Carolyn Savage
Carolyn is a professional writer, proofreader, and editor living in Bend, Oregon with her husband and two pre-teen daughters. She has a background in wildlife management but switched to writing and editing when she became a mother. With her experience working for a small publishing company, as a freelance proofreader, and as a mother she shares insightful stories that support parents and grandparents.
She is the daughter of Raising Families co-founder Rick Stephens and holds the rank of black belt in taekwando. In her free time she loves reading fantasy novels, learning to craft from her enormously talented children, and then teaching what she’s learned to her enormously talented grandmother.
Posts by Carolyn Savage
15 Simple Ways to Spread Happiness
Age: 2+Time: 1+ minutesMaterials: depends on activityFocus: ways to spread happiness in your communityMarch has a lot of days that have to do with happiness (World Compliment Day, Share a Smile Day, National Let’s Laugh Day, and International Day of Happiness). With this in mind, we thought it would be a great month to spread happiness within our communities.Why Is It Good to Spread Happiness?When we spread happiness, we have the potential to change someone’s outlook on their day and our own. Research shows that putting a smile on our face, even when we wouldn’t normally smile, can make us
4 Easy Steps for Sharing Responsibility at Home
Age: 2+Time: 15+ minutesMaterials: paper and pencilFocus: working as a family team to care for shared spacesSharing responsibility at home for the spaces everyone shares will make your life much easier and teach your kids an important life skill. So, if you spend time each night picking up after your kids, keep reading. Because as soon as your kids can get things out by themselves, they are capable of putting them back. It doesn’t have to be hard to implement sharing responsibility at home, especially if you start when your kids are young. It can be as simple as letting
5 Simple Ways to Show Gratitude and Appreciation for the People that Make Your Community Run
Age: 2+Time: 15+ minutesMaterials: depends on activityFocus: showing gratitude for community membersThe holidays are a perfect time to show gratitude and appreciation for people who help your family in your day-to-day activities and make your community run. You don’t have to do much to acknowledge how much someone helps your family and community. A simple “thank-you” when they’re helping your family will show your appreciation.Ways to Show Gratitude and Appreciation in Your CommunityBut if you want to go beyond just a "thank-you," the following things will help you go above and beyond to help you do something nice to show
Simple 3 Step Role Reversal to Learn from Children
Age: 4+Time: 15+ minutesMaterials: depends on activityFocus: building confidence and life skillsWhen we think of our kids, we usually think of all the things we need to teach them before they move out. We usually don’t think about all the things they can teach us. But there are many things we can learn from children. There are general things that children teach us, like we should live in the moment more, that being curious is a good thing, and that we can learn a thing or two about patience. There are more specific things we can learn from children, though,
12 Easy Ways to Show Gratitude through Random Acts of Kindness
Age: 2+Time: 5+ minutesMaterials: depends on activityFocus: ways to show gratitude and kindnessTeaching our children to focus on the positive things in life can go a long way to improving their happiness. Expressing gratitude, which studies have shown makes you happier, is an excellent way to do this.Ways to Show GratitudeThere are many ways to show gratitude. You can take a few minutes at the start of a shared meal to have everyone say a few things they’re grateful for. You can have slips of paper for everyone to anonymously write down something they’re grateful for during the week and
