by Susie Windle | Mar 8, 2017 | Parenting Playbook, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
Downtime is important for the healthy growth and development of your child. Your child’s brain needs breaks in order to process the incoming flood of new information. Being idle allows the brain to take what it already knows and then think, reflect, and change. Idle...
by Susie Windle | Feb 8, 2017 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, The Importance of Emotions
Sometimes, with the best of intentions, parents impede their child’s growth by putting themselves in the middle of their child’s problems. It is important to resist the temptation to steal our child’s struggles because we all learn from our mistakes. It is a gift to...
by Susie Windle | Jun 15, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Sensory Information, The Importance of Emotions, Your Child's Brain
As your toddler reaches the age of about eighteen months, he or she will realize that his or her angry “me” and loving “me” are within the same person. During this time, your toddler will also realize that the people he or she trusts and loves can also be the people...
by Susie Windle | Feb 10, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Power of Play
Self-help skills make both your and your child’s life easier. As a parent, you can combine teaching, learning, and fun to help your child develop these skills. Let’s take getting dressed as a first example. Providing oversized dress-up clothes with zippers, buttons,...
by Susie Windle | Dec 9, 2015 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Sensory Information, The Importance of Emotions, Your Child's Brain
If you have a child who finds it easy to do lots of things, from tossing a ball to writing his or her name, it will be easy for your child to figure out how to accomplish tasks worthy of your praise. This child will learn and become aware of the kind and warm feelings...
by Susie Windle | Feb 25, 2015 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
Words are powerful. Words can build up or break down your child’s confidence, shape her identity, and affect her emotions. And words are never just words. Words are voiced with tone and volume. When you speak to your child, the tone and volume of your voice are...
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 | 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...
by Susie Windle | Oct 31, 2012 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
Self-esteem refers to the judgments individuals make about themselves. These judgments connect to their own worth as a person as well as to the feelings that are associated with those judgments. People tend to have a global appraisal of their worth along with a...
by Susie Windle | Oct 19, 2011 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
Last week we discussed how understanding the development of the right and left sides of the brain could be beneficial in making choices as a parent. This week, we will discuss the vertical aspect. The lower areas of the brain include the brain stem and the limbic...
