When your child (or you!) needs to de-stress and restore, getting out into nature has a quick and astounding impact. Classrooms, work and urban environments require us to focus attention and block out distractions. It’s mentally exhausting and causes physical and mental fatigue in children and adults. Being in nature has the opposite effect. It […]
Anne Dunlea
Enjoying Food: Early Childhood Nutrition
Building healthy eating habits By the time children are about a year old, they begin to need a more varied diet containing whole foods. Calorie needs increase from about 1000 calories a day at age one, to about 1400 by age 5. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), as a rough guideline, toddlers […]
The Power Of Your Words
The comments and experiences children get, both the positive and the negative, can reverberate throughout life. A kind comment feels good and it may draw a child’s attention to one of their gifts or help them confirm a feeling they’ve had about their special skills. Imagine how a child feels hearing something like these comments: […]
Boost Emotions With A Sense Of Awe
Recent research has increased our understanding of the important role positive emotions have on our physical health. One emotion in particular has a quick and striking impact: the sense of awe. We feel awe when touched by the power or beauty of nature, or through art, exquisite music, or a moving spiritual experiences. How Awe affects […]
Resilience and Gratefulness: Reflections from Margaret Wakely
This beautiful story by Margaret Wakely reflects on how her own natural resilience led her through some very difficult, heart wrenching experiences as a child and as a mother, and how, when her resilience slipped, a simple gratitude practice enriched her life and shifted her perspective from overwhelmed and unfair to positive. You’ll find inspiration […]
A GREAT WAY TO BOOST YOUR CHILD’S BRAIN & DEVELOPMENT
Just about every child will learn to read, do math, reason, use a computer and do all kinds of other intelligent things. But a lot of parents worry about how to boost brain power and stimulate social and intellectual development. It turns out there actually is something that helps. Across the board. I’m going to […]
Book Review: The Yes Brain
Siegel, Daniel & Bryson, Tina Payne, (2018). The Yes Brain: How to cultivate courage, curiosity, and resilience in your child. New York: Bantum. ISBN:978-0-399-59466-3 The word “Yes” in the new book, The Yes Brain, by psychiatrist Daniel Siegel and social worker Tina Bryson, refers to saying “yes” to the world — to being open, […]
On Line Games: Why Cyber Playing Can Lead to Cyber Meltdowns in Children
On-Line Games Are Designed To Keep Us Playing They get progressively harder as we continue to play. They are designed to keep us feeling challenged and interested, getting a little more demanding as we build skill. This is part of the fun of playing on line and it keeps us coming back. It works well for […]
Are You Trying To Control Too Much????
A lot of parenting involves managing the lives of others and making sure things get done. There are a lot of expectations about what should happen and when. You may also have expectations about what your child should be like or how your child should behave and think. Sometimes this gets in the way […]
Positive Parenting: a loving authority
“Positive Parenting” refers to a fairly broad range of approaches and strategies that share a core view that children thrive when they are respected and guided with sensitivity. The term contrasts with ideas about child rearing that focus on what is negative or “bad” in children and to discipline approaches that rely on […]