Parenting from the Heart

“My friends left me out today. No one likes me.” It can be hard for adults to know how to respond to children’s painful feelings. We want...

“You need to reset your voice,” one of our first graders reminds his mother when he thinks her words are carrying too much intensity. How...

A kind of daily art auction began occurring in one of our preschool rooms. Individual artists would spontaneously give work to their...

“It’s all their fault.” Last spring a few kindergarteners announced that Asian people had caused the coronavirus. Their teachers, who...

Parent: “Time to turn off the TV.” Child: “No, I want to see the next part.” We often wish for magic solutions for challenges that...

In a popular Discover Card ad, actors say no in a variety of ways: “C’mon, now, no,” “No way,” “Uh-uh,” “Nyet!” It’s fun to see...

Expect new behaviors in spring. The same force that courses through blossoming plants and propels baby animals to explore their...

With discussions about the American Constitution in the news, it’s a nice time to explore principles of democracy and how they can...

Learning the lessons of ownership takes time and patience, and there are opportunities for new learning on this subject even into...

One question commonly asked of children can undermine efforts to help them learn self-regulation and to respect agreed-upon rules. The...

In Michael Slack’s Saturday Zoom presentation, he detailed the way he had written and illustrated books like Dinosaur and Boy, as well as...

Last week children loved watching art teacher Lara Cannon at work on a ladder in the hall, carefully painting the outline of a huge tree....

“I couldn’t find the words” is a phrase we often use when our ability to speak falls short of what we want to express. Watching the...

“I CAN TELL THAT MY TWO-YEAR-OLD has the ability to focus because of the expression he gets on his face when he listens to music.” This...

On a noisy day when the teachers in my older daughter’s second grade classroom needed everyone’s attention, they made this request....

Naming difficult emotions and the events that cause them is the first stage in teaching children resilience. Big feelings are abounding...

If you buy children gifts at this time of year, or on other occasions, you might be interested in an important article Ben West’s dad,...

Fifteen year-old Gitanjali Rao is the first child to be featured on the cover of Time magazine. This is an important breakthrough for our...

Tuck a personal note into your child’s lunch box. It’s a guaranteed way to brighten any day. In the midst of concentrating, adjusting to...