This is Part Two of the post covering Chapter 4 in “The Well-Balanced Child” by Sally Goddard Blythe. You can find the first part of this post here: http://www.chattnaturecenter.org/hours-admission-attire-directions.html
We are going to take a quick peek at the last four reflexes in this chapter. Continue reading
Just a few little musings that came to me this morning…
Is your parenting helpful or is it honestly hindering your child from unfolding and being who they are, is it helping them learn to take responsibility over themselves or treating them as smaller and younger than they are, is your parenting helping your children rise up or holding then back?
For those of you with children ages birth through 7… Continue reading
Lovely things are happening on Monday: Continue reading
Eva over at Untrodden Paths, one of my favorite blogs, has tagged The Parenting Passageway in the homeschooling game here: http://untroddenpaths.blogspot.com/2011/10/homeschool-questionnairehausunterrichts.html
So, without further ado, here are some of the answers for the homeschooling game from my perspective!
One homeschooling book you have enjoyed: Continue reading
Yay! I finally have gotten a chance to sit down with the notes I took at a sensory modulation course I recently attended. It was a lot of fun to have my thinking cap on for awhile, and I have some interesting things I want to share with you all.
A sensory diet just refers to the optimum sensory input a person needs to perform at his or her peak. So, as you can imagine, this is of vast importance to educators at school and home alike (or it should be!)
A person who is good at modulating sensory input can take what is going on, filter out what is not important and focus on the things that are relevant.
Sometimes this can be a challenge for children (and adults alike). If your child’s behavior is reflecting something in the environment and they are spending all their energy on figuring out and reacting to the environment, then there may not be a lot of attention left over for schoolwork! Continue reading
As promised, I am sharing what we are doing in our family to gather everyone up and start our homeschooling adventure for the day. I have a wide variety of ages – age 2, age 6 and a half, age 10 – just to make it all interesting! Continue reading
Space is the final frontier in parenting the six/seven year old as the child goes through a developmental leap during this time.
Many attached and connected parents do so well in providing their children the gift of time: time to have an unhurried, unrushed childhood. Time to just be: in nature, in the home. Time to rest. Time to grow and time to mature. No hurrying.
But I feel where many attached and connected parents fail is in giving their children the gift of space, especially during this six/seven year change. Space, along with time, are essential gifts to provide to our children to help them grow and become healthy adults. Continue reading
I think this is something we should strive for in all age groups of children, don’t you agree? Cultivating stillness and silence is a way for all of humanity to hear the voices of the Heavens speak to us; it is the basis for most spiritual and religious practices throughout the world, and I think for small children it is the basis for reverence, awe and wonder in those early years of birth through age seven.
For myself as a Christian, my commitment is to show my children moments of this utter stillness and silence, this time of not “emptying myself” but of filling myself up with the Triune God. This will plant the seeds of cultivating silence for my children as they will undoubtedly enter a life full of even more busyness, sound and bustle. You may have your own spiritual or religious traditions that help you cultivate this unhurried attitude and ability to hear from the Heavens.
Many parents tell me that their small children are most quiet when they are outside. Of course! How can we, even as adults, not be silenced and awed as we see this beautiful world? Helping children find quiet outdoors is a wonderful thing; can we look at the clouds, we can listen attentively to the sounds of nature. Continue reading
“From Cradle to Coordination: Reflexes and the Developing Mind” is the full title of this chapter, and it is an interesting look at how reflexes help the body do things and therefore free up other areas of the brain for thought and action on a more complex level.
This chapter goes through eight different reflexes, what they are, and perhaps more importantly to those whose children have challenges, what these reflexes look like when they are retained and not integrated well: how this affects motor and emotional development. This post will cover the first part of this chapter, and tomorrow’s post will cover the second part.
This is a brief listing of some things I thought were really pertinent or thought-provoking about this chapter; for more you will really need to get the book and read it as this chapter was fairly lengthy!
The first four reflexes: Continue reading
The Parenting Passageway 