What’s Wrong with our Food System?

What’s Wrong with our Food System? ….an eloquent and revealing reflection by 11 year old Birke Baeh

Setting Limits Compassionately (Don’t Miss This Amazing 1-Night Workshop!)

PUNISHMENTS and REWARDS: What to do Instead  Setting boundaries that work with children    Parenting is a life-long learning process of nurturing our connection with our children.  Parenting is “messy” business.  There is no “prescription” for dealing with the day-to-day challenges of raising children.  There are however, basic communication tools that can assist parents in [...]

What Writing Is…..

One day a little girl in our school tilted her head toward me and asked “Linda, will you write my story?”
Now, typically I would simply agree, but something told me not to on that day. So instead of putting pen to paper, I said “Nandu, I will write it. But why don’t you?”
Linda! Nandu puffed out in exasperation “I CAN’T write! I’m just 4!!”
“I looked at her “Nandu” do you know what writing is?”

Fill Yourself Up! (The Oxygen Mask Rule)

It is insidious, how, little by little we give up doing things for ourselves, because we believe that we should be spending more time with out child. Until finally we realize that we are doing nothing for our own pure enjoyment anymore. Everything is a compromise, or hinged on that love we have for our child. We end up having no 1:1 time with ourselves, and instead we snatch stolen moments at the computer while we yell to the other room “just a moment honey…”

Parenting With Spirit: An Intuitive Guide for Parenting With Joy & Compassion

A special one night mini course in PEACEFUL PARENTING with Jessica Wiggley is next week on December 6 at Riviera PlaySchool! RSVP if you plan to attend!

What is The Green Hour?

from the Wildlife Federation: A Green Hour is time for unstructured play and interaction with the natural world. In 2007, the National Wildlife Federation launched GreenHour.org, an online resource providing parents the inspiration and tools to make the outdoors a part of daily life. NWF recommends that parents give their kids a “Green Hour” every day. [...]

Now Hiring: a Great Teacher/Facilitator!

Now Hiring! We are looking for a compassionate, empowering teacher/facilitator, or an assistant teacher/facilitator and a few good substitute teachers who love to play and facilitate emergent plans with children.

Riviera PlaySchool pre-kindergarten program in Redondo Beach, CA www.RivieraPlaySchool.com

Hey, Guess What?!! You Already ARE the Perfect Parent!!

If you’re like me, you are your own worst critic. And there is no badge of honor in that, even though we have been brought up to believe it is so. You deserve the same “break” you are wanting your child to be given. And it has to start with you doing it for yourself, since you are their primary teacher. Ease up a little, and give yourself some validation. You deserve it!

Use Your Words!

Parenting can be like tobogganing down a flight of stairs on a swatch of cardboard: smooth and easy, with just a couple of bumps and bruises! A good guideline for accomplishing this is to swap shoes with your child: treat them as you would like to be treated. And like Horton says: “People are People no Matter How Small.”

Can the Right Kinds of Play Teach Self-Control?

Many practices that most prekindergarten teachers consider essential are more or less banned from Tools of the Mind classrooms. There are no gold stars, no telling the class that they are all going to have to wait until Jimmy is quiet; even timeouts are discouraged. When there is a conflict — when, say, Billy grabs a toy from Jamal — the Tools of the Mind teacher’s first questions are supposed to be: What was it in the classroom that made it hard for Billy to control himself? And what mediators could help him do better next time? The teacher does remind Billy that there is a rule and he broke it, but she doesn’t make a big deal out of the incident. “We pretty much try not to use this whole concept of misbehavior,” Bodrova told me. “These kids are not born criminals. Even if they do something that is completely out of bounds, they do it because they can’t stop themselves.”

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