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Home » creative / creativity » Page 2

Handy Family Tips: Color Coded Keys

Keys

If you ever see my key chain, you will probably be very shocked by the enormous number of keys on it. It looks very similar to this photo. I have so many keys on there, it has become a little ridiculous. I have 3 keys for my house (two for the door, and one for the screen door), two sets of car keys (one for each car), and the garage door key. When I worked a day job, I also had a collection of work keys, which were even less easy to identify.

While I manage to find which key is used for what (most of the time), I find that kids struggle a bit with it. I came up with a few solutions to make it a bit easier. I have used all of them at some point or another and hope you will find them as helpful as I did.

This post is part 19 of 24 in the series Handy Family Tips

Read Handy Family Tips: Color Coded Keys »

Published: March 20, 2014 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: December 25, 2019In: Parenting, Home Tags: home / house, how to, family matters, kids / children, tips, creative / creativity, practical parenting / parents

How to Have a Happy Life

The happy Baras family

I have dedicated my life to promoting happy living. I have watched many people living the life they want and, unfortunately, too many people who have no clue about bringing happiness into their lives.

I suggest to all my clients that they come up with an A to Z list of living a happy life. Below is just one version of what they have come up with. I hope it will encourage you to come up with your own.

Appreciate yourself and others. Accept everything as it is. Appreciation is the ability to see good in yourself and others. It does not change who you are but how you perceive things.

Be yourself! This is the main goal in life. Do not try to be someone else. It is draining. You are unique, special and perfect, just the way you are. Cherish it!

This post is part 5 of 6 in the series A-to-Z Guides

Read How to Have a Happy Life »

Published: February 25, 2014 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: December 25, 2019In: Personal Development Tags: emotional development, choice, happiness, motivation, Life Coaching, focus, fun, responsibility, attitude, values, tips, art, personal development / personal growth / personality development / self improvement, money, creative / creativity, success, freedom, hugs

Proud as a Peacock (again)

Peacock

Being a mother has been one of the greatest achievements of my life. Each of my kids is an achievement, and they are also big achievers themselves. Some say that it is a cycle. We, as parents, make our kids successful, loving achievers and in return they make us successful, loving achievers.

One of the best descriptions of my feeling towards them is pride. They do amazing things and I am enormously proud of them. I have come up with a theory that I like to call “Pride Therapy”. Every time one of my kids has an achievement, by proxy, I have also achieved something.

In my coaching and presentations, I sometimes ask people to describe their feelings as animals. I find it makes it easier to express these feeling. It does not have to be an animal that represents all your feelings all the time. Each feeling is a different animal. For example, you might be a panther in the office, and a sloth on a relaxed Sunday.

Read Proud as a Peacock (again) »

Published: November 12, 2013 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: December 25, 2019In: Personal Development, Parenting Tags: creative / creativity, feeling, practical parenting / parents, inspiration, art, emotional intelligence, mother, happiness, presentations, imagination, kids / children

Best Time Management Quotes

Man running inside clock

Mastering time management is an art. The good thing about it is that everyone, even those who are not very creativity, can master it.

I was not born an artist of time management. Life circumstances “forced” me to develop these skills. I have to admit though, that it brought me a lot of certainty and even success.

Since I am a fan of quotes, I have been collecting ones about time management. They have helped me over the years to develop an appreciation for time and to make a good use of it.

Read Best Time Management Quotes »

Published: October 8, 2013 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: December 25, 2019In: Personal Development Tags: planning, skills, inspiration, success, choice, action, wisdom, time management, creative / creativity, procrastination

Kids Learn Through Play

Little boy in a straw hat

For children, life is a playground. They love to play. From tiny babies who hold toys and manipulate them clumsily, to school children, who play sophisticated games that require thinking, planning and manipulating, kids just love games. In fact, games are a source of calm and comfort for most. They stimulates the mind and body using a “fun incentive”.

Education in early childhood is very important in building the foundation for happy learning. The early impression children have of learning determines their attitude towards acquiring new knowledge later on in life. Researchers discovered that pre-teen children who called their learning activities “play” were more successful, happier in school and more socially content at the end of adolescence than those who considered their learning activities “work”.

Children play games for many purposes. For example, games can be used to improve social skills. During games, kids must negotiate, share, relate and connect with others. This helps develop understanding, compassion, empathy, acceptance and trust. Later on, this allows healthy intimacy.

Read Kids Learn Through Play »

Published: September 3, 2013 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: June 5, 2019In: Education / Learning Tags: school, fun, success, k-12 education, anxiety, academic performance, beliefs, attitude, empowerment, kids / children, motivation, self confidence / self esteem / self worth, learning styles, creative / creativity, social skills, education / learning, memory, emotional development, success experience, practical parenting / parents, early childhood, activity, teaching / teachers

Teaching & Education Beliefs: Attitudes & Responsibilities

Teaching special thinkers card

Here are the last 20 of my top 100 beliefs about teaching and education. Today’s beliefs are about teacher’s attitudes and responsibilities. To read all of them, check out the Teaching & Education Beliefs.

1. In order to raise a new generation of thinkers, teaching should encourage kids to question, even it is means they question you. During my lessons, I teach the kids to question me and the world around them; we should not keep doing things just because we always have. If we do that, we never grow and evolve. Our job as teacher is not to think for them, but to teach children to think for themselves.

2. If you focus on a child’s problems, all you will see is problems. If you focus on their strengths, you will see their gifts. Teachers consider kids problematic or gifted depending on what they focus on.

