Last week my 3-year-old fell off the swing and face-planted on the ground. She laid there for a second, and I got down next to her. She wasn’t crying, so I said, “What do you see?” “My necklace,” she replied, and she got rather interested in checking out its detail. “Interesting blades of grass there, too,” […]
“Should I hold my son back from kindergarten?” a mom asked me. Her child was at a play-based preschool, and she was worried that he wasn’t ready for kindergarten because he didn’t know his letters and numbers. Play-based preschools, I assured her, are the big trend for an important reason: Play is how children learn. […]
A photographer mounted a GoPro camera in the stroller behind his son’s head so he could capture “A toddler’s view of New York City.” Cool idea! But the poor kid is often looking through the plastic cover of the stroller. He gets this blurry, diffuse view of the world. The photographs got me thinking about a child’s experience from a […]
Have you ever watched your kid gallop down the street, bop to music, wave both arms wildly, or randomly run around in circles … and wondered if that’s the amount of movement you’re supposed to be getting in a day? Nah–there’s no way you can keep up with that craziness. But sitting for large swaths of the day, like many of […]
Raise your hands: Who listed “exercise” as a resolution this year? And who listed “exercise” as a resolution last year? And the year before that? My hand is up, too. But last year was unusual for me: I actually kept the resolution … all year long. Here’s how. I was talking with a friend — […]
Outlet covers. Cabinet locks. Furniture straps. We did all the usual baby-proofing. But something still wasn’t quite right. Our curious, newly mobile baby found plenty of other things to touch. At times, laptop power cords draped from our dining-room table to an outlet in the corner, an invitation to play a game of plug & […]