I recently discovered that my son was struggling with his peers at school. As a fifth grader, he is the oldest boy at his Montessori school. Over the years I have witnessed the patience, tenderness, and maturity that miraculously emerge from my son when in the company of a younger child to whom he is…
I often get asked by school boards to help them choose a good Social Skills training program for their students. Their intentions are the best; they want to help their students to get along with each other and they want life to flow more smoothly in the classroom, in the hallways and on the playground….
I remember that night in June like it was yesterday. Our oldest daughter was just finishing Kindergarten and we were thinking ahead, with a bit of panic, to Grade One – a whole day at school away from us, away from her sister. She was already struggling with peers and found it hard to hold…
Resolutions in the New Year tend to bring us back to basics. Undoubtedly this is why health is our overwhelming preoccupation as judged by the fact that exercise and diet top most New Year’s resolution lists. Upon reflection, health clearly becomes the ultimate priority, as we need our health to prolong our time and preserve…
“There are three stages of a man’s life: He believes in Santa Claus, he doesn’t believe in Santa Claus, he is Santa Claus.” ~Unknown There is nothing quite as endearing as a young child’s belief in magic and the impossible. Believe it or not – the capacity for magical thinking actually stems from the same…
We have entered the season of giving. Stress levels can be very high while thinking about all that we would like to give our child, perhaps dealing with long Christmas wish lists, demands, the realities of our budgets, busy schedules, and the rushing around to keep up! Pressures and expectations abound that the season should be joyous and ‘special’ for our family. This can leave us in gut-wrenching contortions, searching for…
Today I am preparing for a special event in our house – a celebration of the beginning of the Christmas season. This tradition that we started some years back involves me finding where we stashed all the Christmas regalia from last year, trying to remember how to put the tree together (one of those really…
Wonder implies the desire to learn (Aristotle) My husband loves all things hockey so it was natural when we had children that he wanted to share his passions with them. At age 4 my daughter dressed in her pink Canucks hockey jersey happily accompanied him to a hockey game. He would tell me she seemed…
When my eldest child was born the whole world shrunk down to the size of her face, the feel of her skin, the sound of her cries. The days grew long, I was bleary eyed with exhaustion, and all my energy went into the here and now, into meeting all the moment-to-moment needs of a…
Recently I read a study that reported North Americans place a high value on independence. We all want our children to grow up and stand on their own two feet; who wants their 30 year old still living with them? The problem, is as Dr. Neufeld states, we are not birds that can be pushed…