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Stuck for ideas this summer? Music is a natural part of everyday life for toddlers. I watch my little ones dance around to any and everything around them each and every day. Even if we don’t have any music playing. They’ll make up their own songs. They’ll sing to their toys.
Here are eight vital life skills that children aren’t taught in school:
1. Independence: Teaching children, a little at a time, to be independent, can show them that they can make decisions on their own. Letting them make their own mistakes can teach them valuable lessons they’ll carry with them.
2. Compassion: Compassion is needed to work well with others, to care for other people and to find happiness through making other people happy.
3. Individuality: They need to be taught that we come in all sizes, shapes and colors, and it is perfectly OK to be unique.
4. Welcoming Change: Teaching children that change isn’t something to be afraid of – just something to prepare for – can help them in so many aspects throughout their life.
5. Happiness: Many parents coddle their children in an attempt to keep them happy and safe, but it can make children rely on their parents for their happiness. Teaching a child from an early age that they can be happy on their own, by things like playing, reading and imagining, is a valuable life lesson.
6. Finding Passion: Many people struggle with finding their passion. Helping a child find what he or she is passionate about by allowing them to try a bunch of different things can help them find a source of lifelong internal happiness and motivation. Encourage the adventure, but let children decide on their own, where they find passion.
7. Asking questions: Teaching children that asking questions is a good thing, can encourage their curiosity and help them continue to seek knowledge in different aspects of life.
8. Solving problems: Constantly solving a child’s problems for them won’t help them as they grow. They need to know that they can solve problems on their own. New skills, a new environment, a new job – they’re all just problems to be solved. Modeling problem solving and allowing children to come up with their solution ideas can help them develop confidence and let them know that whatever comes their way, they are capable of handling it.
Toys are not merely playthings. Toys form the building blocks for our child’s future. They teach our children about the world and about themselves. They send messages and communicate values...
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of taking two or more young children to a store, you know it can either be: A) Challenging, or B) A complete nightmare.
Single mom of two, Aly Bothers, recently experienced the latter. Her raw, now-viral Facebook post will leave you nodding your head, crying alongside her and wanting to give her a big hug. Because we’ve all been there.
Suggested apps that are both engaging and educational
In this information age where communication is so crucial, our kids are reading less and less. How should you approach this problem? What can you do?
To celebrate his new hearing aids, one toddler busted out some cute moves.
Society puts a lot of pressure on growing boys — we know this. They're labeled as "tough guys" and "macho" even before they've learned to tie their shoes. They're praised for aggression and told to shake it off when the tears flow.
As it turns out, our boys, with the weight of the testosterone-driven world on their shoulders, start out at a deficit. In his most recent article, Dr. Allan Schore, a clinical psychologist at UCLA explains how baby boys come into the world less capable to deal with stressors.
Not only did one nature-loving guy manage to single-handedly rehabilitate an injured deer who was abandoned by her family, but he also managed to capture the entire story of compassion and healing on camera.
I know you think I wear yoga pants and athletic T-shirts because I spend my days doing pilates while my kids practice Mozart on their harmonicas. But, I’m here to tell you, I wear them because they’re stretchy...
Yes, it was an extreme punishment from the beginning. However, the boundaries between extreme punishment and child discipline can be blurry for some people. Perhaps, before barraging blames to the accused parents, it is time to remind ourselves again of the unseen repercussions of child discipline so to prevent such incident from recurring.
The hormone imbalance that underlies polycystic ovary syndrome often makes women miserable. Here are PCOS symptoms to know.
1. When you get home, ask, “What can I do to help?” Then for at least five minutes, actually do what she says. A lot of people ask this question and then do half of the job. So, the job is set the table, and they take out some plates. Or the job is diaper the baby, and they leave the wipes and the cream open and an empty bag of diapers laying around. Only five minutes is necessary for many household related tasks, or five minutes could make a good dent. At the very least, for five minutes your wife will see you fully engaged in a task, and not sitting doing nothing (which women hate), and that will magically make her happy and less stressed out.
2. Tell your wife what she does that you appreciate. For five whole minutes, tell her what she does that makes you happy and feel appreciative and grateful. Five minutes is a long time to talk, and you’ll see that this can make a real positive impact on your wife’s feelings. She may look at you with a smile like she did when you were dating. Or a more tired version of it at least.
3. Send your wife an email about how much you love her. No logistics, no plans, just a love letter. Women love this stuff. Most of them. If you try it and it doesn’t have any happiness impact, then next time try the next one...
4. Go on Amazon or Etsy and take five minutes to buy your wife a little surprise present. This doesn’t take very long.
5. When you want to have sex, look into your wife’s eyes and tell her how much you want her and how sexy she is. Use SPECIFICS. Do this for five minutes. This is longer than most men take, by a power of 1 million. Because, let’s face it, the usual is, “You’re so hot,” or no words at all, and then onto the kissing, if not the main event. Five minutes of saying how much you desire your wife and WHY is five minutes more than she may have heard in a while.
