Category Archives: education

joyful, jumbled times

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oh baby school issueGeeks ahoy!  Here is a picture featuring the newest issue of OHbaby!.  In there is an article I wrote, remember?  ‘Bout School Readiness?  I’m proud of it.

Also featured in the picture is my right foot.  Have we ever talked about nail polish strategies?  For me, a busy and overthink-y mind benefits greatly by being able to gaze down away from the troubles of injustice and inequality and the grief of our time, and just bask in one of the frivolous joys of our time.  Now and then, anyway.

Quick handful of quality links here, friends, then I’m off to organise dins for the whanau.

Here is a luscious and supremely simple summary of research from Scientific American, it’s called How to be a Better Parent.  Enjoy.

While you’re being a better parent, you could avoid buying web based toys for your kidlets.  Here is a piece from the Guardian to impress upon you why.  Another interesting take on kids and tech is to be found here, in this Opinion piece from the Washington Post, written by a teacher.  It’s called I gave my students iPads — then wished I could take them back

Just for fun, here’s a summary of brain development basics from the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, and I end with a link to a PodCast covering an uber important topic … how to communicate about early childhood development with folks who don’t share our backgrounds.  Here comes a gift from Liz’s Early Learning Spot.  Season’s Greetings!

Slow Down. And hurry up about it.

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I am painfully aware of the frequently contradictory nature of my instructions to my children.  I have literally asked Big Girl to ‘please hurry up’ just seconds after I’ve instructed her to ‘slow down and take more care’.  Ghastly.

Before I throw links in your direction, may I wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all y’all American baby geeks out there.  I’ll be cooking a turkey for my half-American crew on Saturday.  In the heat.  Harvest festival at the beginning of Summer?  More contradictions.

Right-ho.  Here we go.  First up: here’s a report from the Australian Psychological Society about the well being of Australians.  Interesting how FOMO and social media immersion are making folks less content.  Also from Australia, also dealing with mental health: read about how flippin hard mothers are working and how it impacts them.  No prizes.

This is the legendary annual pre-Christmas TRUCE toy guide … please read and share.  The opposite of that is to be found HERE: it’s voting time for the annual TOADY  awards from the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood.  Such hideous toys to choose from this year!  What will you select?

Here is a link to an abstract for some research about toddler’s language acquisition – turns out our ums and ahs are more valuable than we might’ve thought.   Here is a cool site from the Badass Breastfeeder, and this is a wee audio piece from Scientific American about our brain’s responses to music.

And for your Big Kid, a lovely teeny youthy positive website from Oz.  Rosie Respect.  I dig it!

Finally, in “Be Careful What You Wish For” news, I submitted a proposal to present at The 2nd International Neurosequential Model Symposium: Advances in Implementation and Innovation in Practice, Program Development and Policy.  

Blow me down, geeks, I’ve been accepted!  Bruce Perry!  Banff!  See you there!

 

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Good evening geeks

I begin by sharing a useful link about car seat use in NZ … rules and such.  If you’re anything like me you’ll have a dither that lasts for MONTHS … should little girl still be in the five point harness or are we ready for a booster?  Dither!  MONTHS!  Thanks also to the gentleman from this site, who has alerted me to my vast number of broken links.  I blush.  And will remedy.  Some day.

Other things?  Here’s a cautionary tale from the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, warning you about the horrors of Hello Barbie.  If the predatory nature of toy manufacturers makes you weep, you might enjoy this article about the science of crying.

Please enjoy this hilarious and poignant bit of writing by Kimberley Harrington “Is There a Parenting Expert on this Plane?”.  BRILLIANT.  I’m currently in LOVE with the website it came from, McSweeneys. And lastly, an article I wrote for OHbaby!, some time ago … it’s about the loveliness (sexiness!) of good dads.  Purr!

island living

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Kia Ora geeks

On days as windy and blustery as this, it is all too clear that New Zealand is an island.  Developing fruit is being ripped from the trees outside, and the chimney is rattling with every blast.  Sigh.  The locals called this “Te hau kai tangata” … the wind that devours humanity.  Blimmin genius.

Anyway, let’s distract ourselves with a blast of linkage, instead.

First: please waste no time in rushing to this website to make a submission about the need for more paid parental leave in Aotearoa.  Next, a luscious link from the Atlantic, comparing the experiences of Finnish and American school beginners.  I reference this article in the piece I just wrote for ohBaby! and it’s a goodie.  More beginning school stuff is to be found here, in a piece that cautions agains testing (and testing, and testing) young children.

Here is an excellent guide to download, about young children and screens.  It is from our friends at the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood.   Another screen-y link, this from the BBC, questioning whether use of computers in the classroom really serves children.

Here is a working paper from Australia, their government’s review about the impact of child care upon child development.  Key finding: quality is key.   Speaking of quality care: keep it fun(ny).  Here’s a link to an abstract for French research into the effects of laughter on children’s learning.  Yuk it up, folks.

