All My Children

Children need to develop a range of skills in order to utilise play experiences to the full. These can be considered in six areas and generally, there needs to be a fairly balanced development in each one. The six areas are:

Social — where the child shows an interest in other people and begins to develop empathy

Communication — where the child wants to communicate through verbal and non-verbal communication

Fine motor skills — where the child develops fine motor co-ordination and dexterity

Gross motor skills — which are related to mobility and body posture Imagination and thinking skills — needed for pretend play

Attention — where the child develops concentration and focused attention

It can be very useful to use the following tables as a checklist to consider children’s strengths and the areas in which they may need support at different ages and stages. Continue Reading »

Pinning the Tail on Eeyore

Draw a large picture of Eeyore on a piece of stiff card or plywood. Colour him grey. Draw his tail separately on paper, or make it of string or wool or plaited raffia, with a tassel at the end.

Hang the picture on the wall and mark on it where the tail should go. Blindfold the players in turn, and give them the tail plus a drawing pin. As each pins the tail on Eeyore, mark round the pinpoint with a ring and put the player’s initials. The winner is the one who places the tail most accurately. Continue Reading »

There is a battle raging today for the bodies and souls of America’s teenagers, and like it or not, our children are on the front line. Venereal diseases, unwanted pregnancies, guilt, loss of self-esteem, and breakdown in relationships are just some of the results of premarital sexual involvement.

My desire for you as a parent is that you never hear the following statements; or, if you do, that you might know what to do when you hear them.

If only I had waited. I see now how uncluttered my life would have been, how my mind would have been free from this burden that besets me even years later.

If you want to know what it is really like, get two pieces of paper and glue part of one to the other. After it has dried, pull them apart. What you have in your hand is a vivid picture of two people after a premarital sexual relationship—both torn, both leaving a part of themselves with the other. Continue Reading »

Depending on what being Jewish means to you, your guidance to your child can be as specific as you prefer. Ultimately, what you’ll probably do is assess your child’s needs and determine how Jewishness fits into that picture. I want to supplement your ideas with a few suggestions that have occurred to me in speaking with Jewish parents. Continue Reading »

Gaining their Confidence

It’s the nature of young people to be critical of their parents at times and to feel that most of the misunderstandings between them are the fault of the parents. (A critical attitude helps young people to leave home eventually.) They have always complained, with more or less justice, that parents are out of touch with modern ways, that they are possessive and bossy, that they lack confidence in their children’s ability to cope with social and sexual crises; that they harp unnecessarily on certain issues, that they lack a sense of humour, at least in regard to parent–child relationships. Continue Reading »

Music

With a few exceptions, contemporary music plays a prominent and intense role in the life and thought processes of adolescents; this has been true for generations. Today, however, this is not particularly good news.

Over the years most parents have complained about the music their kids enjoyed. During the 1950s and early 1960s, the content of most popular music focused on teen romance, the joys of surfing, and an occasional novelty item such as the “Purple People Eater” or “Alley Oop”. Obviously, these songs were hardly masterpieces, and many of them celebrated unrealistic or even silly notions about love and relationships. However, their shortcomings pale in comparison to the malignant cultural tide that rolled in during the late 1960s, when drugs and rebellion began to be celebrated more openly. Continue Reading »

Some things that bother you may not be worth a major conflict with your teenager. Think carefully before starting a war over the following:

• A mess in his or her own room (unless the health department pays a visit). Remember: dirty-room syndrome is a self-limited and nonfatal illness.
• Length of hair
• Earrings (for either gender)
• Style of music
• Sound level of music
• Choice of everyday clothing
• Fast food
• Sleeping in when there’s not a specific need to arise for school or work
• How, when, and where homework is done—as long as it is getting done

Continue Reading »

The Globes

Start with the globes. There are two Montessori globes. The first is the land and water globe which has the continents covered with sandpaper and the sea painted blue, so that initially the child learns two things — the shape of the world, which is a sphere, and that it is made up of land and water. The second globe has the continents painted in different colours — Europe is red, Asia is yellow, Africa is green, Australasia is brown, North America is orange, South America is pink and Antarctica is white — and the child learns the names of the continents and oceans. (If your child goes to a Montessori school she will most likely be introduced to these globes there, but if she doesn’t you can still help her to learn the same ideas from an ordinary globe.)

Puzzle Map of the World

The Montessori world puzzle map is made up of two hemispheres, each with the continents removable as whole puzzle pieces. The colours are the same as those on the globe. It is easier for a young child to see how the world is represented on a flat map if she can take out the pieces and compare them with the same continents on the globe — the shape, colour and size will match. (This piece of apparatus can be easily made at home by tracing round the continents in an atlas, then cutting them out in coloured paper and sticking them on to cardboard.) Continue Reading »