The in-laws get in after long travels for the holidays, and the first thing they want when they walk in the door are hugs and kisses from their darling grandbabies. Super sweet. Except when the kids aren't feeling like freely giving affection. What happens next?
Most school field trips are to places the students might never go on their own: a museum, a play, a nature preserve. The idea is to open kids wide to the wonderful world. This past spring one grammar school in Silicon Valley started sending kids to a very different, but equally mind-blowing place: their own neighborhood.
On their own. Without an adult.
Recently, I had a conversation with a friend in which she divulged to me that her 10-year-old son has an Instagram account. Because she and I usually see eye to eye on most parenting decisions, I was surprised. When I asked her about it, she explained that, for her son, she has rules and privacy settings in place to protect him. She told me she’s had conversations about appropriate photos and internet safety. She said she trusts him and wants him to develop good judgment online.
If anyone can be called the boss in modern, anti-hierarchical parenthood, it’s the children
How can you keep your kids safer without being their full-time watcher?
This week in parenting you learned that the reason your kid trusts you might have something to do with you being really, really ridiculously good looking. But if your good looks aren’t exactly translating in the bedroom, a statistician thinks Game Of Thrones is to blame for your lack of literal game. Parents of thumbsuckers and nail biters were given reason to rejoice, because their kids might have fewer allergies later in life. Plus you found out what the hell Pokémon Go is, and while it’s no Nintendo NES Classic Edition, at least it will get you kid outside. All this news and more, because every week is busy when you’re a parent.
For this new bullet on your DIY bucket list, you can thank Reddit user “radamshome,” a video game artist who just uploaded his entry in the Dad Of The Year awards to Imgur. It has a cozy reading nook, 12-volt lighting, a top sitting area, and enough room for him to cuddle up with his daughter for a bedtime story. If that makes you feel inadequate, wait until you look under the hood of this thing.
“Oh my god!” the mother squealed. “Baby, are you OK? Did that hurt? What hurts, baby? What hurts?” The little girl commenced sobbing as what I deemed a nice save turned into a tragedy warranting a call to 911.
Hand-held screens might delay a child’s ability to form words, based on new research being presented this week at the annual Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting in San Francisco. This preliminary study is the first to show how mobile devices impact speech development in children, raising a question that fills the minds of many parents: How much time should my child spend with a mobile device?
A common impairment with lifelong consequences turns out to be highly contagious between parent and child, a new study shows. The impairment? Math anxiety.
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Means of transmission? Homework help.
Secondhand smoke isn’t just bad for your kids’ health. According to a recent study, exposure to household tobacco smoke in early childhood can also cause behavioral problems, The Mirror reports.
Researchers from the University of Montreal have found a link between exposure to antisocial behavior, which is “characterized by proactive intent to harm others, lack prosocial feelings, and violate social norms.” This can manifest in the following...
I knew I wanted to nurse my son Griffin when he reached 2 years of age. That what is recommended by the AAFP and WHO, and research shows the most benefits for mom and child nursing this long. But I also knew I didn’t want to be pregnant and nursing. In this post, I’ll show you how I weaned Griffin without much drama.
First, let me say that many, many moms nurse while pregnant with great success. Many go on to tandem nurse, which means they nurse both their newborn and their older child. And that’s great.
But I knew this wasn’t for me. Physically, emotionally, and spiritually, I knew I needed a break, and that managing a pregnancy was enough for me.
So, right around Griffin’s 2nd birthday, I started figuring out how to wean my toddler.
Homemade Root Veggie Chips are a great way to add color and introduce your kids to new vegetables. It’s also a great way to use up extra root vegetables in the fridge. We make these homemade chips as a special treat to eat with sandwiches or hotdogs. They’re so pretty!
SINGAPORE — After completing her O-Levels, Madam Janessa Puvaneswari Kumaran joined the PAP Community Foundation (PCF) as a pre-school teacher in 2001, but the changes in the education sector meant that she could not remain indifferent to them. Not only did she obtain a certificate in pre-school teaching a year after she began work, she also attained a Diploma in Early Childhood Care & Education-Teaching.
When tragedy strikes, most people think, I would love to help, but I’m just one person, what could I possibly do?
Well, three boys in New York City are showing the country just how much one person — not to mention three little people — can do with a generous heart and some hard work.
For a decade and a half, the big chocolate makers have promised to end child labor in their industry—and have spent tens of millions of dollars in the effort. But as of the latest estimate, 2.1 million West African children still do the dangerous and physically taxing work of harvesting cocoa. What will it take to fix the problem?
A great way to get kids to make good choices on their is to Make a Kindness Jar! With 9 & 10 year old siblings, a fair amount of bickering and unkindness occurs in our household. Having tried (and failed) a variety of different ideas, we came across an idea last year that helped them keep kindness top of mind. Inspired by this Good Deed Jar, we took the idea of a Kindness Jar and made it our own.
