My preteen son is preparing for his first leading role in a school play, and the pre-performance nerves are really starting to kick in now. I decided that an opportunity to laugh off some of
By Andrea McCracken When my 5-year-old started kindergarten, she would come home from school day a tightly wound and prone to crying. She seemed to be letting all her frustrations and bad feelings
Discover Hand in Hand’s approach and an introduction to the Five Tools for calmer, connected parenting in Days 1-6 and then see how the tools work for real-life families on Days 7 and 8. Day 1:
What is Hand in Hand Parenting?: Day 5 Play is the safe cradle in which our children experiment, express themselves, and explore their world. Whatever the activity, your child is playing when her actions are
Does one of your children tend to get heard more than the other? Perhaps one is older and more dominant, and younger eager to please. Perhaps one is extrovert, always talking, and the other is
“She’s viciously swearing, venomously shouting horrible things” I explain to my Listening Partner. I am relating the story of my morning; a repetitive recurring interaction between me and my 6 year old daughter. I
By Andrea McCracken One afternoon my two daughters ‘E’ and “K’ had finished up eating and wanted to play. We settled on bingo, but as the game progressed, E determined that she wasn’t going to
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
Children’s playful giggles and laughter can soon boil over and frenzied excitement erupts into power struggles, arguments and aggression. So how can you step in safely to diffuse a play situation headed south? Hand in Hand’s Heidi Grainger
When you approach your child in a warm and playful manner, said Patty Wipfler, he often can use your attention to laugh his way back in contact with you, then into flexible play again.
a guest post from Stephanie Parker When my daughter was three she started pinching and biting me. I was pretty shocked as she’d never done anything like that before. I tried setting a limit and
My 6-year-old daughter and I go swimming once a week together. She normally loves this time and looks forward to it, but one weekend she didn’t want to go at all. As it was our
Part 1: Playlistening With Balloons My son loved playing with balloons when he was in control, but he had long been afraid of other people playing with balloons. He didn’t like the sounds balloons made
Every night after dinner, around 7:30 pm I play with my daughter, 4, and my son, 2. They decide where we will play and what they want to do. They have been choosing to play
I had just spent the prior week talking (i.e. stressing) about how much I should hold a limit around my daughter’s following through with activities. Should I just let her quit when she’s afraid or nervous? When is it time to push and when do I step back?