And this from Psych Central confirming the power of relationship for overcoming adversity in the lives of children.  Finally, with the release of a new documentary, the wonderful work of Dr. Elaine Aron about Highly Sensitive Persons is back in the popular media.

Transformative.   Well, for this geek, anyway.

the confident mother

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sherry bevan book wrinkly eyekia ora geeky friends.  Here I am hiding behind the new book The Confident Mother from Sherry Bevan in the UK.  There’s a chapter in there which was created after our interview together.  I’m awed by the vision and drive of this gal.

I’ve made fresh playdough in three colours today … do I get points for drive, tooski?

Quick flurry of links now, then I’ll continue with my list.  First day back to school for my big girl today, so little girl and I are kinda making the most, which does NOT include keeping my nose in a screen.  So swiftly now;

A piece from the New Zealand news about the “farming” nature of some child care centres.  And I don’t mean they visit farms.  I mean they are the farms.  This is a call from one mama blogger to abandon the whole ‘goody bag’ thing at kids’ parties.

I got two gems from Pop Sugar sent to me this week: this one is BEAUTIFUL pictures of REAL post partum mamas and babies and this is about the new Disney princess … the first Polynesian … hope she can give the other princesses a lesson in self reliance.

From Slate: a cool (albeit cynical) summary of conversations between parents and children, and finally, from the Huffington Post, a round up of sleep research as relates to children.  Night night.

 

in my letterbox today

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Photo on 2015-09-11 at 14.15 #3hooray!  With thanks to the Dora DVD my daughter (boss?) is watching, I am not only able to post this, but I even got to read the latest issue of OHbaby! magazine.  I wrote a piece in there.  It’s about temperament and I hope you find it helpful.

First up today, friends, is a great link for motivating a bit of advocacy for children, here in NZ.  This is the website for Best Start, whose primary mission is about improving the quality of early childhood education.  Lord, we’ve been banging on about this for decades and we seem to be doing a backward slide … read this piece about the rise of corporate childcare and see if you agree that a ruckus needs to be raised.

Next, a couple of resources from Zero to Three, about school readiness.  First a blog post that will explain why a group whose concern is babies & toddlers should have such insights into what being ready for school really means, and this is a dandy summary of research.

Here is a little something from the Washington Post imploring us to allow more play for our kids (another thing we’ve been banging on about since forever) and just for a little light reading for the weekend,(and cos Dora’s about to sing the song that tells me the episode is over … they did it …) here is a report from Australia about the mental health of their children and adolescents.  Arohanui xxx

Imperfection. Everywhere.

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Photo on 2015-08-18 at 17.28Yesterday I helped to welcome Mary Gordon to our fair city.  She was talking about her magnificent Roots of Empathy project, which we’d dearly love to see back in Christchurch (funders?  philanthropists?  Kei hea a koutou?)

Seems to me that the Roots of Empathy NZ tour is well timed: check out this news item from late last week.

There is a new newsletter (new news?) from the Brainwave Trust, featuring an article I wrote, called “Embracing Imperfection”.  You can read it here.

My pals at OhBaby shared this article with me, about surfing the tide of motherhood exhaustion (cos ya might as well embrace …), and I know it’s 5 years old now, but I still reckon Sally Peters’ report for the Ministry of Education is one of the best places to gather info about successful Transition to School.

That might have to do for now.  It’s dinner time. x

overthinkers anonymous

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Dear www.baby.geek.nz

You are a dear wee website.  You have given me a place to file my thoughts and preserve a gigantic number of links (* or portals to wonderlands of learning and discovery, as I like to think of them).

You’re a bit of a secret, though, which is cool, but there is this thing I love to imagine you doing.  Just quietly.  I love to imagine that you, www.baby.geek.nz, have improbably become a useful launchpad, catapaulting conversations between thinking parents and scattering chat among other assorted family-folk.

In a world gone bonkers, only you manage to somehow bring together a pot pourri of links that is JUST SO MY CUP OF TEA.  Which shouldn’t surprise me, because I posted every darned last one of them.  Beginning with THIS, my very first blog post.  Awww, cute.

I do love you, darling website, and I promise I can change.  Please, baby(geek), just give me a little more time.  I dream of a bright future for us,

love,

Me xx

End scene.

Anyway, I’m obsessing more than usual about these notions of communication and internet and purpose because last week I went to a Social Media 101 training day.   Holla, Enterprise North Canterbury!  Tumeke, Simplify & Amplify!

It’s all very fascinating, and I kinda dig learning about the psychology of marketing, and why people do stuff and how to get them to do the stuff you think they oughta, I am horrified by what my dear late mother would’ve called the Coca-colonisation of the world.  The blatant and aggressive enslavement of populations by corporations too slick and sneaky to be outfoxed.  Really, I think we should all buy less.  Use less.  Do more for ourselves.  

And the whole technology of twitter and facebook and all their chums is flippin amazing.   As a tool, it’s the way to find all the peoples who care about the things.  Nana over here has to do some work … cos I’d love to find some thinking mamas and I think that’s where they are and yet I FEAR the lure of the devices.  Both for myself and for all of us!

