Do you like to DIY? I sure do! Especially when it involves the kitchen and kiddos. When I was a toddler teacher, we had a tray with all the ingredients for making playdough, measuring cups and spoons, and an old saucepan with a tattered recipe card in it. Whenever the time seemed right, we’d pull […]
Worry. It seems to come with the territory of parenting. We worry about… … whether we can break the unhealthy patterns from our own childhood.… if the isolation of a pandemic will affect our child.… how the uncertainty of today’s world will affect our child’s future. In today’s podcast episode, bestselling author Holly Elissa Bruno […]
Resilience, persistence and patience. These are characteristics we want children to develop so they’ll be able to manage the challenges of life. Seems kinda crazy but guess what, there are things you can do today to help children when they’re in third grade trying to figure out long division and playground politics. But how do […]
Have you experienced the joy of leaving your baby with a child care provider or sitter for the first time? What about the fear and uncertainty that comes with it? I remember it so well, and there were so many mixed emotions. I wanted (and needed) some personal space, but it seemed that every day, as soon […]
I love how predictable child development is. From learning to walk, talk, play with others, build with blocks, even the marks made on a page, we can predict what children will do next, as they grow towards autonomy and independence. In this video, I help you decipher what you see in children’s artwork, outlining the […]
One way to build community in your class is to create personalized books with pictures of your children, their families or even favorite activities you’ve done together as a group. Make a book of faces and names and watch your children “read” the book on their own. This is a fun way to help with […]
Are you well-rested?Odds are, if your baby isn’t sleeping well at night, then you aren’t. How can you help your little one stop waking up throughout the night? Better yet, how can you help them put themselves back to sleep when they do? That’s what we explore in this week’s episode of Parenting in the First 3 […]
What’s the favorite activity in your class? I’m guessing it might be blocks! Block play… seems like it’s just stacking and knocking over, with a little pretend sprinkled in. But actually there are developmental stages in block play. How toddlers play with blocks is different from preschoolers, which is different from school-agers. There’s lots of math, science, cognitive and […]
Eat, sleep, poop. Eat, sleep, poop. It seems like that’s all your newborn does in the first 60 days. What is it about this time period, then, that’s so crucial to your baby’s development? In today’s episode of Parenting in the First 3 Years, we answer all your burning questions and debunk all the common newborn myths […]
Is your child at that tantrum age? How do you feel when they’re in the thick of one? Bewildered, impatient, overwhelmed, helpless? Or perhaps ready to throw in the towel on this whole parenting thing. Tantrums are a completely normal part of childhood, but with a little insight into what your toddler is thinking, perhaps […]