Did you know that infants are ready to learn sign language?
Two-year-olds are ready to learn the basics of science and three-year-olds are ready to learn coding.
Your child is ready to learn and at Primrose Schools, teachers make the most of this time by creating a joyful, purposeful learning experience unlike any other.
For instance, have you heard of the Primrose Friends?
In every Primrose school classroom, teachers use these 12 lovable puppets to make character development joyful, meaningful and memorable.
From exploring generosity with Benjamin the Bear to practicing honesty with Peanut the Pony, every friend plays a special part in helping children learn important values while having plenty of fun along the way.
We could all use some friends like that.
You can learn more at primroseschools.com.
Now enrolling infants through children age five.
That's primroseschools.com for more information.
Elizabeth, you know that this year I am hosting Thanksgiving for the second time.
Huge bucket list for me.
And one of the things that makes it easier to prepare for any kind of big gathering whether it's Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving or any kind of celebration is knowing that you can go to one place that you know you're going to get high standards and good prices.
And this is why I love going to Whole Foods Market.
I can look for the 365 brand and I know that I'm going to get everything that I need and want for a good price, with the quality that I can count on.
Yeah, they have everything from low price quality turkey to pantry essentials.
And Gretchen, I have to add frozen appetizers, which are perfect for someone like me who is not a great cook.
I love to get the quiche trio, their butterfly shrimp and breaded calamari.
It's all so easy to prepare and so delicious.
Enjoy so many ways to save on your Thanksgiving spread at Whole Foods Market.
I'm Gretchen Rubin, and this is a little happier.
For my book Life in Five Senses.
I explored how we can make our lives happier healthier, more creative and more productive by paying closer attention to our five senses.
What a joy it was to write that book.
It's funny no matter what we're aiming to achieve, we can use our five senses to help us achieve it, even when the things we want point in the opposite directions.
We can use our five senses to calm down or to rev up.
We can use them to help us think creatively or to power through drudge work.
We can use them to give ourselves comfort or to give ourselves excitement.
As part of the work of that book, of course, I explored our sense of hearing, which includes listening to other people, one of the most important things that we do with our senses.
And I got interested in the subject of gossip.
There's an old saying great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.
But that's not quite true.
Gossip, or speaking about people who are not present, is a ubiquitous feature of human communication.
We spend about an hour each day gossiping.
Gossip has a bad reputation.
People assume that by gossiping, we spread hurtful rumors or waste time.
But gossip serves many important social functions.
It helps us feel closer to each other.
It helps us understand the values of our community.
It unifies people who play by the rules and exposes misbehavior.
It helps us cooperate.
Often, most gossip is neutral in tone, just newsy.
Only about 15% of gossip involves negative judgment.
Also, gossip is fun.
Oxytocin, the love hormone, is associated with pleasure, cooperation, and positive feelings.
When people engage in gossip, their oxytocin levels increases significantly in comparison to emotional, non-gossip conversation.
Of course, gossip can be terrible.
It can cause damage, conflict, anxiety, and misinformation.
I don't want to minimize those negative consequences, but it's helpful to recognize that in its positive form it plays an important part in human relations.
In the past when I'd share information about someone, I sometimes felt guilty, like it was always bad to talk about someone who wasn't present.
Now I understand that if information is neutral and not private, sharing information in a social network has many positive effects.
We care about other people and we love to hear about what they're doing, saying, and thinking.
I'm Gretchen Rubin, and I hope this makes your week a little happier.
From the Onward Project.
Hi, Gretchen, Craig Robinson, and my little sister Michelle here.
We host a new podcast called IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson.
We know you're the queen of giving advice, so we wanted to get a few tips from you.
You know, Gretchen, a lot of our listeners are going through some major life changes.
What advice do you have for folks who are trying to stay grounded in the midst of major life transitions?
Craig and Michelle, I am so happy to be talking to you.
Here are a few questions that might help us gain perspective.
So consider questions like this.
What activities take up my time but are not particularly useful or stimulating for me?
Do I spend a lot of time on something that's important to someone else but is not very important to me?
If I could magically change one habit in my life, what would I choose?
And here's a question.
Would I like to have more time in solitude restorative solitude or would I like to have more time with friends?
You know, just thinking about questions like this can help us start to figure out how we might make our lives happier.
With greater self-knowledge, we're better able to make hard decisions that reflect ourselves, our own nature, our own interests, our own values.
In my own case, I have found that the more my life reflects my nature, the happier I get and the more grounded I feel when I'm going through a period of major change or transition.
For more great advice, search for IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson wherever you get podcasts.
You can listen to Issa Rae on letting go of certain friendships, Kiki Palmer on why disappointment is actually the key to career success, Seth and Lauren Rogan on caring for aging parents, and so many more.
