Simplicity’s Gifts for the Learner
I am speaking with Dee Joy Coulter, who has just published a fascinating book entitled Original Mind: Uncovering Your Natural Brilliance. I have found this book to be very useful in my own parenting, with brain‐based support for the principles of simplicity as the means for healthy brain growth and learning. I hope you will…
What We Truly Seek On Halloween…
Special thanks for today’s guest post from David Sewell McCann of Sparkle Stories. He is also sharing free downloadable Halloween stories, which you’ll find at the bottom of this post. We hope you enjoy them! The end of October and the beginning of November are unique in the year. Think of the world…
Simplify – for Cognitive and Mental Health
Simplicity is a beautiful way of life. It offers us the ability to create harmonious family rhythms and choose healthy ways of interacting with our children and families that honor who they are at their core. A profound result of these interactions with our children is an improvement in the way in which children learn…
Simplicity, for Me
Simplicity, for me, means taking the pressure off. Claiming space for what I need. What our family needs. Listening and trusting that inner voice. Allowing myself to be. To be present. To reduce the clutter, inner and outer. To be conscious of what is here and now. Life and parenting can be hard at times,…
Whole Child Sports: What if My Daughter Hates Practice?
The following is an excerpt from Q&A with Luis Fernando Llosa, Kim John Payne, and Scott Lancaster, authors of Beyond Winning: Smart Parenting in a Toxic Sports Environment. Please join other parents in this important conversation which is changing youth sports for the better by “Liking” Whole Child Sports on facebook and visiting the website…
Fairy Tales, Meaning, and The Question of “When”
G.K. Chesterton claimed that “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” I couldn’t agree more. However, dragons can still be scary, and, at some ages, too scary to even think about going to battle with them. Instead, the…
Summer Reading for Children
I have pretty strict standards about children’s books–they should move slowly, not contain a lot of exclamation points, mostly take place outdoors in nature, be well-written, and, finally, feature adults who are worthy of emulation (except of course, the archetypal “bad” characters: evil kings, witches, mischievous trolls etc.). While this approach requires more groundwork in…
The Magic of Time
There is something magical, for all of us, but most especially for children, in having lots of unstructured time. And Summer is pretty much the perfect time of year to have lots of time–the weather is usually conducive to being outdoors and there aren’t the pressures of school (being somewhere on time, remembering all the…
Summer Challenge: De-clutter the Car
How is the summer going? My summer has been full of a bunch of traveling so far and has a lot more traveling yet to come. Two days ago we took a bullet train across China and yesterday we flew to Taiwan. Today I am sitting here in a daze trying to collect myself. But…
Don’t Hit Record
My two year old is jumping on her bed, singing “Love Potion Number 9” with everything she has. It’s loud. It’s awesome. It’s so funny. And I’m about to take my phone out of my pocket to take a movie. I’m so tempted, believe me. And I have videos of situations that are similar in…