Parenting With Teacher Nancy

Spoil your kids with physical affection.  Study after study show that this can have positive long term effects. According to the Grant Study , the most expensive and encompassing 75 year longevity study, the 75 year olds who had "life satisfaction" and happy had one thing in common:  they felt closeness with their parent.  The decades old idea that you can spoil a child with affection is to be ignored (although you can spoil your child with other things).  Be liberal with those hugs and kisses.  (It's good for adults too.) How a Parent's Affection Shapes the Child's Happiness for Life What else makes a good parent?  Here are 10 competencies.  The most important:  Love and affection.  No surprise there.  Number two seems to surprise parents... What Makes A Good Parent Scientific American CONSIDER THIS Build in an affection ritual. Every morning and every evening,  have a cuddle. What parenting competency would you like to work on?  How? BOOK DISCUSSION

Welcome to those that are new to the class, and welcome back to everyone else! You may be familiar with Ages and Stages of your child or seen this handout before, but check it out again.  Your child is growing, so s/he could be at a different stage now compared to when you last looked. Here are resources with a quick overview on your child's development, common issues and what you can do at this stage. Zero to Three Age Based Handouts (0-36 months) Three to Four Year Olds Four to Five Year Olds Consider This: Did anything surprise you about your child's development? Is there any suggestions on the list you want to try? QUIET OBSERVATION In class, we will be taking time to do Quiet Observation of our children.  Quietly watching our children in action is an ideal way to learn about child development.  The principals used in class are taken from  Magda Gerber's ideas of the RIE Approach .  Pick up the article in class that explains this. Also, here is one RIE Ex