How to Launch Better Behaviour (and Better Learning) in your Child Children of all ages develop, learn and behave better when their parents are warm and nurturing. All parents function somewhere on a continuum, with positive “warm and nurturing” at one end and negative “cold and unapproachable” at the other. And, regardless of how much […]
Category Archives: Loving Communication
Reading to a child communicates love and acceptance to a child primarily in two ways: firstly, through physical touch and, secondly through sharing an experience that fosters emotional closeness. We’ve written before in this blog about just how important love is to learning – it is the ‘thing’ that makes all learning stick. The beauty of […]
Image: www.lorenstow.co.za Most parents can agree that it is incredibly frustrating when your baby or toddler wants something but can’t communicate what it is… You don’t know what to get them or do for them, and they get increasingly frantic… Another example is when you know that your child knows something, but when you ask […]
Let’s face it, as parents we spend most of our time directing our children’s behaviour and sometimes it can feel as though all we ever say is ‘no’, ‘don’t’ and ‘stop’. While it is important to guide our children, there is a way to do it that is more positive for both you and […]
3 Tips On How To Calm An Angry Child In a previous post called “The Two Kinds of Tantrums” we described how certain tantrums require that parents move towards their children to help them to deal with their overwhelming emotions, while the second kind of tantrum requires that parents move away from their child. With […]
The 10 Things Children REALLY Want From Their Parents In our world today, parents can often feel that they are not being good parents unless their children have access to countless battery-operated toys, or even more extra-mural activities and sports to choose from. The result is a parent who is running from pillar to post […]
Being a parent is certainly a challenging undertaking, especially since most children can push the boundaries and be emotionally-charged at times. Nowadays, it seems as if the concept of ‘good’ parenting is forever changing, depending on which expert is doing the talking. This is because the very context in which parenting takes place (our cultures, society and the global community), is […]
As parents, we do our very best for our children, actively giving them everything we believe they need… and more. So, the idea that their ‘love tanks’ may sometimes be running low is not only hard to believe, but it flies in the face of the love we express for them daily through our words […]
Image Source: http://www.thedailygreen.com/ Our last post was about the importance of early reading (if you missed it, go here), and today we’re sharing some simple and inspiring tips that can make practicing reading simple, as long as you recognise the opportunities! 1. Set the scene for Dreamland: Help your child to wind down at bedtime […]
The 3 Secrets of Early Reading I remember as a little girl that I loved to read – I would even pretend to read my mother stories that I had learned to memorise. When I learned to write, my love of words was further extended, and I would re-write by hand poems and songs that I […]
Healthy Praise – 3 Practical Tips In our last post, we discussed how not all praise is equal. In fact, if praise were like food, some praise is like the finest organic fruit and vegetables, while other praise is like junk food which is plain unhealthy and even harmful (if you missed the post, go here). […]
When Praise is Harmful As a parent, I want to raise my children in a way that celebrates who they are and what they achieve. I want them to know that they have a special place in the world and that the world is truly a better place because they are in it. I […]
In our last post we told the truth about the effect that television has on your young child (under 3 years) – if you missed it, go HERE. In this post, we want to equip parents with the tools they need to make the most of television when it comes to their older toddlers and children. We […]
I have been rather afraid of writing this post, because it is without a doubt going to be rather difficult for many parents to swallow. The important thing, however, is to tell the truth (no matter how ugly), because our philosophy at Practically Speaking is that “when we know better, we do better”. So, stick […]
- 1
- 2