As noted scientist Temple Grandin titled her book of the same name, animals make us human. This can seem a very strong statement until one watches children and notes their affinity for and curiosity about animals. Some kids watch creatures from a safe distance. Others are more forward and grab every cat or dog they can get close enough to to touch. Most children will add the names of animals to their first few words. However they show it, new … Read More...
We have a beloved Golden Retriever who can seemingly smell water from hundreds of yards away, making a beeline for anything deeper than dew and, without hesitation, diving in to make it a full-body experience. Like him, our children gravitated to every form of water from still ponds to running streams. From a tub filled with their first bath to their hours of rainy day play, they all loved interacting with any water they could find.
They stood under eaves … Read More...
Personally, I was delighted when my toddlers began pushing brooms around. As a trained Montessori teacher, I was always excited to see my own children beginning to engage in “work”, but first as a teacher and then as a parent, I knew that everyone was happier if I distinguished my children’s work from mine. I had learned that it was better to classify this work as very important “play”. Playing house is often one of the first ways adults … Read More...
We want to do so much to help our children, but life teaches us that their greatest gifts may be the intangible tools they carry inside themselves. Watching them, we see that some are born with a fully-stocked “toolchest” that will aid them on any path they choose. Other children seem to need a little more help, whether in recognizing what was there all along or in developing skills unfamiliar to their natures.
Regardless of how competent children are out … Read More...
“Great hardships and great dangers are in store for him; but he shall win through them all.”
— From Isabel Wyatt’s The Kingdom of Beautiful Colors
This quote from Isabel Wyatt came to me a few weeks back as young people in Florida were standing up to the powerful, demanding the value of their lives over the profit of an industry. Our battered, mildewed copy of the storybook for middle-grade children, from which the quote comes, carries the older, less … Read More...
Is your crafting cupboard or drawer bursting with broken bits of crayons, uncapped, dried out markers, crumpled paper and bits of yarn all randomly stuck together with leaked glue from the left-open bottle? Does the sight of glitter and the memory of trying to clean it up bring tears to your eyes? Are you stifling frustration every time your child asks to paint? How is it that some people seem to be able to make craft time with their children … Read More...
We’re still looking at a foot of snow in Vermont, but our minds are focused on all that’s happening beneath this thick, white blanket. Our seasonal tables tend to reflect what we’re hoping for in this season of waiting more than what children might find outside. Our hopes around garden plans or new chicks to raise or even the feeling of warm grass beneath bare feet can be features of the spring display. Of course, for younger children, the Easter … Read More...
To tell the truth, babies do not need much—love, a clean body, warmth and nourishing food. Still, we all like to give gifts to welcome new little souls. We like to see babies react to new experiences and we like to share things with new parents that our own children enjoyed. All through the first year, whether a new parent or the friend or relation of one, people enjoy bringing toys into a baby’s life. Here are a few thoughts … Read More...
Perhaps you have noticed with your children that as they pass into the early stages of puberty (the so-called tween phase) they lose some of the contentment that accompanies middle childhood. Our children were more likely to be “bored” or to flit disconsolately from one once-favored activity to another, unable to really settle down. In this stage, children begin to seek work that they can see has meaning and purpose; they’ve passed the joy found in imitating adult work and … Read More...
Whatever the game, children can always find uses for a playsilk. They’ll twist them into royal crowns or wrap them into pirates’ kerchiefs. They can bundle a doll into a carrier or swing one around a shoulder for a cape. They’re perfect for a skirt or to bandage a pretend wound. Little ones might cover their tea table or curtain a playstand. With a basket of playsilks, children are ready for wherever their imaginations take them.
The beauty … Read More...
