My middle daughter D recently got her sister T a present. It was really thoughtful of her, but she didn’t know that T had bought exactly the same notebook in exactly the same color two days earlier. T got really
In this post on sleep issues, we talked about using play as a tool that helps children release the minor fears and tensions that hold them back from sleeping well. Sometimes those fears run deeper and play alone isn’t quite
Setting Limits and Staylistening Those of you with picky eaters are familiar with requests—or demands—for “something else” to eat. Rigidity around food is like rigidity around anything else: it signals a need for help. We often need to set a
We’ve all had those mornings. The one that begins like nothing will ever be right again: “I do not want to get dressed. I want breakfast.” “I don’t want cereal. I want oatmeal.” “I wanted toast cut in triangles,
We’ve all read the stats. Eating dinner together with our children helps with everything from language skills and emotional resilience, to avoiding drink, drugs and obesity, and scoring better grades in school later on. So we juggle our schedules, shop
Your child will have big feelings when a special holiday or birthday comes up. It’s one of the phenomena you can set your clock by. We parents wish the universe were governed by forces a little easier on us
Parenting can be all encompassing. It can seem to take us an age to figure out what we can accept and what our boundaries are at home, and then bam! We have to leave the house. What happens when
What happens to you when your child announces “I’m bored?” Despite research telling us that boredom is actually good for children – it can help foster creativity and independence – most of us try to rush into a solution when we
By Laura Minnigerode Carmela is 21 months old, and a student in my classroom in a community college lab school. Because she loves to play and is not as sleepy as many of the other children she usually struggles at
A guest post from Sabina Veronelli Do you sometimes feel like your child has suddenly become grumpy or distant, and you have no idea why? When pre-schooler Charlie starts ignoring his friends one day at preschool and seems distracted
One thing Shelley Macy likes to avoid is being called as an expert, despite the fact she has worked for decades training teachers. Shelley is an early childhood educator working with tribal early learning programs in Washington State and Idaho.
As Kirsten Nottleson faced the room of 30 female prison inmates, she could barely think. “We’d been told that these women were coming to the end of their sentences, that they would soon be reunified, and we’d prepared some pretty
Saying no can be hard. Some of us avoid saying it if we feel like we just don’t have the energy for another fight and we skirt around saying “No.” For others it brings up a lot of feelings. Feelings of resentment,
No doesn’t have to be yelled or sound mean to be effective. Try these 17 kind ways to say no that kids do actually listen to.
I work as a learning assistant in a large comprehensive school supporting children who have a variety of special educational needs. One of the most challenging is an English class with 13 and 14 year olds. About ten children really
Sarah Charlton on Setting Loving Limits I recently began working as a learning support assistant in a UK secondary school. The job’s going well but there is one girl that I support who has been highly resistant to any help,
I have done a lot of limit setting and Staylistening with my 5-year-old since learning Hand in Hand Parenting’s five tools, and I’ll admit that Staylistening has been a work in progress. Staylistening comes from the approach that children cry
By Andrea McCracken As the school year has got started my daughter has gotten more and more social, and wants to play with her friends often after school. One day at a friend’s house they had played, had ice cream