Family Life Fathers

Fatherlessness is a serious issue in our world. Fathers together with mothers are the future. Parents are the first and most important teachers of children. Family Life Education and Nurturing Families Network are pleased to bring you inspiration here @ FAMILY LIFE FATHERS

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                      TODAY  is Read Across America Day !

                    Hop on Pop until he reads you a story, kids

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Family/Youth Issues as referenced in “West Side Story”

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“It’s scary … not having enough money, having no car, to where I feel like I won’t be able to provide for both,” says Nate. He spent his childhood watching his own mother — single and always struggling to make ends meet for her family — and he doesn’t want history to repeat itself. “I’m going to be a better father than I ever had … I didn’t know mine,” says Nate.

"I'm working for my baby's future now," he says.

                                    article by Kari Huus at NBC News

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TALK to your young children and invest in their future !

(because word-poverty leads to financial poverty...)

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Show Them the Rainbow

Show them the rainbow for rainbows don't wait And soon they are adults; too soon it's too late Rainbows and childhood too soon disappear Like an illusion you thought they were here. Someday a rainbow may be hard to find, And childhood and rainbows will be left behind. Like ripples on water they vanish and fade. Then what will become of the plans that you made? So, take time to show them the wonderful things Like snowflakes and dew drops and butterfly wings. Show them the moonbeams that shine down at night, A sky full of starlight all twinkling and bright. Soon, you'll discover some treasures can't wait. So show them the rainbow before it’s too late. Yes, show them the rainbow while they are still small. For soon you will find  there's no rainbow at all.

                                                                 - author unknown -

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Il Papa speaks to papas

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Good News for Ornery Aggressive Guys who just Knocked Up their Girlfriend:

Both the sexual bond with the mother and the conception of the child appear to reduce a man's testosterone levels, which makes him more cooperative and less ornery and aggressive. [...]  a fascinating cluster of brain and hormonal changes, all of them pro-social, appear to help shape and guide men's transition to fatherhood. Some of them occur before the child is born! Everyone knows that becoming a mother changes a woman's body. But who knew that becoming father also changes a man at the biological level?

                                       full article by David Blankenhorn

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                     Dads get real and KEEP it real !

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School vs. Achievement Gap

Learning gaps for children continue to grow in a number of cities and states, and most of the efforts by schools and communities to make those gaps disappear have either had minimum impact or have failed.  

The gaps are extreme in some settings.       

[...]

We now understand the science of brain development at a higher level than ever before. We know all should know and understand that brain development begins before birth and the first life experiences for each child have major biological impacts on each child's brain. 

                                                              more at Huffington Post

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Father Knows Best

“When children feel neglected by fathers who focus only on their problems, on their work or their own personal realization, this creates a situation of orphans in the children and youth of today, who live disoriented, without the good example or prudent guidance of a father,” the Pope said.

 Pope Francis said more on the subject HERE

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AD Council goes DAD Council !

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Distant Fathers = Troubled Sons

[Oregon shooter] Mercer’s father’s lack of contact with his son echoes Newtown spree killer Adam Lanza’s parental alienation. And the distant relationship between Columbine shooter Eric Klebold’s disaffection from his father. Although correlation does not equal causation, familial relationships – or a lack thereof – appear to be a marker for mass shooters. And, it should be said, teenage gang bangers.

Make of that what you will.

                                                from: Robert Farago

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Learning to love literacy: Read to Grow

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CT Dads: Read with your Kids  !

First the good news:

A higher rate of 3- and 4-year-olds in Connecticut were enrolled in preschool than in any other state between 2011 and 2013.

Now the bad news:

Connecticut has the largest achievement gap in math and nearly the worst gap in reading between students from low-income families and their peers. And over the last 10 years, the gap on the National Assessment of Educational Progress test in reading has actually grown.

Did You Know...

61 percent of low-income families have no age-appropriate books at all in their homes for their children.

Babies begin learning the moment they're born. Rapid learning takes place during the early months after birth, more than any other time in a person's life. By age 3, a baby's brain has grown to about 80% of its adult size.

Sharing books with children beginning at birth promotes bonding and attachment. The time spent together provides children with positive experiences that foster healthy emotional as well as cognitive development.  

                             Check out Read to Grow’s bilingual website for more

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 The film, executive produced by actor Omar Epps, gives viewers an intimate look into the lives of 4 New York fathers doing the best that they can to remain a constant presence in the lives of their children. Few topics of relevancy are off limits as each father shares the highs, lows, rewards and hardship of  parenting as a man.

                                                           learn more at Madame Noire

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Paternity Leave?

A study by Bar Ilan University last year showed that there’s nothing inherent about women that makes us better parents. Women who are the primary caregivers develop neural pathways in their brains that make them more responsive to emotional cues in their children, but, according to the study, the same pathways developed in fathers who were the primary caregiver.

It’s not about a hardwired maternal instinct, in other words. The amount of time spent alone caring for a child is what enables men and women to become instinctively great parents.       [...] It’s also part of the reason that “daddy-only” time is important. Taking two weeks off when the child is born does not give the same benefits to dads, mums or children as when dads take three weeks or more off once mum has returned to work.

FROM: Gabrielle Jackson in The Guardian