The Emotional Child

Children & Separation: One Mother’s Story

March 22, 2012
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As a teacher who grew up as part of two families I have always had a passion for understanding how to best help children cope with separation and divorce. As much as we all hope it wont happen to us, divorce is a constant in our society and there are many, many children and their [...]

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Family Time: Connecting With Older Kids

January 25, 2012
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This post is by regular contributor Kate Fairlie of Picklebums. When my children were small they rarely went anywhere without their father or I. We knew everything they did and everything about them. We were their whole world. As babies they were always close. They were breastfed, worn in a sling and slept beside us. [...]

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Young Children and Independence

July 21, 2011
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“The essence of independence is to be able to do something for one’s self.” ~ Maria Montessori “I do it!” Young children often strive for independence. Helping them to develop a sense of independence can be as simple as choosing everyday tasks and putting in place a system or procedure that enables a child to [...]

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Friendship: Helping Children Learn to Be Inclusive

May 20, 2011
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At a very young age children begin to notice difference. I remember one time when Immy was about 18 months old and we were walking through a shopping centre and she stopped and stared as a very tall man of (I believe) African descent. I think she stopped as she had never before seen a [...]

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Friendship: Developing Sharing Behaviour

May 12, 2011
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Consider the following two sharing scenarios; 1. A child is playing with a toy. Another child sees and wants the toy too. An adult intervenes, saying to the first child, “Billy, you can have a turn for two minutes and then we will let Abbie have a turn.” The adults waits with the children and [...]

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Friendship: Children Developing Empathy

May 5, 2011
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May is Friendship month at Childhood 101. You will see a range of posts by both myself and the regular contributors about friendship as it applies to our children and our own experiences as Mums. Today I would like to begin a short series about children’s social development with a post about empathy. Definition: em·pa·thy [...]

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Holding Up a Mirror to My Imperfection

November 18, 2010
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I recently had an Oprah style Aha! moment, you know the type when a camera flash pierces your brain and leaves you stumbling around with partial vision as you try to re-adjust to this new, brighter world view. In fact, this moment required more than a camera flash, it required a large, two-by-four (or block [...]

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Can we love our children too much?

October 4, 2010

It would appear not. At least according to this article published on Time online (found thanks to @ecotoys). Research indicates that responding quickly, instinctively and gently to our baby and young childrens needs develops both their moral and prosocial behaviours, such as the development of empathy and conscience. I particularly liked this quote; “The brain [...]

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