I love browsing through vintage cookbooks. I like the retro illustrations and the funny, helpful advice for what to do when the electricity goes out, someone spills grape juice on the carpet or you find yourself having to balance your bridge club date with serving a formal dinner to 40 select guests. The situational comedy [...]
A few days ago, I stumbled across a parent asking for information at Yahoo! Answers about the benefits of Montessori education. One of the replies they received echoes a concern Montessori teachers and parents are very familiar with:
Children learn best through play and the Montessori method does not offer a chancefor dramatic play – playing [...]
“I’m the fastest runner in my class.”
“I can’t hit the ball as far as Jessica can.”
“I always get picked last for kickball teams.”
“I’m the worst in my P.E. class.”
The outcome of most children’s sports, intended or not, is that kids discover their place in the pecking order of their peers. A few will be held [...]
I sat down to research this topic with the hope of providing you with some concrete answers. Instead, I discovered a world of contrasting opinions on the effect computers have on young children. Doctors, scientists, teachers, and parents have published scores and scores of articles on this subject, but few of them seem to agree, [...]
“You’re special, Joey, you’re really special.”
How do you feel when you hear a parent, a teacher or a TV psychologist sending messages like the above? Does it strike you as the very best self-esteem builder an adult can tell a child, or has a sentiment like this taken on the tone of have-a-nice-day meaninglessness to [...]
Modern medicine prescribes doses of daily sleep for children in increments along the following lines:
Infants 0-12 months – 13-15 hours per day
Children 1-5 years old – 12-15 hours per day
Children 6-12 years old – 10 -12 hours per day
Teenagers – 8 – 9.5 hours per day
For infants and toddlers, some of these sleep hours may [...]
We tend to throw around the phrase “fine motor skills” a lot without really thinking about what it means. What are fine motor skills? How are they best developed? To start, let’s define fine motor skills as commonly used in educational circles:
Fine motor skills are coordinated small muscle movements in the hands, wrists, and fingers. [...]
Many children today have trouble adjusting to the pressures of schooling. Causes are varied: they can be external, like the loss of a loved one or an acrimonious divorce. Other causes are internal, as in the case of behavioral issues or learning disabilities. With many children, there is no obvious cause – just an [...]
Parents and teachers in today’s world seem to be diligently seeking ways to teach kids discipline and self-control. A quick look at any bookstore will turn up hundreds of books about discipline, child-rearing, and behavioral issues. A form of discipline that has been around for decades is that of “logical consequences”. One pioneer in this [...]
The recent publication and Oprah coverage of Jessica Seinfeld’s cookbook Deceptively Delicious has stirred up a kettle of buzz in the kitchen and across the web as curious parents test recipes, seeing if this cookbook’s methods really work with their kids. The basic premise of the book is that by adding pureed veggies to popular [...]
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