child education
3 Tips to Boost Your Children’s Self-Esteem This School Year
Last Updated on July 27, 2024 by Daily News Staff
(Family Features) While packing bags and backpacks for school, there’s one essential that may be overlooked: Children’s self-esteem. Although many children may feel confident and self-assured at home, they can feel differently in the classroom. When children have high self-esteem, they’re less likely to reflect negative feelings toward others.
“If children can treat themselves kindly, they’ll treat others that way,” said Carter Peters from KinderCare Learning Centers’ education team. “When children feel encouraged, supported and loved, they are able to give those feelings to others.”
Consider these three tips to boost your children’s self-esteem.
Be Your Children’s Cheerleader. When praising or complimenting children for their achievements, be specific and include affirmation for positive character traits, such as “You were so kind to help Ms. Delmar take her recycling out” or “I’m proud of you for seeing she needed help and offering it.” Being specific with your compliments reinforces the idea that your children are kind and helpful. Eventually, they’ll offer others the same positive affirmations and be less likely to look to outside influences to define their sense of self.
“When children have high self-esteem and self-worth, they know when someone’s opinion of them is untrue,” Peters said. “Children with high self-esteem become adults capable of believing in themselves.”
Give Children Space to Safely Express Their Emotions. While it’s important to intentionally connect with your children one-on-one, it’s equally important to give them space to come to you for help. Let them know you notice when they don’t seem like themselves but try not to push them to share before they’re ready.
You can talk with your children about the ways they can communicate with you, aside from one-on-one conversations. If they find it easier to communicate their feelings through writing, you can go to the store together to pick out a journal. Children who are not yet proficient writers may prefer to draw pictures about their feelings. No matter the method, be sure to make time to check in with your children.
Teach Emotional Literacy and Replacement Skill Behavior. You can help your children move beyond comprehension of basic emotions – happy, sad, mad – and toward an understanding of more nuanced emotions. When children can identify their feelings, they’re closer to developing healthy responses.
Commonly labeled “bad behaviors” are often young children’s way of communicating something is wrong, so they may need help identifying the emotion driving their actions. It’s important for children to understand that while their feelings are acceptable, their behavior may not be. That’s where replacement skills – acceptable ways to express emotions – come in. For example, try saying “It’s OK to be mad. It’s not OK to hit other people. When you’re mad, you can hit a pillow.”
For more tips to help boost children’s self-esteem, visit kindercare.com.
SOURCE:
KinderCare
Our Lifestyle section on STM Daily News is a hub of inspiration and practical information, offering a range of articles that touch on various aspects of daily life. From tips on family finances to guides for maintaining health and wellness, we strive to empower our readers with knowledge and resources to enhance their lifestyles. Whether you’re seeking outdoor activity ideas, fashion trends, or travel recommendations, our lifestyle section has got you covered. Visit us today at https://stmdailynews.com/category/lifestyle/ and embark on a journey of discovery and self-improvement.
child education
When School’s Out, Community Steps In
Community: The joy of being a kid on summer vacation offers a time to explore with your friends, discover new things about the world and yourself and recharge for a few months before heading back to school in the fall. However, for millions of families, the end of the school year also marks the beginning of a stressful season filled with tough choices, as children can fall behind in the months away from the classroom.
(Feature Impact) The joy of being a kid on summer vacation offers a time to explore with your friends, discover new things about the world and yourself and recharge for a few months before heading back to school in the fall. However, for millions of families, the end of the school year also marks the beginning of a stressful season filled with tough choices, as children can fall behind in the months away from the classroom.
The summer gap begins when the school doors close and many children lose access to the daily routines, educational support and dependable nutrition that help them thrive. For families already juggling tight budgets and demanding schedules, summer can quickly become a season of added pressure and stress.
Summer learning loss – or the decline in academic skills and learning during the school break – can have a lasting impact on academic outcomes. Studies show over the summer, students can forget 20-30% of what they learned during the school year. Without the right support, students often start the new school year playing catchup, which can cause them to fall further behind.
Summer can also intensify food insecurity. Of the more than 22 million kids who rely on free or reduced-priced school meals, many lose access to these vital programs over the summer. When those meals disappear, families must stretch already limited budgets to cover up to 10 additional meals a week per child. In fact, recent United Way Worldwide data from 211 – the free 24/7 helpline that connects people with local resources – identified food access as one of the most pressing needs facing millions of families nationwide.
