Children and Posture
By Nancy Monson and Douglas Wisoff Parents… there is one thing that you can be sure of: your children are watching your every move! We all notice how much families look alike, but take some time to notice how much …
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The Case for Experiential Education
The Case for Experiential Education: There is No Learning Without Meaning and Feeling By Nancy Monson Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will understand. ~Chinese Proverb How do you know …
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Meaningful Learning
Schools desperately need a new vision that meets the needs and truly addresses the crises of our youth. The cry for more academics, more testing, back to basics is a band-aid that won’t stick on an open wound. What children …
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The Crucial Skill of Communication
As a teacher, I watch children struggle with their communication all the time. Some children talk all the time and never stop, some don’t listen at all, some are quiet and won’t talk about what goes on for them, some …
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How Much Validation Do Children Need?
Picture these scenarios: Mom or Dad leaning over baby, tickling the little feet, admiring the beautiful face. “Come on Henry, smile, oh that’s so cute, look at that smile, watch how he looks right at me and smiles.” Mom or …
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An Alternative Teacher’s View on Alternative Education
School should create the best possible framework for kids to come to learning with joy, curiosity and the desire to find out what life is all about. But, if you read what is happening in education today, if you watch …
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The Attention Addiction Syndrome
You’ve waited ________ (fill in the blank) years to have your baby. It is so beautiful, so special, so incredible. You never knew you could love so much. You want to give it the world, right? WRONG. What really happens …
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Entering Your Child’s World of Creativity and Imagination
Children come in all different sizes, colors, shapes and forms. So does creativity. It is limitless in its manifestations, just as science is still discovering the endless marvels of creation. The definition of creativity is “to produce, construct, something new …
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How Much and Which Extra-Curricular Activities?
With the start of school come all the after school activities. How do you decide what your child participates in? The first rule, is that every child is different, and their needs and ability to engage in extra curricular activites …
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Inner Discipline and the Development of Real Will
There is a lot of debate over how much children should be directed in their development and learning, and how much they should be allowed freedom of choice. Recently I have been reading about “free” schools where children are given …
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Is My Child Spoiled?
Kids Are A Lot Smarter Than You Think And They See A Lot More Than You Realize What is spoiled? It is when something potentially ripe and beautiful has gone rotten. Let’s create a spoiled checklist: (there are overlaps) Addicted …
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Quiet Time and Transitions for Children
How do you feel when you are alone, it’s quiet, and you are not doing or working? Are you comfortable, at ease, relaxed, appreciative of the simple things around you? When I was growing up I never spent time alone, …
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Read and Write Over the Summer? Yes!
Here are some ways to keep reading and writing friendly companions to your child during the fun and chaos of summer break. Try the ones that will work for you and your child, and most importantly, DON’T GIVE UP! Your …
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Giving Children a Lifetime Gift: Responsibility
How do we teach children to be responsible: to pick up after themselves, to care for their belongings, to be organized, neat, to do their chores, even to help out when they see something that needs to be done? Let’s …
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Ritual in the Lives of Children
A ritual is an activity or action done with intention that inducts you into deeper parts of yourself and life. Rituals engage our hearts, our minds (through focus) and our bodies (through physical gesture or posture). The power in ritual …
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Too Much Love
I recently watched “The Miracle Worker,” the original version of the movie about Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan. I have seen that movie 10 times, and I always learn something new about what it means to be a …
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Slowing Down With Children
The other day I was in the hot tub after my swim at the East Boulder Rec Center. Along came a little girl, she must have just finished her swim lesson. Mom sat by the edge of the hot tub …
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What’s Wrong With My Kid?
When behaviors we don’t like start being daily occurrences for our children, what can we do? In our recent parent group, we were discussing aggressive behaviors in children such as talking back or hitting. Instead of just focusing on what …
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Nature as a Source of Deeper Nourishment for Children
Do you remember your special experiences of nature as a child? I was awestruck by thunderstorms that passed over lake Michigan; the power of the wind, threatening waves and the darkened sky are still vivid in me today. After the …
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The Physicality of Children
Children learn through their bodies FIRST, through their physical connection to the world, or in other words, through real experience. So would adults if their education would have been more experiential rather than over focused on the mental. It is …
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What is Your Child’s Relationship to School?
It is imperative that parents be aware of their child’s response to school. It is not “normal” for children to not like school. Imagine spending 75% of your time in a place you didn’t like and felt powerless to change. …
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Can Your Child Sit Still?
It is a myth that children can’t slow down or sit still. There is no reason why children have to be crazy, screaming wild banshees most of the time, with parents saying, “that’s just the way he/she is!!” After 26 …
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Family Meetings
Are you having an ongoing problem with your child? Not going to bed at night? Never picking up their room? Coming home late? Not doing their chores? Here is a way to create a format for communication that can work …
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WE LOVE SCHOOL!!!! (Does your child?)
By Nancy Monson Does your child wake up in the morning excited to go to school, or do they complain, drag their feet, or even act out? On the week ends do you hear your child ask if they can …
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Learning? Not unless I’m OK with my friends
Does your child: Express feelings? Ask for what they want? Speak up with opinions? Listen to others feelings or opinions? Get teased or bullied? Tease, boss, bully or leave others out? Have friends of both sexes? When kids have trouble …
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A Balanced Approach to Education
Many schools are unbalanced (a reflection of our culture) and do not meet the deeper and broader needs of our children. The final results are the illnesses of this culture: health problems, depression, divorce, violence, selfishness, greed and materialism. If …
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