“Teaching is not about what we give our students but about what they choose to take. We spend too much time giving our students information and too little teaching them how to absorb it” – Ronit Baras

This post is part 5 of 6 in the series Teaching & Education Beliefs

Read Teaching & Education Beliefs: Attitudes & Responsibilities »

Published: June 28, 2013 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: December 25, 2019In: Parenting Tags: beliefs, personal development / personal growth / personality development / self improvement, empowerment, creative / creativity, wisdom, education / learning, government, feeling, motivation, expectation, learning styles, intelligence, practical parenting / parents, school, k-12 education, teaching / teachers, music, kids / children, success, tips, emotional intelligence, acceptance / judgment / tolerance

Teaching & Education Beliefs: Think Ahead

Education in letter chain

Teachers, just like everybody else, do better when they think ahead and get organized. Today’s 20 teaching and education beliefs are about this. If you are here for the first time, you may want to start reading “Teaching & Education Beliefs” from the start of the series.

1. When I need to cover a topic over 8 weeks, I aim to finish it early, maybe in 6 weeks. This gives me time to deal with unexpected circumstances that pop up. If everything goes to plan, we have 2 weeks to have fun. If not, we have two weeks to compensate for the delay.

2. If I want to help my student, I must take care of myself. Kids are born with senses to read the people around them. There is no point pretending when you are around them. They will be able to tell when something is wrong.

This post is part 4 of 6 in the series Teaching & Education Beliefs

Read Teaching & Education Beliefs: Think Ahead »

Published: June 20, 2013 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: December 25, 2019In: Parenting Tags: education / learning, skills, conflict, birthdays, success, fun, emotional intelligence, k-12 education, practical parenting / parents, failure, academic performance, teaching / teachers, beliefs, public speaker, goals / goal setting, research, attitude, change, kids / children, government, acceptance / judgment / tolerance, motivational speaker, self confidence / self esteem / self worth, school, society, creative / creativity, touch, intelligence

National Teacher Appreciation Day

National Teacher Appreciation Day was this week on May 7 2013. This is a wonderful idea. Teachers deserve much more appreciation than they currently receive.

Teaching and education are the tool and the outcome in a student’s life. Much like the artist uses a brush to paint. The teacher is the artist, teaching is the brush and education is the finished canvas.

Teaching has been my journey for the last 27 years. I am not a school teacher any more but I still consider myself an educator. I teach, I coach, I present, I motivate, I do public speaking, I write, I do community work and in all those things I educate kids and grownups to find the gift they have inside let it shine.

Read National Teacher Appreciation Day »

Published: May 9, 2013 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: October 9, 2020In: Education / Learning Tags: attitude, responsibility, motivational speaker, kids / children, success, dreams, behavior / discipline, emotional intelligence, affirmations, creative / creativity, role model, fun, education / learning, truth, assessment, thought, beliefs, compassion, contribution, empowerment, academic performance, teaching / teachers, wisdom, positive attitude tips, early childhood, mind, public speaker, special education, rules, positive, school, motivation

Down Syndrome & Inspiration

I learnt about Down Syndrome first hand during my first year of university. I was working with a child with Down Syndrome during my work experience. At first, it was scary and I felt devastated. After getting to know the kid, I learned that he was no different than any other child with intellectual difficulties. To my greatest surprise, he improved quickly and learned a lot. It made me wonder how far we could go. I had my doubts when he did not get things the first time around, but he taught me that as long as I continued to teach him, he would continue to learn.

This experience, coupled with my work on a project about creative thinking (where we tried to teach physics to grade 1 students), taught me that too often we limit kids by our expectations. If we allow them to move forward at their own pace, they will exceed our highest expectations.

Read Down Syndrome & Inspiration »

Published: April 25, 2013 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: November 9, 2021In: Parenting Tags: acceptance / judgment / tolerance, early childhood, affirmations, self confidence / self esteem / self worth, skills, law of attraction, creative / creativity, inspiration, story, education / learning, emotional intelligence, persistence, expectation, how to, compassion, practical parenting / parents, choice, video, teaching / teachers, beliefs, positive attitude tips, empowerment, positive, change, attitude, motivation, kids / children, family matters

Six Human Needs: Contribution

Connection is the last of the six human needs.

In my last few posts on human needs, we talked about how people have needs for certainty, variety, significance, love & connection and growth. The last need left for us to discuss is contribution. If we think of our needs in pairs, growth and contribution go together. These two needs usually appear last, after we have found ways of attaining the other four needs.

Unlike some of the other needs, growth and contribution are not in conflict with each other. They do not need to be in balance. Rather, the more we have of one, the more we have of the other one.

In the last chapter, I gave some examples to increase personal growth. In this chapter, I will cover examples to improve contribution.

Contribution is any act or intention to act that improves the position of others. It can be a physical improvement or even an emotional improvement. If the interaction has made the other person feel better, even in a small way, you have contributed to someone else’s life.

This post is part 7 of 7 in the series Six Human Needs

Read Six Human Needs: Contribution »

Published: April 16, 2013 by Ronit Baras
Last modified: March 19, 2021In: Personal Development Tags: personal development / personal growth / personality development / self improvement, happiness, creative / creativity, focus, motivation, freedom, skills, decision making, emotional intelligence, needs, certainty, how to, positive attitude tips, education / learning, choice, positive, feeling, action, attitude, contribution, beliefs, leadership, practical parenting / parents, research, behavior / discipline, teaching / teachers, control, health / wellbeing, change

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