Since that evening, he has practiced piano most every day, sometimes starting on his own, other times with my encouragement, which had never worked before. Piano practice did not feel like a dreaded chore any more. Something was lighter. I could tell that my son was playing because he liked it and he wanted to.
We had all been excited about watching the Olympic torch run past our house. My 6-year-old son had been particularly excited about it, as he had been working on the Olympics at his school and
I recently attended the Hand in Hand Weekend Retreat and wanted to report on what happened upon my return home. The retreat was wonderful. I was surrounded by beautiful redwoods, had fabulous meals prepared for
My husband, daughter, and I were on our way out the door to go to my daughter’s little tot swimming class. My husband had given my daughter a few pieces of candy in the house
Occasionally he would slow down enough to look over his shoulder to make sure I was with him. I’d say, “Yes, I’m still here. I love you. You can be as mad as you need to be and I’m going to stay with you.” The he’d keep on ‘running’. I have to admit it was hard not to chuckle at how sweet he was, with his little arms pumping away trying to get as far away from me as he could.
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
Ever since Annie had been a little girl she’d had huge tantrums and long cries. Her mother was at the end of her rope. She didn’t understand why her daughter’s emotions were so big and she admittedly didn’t have a clue what to do.
When my kids were about 16 months old and taking a bath, one of them pulled up the shower knob and doused them both with cold water. Both of them cried a long time. Several nights after this
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
Words don’t work well in setting limits with children of any age! Move in close, offer a tone of generosity and warmth, and gently but firmly stop the unworkable behavior.
Well, I have bad news for you. It’s true that timeouts are infinitely better than hitting, and yelling. But Timeouts teach the wrong lessons, and they don’t work to create better behaved children.
Often times my son will walk by his siblings and push them down or punch them on their backs or yell in their faces. If they are doing something that irritates him, he will get extremely close and ball up his fists and visibly shake with anger.
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.
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,
My habit had been to lay down with my five-year-old daughter at bedtime until she was asleep, which often took half an hour or more. She would fall asleep fairly easily when others put her