What to do when you’ve lost your cool
It gives me some comfort to know I’m not the only one who has hard days and loses my cool.But even though it’s normal, that doesn’t take away the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach after I’ve had the equivalent of an adult tantrum. I feel guilty and ashamed, and wish I could take it all back.
The wonder of child-led free play (part 2)
In our previous blog post, we shared 3 important benefits to child-led play and today we’re going over even more!
The wonder of child-led free play (part 1)
Confession time – I used to think free play was a waste of time. I used to work in an international school with an early years program that incorporated free play into the kids daily schedule. I would think to myself “These parents pay so much money for the kids to just play and learn nothing.”
Knowing and owning our stories
My mother tells me that I wasn’t beaten as many times as I seem to recall. In my mind, I was caned frequently for minor infractions like accidentally knocking over a bowl of noodles from the countertop or not finishing a worksheet. She tells me that my memories are faulty and that she certainly didn’t cane me very often.
It’s not an adult’s job to entertain kids
We’ve been conditioned to think that part of raising kids is to entertain them. To make them happy, to set up activities for them, to entertain them, lest they feel unloved or learn nothing.It’s no wonder parents feel guilty when they’re unable to engage with their kids the whole day or when they can’t set up insta-worthy “educational” activities for their kids.
What do I do when my ‘threenager’ is giving me attitude?
The other day, my three-year old announced, “Make my Milo right NOW!” I had a few options: A – Ignore her until she asked me nicely B – Retort “Eh, you think I’m your maid issit?” C – Acknowledge the feeling behind the rudeness AND hold a boundary around how I expect to be treated […]
How to acknowledge your child’s feelings
In our previous post about acknowledging feelings, we talked about its many benefits for your children. In this post, we’ll talk about HOW you can acknowledge children’s feelings. Acknowledging feelings is a simple concept, but not necessarily easy to implement. Because of culture or how we were raised, acknowledging the feelings of children might not […]