These overlapping pressures fall especially hard on millions of working families living paycheck to paycheck, including ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) households. They earn above the federal poverty level but still struggle to afford basic expenses like housing, medicine, food and transportation.
Addressing the summer gap requires a community-wide approach and solutions that meet hardworking families where they are. For example, United Way Community Schools are community-based hubs that bring together schools, social services agencies, volunteers and other community partners to provide students and families with essential support like tutoring, food access and health and wellness resources.
Families also need easy, practical, daily tips and local resources to make ends meet and help their kids stay on track.
Learning that Fits Your Day
For busy families, low- or no-cost learning moments that fit into packed schedules can make a real difference. Many communities and nonprofits offer dedicated programs to keep children active and learning during the summer, such as:
- Summer art classes, creative writing workshops and digital literacy tutoring at local libraries
- Free monthly book deliveries and reading challenges through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library – a United Way partner – or book exchanges at Little Free Libraries in high-traffic areas
- Gardening classes, nature appreciation classes and swim lessons through local parks and recreation departments
- Free weekly youth workshops offered by many public museums, zoos and botanical gardens
- Free virtual museum field trips through institutions like the Smithsonian and NASA Glenn Research Center
- Free online courses in topics ranging from coding to art or language learning
Accessing Your Community’s Food Network
Families shouldn’t have to choose between nutritious food and other essentials. Help is available to ensure kids have the nutrition needed to thrive over the summer. While resources vary by community, examples include:
- Youth-serving organizations serving as open summer meal sites, offering free breakfast and lunch to kids and teens
- City parks departments offering daily meal stations
- School districts offering summer meal programs; food delivery may be an option
- Local places of worship hosting open-door meal programs or distributing weekend grocery bags for families
For those looking to make a difference this summer, consider lending a hand to help children and families. Volunteering is a rewarding way to give back to your community. Whether it’s mentoring, serving meals, reading with students or supporting local programs, even a small time investment can make a lasting impact. After all, when families thrive, communities thrive.
To learn more about childhood summer learning programs, food initiatives and ways to support your community, visit unitedway.org.
SOURCE:
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The Substitute Teacher Who Wanted Blueprints of Our House
A fifth-grade assignment took a strange turn when a substitute teacher asked students to draw schematics of their homes. What followed — a wildly fictional floor plan and a priceless reaction from my mom — turned into one of my funniest childhood memories.
Last Updated on June 4, 2026 by Daily News Staff
The Substitute Teacher Who Wanted Blueprints of Our House
Elementary school memories tend to blend together — cafeteria pizza, playground arguments, the eternal struggle of times tables — but every once in a while, something happens that sticks with you for life. For me, that moment came in the fifth grade during a week when our regular teacher was out, and we cycled through substitute teachers like we were testing models for durability.
By midweek, in walked a substitute with a mysterious, slightly intense energy — the kind of vibe that suggested he either meditated at dawn or worked a graveyard shift doing something he couldn’t talk about. We settled into our seats, expecting worksheets or quiet reading time.
But nope.
He had other plans.
“Today,” he announced, “we’re going to draw schematics of our houses.”
Schematics. Not drawings. Not little houses with smoke coming out of the chimney. Actual blueprint-style schematics. He wanted the layout of our bedrooms, our parents’ rooms, and where the pets slept. Every detail.
Now, to be fair, Highlights Magazine did have a feature that month teaching kids how to draw floor plans. So maybe he was just a bit overenthusiastic about cross-curricular learning. Or maybe — and this is my completely rhetorical adult theory — he worked the graveyard shift as a cat burglar gathering intel between heists. Just moonlighting between blueprints.
While the rest of the class tried their best to recreate their actual homes, my imagination sprinted in a totally different direction. The house I drew had:
- A massive master bedroom with an oversized bathroom for my parents
- Separate bedrooms for us kids on the opposite side of the house
- A kitchen placed right in the center like a command center
- And the dog — the true VIP — had a luxurious two-story doghouse
I had basically created a dream home designed by a 10-year-old watching too much Fantasy Homes by the Yard.
Later that day, my mom asked the usual question: “So, what did you guys do today?”
“We drew schematics of our house,” I said casually.
The look on her face was instant and intense. She wasn’t panicked, but there was definitely a “Why does a substitute teacher need to know the exact layout of my home?” expression happening. Parental instincts activated.
But then I showed her my diagram.
She stared at it. Blinked. Then sighed with massive relief.
