Category Archives: education

How appropriate. Guilt.

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I tend to begin these posts with the same opening I almost always use on my correspondence:  “I’m sorry it has been so long since I wrote …”

But let’s focus on the positive.  I’m posting!  Now!

I begin by humbly sharing a link to a piece I wrote for Tots to Teens.  It’s about Mama Guilt.  

Other links now.  Research from Australia mightn’t surprise anyone … child care workers are underpaid and undervalued.  The tragic bit is that even the parents of the children being cared for are guilty of the undervaluing.  Let’s just contrast that with a new report from the Abecedarian project, pointing to still more life long benefits of high quality early childhood education.  Oh, but here’s a wee reminder of how not all ECE is high quality …  Irony!  She is not dead!

Here is a report called the Global Youth Wellbeing Index, and here is a link to reinforce the power of education for helping parents be cool about their wacky li’l babes.  This about infant sleep and reasonable expectations.

We’ve linked here before, but let’s do it again … a family friendly music podcast to dig on.  Kia Ora.

Finally, let’s just be honest about how often we check our smart phones, shall we?

culture, family, mothering

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This Baby Geek has a foreign born husband.  My kids are wee half’n’half creatures of unique composition.  Aren’t they all.

At this moment I am in the home of my bro- and sis-in-law, thinking anew about how our home cultures shape our early experience which, in turn, shapes our brains.  And these shape us.  Our mommas and our food and our home.  How we communicate, how we express ourselves, what we believe.  It’s all in there.

So I’ve spent considerable time briefing my Big Girl (and subsequently my nieces & nephews) to keep an open mind during travel, to think in terms of Different, not Better or Worse.  One of the most elegant illustrations of this is the beautiful movie  “Babies”, which my children watched on the iPad on the aeroplane.  It’s the only movie on there.

Other stuff rool quick before I rejoin the people … an article from Time about Dolphin Parenting … sounds like the Backbone style of parenting my bro Nathan Mikaere-Wallis teaches… but with an arguably cuter name.

Link here to a write up of some research about child abuse and adverse effects on brain development … complete with disturbing photograph … and finally a great resource from Zero to Three about early emergent literacy.

Better get back to the whanau time.

 

Angry Mamas

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oh baby coverThe new issue of OHbaby! is out and I have an article in there, about Angry Mamas.  It was amazing to write and think about at the time, and the feedback has been fab.  Thank y’all.

Now for some links before bedtime (it is always late when I get to this here blog.  What’s up with that?)

First, the week began in NZ with the release of the People’s Report from the Glenn Inquiry.  And here is the report itself, in all its heartbreaking detail.  I look forward to the plans for improvement … November I think that next bit is being released.

Next: from Wired mag, article about a “radical new teaching method” which is actually a super early childhood education philosophy (let the children choose what they want to learn!  follow their passions!) and it’s been applied to older children.

Sorry.  Being snippy, are we?

Here is a li’l something about the role of synchronized brain waves in supporting speedy learning (thanks MIT) and here is an article from the New York Times about the losses wrapped up in a lack of handwriting.  Ah, kids these days!

small insight, many links

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It’s winter time in the South Pacific.  A time for toddlers to kick off all their bedclothes and then awaken their mothers with cold cries.  As I tiptoed toward Baby Girl last night I felt for her blindly, unsure what part of her I’d touch.  She swivels and wriggles and changes direction.

As I gently patted the air and eventually her, it occurred to me how the darkness of nighttime parenting is a bit like the blessed mystery of pregnancy – the ultrasound technician who proposes “yes, I think that’s an arm.  Oh, and there’s the baby’s spine”.  Last night this seemed just like the necessary assessment that precedes rearranging the blankies.  “Yes, here’s her wee head.  There’s her feet …”  And I snuggle her back up and shuffle back to bed, willing us both to stay asleep.

Anyway, before I return to that lovely slumber, here are some LINKS.

This is from UNICEF, it’d seem they are getting into the neurodevelopment swing o’ things .   Welcome.

A couple of parenting resources: Radical Parenting, providing tips for parents of adolescents and teens from a kid’s perspective, and I love this from Hand in Hand parenting, about the value of a Good Cry.  I’m sold: boo hoo!

Here is a cool cardboard play space from Australia, an urging to introduce babies to veggies early and often, and a write up of some health research examining gender differences in placenta.

And I just don’t even know what to say about the notion that we are all more stressed at home than at work.   A convo for another time.  Bed beckons (as she always does mmmmm)

next week we go screen free

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profilepicKia Ora geeks.  Getting ready to turn off, here.  Husband is unenthusiastic as can be.  Big Girl is a little better.  Baby Girl will be deceived into thinking TV is broken.  She’s two.

A family’s prep for screen free week is described here, and this is from Psychology Today – some brain benefits of unplugging are included.

