Parenting ideas that fly.

4 Ways To Raise Children With Social Intelligence

“What parents teach is themselves, as models of what is human – by their moods, their reactions, their facial expressions and actions. These are the real things parents need to be aware of, and of how they affect their children. Allow them to know you, and it might become easier for them to learn about themselves.” – Magda Gerber Of all the skills we encourage our children to develop, social intelligence may...

Break-Dancing Baby: Self-Expression In Motion

I know, “Break-Dancing Baby” sounds exploitive and contrived to me, too. This isn’t. It’s a genuine example of a baby freely expressing herself — an exuberant celebration of natural gross motor development and creative child-directed play. I’ve never seen a baby do anything quite like this. Hi Janet, My wife Kristin mentioned that you might enjoy this little video of our 11 month old Siena doing...

100% Fool-Proof Parenting (7 Key Ingredients)

“You know what I have found- NOTHING works all the time.  I hear people saying that peaceful parenting doesn’t work and I hear people saying that spanking doesn’t work.  Frankly, I can’t think of anything that is 100% fool proof and works for every child all the time.” – Mama Birth I hear (or read) statements like Mama Birth’s all the time.  It doesn’t matter what school of child care...

11 Blogging Secrets I Learned In 2011

Ah, the irony. Two and a half years ago I was rarely online and didn’t know what a blog was, and here I am sharing blogging tips. But since my learning curve has been steep, especially this last year, I thought I’d pass along some stuff that I wish I’d known earlier. Granted, you may know all of this already, but here goes… 1. Listen Turns out, blogging is less about speaking one’s mind than it is about...

Baby Led Tummy Time: Rolling In The New Year

Will 2012 be the Year of the Baby? I’m hoping, yes. Perhaps this will be the year that babies are finally acknowledged as uniquely capable, full-fledged people. Maybe parents and caregivers will realize that babies are born knowing something about their development and can be trusted to demonstrate readiness for developmental milestones by “doing them”. If we believe in babies, then we give them opportunities...

Loving Babies Without Wearing Them

If bloggers got year-end bonuses, this would be mine. In this note, a new mother shares her discovery of infant expert Magda Gerber’s child care approach and the profound effects it has had on her family… Dear Janet, I stumbled on your blog through the guest post on “tummy time” when my daughter, now six months, was about two months old.  I was totally captivated by the video of Baby Liv and then spent...

Don’t Fix These Toddler Struggles (I Love This Video)

Time and time again I see toddlers benefitting from impulse control – ours, not theirs. Our natural tendencies to project and protect when our children seem challenged invariably lead us to intervene too much or too soon.  These good intentions can then spoil rich opportunities for physical, cognitive, creative, social and emotional development.  Rule #1: More often than not, struggles and conflicts we might...

The Problem With Cute Kids

“We often think that children are cutest when they are most intent and serious about what they are doing.  Patting a mud pie, for example.  They act as if it were important. How satisfying for us to feel we know better.” – John Holt In his book Escape From Childhood, educator John Holt relates a “most embarrassing moment” shared with him by a friend. The friend was walking in a department store behind...