I was recently fortunate enough to take a solo trip to the west coast of Vancouver Island – the land of ancient cedars and shore pine bogs, long stretching beaches and the mighty Pacific Ocean with its endless horizon and powerful waves. One afternoon on this trip, in a particularly reflective place, I found myself…
There’s a hole in my bucket … I can’t say the words without hearing Harry Belafonte’s smooth mellow voice singing the words to this 400-year-old nursery rhyme – a most humorous depiction of futility: going round and round in circles without getting anywhere. A ‘hole in the bucket’ is, in fact, more than just a…
Editor’s Note: Mathieu Lyons is on Faculty and also the Director for the Neufeld Institute’s French program. We welcome this piece as his first editorial. This year, my daughter (Emma, four) started her first organized group activity. She requested for many months to attend gymnastics’ class, but my wife and I tried to push back as…
I cried all the way to school drop-off this morning. My daughters, buckled in their booster seats in our minivan, heard the voice of Hillary Rodham Clinton playing through the car radio as together we listened to her concession speech. My seven- and eight-year-olds glanced back and forth from each other, then back to me,…
In this two-part editorial on discipline, Dr. Gordon Neufeld discusses the root causes of problem behaviour and their surprisingly playful solutions. Play has been on my mind lately. Perhaps it is the influence of three young grandsons. Perhaps it is because I want to stay young, and playfulness definitely helps with that. Perhaps it…
Disney/Pixar’s animated movie, Inside Out, released on DVD and Blu-Ray throughout North America this week. I took my daughters to see the movie while it was still playing in theaters, and am happy to share some of my insights — and delights — about this wonderful film. (And I’ll warn you right here that this…
When my marriage broke up, my biggest concern and feeling of guilt was: What are we doing to our children? Children are creatures of attachment – attachment does not just happen in a short window of time right after birth. It is deepening with every year and needs refreshing interaction. My children would not be…
I don’t think I have ever seen so many hugs delivered by grown men in a 22-hour period. I was riveted, along with one billion other viewers. I kept count, wanting to stand vigil along with the president of Chile, until every single miner was up and accounted for. Thirty-three was the magic number. I…