In most daycare and preschools, parents are encouraged to make drop off brief. A quick kiss or hug and then out the door. But not in Shelley Macy‘s classes. She makes efforts to welcome each parent warmly and tries not to rush them. “Warmth is a big deal to a child. They feel connected with
Separating at bedtime has been a struggle for our 2-year-old for quite some time and I have done a lot of Staylistening with him on this emotional project of his. But lately, he hasn’t been having any Staylistening at all and, depending on who puts him to bed and how tired he is,
My four-year-old son LOVES garbage trucks. He is obsessed with them, and not just the trucks. He loves everything to do with garbage disposal: garbage cans, recycling, compost, trips to the landfill, and the garbage itself. He sorts all of our trash and puts our cans on the curb. He wakes up an hour early
By Laura Minnigerode When I was a co-teacher in a 2-year-old class at a half-day preschool, one of the oldest children was Aaron. He was very sweet and sensitive. In free play at school Aaron did fine, but he had a lot of feelings about his dad that came up during circle time, which came
By Laura Minnigerode Emma was born so early that she identified as a “Micro-Preemie.” That is, she weighed less than 800 grams and was born before 26 weeks. When I first met her, she was about 9 months old and weighed 15lbs, and she had a lot of fears about being picked up. Her history had included
My son is now 16 months old. When he was newborn he was a nightmare. We couldn’t lie him flat for the first 6 months of his life. I couldn’t leave him for a microsecond. I now believe he may have had silent reflux, though he was never diagnosed. As a new mum I was
Your son has been acting out all day. First he grabbed his friend’s toy truck at a playdate and refused to play nicely. He threw it across the room when you asked him to return it. Then when you got home he ate just two bites of a sandwich, turned his plate upside down
Classes are opening and tryouts are on. But what happens if your child refuses to go? Are you respecting their wishes if you agree, or are you holding them back from opportunity? Here, one mother faces just that dilemma when her son wants to quit baseball. As she digs deeper she discovers it wasn’t the sport
What is Hand in Hand Parenting?: Day 4 Understandably, parents often become annoyed by crying and use all kinds of strategies to hush their child up. In my family, the stock threat was, “If you don’t stop your crying right now, I’ll give you something to cry about!” The policy was dead straight: “No crying
By Andrea McCracken Usually my 3-year old daughter is quite agreeable and adaptable but she had been showing off-track behavior at bedtime for a few nights. What does off-track behavior look like? Playing at bedtime, or getting frustrated easily. Getting in and out of bed. That sort of thing. Then, one night, we had an
A guest post by Skye Munro of Nurturing Connections Recently I had the privilege of sharing my passion for connected parenting with over 200 Early Childhood professionals. But right until they entered the room I was plagued with a case of the ‘What if’s”… What if I forget what I want to say?
Earlier that night my daughter had shown us some big feelings by screaming and crying when I set a limit for no more cookies. Now, even though it was late and much past her bedtime, I could still see we still had work to do. My daughter has a huge capacity for emotion. Just the
We were at an impasse for at least 10 minutes. We tried to wait patiently for her to be ready to leave, but she refused to buckle her car seat and physically prevented us from helping her. Finally, after at least 10 minutes, she allowed me to help her. She was tired and angry and the look in her eyes said, “Help me. I’m in here somewhere and I can’t find myself.”
instead of telling him what to feel, I simply tried to make myself available for him and really listen. I let him take his time, while reassuring him that I was right there, fully listening to him and accepting him and his feelings just the way they were.
When a child displays off track and unreasonable behavior, they are often asking for us to bring a limit to help them stop. Bringing a limit to off track behavior can provide the emotional release children need and return them to their balanced, fun loving selves.
Spoiled Outing Syndrome. That is the technical term at Hand in Hand Parenting for this kind of phenomenon where you are having a lovely time and your kid loses it for no apparent reason.
When our children express emotion why is it that we want those big feelings to go away, and why is it that crying or tantrums irk us so much? A big part of it may be how our own feelings were dealt with when we were younger.
When young and old babies cry it can trigger or activate our own emotional learning experiences from childhood. We feel a deep desire to know what is causing them distress and how to help. Children cry for lots of reasons, but some are particular to their stage of learning at a certain point. Here