Your clingy child won’t play independently? In this post, you’ll learn how play therapists help increase kids capacity for play – and how you can too at home. A parent I was working with once said, “My child would still … Continue reading
Category Archives: Special Time
How to Keep Your Family Strong and Loving after Divorce
Coping with divorce? When today’s guest, instructor Kristen Zuzek Volk, found Hand in Hand, she’d almost written off a loving relationship with her daughter. After a recent divorce, her two kids were screaming, crying and acting out, her daughter sometimes … Continue reading
Can Special Time Really Increase My Child’s Level of Cooperation?
Want to increase your child’s co-operation? Have them listen more? Reduce clinginess? Sometimes special time can feel like the magic balm in parenting. It can: Boost your child’s confidence. It can build their resilience. It can ease your own parent guilt … Continue reading
Mindful Play: How To Be Present When You Play With Your Child
Kids are the masters of play. When kids play, they are truly living in the moment. They are open to possibility. They focus all their senses on what they see, hear, smell and touch. And when we hold back from … Continue reading
Is Your Child Anxious About Starting School? Here’s 10 Ways to Help
School can bring up a lot of change – and a lot of feelings about the change. For some children, school can feel a momentous challenge. The thing is, often, they don’t tell you. At least not in ways you … Continue reading
Four Steps To A Peaceful Bedtime Routine
A guest post by Irina Nichifiriuc Read this post in Romanian In our house, I faced a series of “battles” and obstacles every night as the day wore on towards bedtime. With three children, I found that the task of getting them … Continue reading
How Much is Too Much? Tools to Help Children that Need Constant Attention
How much attention does your child need? Have you ever heard the phrase “You can’t pour from an empty cup?” When we spend time with our children, do Special Time, listen and care for them, we naturally fill their cups … Continue reading
Special Time Helped Me Support My Son’s Big Ideas
I was on Special Time duty one particular weekend and had done 20 minutes with each of my younger two children. Next, it was my oldest son’s turn. He’s 7. Originally he’d said he wanted to play football, which I … Continue reading
How Connection Boosts Your Child’s Brain and Fosters Better Behavior
With Stephanie Parker and Anna Cole As parents, we all strive for “those days.” Those days when we all get up and eat breakfast together. Those days when everyone’s bags are packed and it’s smiles all the way to school. … Continue reading
Special Time: Great for Kids, Difficult for Adults?
Do you make time for Special Time? Don’t fret if you don’t…yet! We know that spending just a few minutes putting aside distractions and letting children lead play can boost our relationship with them, but that doesn’t stop us running … Continue reading
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