Tag: playful responses

When Playing Poop was Suddenly “OK”

  One point of difference between Hand in Hand and other parenting approaches is recognizing laughter and play as a way to relieve tension. So often, play is overlooked as a parenting tool, but here we see the amazing way play brought one parent and a bunch of kids together. The Day When We Played

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Why Has My Little Boy Become Violent?

Dear Hand in Hand, Please help. My 4-year-old son has had a turbulent time at pre-school and has become very aggressive. I am seeing this as an issue around separation. We have increased Special Time, and I’m finding he has a huge, driving desire to play from the minute I pick him up at midday.

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How to Set Limits with Laughter

A Guest Post by Stephanie Parker My daughter is about to turn nine and I’ve been thinking recently that I’d like her to do more around the house. I haven’t spent enough time making this happen in the past, I’ve taken shortcuts by just doing things myself because it’s ‘quicker’. So this morning I’d washed

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Playful Parenting Improves Your Child’s Manners

A Guest Post by Michelle Hartop My daughter’s manners got lost somewhere between 5 and 6 years old. Once the reigning “thank-you queen,” by school-age, she seemed bothered even receiving a gift, let alone actually thanking the giver, and my approach to use logic and discuss the importance of saying thank you and showing gratitude

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10 Games for Kids That Won’t Brush Their Teeth

They say “choose your battles wisely,” and getting teeth brushed in most houses is one many of us struggle with. But with up to 530 million children with poor dental health worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, this is one fight that we can’t ignore. Getting teeth clean doesn’t have to mean daily yelling,

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Parenting as a Team: Using Humor To Diffuse Tension

A Guest Post from Anca Deaconu and Megha Mawandia In part one of this series on Parenting As a Team Anca and Megha talked about how to become more confident in making parenting decisions. Today they focus on an unexpected tool for diffusing tension: Play Often when we make decisions about parenting, others are not in agreement. They might

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a playful response helps stop child whining

A Playful Response Helps With Whining and Pretend Pain

A Guest Post by By Emilie Leeks Our four-year-old daughter had a growing tendency to be very melodramatic around ‘pain’. If she was in a certain kind of mood and just got touched or gently bumped, she would whine and start to cry, repeatedly saying things like ‘Ow! You have to rub it.’ At times she

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Laughing Our Way to Daycare

My 2.5 year old son had just transitioned to a new daycare. He had been there three days, and he had done very well with the transition. He was asking excitement in the morning to go to see his new friends at his new daycare. The teachers reported that he was playing well with the

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