After school one day, my daughter, who is 7, and I had some time together on our own and went out for a hot chocolate. In the café, as we talked about various things, she said, “It’s hard for me to cry because I literally can’t breathe when I cry.” I thought about those times,
A sweet 9-year-old student whom I tutor came in the other day in a somewhat low-key mood. He got ready to do the math that I had planned for him. We were working on calculating the area of various shapes that had combinations of triangles, rectangles, and circles. When I started showing him the first
There was a five-year-old boy in my Kindergarten group who had been giving little signs of distress for a few days, showing that he was not relaxed. He threw a few toys, hit a few children and showed misbehavior at circle time. He didn’t throw hard or hit hard, but I could feel he did
Last fall my husband had to go out of town for a few days for work. The day after he left, my two year-old son and I were sitting in the living room on the couch when it seemed to dawn on him all of a sudden that his dad was gone. He said, “I
The time had come to wean my healthy toddler from night nursing. He was down to just a couple of times of nursing at night, but it was still disruptive for all of us. No one was sleeping well. I had napped during the day and had mentioned to my son what the plan was.
One evening when my son was about three, we had a big dinner party. In all of the commotion a large vase broke. My son was very close to the vase when it broke and he was tremendously startled by the loud crashing sound. He screamed in shock and terror, and cried long and hard.
One day I gave my 3 year old daughter a “horsey-ride” on my back. I’d done it many times before and she always enjoyed the closeness and bouncy thrill of the ride. However this day when I took her into the bathroom I was lowering her down and she slipped out of my hands and
“Hi, Hand in Hand Parenting, My almost 3 1/2 year old is having an especially hard time right now with family coming to visit. He has always had an extremely high need for connection. He still needs to sleep right next to me- not even his super involved attachment parenting dad will suffice. But he
I had cared for one toddler at my day care center throughout his infancy and we had shared many good and close times together. He began biting other toddlers a few months after he had moved into the toddler room. It took our staff a week, and a couple of conversations with his Mom, before
I turned my head around immediately, recognizing the wordless call for help that I hear in my home oh-so-often. What I saw was a little boy, around 5 or 6 years old, standing over a paper cup and a puddle of milk.
he was stuck in “I want to go to the park” land. He whined, cried and begged to go to the park. I tried playing games with him to distract him, to no avail. I made up a song about “I want to go to the park.” He laughed a bit at that silliness, but soon returned to, “I want to go to the paaaarrrrk!!!” I ran around him in circles and tried to get him to dance with me. It only upset him more. His responses to all my questions and actions were, “I want to go to the park!!!” That was when I realized that it was not about going to the park. He was setting himself up for emotional release.
My five-year-old started kindergarten last week and he is almost finished with his second week. It wasn’t an easy transition for him and here is how we supported him using Parenting by Connection tools. Through summer, my son resisted to the idea of kindergarten. “You are going to kindergarten, are you excited?” he was often
My daughter is 3, and she’s going to pre-school now. My husband and I have recently separated. Ella loves school. She talks about it enthusiastically when she’s at home, and she likes being there, but has a very difficult time when I leave her there. She wraps herself around me, clings tightly, and won’t let
I believe the studies that suggest that TV isn’t really helpful for children because such passivity occurs for the viewer. Yet, I’d let the viewing get out of hand during a difficult few weeks. So, even though I wasn’t over my cold yet, I had a good Listening Exchange, in which my listening partner reminded
Last night, my son (27 months) was having a typical evening, in a pretty good mood generally but, as usual, resisted having his teeth brushed. I brushed them just a little bit, let him brush them the rest himself, and then it was time for books in bed. He requested some water, which I typically
My daughter was given a month to learn all the states and their capitals. She’s in fifth grade. About two weeks before the due date, she had learned some states, but not many, and I made the suggestion that we work together. I offered to help her learn groups of about six states at a