Kit Wilkinson's Blog, page 7

Hot Buttons: Guest Blog with Nicole O’Dell

Pressing the “Hot Buttons” By Nicole O’Dell

What are Hot Buttons?

Well, in the broader sense, the phrase Hot Buttons means a lot of different things, anything really, that can get a rise out people. Something that charges them up and receives an intense reaction. For the purposes of Choose NOW Ministries, I’ve defined hot buttons as those tough issues that teenagers face–the things parents are often more afraid of and most hesitant to talk about.

Some examples include:

Drugs
Alcohol
Sex
Friendships
Racism
Internet Activity
Faith Matters
Divorce
Dating
Bullying
Occult
and more


Why press the Hot Buttons ?

Why not just leave it alone and let the kids figure it out? We can pray for them and trust it all to work out in the end. In some ways it does work itself out, true. Circumstances happen, pressure hits, relationships change. . .and your teens gets to figure it all out. In the heat of the moment. On their own. Hopefully they’ll make the right choice, but it’s really hard to know what will happen when the prep work isn’t done.

Take an issue like dating–we talk about the boundaries. We set rules for curfew and other things. We even make sure we apprrove of the date and talk about saying no to sexual advances. Right?

And that’s great. It really is. But there’s something missing. Our teens need to know what to do and what not to do, and what we expect of them, but they also need to understand why that’s going to be difficult for them. How does the body respond in ways that make it tough to say no? What will the feelings be like that make it difficult to leave the room or douse the proverbial flames?

You see, if we don’t hit those truth head on before they become an issue, our teens will think it’s a secret, it’s specific to them, and we really don’t know what we’re asking them to say no to. But, if we press those hot buttons in advance, if we have the difficult conversations, then our teens will enter those pressure-filled situations armed with understanding and equipped with the words to say to stay true to their commitments.

With every hot button issue, someone is feeding your tweens and teens information–do you really want that someone to be anyone other than you?

 

How do I press the Hot Buttons?

Now that you’ve made the decision to be proactive about helping your tweens and teens battle peer pressure, I love to share the principles behind the Hot Buttons book series and the method of communicating with your teens it prescribes.

Hot Buttons, O’Dell’s non-fiction series for parents pre-empts peer pressure by tackling tough issues. Visit www.nicoleodell.com.

 

First Reader Review on Goodreads

This one gets 5-plus stars; I loved it!!

I have never read anything by Kit Wilkinson before. I really enjoyed this one. I hope we will be seeing more from this author, perhaps a sequel to Plain Secrets. I hated to see this one end.

I highly recommend it to everyone, especially to all lovers of Amish fiction.

Good Teaching

I love when my kids’ teachers give my children an experience that will stick with them. For the past few weeks, my son’s first grade class has been incubating chicken eggs. As they were doing this, his teacher taught the students probability, temperature, the parts of the egg, and much more. My son loved the whole unit because the learning was connected to his real world. Also this year, in the same class, the students became penguins for a day; they created their own town and held jobs buying and selling goods; and had many other adventures “traveling” and exploring through their imagination facilitated by their amazing teacher. I am a teacher myself and I know what has to be done to create and execute such rich experiences for the kids. You can’t find lessons like these in a textbook…So thank you, Mrs. Brickley, for all your hard work and for making my son LOVE school. Here he is with my daughter, who also has a fabulous teacher! They are here with our guest for the evening–one of the baby chicks!!!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Here are some fun romance book stats!!