There’s nothing like a toddler’s tantrum or an older child’s melt down to bring a parent to her knees. It’s one of those behaviors that makes you feel inadequate and helpless, to say nothing of incompetent. Put that tantrum in a public place—a restaurant, the grocery store, the school lobby—and you can add embarrassment, fear, and frustration to your own list of feelings. The ante is upped. Believe it or not, tantrums are typical of children all over the world, and they look pretty much … [Read more...] about Tantrums: Doing What Comes Naturally.
Toddlers
Want Some Cheese With That Whine?
How amazing is it that all kids seem to whine at some time or other? Seriously, how is it that they all use the same tone? Is that capacity just part of the factory-equipped model of child? Truth be told, it kind of is…the capacity, that is. Children whine at different ages for different reasons. No one can say exactly when whining will start, but it can even be as young as 18 months. It is interesting that early talkers seem also to be early whiners. The toddler whiner often feels … [Read more...] about Want Some Cheese With That Whine?
Toddler Tutoring?
They’re getting younger and younger! Now there’s Junior Kumon, a program to teach your two year old academics. Seriously! In a recent New York Times article, Fast-Tracking to Kindergarten, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/fashion/with-kumon-fast-tracking-to-kindergarten.html?_r=1&emc=eta1 author Kate Zernike highlights the proliferation of the new Kumon (and other) tutoring programs designed to jumpstart toddlers’ academic career. Are they kidding? Sadly, they are not. And more and … [Read more...] about Toddler Tutoring?
BEWARE OF HALLOWEEN!
One of the joys of being a parent is getting to do the fun kid stuff all over again. Stuff like sharing Easter baskets, making Valentines, and dressing up for Halloween. You can hardly wait to dress up your nine month old in that lion costume and parade her around the neighborhood, right? But you aren’t remembering Halloween from the perspective of a two or three or four year old. You remember it from when you were nine or ten years old, when it really was all fun and there wasn’t much that … [Read more...] about BEWARE OF HALLOWEEN!