Post Partum, Sex, and Child Poverty in the US

Oxytocin is the ‘bonding’ hormone and fills the momma with the same lovey, feel good satisfaction she used to seek out from her lover.

Kindergarten Testing and the Shocking Results…

New Kindergarten Readiness Test … if kindergarten is the new first grade, then when do our kids attend preschool? Is the logical extension that we begin teaching our children social skills in utero?

Unconditionally Loving …. Me?

Just as I was ready to shatter like the corelle-ware bowl I had shockingly smashed earlier in the day (I think of the restaurant in Japan where, at the conclusion of the meal, people summarily and passionately smash their dinnerware down a deep courtyard…

Just Say “No.”

Allowing doesn’t have anything to do with having no limits, or not stepping into a guiding role for our children.

Can Emotional Intelligence Be Taught?

One day last spring, James Wade sat cross-legged on the carpet and called his kindergarten class to order. Lanky and soft-spoken, Wade has a gentle charisma well suited to his role as a teacher of small children: steady, rather than exuberant. When a child performs a requested task, like closing the door after recess, he will often acknowledge the moment by murmuring, “Thank you, sweet pea,” in a mild Texas drawl….

A Typical Day at Riviera PlaySchool

Riviera PlaySchool is mainly child-directed. In other words, the teachers at PlaySchool meet the children where they are. Not just physically, by getting down on the same level when we speak, but also energetically, by being in the moment, and celebrating in their successes, and joining them in the joy of creation. When any conflict occurs, it is a true learning moment, and teachers are on hand to hold space for the children to resolve their own conflicts. We try to not rush to a resolution of our adult creation. Sometimes children can take a while to sort a conflict out to a place they deem to be “fair.”. And we give them space to take the time to do that, while offering support, and helping them keep bodies and hears safe. We pay particular attention to where we are during the conflict. We stay on the sidelines. We don’t jump into the fray energetically. If we notice our speech becoming more rapid, or our voice becoming louder, then that’s a signal to us to take a step back and let them have their own emotions about the conflict at hand. It’s pretty tricky, and it keeps us more awake as people. It is an incredibly magical thing to witness a couple of small children figure out a workable solution to their volatile dilemma…and then walk away laughing together, more emotionally and socially intelligent than before

Taking a Step Back….

My critical self-judgment has probably been the most difficult thing to overcome in being parent. It seems I am never enough. whew. I never do enough for my children, don’t do it well enough, don’t love them enough, I’m not patient enough with them, not energetic enough for them, not sweet enough for them. That condemning JUDGE inside me tells me in so many ways how I am simply NOT enough.

The importance of “I” Statements and Transparency

Because our children came from us (physically), they perceive that we gave them life. We are incredibly powerful in their eyes…like “god” to them!

How to Talk with your Child About their Body

I wanted to pass this piece on because it was referred to me from several of our circles and I found it moving. I think that it also applies to men, however; whether it be to be thin, or to be strong and stoic. It is so good to be living toward a less judgmental and more accepting place in which to co-exist.

FREEDOM TO LEARN: The roles of play and curiosity as foundations for learning

If anything makes Americans stand tall internationally it is creativity. “American ingenuity” is admired everywhere. We are not the richest country (at least not as measured by smallest percentage in poverty), nor the healthiest (far from it), nor the country whose kids score highest on standardized tests (despite our politicians’ misguided intentions to get us there), but we are the most inventive country. We are the great innovators, specialists in figuring out new ways of doing things and new things to do. Perhaps this derives from our frontier beginnings, or from our unique form of democracy with its emphasis on individual freedom and respect for nonconformity. In the business world as well as in academia and the arts and elsewhere, creativity is our number one asset. In a recent IBM poll, 1,500 CEOs acknowledged this when they identified creativity as the best predictor of future success.[1]

It is sobering, therefore, to read Kyung Hee Kim’s recent research report documenting a continuous decline in creativity among American schoolchildren over the last two or three decades.[2]

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