Monthly Archives: September 2015

always learning

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picture sept 20crikey dick.  It’s all a bit full on at the moment.  But then I remember that something magnificent is always about to happen.

Like …I saw a tui in my garden just yesterday.  A Tui! As far south as me!  Very exciting.  Whakarongo ake au!

Some links on a beautifully rainy afternoon:

Ever wondered about what your (otherwise screen free?) infant thinks about Skype?  This piece from the Atlantic describes research exploring this.

Next: here is a mildly gross and infinitely cool piece that was in the New York Times about how baby backwash just might make breastfeeding a two way exchange of fluid and information.  Amazing!

This week I have LOVED this ol’ Radiolab interview with the late Oliver Sacks about his relationship with the periodic table.  STUNNING.  Then I read this piece he wrote about aging.  The Joy of Aging.  What a writer!  Oh, that mind!  RIP.

Keep on experiencing this world through your head and through your heart.  Why should you have to choose whether to be a head person or a heart person?  Can’t we be both?

 

 

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

obsessions of the week

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just in time for the weekend!!

Hope all the mamas and the papas and the kidlets out there in geekland have been happy and healthy.  Our house played host to a gnarly and aggressive bug (virus?  couldn’t tell ya) but we’re all good now.  Nothing makes me appreciate my awesome immune system like giving it a sick day.

This is a review of the fantastic book I am reading.  After Birth by Elisa Albert.  It is utterly amazing and that is all I have to say on the matter at this time.

Here’s a little something from Scientific American about the changes to a new daddy’s brain, and if you can make it through this video about motherhood without shedding a tear, you are a stauncher mama than I.   It’s just about 3 mins long and very nice indeed.  Thank you Auntie Bee.

This is a link (courtesy of Keryn) to some info about a research study just published in the journal of Pediatrics and Child Health … it’s about the wellbeing of children in Christchurch and I know for a fact I am not the only baby/family person in our district who is scratching our heads a bit about it.  Sounds like the researchers might be, too.

Finally: fifteen minutes of lo-fi inspiration and delight, this is super magnificent Courtney Barnett’s most excellent Tiny Desk Concert.