“This isn’t our house,” she said.
“Nope! I made it up,” I replied proudly.
Her shoulders relaxed so much she probably lost five pounds of tension in one instant. If the substitute was secretly planning a heist, my masterpiece of misinformation would have sent him to the wrong house entirely.
Looking back, the whole moment feels like a sitcom setup — a mysterious substitute collecting “house schematics,” me creating a completely fictional piece of architecture, and my mom going on a full emotional journey in under 30 seconds.
Maybe he was just excited about the Highlights Magazine floor-plan activity. Or maybe — just maybe — he moonlighted in cat burglary. We’ll never know.
But if he was, I like to think I threw him completely off the scent.
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Our Lifestyle section on STM Daily News is a hub of inspiration and practical information, offering a range of articles that touch on various aspects of daily life. From tips on family finances to guides for maintaining health and wellness, we strive to empower our readers with knowledge and resources to enhance their lifestyles. Whether you’re seeking outdoor activity ideas, fashion trends, or travel recommendations, our lifestyle section has got you covered. Visit us today at https://stmdailynews.com/category/lifestyle/ and embark on a journey of discovery and self-improvement.
News
Money Management: The Importance of Financial Literacy
You may have mastered the core subjects like math and grammar in school, but financial literacy – or understanding the basics of money management in order to help you make better financial decisions – often goes overlooked before adulthood. It’s not so much a course of study as it is a plan of action. When you understand how to earn, save, spend and invest wisely, you aren’t just building a stable future for yourself, but your family and community as well.
Last Updated on May 11, 2026 by Daily News Staff
(Feature Impact) You may have mastered the core subjects like math and grammar in school, but financial literacy – or understanding the basics of money management in order to help you make better financial decisions – often goes overlooked before adulthood. It’s not so much a course of study as it is a plan of action.
Financial literacy in the United States has remained stagnant at generally low levels for several years, according to research from TIAA Institute and the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center, with even lower levels among Gen Z. Yet greater financial literacy – including key aspects such as goal-setting, budgeting, saving, credit management and investing – is strongly linked to better financial outcomes, including lower rates of debt constraint and financial fragility.
While emboldening yourself to understand financial terms can be a little overwhelming at first, once you have a grasp of basic concepts you can begin to get a handle on your money and make better financial decisions. Simply put: When you understand how to earn, save, spend and invest wisely, you aren’t just building a stable future for yourself, but your family and community as well.
From nonprofit partnerships to volunteer-led programs and fee online resources, Schwab and its employees help millions of people every year build the knowledge and confidence to take charge of their financial futures by serving as board members, mentors, role models and educators.
Because financial health is a lifelong journey, the earlier people learn vital money skills, the better. That’s why the financial advisory services provider develops education programs geared toward kids that continue into adulthood, helping people no matter where they are on their journeys.
Talk Money
It’s never too early to start a conversation about financial literacy. Having teens identify goals that are important to them – such as concert tickets or a first car – can kickstart coversations about money. Working with your child (and a financial advisor, if necessary) on a plan for saving to realize those goals can serve as a jumping off point. After achieving some success, their enthusiasm may grow, which is a powerful motivator to keep saving.
Support School Initiatives and Programs
Outreach programs that empower young people to make smart financial decisions is key to a bright future. Programs like Money Matters – Schwab’s flagship financial education program utilized by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America – gives young people hands-on experience with all aspects of money and investing.
This example, and others, don’t just include program funding – they build partnerships that create impact and opportunity with national collaborations that reach more than 17 million youth annually, empowering young people with the tools and confidence to make smart financial decisions for life.
Spread the Financial Love
Championing financial literacy empowers everyone – individuals, families and communities. By serving as a board member, mentor, role model or educator to help bring financial literacy to others in your community, you can supply the tools and knowledge to lead programs that focus on giving back, empowering future generations in countless ways.
To learn more about financial literacy and find resources to empower your local community, visit SchwabMoneywise.com.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
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Our Lifestyle section on STM Daily News is a hub of inspiration and practical information, offering a range of articles that touch on various aspects of daily life. From tips on family finances to guides for maintaining health and wellness, we strive to empower our readers with knowledge and resources to enhance their lifestyles. Whether you’re seeking outdoor activity ideas, fashion trends, or travel recommendations, our lifestyle section has got you covered. Visit us today at https://stmdailynews.com/category/lifestyle/ and embark on a journey of discovery and self-improvement.
