by Susie Windle | Dec 14, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions
Children need constructive ways to deal with the range of emotions they experience. To develop constructive responses to emotions, children need to learn how to calm down. We all think more clearly when we are calm. When children especially are experiencing upsetting,...
by Susie Windle | Nov 16, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Parents: Practice Self Care
Last week, Parenting Playbook talked about how parents can teach kids the meaning behind feeling thankful. This week, let’s look at the positives for parents in the practice of gratitude. As we mentioned last week, not only does a sense of gratitude feel good but...
by Susie Windle | Oct 26, 2016 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills
Consequences provide feedback for behavior, and when we provide logical consequences for our children, they will connect their choices to outcomes. Logical consequences fit a particular situation. A parent chooses a response that connects to a child’s choice, which...
by Susie Windle | Oct 12, 2016 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills
Natural consequences can be quite instructive for your child, and all you have to do is sit back and let the laws of nature do the teaching. The feedback your child receives from natural consequences can be less than pleasant, such as when he or she learns that going...
by Susie Windle | Sep 28, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Power of Play
Playing on the floor with your child is a wonderful way to enhance your child’s attention span. Attention requires practice, and practice will occur naturally during “floor time” for a child who has been blessed with the ability to concentrate and focus. Floor time...
by Susie Windle | Sep 21, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
As scientists learn more about how the brain works, they find extensive links between movement and learning. No wonder kids move so much! For example, some research has revealed that gesturing and pantomiming speed up the process of learning to talk. They also...
by Susie Windle | Sep 7, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
Children develop their ability to reason at different chronological ages. Some children arrive at the age of reason when they turn four while others are seven or eight years old before they have reasoning powers. It makes sense then to instruct children accordingly....
by Susie Windle | Aug 31, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, The Power of Play
Telling stories is one playful way to help children address important themes in their lives, particularly those that children might prefer not to talk about. Discharging powerful feelings connected to memories and experiences is important, though, so residual feelings...
by Susie Windle | Aug 24, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, The Power of Play
When kids play, they are not just having fun. Play allows kids to try out new ways of being, behaving, thinking, and feeling. When kids play, they are allowed to break out of established patterns and experiment with being a new self with new ways of interacting with...
by Susie Windle | Aug 17, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Power of Play
When thinking about how to best prepare our children for the big wide world out there, developing resilience comes to mind. We hope our kids can feel secure and confident as they learn the skills they will need to cope with everyday challenges, disappointments,...