Parenting Tips
Summer Creative Play Guide for School-Aged Children
Summer is almost here and soon your kids will be out of school! You may be wondering what to do with your kids while they are home for the summer. Here is your summer guide to creative play for your school-aged kids. Not only can you use this information for yourself, but it can be
Read MoreQuality of early care linked to outcome
High-quality care before entering school has a significant impact on long-term outcomes. Tell Me More While there’s no evidence that anyone specific preschool program is better than another, substantial evidence underscores the fact that high-quality care leads to both short and long-term advantages to your child. The quality of care is not only reflected in
Read MoreThe development of empathy
Tiny cells in the brain that act like internal mirrors give us the capacity to copy actions and behaviors as well as feel or empathize with other people’s emotions. Tell Me More When I reach for something or feel something, my brain is activated. When I see you reach for something or feel something, my
Read MoreHealthy Kids: It Starts with Mom
As a new mom, we learn to scrutinize every nuance of our baby to understand what the little person is trying to tell us. Before long we know the difference in the cry for food and the cry from pain. We continuously monitor the signals our infant gives and we’re experts in non-verbal communication. Why?
Read MoreTeaching children how to remember
Children whose parents ask more questions about events and experiences tend to have significantly better memories than their less-questioned counterparts. Tell Me More The development of memory, like many functions, is extremely malleable during the toddler and preschool years. At this age, your child’s memory is particularly responsive to gentle but regular training. One activity
Read MoreCrying as a sign of stress
We can’t solve the age-old debate about on-demand vs scheduled feedings here, but we can tell you that your baby has to get pretty worked up in order to ‘tell you’ that they are ready for their next meal. Tell Me More When is the last time you cried for a meal? Thanks to our
Read MoreWhy children ask why
As the parent of any preschool age child knows, ‘why?’ is one of the most frequently asked questions in the young child’s language arsenal. But why ‘Why?’? In addition to fact-finding tools, children’s questions are a mechanism for developing critical thinking skills. Tell Me More Preschooler’s questions play an important role in mind development, not
Read MoreSpeaking to babies fertilizes future speaking
Using sensitive new methods that measure brain activity, it has been shown that the areas of babies’ brains that will later be responsible for speech become activated when merely listening to words at six months of age. Tell Me More Even before six months of age, babies’ brains are primed for acquiring language. Before six
Read MoreDrawing is a precursor to writing
Scribbling and drawing have their origins in the same parts of the brain that will later be used for writing. Tell Me More Even toddlers, who can barely hold a crayon or pencil, are eager to ‘write’ long before they acquire the skills that formally prepare them to read and write. Children who are encouraged
Read MoreSetting Up Your Sitter for Success
When I was the mother of five little boys under age 10, babysitters were of utmost importance-along with food, water, and fresh air. Yet, in the anticipation of time away from daily demands, I never gave much thought to ways I could make the babysitting experience more enjoyable for my substitutes. Of course, there were
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