by Susie Windle | Jan 28, 2015 | Parenting Playbook, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
Play is fun and important. Play allows children to try on new roles, rehearse new skills, and learn about their personal capabilities and limitations. It encourages children to learn social rules and the difference between fantasy and reality. Play is also one way...
by Susie Windle | Jan 14, 2015 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, The Power of Play
When children and parents spend time apart during the day, adjustments are necessary when reconnection takes place. This reentry into each others’ lives can create some missteps because everyone is full of feelings remaining from their time apart. Everyone also has...
by Susie Windle | Jan 7, 2015 | Parenting Playbook, Your Child's Brain
Children are often given opportunities to learn and develop beliefs about how to fairly divide material goods. Concerns can surface and debates grow loud over what size allowance siblings of different ages should receive and who gets to play longer with their friends...
by Susie Windle | Dec 24, 2014 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
Nearly every parent has watched a child refuse to share his or her toy. The child who is not sharing may even know that the fair and acceptable thing to do would be to share, but for some reason, he or she just can’t seem to resist grabbing the toy and holding on for...
by Susie Windle | Dec 17, 2014 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, The Power of Play
Parents can easily begin to feel that they are either disciplining their kids or chauffeuring them from one activity to the next, and nothing much else. It’s important to make time for some family fun! As humans we are hardwired to play, explore, and connect with...
by Susie Windle | Dec 3, 2014 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Sensory Information
The holiday season is here, and it is often during this time that one personality trait stands out—perfectionism. The holidays are the time of year that seems to bring out the desire for everything to be “perfect”—creating the perfect meal, planning the perfect family...
by Susie Windle | Oct 22, 2014 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Sensory Information, The Importance of Emotions, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
Neuroscience has confirmed what would seem sensible on a gut level: that environmental factors influence the prenatal and postnatal brain. Since this is so, the question becomes, how can we create conditions that foster healthy children and their developing brains in...
by Susie Windle | Aug 27, 2014 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
Children thrive in our world when they thrive on the inside. The inside—where personality, imagination, heart, and mind reside—often seems to receive less attention than the behaviors and interactions we observe on the outside. Yet a shift that occurs in that internal...
by Susie Windle | Apr 2, 2014 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
The amount of time you spend face to face with your child matters. When you spend time face to face, you are sending the message that you delight in just being together. For your child, there is magic in your eye contact, smile, and voice. You are sending the...
by Susie Windle | Mar 26, 2014 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
Power is a human attribute that comes in a number of forms. Confidence is a kind of power that if pinpointed on a negative-positive spectrum would tip toward the positive end. Examples of confidence include standing up for what is right, a willingness to be safely...