Pads and Macs and smart phones and regular (dumb?) phones … OH … behold these amazing ads from China about resisting the phone addiction FOR THE CHILDREN …

… here’s the thing …. I’d love it if we could all get the fact that societies of useful adults – that is, adults who are kind, competent, smart, healthy, capable, or at least not incompetent dicks – those sorts of adults are more likely if they were gifted responsive, warm, calm, loving care while they were babies.  There.  It’s that simple.  I said it.

Not just me.  Heaps of people.  Like Harvard’s Center for the Developing Child.  Heaps.

And you cannot tell me, not even for a second, that the brains of human young will be as effectively nurtured by distracted adults whose faces glow from their device du jour than they will be by an adult available to meet their gaze, respond to their vocalisations, and make up lame songs.

Ladies and gentlegeeks, I think we gotta unplug more.  For ourselves, and sure as the dickens for our babies.

I mean, I’m all for the flow of mindfulness teaching, (at school!  Love it.)  I am generally very Mindful of Mindfulness, but I can’t help but think we wouldn’t need quite so much mindfulness training if we just spent a wee bit less time skittering between devices and leaping between operating systems.

It’s like how we eat tons of fatty food and then obsess about weight loss.  I’m talking about us as a culture, not YOU.  Or ME.  Just all of us, you know?  Truly: if we did like Michael Pollan … “eat food, not too much, mostly plants” and then went for walks and did some yoga then VOILA!  Wellness.

Sorry.  I’m a bit didactic and grouchy tonight.  I’m angsting.

Yeah, I angst about encouraging folks deeper into the digital world and further from the juicy messy deliciousness of real life.  And yet I love the handiness of a magical box that sings the commercials of my youth and finds me amazing recipes and connects me to people I love, all over the world.

What the flip.  Modern life … I need me my online yoga before bed.  Love you, Adriene, my electronic friend!

Irony, she lives.

school holidays in NZ

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Which means action, carnage, joy and chaos.  Delight.  And mess.  So much mess.

Which is all good.  Because there are seasons.  Which leads me straight to the latest yummy Wise Brain newsletter.  It contains a poem by Tara Sophia Mohr which has blown my mind (*please insert your own explosion noise here.  Preferably with puffed out cheeks, in public.)

Here is a download from the great state of Alabama about the Rewards of Early Childhood Investment.  Written by their Chamber of Commerce so bound to overemphasise short term fiscal measures and underestimate longer term wellbeing measures.  Rah de rah.

Soon Mary Gordon, founder of the Roots of Empathy project, will be in New Zealand to talk.  And listen.  I am looking forward to the ensuing think-and-feel-tank and I plan to make soup.

Finally, with thanks to the folks at Exchange Every Day, a link to an article about resilience. I love this.  Hummingbird parenting (way more pretty and organic than helicopters, anyway.)

I have only just met the Wait But Why website. Gordon Bennett!  It’s a portal to joy, discovery, and lost hours.  Have fun, beware.

linkin’ like a maniac

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Kia Ora geeks, friends, and onlookers,

Snow all over the ground at my place.  Winter wonderland, etc.

Let’s get cracking with a variety of juicy links, shall we?

First: our chums from the CBC in Canada have a story here about the fun and beauty of a crocheted playground.  Enjoy!

My three-year-old is currently obsessed with birthing (*specifically, umbilical cords.  She keeps asking for hers back …) and she loves nothing more than to watch this amazing video from TED.  I know I’ve linked to it before, but here it is again.  It’s sensational.  Also from TED – this summary of the ACE study, giving more reason for deliberate care of our youngest.

This is a write up from the Daily Mail in the UK about the summary of Happiness research completed by the Mayo Clinic.  LOVE this.  The 5-3-2 thing is revolutionarily simple and deluxe.  To contrast, here is a summary from Health.com of some of the worst habits for your mental health.

A couple of treasures from Early Childhood Australia now – this one about bringing the benefits of mindfulness to the classroom, and this stunner is from the most excellent Anne Stonehouse about the challenges of documenting learning in ECE.

More from our Australian cousins: a link here to some research confirming that mandatory naps for older children (ie in childcare settings) leads to less nighttime sleep.  Which is just what parents need … (how I long for a sarcastic font!)

This link will lead you to a piece that considers the ways that bullying from peers can be more damaging than abuse from parents, and meanwhile, here is some writing from Scientific American describing how harsh parenting will likely contribute to anxiety.  Sigh.

From the good folks at Hand in Hand Parenting comes this little article about Sharing, here’s an article about the super power that comes from being raised in a bilingual home, and a cautionary tale about the potential damage from cellphones being more intense for children.

From Slate now: a piece about how doing good unto others will bring benefits onto ONESELF.  Bonus!

And FINALLY … the Washington Post bring us the data around how the top few hedge fund managers (*which I’m pretty sure has nothing to do with topiary) earn more than all the kindergarten teachers in the US combined.  We live in crazy, beautiful, messed up times.