Goodnight dear friends and family, This is Jessica writing to you tonight.

We hope you had a great Monday. I know how tough it is to get back into the swing of things, after the weekend seems to fly by. Monday is always the hardest day of the week for that reason.

I wanted to speak tonight about children. Children have such great potential for so many many things.  As everyone knows, each child is born with a different temperament. Each child is unique in their very own way.

Since my oldest daughter was a baby and now with my younger children, so many times Im surrounded by parents who I know love their children very much, but because of the social pressures around them,  when they speak of their kids, they are speaking mostly of the child’s achievements in sports, academics , puzzle skills, awards etc. Those are all great things, but still I feel there needs to be more of a focus on being proud of what kind of people they are, how much they live with and act from their heart. It’s time to praise our children for how kind they are,  and how much empathy they have for other people and animals. It’s so important to teach those qualities and instill them at the youngest possible age.

It is the children who hold these “jewels”, that move me the most, and that stand out amongst all others. These are the children who can truly make a difference and change the world.

Another thing is that I don’t believe in judging all children’s intellect and creativity by using the same model. If you use the same formula to determine that, you are cheating so many children, and you are cheating yourself. I am a firm believer that each child learns in a different way, and that they need to be approached for learning in a way that clicks for them.

Many times, parents are told that something is wrong with their child, simply because their child is more artistic, or more creative, or has more energy than most children. This is all because their child does not fit into a standardized box. When in fact these are all just different versions of “normal”. There is nothing wrong at all with children who learn differently, and that is a fact.

All in all, we need to overhaul our whole way of seeing, teaching and nurturing our children’s minds and souls.  We need not be concerned of labels and the small minded judgments of people who just Cannot and will not understand anything beyond what they’ve learned incorrectly themselves. We know our own children more than anyone else possibly can, and that will never change.

Kindness, compassion, empathy, creativity, imagination, and uniqueness. These are the things to nurture and be proud of in our children.

Goodnight everyone.

No lives will go in vain, no pain will go unnoticed. Amen. Jessica Lee Smith for Sammy & Family.