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Potter Consider sitting down with your children just to talk.

Six Wishes For Children In This New Year!

by Rosemary Lee Potter, Ed.D.
Special to Tropical Breeze

As we arrive inside this new year there are whole bundles of ideas we could wish for children. So much is going on in the world, their world, that it’s hard to narrow it down to just a few special wishes. However, practical and positive parents are doing just that — selecting the ideas and information which best fits their youngsters along the new year’s path.

Here is a list gleaned from parents of students two to twenty-two — wishes, maybe guiding ideas — that are working for them and which other parents can choose to use too.

Wish 1. Take time — celebrate the baby new year with an age-old idea. Spend time, not necessarily pre-scheduled, but as you go and can get. Be together without TV or the newspaper. Possible? Thing called going for a walk? Just talking? Just don’t let the busy regular schedule — whatever it is — take over. You never get the lost time together back. Ever.

Wish 2. READ — this means read to, read with, and read along, a lot! Never a new year arrives without the reminder that there are so many books and so little time. Take young ones and older ones alike to the library. Make sure it is easy to get books and magazines. Read together — not just a bedtime. And do not stop reading to young people because they can now read for themselves. Remember a child, even one who reads well, is unlikely to have the fluency a parent has in a good, sometimes harder story than a child can read at his or her given “level,” grade or experience.

Make this reading thing memorable. Can you recall an adult who read to you?

Wish 3. GO PLACES together! There will be years in which children and young people will go away and all about without their parents. We all did and so will they. Now’s the new year, make time frequently — no, regularly — to go do something together or just not go anywhere, but stay home and do something together.

While together may mean some home project, be sure to play. Make a resolution right now, play — a board game, a wacky active game, a sport in the front or back yard. Do it. Do not look back this time next new year and wish you had gone and done things with your children. At the least try a double feature at two theaters away from the usual ones — with a food break in between!

Wish 4. Make learning fun — everything from finding out how things work to creating and assembling things. The non-fiction section of the library has great books on everything from folding paper airplanes and doing string games to building a castle with gelatin or blocks. Some research at the right level together can lead to paper airplane folding or kite-building/flying contests and cook-offs (mom and boys vs. dad and girls?), treasure hunts, fashion design, even producing instant heirloom family videos. Learn together. Be sure that the adult is not an expert, but a supervisor part of the learning experience.

Wish 5. Just talk. Consider sitting down with children just to talk. Hint: Have some imaginative and also challenging topics for use — plan ahead on this. Vary conversations on serious and silly topics and make sure the youngsters get an authentic opportunity to talk — no holds barred. Feeling comfortable about family discussion sets the scene for strong shared talk if something really super significant needs to be addressed.

Wish 6. Get going on all five wishes. Don’t make the whole plan just wishful thinking!

This new year hug your children close and start the year with that kind of contact and then keep it up all year! If you already do this, bravo and keep it up! Have a happy one! This way all you love and who know you also know how much your family matters!

© 2007 Rosemary Lee Potter. All Rights Reserved.Rosemary Lee Potter, Ed.D., has been a teacher since 1960, including 21 years at Safety Harbor Middle School, and is now a reading teacher at Carwise Middle School, Palm Harbor. Contact her at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or by mail in care of Tropical Breeze, P.O. Box 585, Safety Harbor, FL 34695.