Sharing is a tricky little beast with children from birth to three. It happens to be a very mature capacity that adults struggle with! Adults actually don’t share the way we ask children to. Sharing is hard for a child to understand when it’s not available that often in their life for imitation. As much…
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We often do things for our little children that they are capable of doing themselves – things such as climbing or rolling over or crawling or walking or getting up on things. We often try to help them or do it for them. But they are safest and most embodied when they are allowed to…
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We often refuse to do things for our children that they need help with. Sometimes we ask children to do things before they are ready, or we expect them to understand what we mean when, in fact, they don’t understand. Patience with the child’s pace and offering help is the kindest thing to do. Take…
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Potty training is so individual. My approach is that using the toilet is such an intimate part of a person’s life (like getting a diaper changed), that I handle it with the deepest respect. I try to make the child comfortable. Like diapering, nothing you do should feel distressful. Keep it light-hearted and joyful. Make…
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May Day is one of four Gaelic Festivals that quarter the journey of the earth around the sun. Each of these four lie halfway between the four other great cosmic days: Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice and Fall Equinox. I’m particularly fond of these in between festivals. Beltane, on May 1, lies halfway between the…
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Whether we know it or not, whether we are conscious of it or not, all of us carry within us an image of the very young child. This image translates into ideas about what babies are, what they are capable of and how we ought to treat them. We don’t question our image of the…
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This week, build an obstacle course! It could be a course built by an adult for one child or a course built together for the whole family! It could be a course for a toy animal. Or a course for a toy vehicle. An indoor course or an outdoor course. Can you find something to…
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Why do we find nature so calming and soothing? Waves on the shore? Water babbling over stones? The wind billowing the curtain? An inchworm progressing slowly up a blade of grass? Here we find that Nature is our best teacher for de-stressing. Variation within sameness calms and soothes us. This applies especially to children. What…
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