is no shortage of magazines, publications or articles discussing the hot topic of nutrition these days. Personally, I find most of these materials to be overwhelming, too dry in content or just repetitive from last month's explanations. But there is one nutrition newsletter that I love to read: The Nutrition Action Healthletter. It is short (16 pages), concise, filled with pictures and just plain fun to read. The bimonthly newsletter presents excellent nutrition research in a concise format, with easy and practical lifestyle tips. It is the only newsletter that I actually read front to back. And for only $15 a year, I recently gave this newsletter subscription to five friends for holiday gifts!

The Nutrition Action Healthletter is published 10 times per year by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). CSPI is a nonprofit consumer health group that advocates honest food labeling and advertising and safer and more nutritious foods, and accepts no government or industry funding (not even advertising in their newsletter). Check out some of their articles or recipes on the CSPI website and consider subscribing to help support their work.

This video offers a good rundown of their accomplishments and goals. They created it to run on their website, which explains the "thanks for visiting" blurb at the end.


My favorite part of the newsletter? On the last page of every newsletter, they describe “RIGHT STUFF” vs “FOOD PORN”, and they break down 2 newer food products and categorize them accordingly. This month, the Chili's Restaurant Paradise Pie got a big thumbs down and shoved into the food porn category, due to the high calories (1600 calories per dessert!), excessive saturated fat content (35 grams) and 950 milligrams of sodium! You don’t even need to read the whole article to know that if a food fits into this category, you should avoid it entirely. Check out the full article here [PDF].

Have you seen the Nutrition Action Healthletter, or subscribe to another nutrition publication that doesn't overwhelm you with page counts, low relevance, and lots of advertising? Share your recommendations in the comments!

As a busy parent, you are probably great at multitasking. You have to be, right? Often, doing several things at once is a survival skill. But you also know how easy it is to get overwhelmed and how difficult it can be to complete anything. Sometimes the list just seems so long…

When you find yourself overwhelmed and short on time, try the following exercise:

1. Choose something that would feel really great to make headway on or that deserves your attention for more than just a few moments. You don’t have to complete the whole project, just give it some undivided attention.


2. Set a timer for 20 minutes and commit to doing that one thing with focus and intention for the entire time.


3. Stay present with your task and don’t let your attention waver or your mind create any judgment. Being hard on yourself is not going to help you right now!

Setting aside 20-minute blocks of time to focus intently on one task, one project or one activity can surprise you. And you might find that in one day, you can create several 20-minute blocks of time and they do add up!

Here are some ideas of what you can do with 20 minutes of focused attention:

Organize

• Find a small area of your house that is bugging you. Maybe it needs a deep clean, a serious de-clutter or a little bit of sprucing up!


• Do a whole house sweep. Grab a bag or box and rush through the house, grabbing all the clutter. Then take your box and put everything away. If you haven't used something for awhile, set is aside for donation.


• Sort and recycle stacked up mail, a pile of papers or your files.


• Clean out your email box or computer desktop. That feels really good!

Self-Care

• Crank up some tunes and dance for 20 minutes. This can be a real workout!


• Do a quick power walk around the block.


• Grab a book, pick a quiet corner and request 20 minutes of peace and relaxation from your family.


• Meditate, pray or stretch.

Vision

• Have a 20-minute brainstorming session about something that has been on your mind. Don’t let your pen leave the paper and jot down every thought you have, even if it doesn’t seem relevant.


• Dig out that dusty journal and spend a few precious moments dreaming about a creative idea you have been brewing, write a story or record a memory.

Relate

• Spend 20 minutes with your kids following their lead. Color, play with clay or read a story of their choosing. Commit to staying attentive and focusing all your attention on them. If your mind begins to create a grocery list or focus on a problem, remind yourself that you can do that later!


• Invite your partner to share a 20-minute active listening session. Split the time equally and you each talk about something important to you for the entire time with the other person listening (no comments, questions, or trying to "fix it"). Look into your partner’s eyes when they are talking and thank them for sharing. If you want to, you can also repeat back what you heard them say and offer some empathy or understanding for their feelings.

This won't take the place of longer sessions but it will give you a jumpstart. You will feel more proactive and productive and it can get your creative juices flowing! You might think 20 minutes is not long enough to do anything very well. The trick is to be very focused and mindful.