Improve Your Communication Skills
Good Relationships – Healthy Relationships – Tips for Kids
Relationships are hard at any age. Remember that we don’t just talk about relationships when we mean a boyfriend or a girlfriend – it’s about how you get on with your parents, your friends and other people important to you.
There are certain basic ideas that are important to developing good relationships; you master these and life suddenly becomes a lot less stressful! Alice Hoyle has some ideas that may help you have better relationships with the people in your life.
Communication
Image by Robert Collins on Unsplash
Communication is the most important aspect of any relationship. Sharing things with people in your life is important. We do this mostly by speaking and listening. It is important to share how you feel about things and to listen and try to understand how others feel about things (this is called empathy).
How good are you at both talking AND listening? If you favour doing only one of them in a relationship then this isn’t as balanced as it could be- you probably need to work on doing both and so should the other person.
Also sometimes people might say something but their body language (how someone uses their body or their facial expression) maybe saying something different. Take some time to consider what is your body language saying when you talk? What is their body language saying? Do you make eye contact when you talk?
A key to successful communication is to use “I” statements instead of “you” statements- eg. “I feel sad when you call me silly” is better than “You calling me silly makes me sad” because the second one can put the person on the defensive straight away and the conversation can go badly after that.
Interview with Great British Bake Off Finalists 2013 – Ruby Tandoh and Kimberley Wilson
We were lucky enough to catch up with Great British Bake Off finalists 2013 – Ruby Tandoh and Kimberley Wilson – at the fantastic ‘Be Remarkable‘ event sponsored by Nokia. They were happy to chat with us about baking, new experiences, and believing in yourself.
The Doncaster Book Awards – By Kids for Kids
There are lots of children’s book awards, but the Doncaster Book Awards is special. That’s because children decide not only which books they want to win, but even which ones are on the shortlist.
Doncaster is in Yorkshire, in the north of England. Lots of schools in the area, alongside many home-educated kids, register and take part in the awards. First, the children select the shortlist for different categories of books, and these are then voted on by all the schools and the children. Sometimes book publishers ask to get their books on the list, but the answer is always no. This one is by children, for children!
Tarragon: the Snake in your Kitchen
Even if you are not a budding chef, you might have heard of this herb. It can be used in all sorts of ways in cooking, especially with chicken, eggs and fish. And if you are fortunate enough to have tried French cuisine, you may have had it in Bearnaise sauce.
But where did the name come from? You might think it looks very English, but in fact, this word has had quite a journey to reach us in the form it is today in English.
“Tarragon” first appeared in this form in the 1530s, but it came from an earlier English form; taragon. This was formed from the Middle French term targon, which came from Medieval Latin tragonia. But the story doesn’t end here. There is an intriguing twist in the tale.
Are Rewards the Right Approach? Written By You
14-year-old Gabriella told us that her school gives lots of rewards for doing well, or for good behaviour. It got her thinking about reward systems, and if they are a good idea.
I’m sure everyone has been offered a reward for doing the right thing at some point in their lives, whether it has been your parents rewarding you for your actions or teachers at school.
When you are presented with the idea of a reward it makes you want to succeed right? Or does it? I know from personal experience that people aren’t necessarily excited by the prospect of being given a reward and when they are, they are usually set on the reward and not the idea behind it. For example, prizes for winning competitions often attract entries and participants often enter because of the prize and not because they are really interested in the theme of the competition. The same kind if thing comes out of rewards at school.