Whether you’re into Screen-Free Week or not, I reckon you will DIG these fab resources from the excellent organisation known as TRUCE (Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment).

While we’re at it, check out this great news from Brazil, where it is now illegal to market directly to children, and look at this primo follow up on the 1981 LEGO ad.

Finally, the legendary Lillian Katz is still raising consciousness about childrens’ early learning, this time cautioning against attempting to teach children to read too young.

sharing

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The most recent issue of OHbaby! magazine has an article I wrote about sharing.  (It also had a very timely article about forward-facing vs. rear-facing carseats, which is something that I’ve been thinking about lately.  And this was before the Prince George controversy.)

May I also share with you a link to an AMAZING article shared with me by one of my lovely geeky mama pals.  This is about outdoor play and makes strong reference to the ‘loose parts’ phenomenon, which has been rattling around early childhood circles for 15 years or more.  Although the loose parts might look a bit different in that context.  Less fire, more supervision.

Another yummy article about outdoor play is to be found here. Love their point about stairs being more risky than climbing trees (so we should do what … stop kids from living in multi storey homes?).

Unrelated but fab link: a family-friendly podcast is available for download here.  Love.

Thank you so much for bearing with me during my website hiccups.  Ay carumba.  Technology.  Extra special thanks to my invisible Web Magician and my excellent onsite IT guy.

dishwasher hums

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the gurgling of my dishwasher is a revered sound.  It suggests order, productivity, and rest.  All at the same time!

Today begins with a link to a piece on Pennie Brownlee’s blog.  It rules. I want you to read this very much indeed.  Here is a link to some research describing the physical pain of social exclusion.  I always suspected that sticks and stones could break my bones but words could also hurt me very much indeed.

This link will take you to a write up of research suggesting that playing with Barbie dolls could limit girls’ career choices … if y’all over there at Oregon State would apply the same rigor to exploring the Lego Friends malarkey that’d be great …

Finally: a few months too late for this mama but hopefully useful for someone else … how great are THESE – reusable pouches for your homemade purees!  I cringed every time I sent a disposable fruit-filled empty to the landfill.  But I sent them.  Cos my baby ate them.  (Sorry Al Gore!)  Ain’t that the thang?

Day of Happiness

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International Day of Happiness!  It’s equinox/solstice, too.  Autumn begins in the Southern Hemisphere.  Time to get serious about the stacking of firewood.  You Northern mamas (& papas) can stock up on sunscreen & bug spray.

Things to make you happy: an awesome looking free online parenting extravaganza was advertised by Attachment Parenting International and can be learned about here.  Daniel Siegel is one of the presenters and he is fab.

But listen … this is a blog post that will NOT make you happy … New Zealanders need to be outraged … and I’m thinking we need to tell all our friends, the parents of our kids’ classmates.  Thanks to my excellent geek pal for the link.

This is an interesting article from Forbes (business-y magazine) about parenting habits to avoid (if you want to grow a leader).

Going to watch a recording of the latest episode of this series I am into … I love Don McGlashan like a crazy lady.

the happy juggle

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Hellooooo geeky whanau.

Straight into it then … here is a fab article about babies from Psychology today about babies.  Eat it up!  Share with your friends!  Another bit of baby deliciousness is to be found in this resource from the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood.  It’s a PDF of ideas for supporting babies to entertain themselves screen-free.

What else?  Brain scans show us that there are different ways of relating to numbers, and also that fear makes our sense of smell more powerful.

Here is research from the Journal of Neuroscience to suggest that the brain benefits of learning music last for a lifetime, and I humbly invite you to check out the podcasts that Nathan and I created for Family Times.  Check back often, k?

In other more personal news, since last I blogged I have submitted an article (and made an editor tear up!  Hurrah!), we’ve celebrated a birthday in my house (complete with triumphant cake icing session!) and enjoyed a magical noho marae in a glorious bit of the country.

Next I await publication of my letter of the month (could I be more excited?) in Good magazine … I blogged about it here … and I gotta get cracking in fulfilling my role as peer reviewer for the Southern Early Childhood Association.  Jeepers!  Before I can do this, though, there is ANOTHER birthday in my house tomorrow, and a cake needs creating!

 

amazing! and awful.

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I just heard from one of my bestest buddies: successful healthy birthing this very morning.  Baby Girl, brand new, hours old.  Welcome!  I long to rush to her side but the thick green nose of my toddler (SORRY…) will keep me away.  For today, at least.

All this on a day where the morning radio news was full of grim news about life for kiwi children.  One in five in poverty … UNICEF is unimpressed.  Our school results indicate that not enough kids are getting the education to score the jobs to lift them out of poverty.

I will return to my serious and relevant advocacy when I do not have a toddler on my hip, clawing for the computer.  Naughty mama am I (“bubby’s turn ‘puter!).  Meantime, enjoy the coolest Christmas music EVER right here.