At any given time you’ll find four or more parenting books on my Amazon wish list, a few by my nightstand, and an email box chock full of insightful parenting theories and approaches.
Granted, child development is my career, but I speak with plenty of parents in my practice who find themselves in similar circumstances. With information around every corner and our culture projecting constant messages (many times contradictory) regarding how we should raise our kids, feeling like a confident and intentional parent can seem out of reach many days.
I love magnetic letters and I recently bought myself some lowercase magnets and decided to create some printables to use as mats to place over cookie sheets and turn them into wonderful magnetic free choice activities. Lowercase letter magnets are so versatile and no matter what level your child is at I have a printable or two that will work perfectly. But before I link the free printables I want to share with you some of the benefits of using these manipulatives in your class or homeschool program
Send the children to their rooms. Have a flashlight nearby. And lean in close. This is a scary story. It’s about a monster. Once upon a time my husband had to work 28 days of nights...
But despite all of my husband’s wonderful qualities, I have to admit that it’s always made me slightly uncomfortable when anyone has told me how “lucky” I am to have the type of husband that I do — the kind that thinks of nothing of getting up with our kids at night, the kind that happily makes dinner, the kind that I would never doubt could handle all four of our offspring on his own if I happened to have an overnight business trip. (Hey, a girl can dream, right?)
The 1-year-old was found covered in vomit in the backseat, state police said.
I was on the phone with my friend Elizabeth when I heard her 9-month old daughter Poppy screeching in the background.
“Ooooh!” I winced. “Is Poppy okay?”
“She’s not crying. She’s laughing!” Elizabeth explained. “Greg’s playing Tickle Monster with her.”
You want your child to know how to manage his emotions and control his impulse to throw a tantrum. A child with self-discipline, for example, understands he needs to wait after dinner to have dessert. How can you teach him patience and self-control?
“Teaching the next generation coding is something that should be elevated to a strategical national importance,” said Wang Jiulin, the Xi’an-based creator of Kidscode.cn, a website that shares free information and courses. “Even today, the majority of programmers in China can only perform very basic-level tasks and there’s huge demand for top notch coders.”
When faced with child's tantrum, we know we have to keep it cool and calm. But how exactly? If you're struggling to find out what to say to your exploding child, check out this article.
We all cringe at the parent on the sidelines of the sports field screaming at their child, so invested in their success that you’d think it was their own.
We shake our heads at the stage mums on TV pushing crying children to perform and trying to convince us that it’s all for their child, not them.
We are horrified at the parents who reject their children because of their sexuality.
For a child, everything is new. Refresh your view of a mundane day through the lens of a toddler!
Can you really raise happy, well-behaved, resilient, confident children just by consistently rewarding them with delicious pastries? Perhaps, but that’s not what The Danish Way of Parenting is about.
Storm-Manea Ellyatt is calling bull on the facade of parenthood displayed on social media. Instead of posting a highlight reel of her life, she’s getting real about the daily struggles she faces as a mother — and she invites everyone to join her.
“All those cute bonds ads, miniature Nike shoes, adorable baby shower gifts, baby spam on Instagram, squad dates with your mum posse and those god damn laceylaners lied to me,” she wrote on Thursday, listing her failed expectations about parenting based on how it’s conveyed by ads, TV and online.
“Not once did I see an ad with a mum locked in her cupboard crying in her leaked stained pjs from 3 days ago, covered in sweat and vomit, praying to every god imaginable for the strength and patience to go back to the s**tshow that is now their life,” she wrote. “The once calm, poised, patient goddess, who could sling cocktials, swear with sailors and dance uninhibited until tomorrow afternoon, can bearly hold a conversation, hold her eyes open or the tears back from this new found ‘bliss.’”
If you thought packing lunches was a chore, be thankful you don't live in Japan, where carving vegetables and cutting nori into cute characters and scenes has become a national obsession.
We all know that besides looking after you, stealing the last bar of chocolate from the fridge and sending you jokes only they find funny, it’s a dad’s main purpose in life to relentlessly mock the hell out of you.
Have a strong-willed child? You're lucky! Strong willed children can be a challenge when they’re young, but if sensitively parented, they become terrific teens and young adults. Self-motivated and inner-directed, they go after what they want and are almost impervious to peer pressure. As long as parents resist the impulse to "break their will," strong-willed kids often become leaders.
With students’ performances no longer weighted against their peers, educators TODAY interviewed said the changes to the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) would relieve some of the stress in the pressure-cooker education system here.
While each app might not be a big investment, no one wants to waste money or spend kids' limited screen time on low-quality content. To make good choices about the apps you download for your preschooler, use these criteria before you buy, and check out our list of preschool apps worth the money for more recommendations.