Throw a flimsy piece of paper. Nothing happens, right? It probably didn’t get much farther than your feet. Roll it up into a ball and do the same thing. It goes a few feet farther, but so what? Now, make a few strategic folds with it and let it fly. Bank to the left, dive, […]
Give your preschool child a deck of playing cards. Nothing. Give your child a small wastepaper basket. Still nothing. Now give your child both of these at the same time, and stand back.
FLIP – SHOOO, SHOOO, SHOOO. Miss.
FLIP – WHOSH, FWAP-FWAP. Miss.
FLIP – FEWWW, FWAP, FEWWW. CLINK. “Yes! Two points.”
With playing cards and a wastebasket, […]
“High Jump and Limbo.” Yes, it could be the title of a new detective series on television. It would probably star Javier Sotomayor, the world’s high jump record holder at 8 feet 1/2 inches, and Dennis Walston, the world’s Limbo record holder at 6 inches. (6 inches!) The pilot episode would have Javier and Dennis […]
Would you like to decrease the psychological distance and increase the intimacy between you and your children? Of course you would. Then it’s time to get eye-to-eye with them, on their level. Therefore, Mom, get up off the love seat, and Dad, up out of your easy chair. Bend your knees, and keep going until […]
What was Mother Nature thinking when she gave us the capability to be tickled? Is this sense really necessary for survival? Has anyone ever been tickled to death? Maybe when she was mixing up the ingredients for the skin, she got a bad batch of “sensitivity powder,” and ticklishness was the result. Or maybe, because […]
The preschool child’s world does not extend much farther than his or her house and yard. When children venture beyond those boundaries, their experiences are not much different from ours, the first time in a foreign country.
The child’s world is fixed, routine, and structured. Children see virtually the same things, in the same places, day […]
When my oldest daughter was born, I walked the floor night and day, rocking and swaddling, singing and even crying…anything to make my new little miracle stop her endless crying. Well, everyone told me she just had colic and that it would pass. And, alas, pass it did, however I wish that I would have […]
Q. When you consult with a family with teens, what are the typical bottom-line issues?
A. Not surprisingly, the bottom line issues for parents are very different than the bottom line issues for the teen.
For the parents, the bottom line issues look something like this:
They see the kid they raised from an infant changing right before […]
It’s sometimes difficult to find ways to be involved with your teen without totally intruding in his/her life. You want to talk to them, they don’t want to talk to you (most of the time anyway). I’ve found the best way to connect with my teenage daughter is to enter her world and do the […]
“I see it, I see it!” my children screamed while bending over the planter full of dirt. In unison, the rest of us bent over and squinted. They were right; a speck of green on a background of brown, the first indication that the carrots were—or at least one carrot was—growing. Predictably, their next words […]