Next Tele Class to start April 15th

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Hi Everyone,

I’m pleased to announce that the next Tele Class will start on April 15th, and run for six Sundays.  The current class filled up, and I’ve had quite a bit of interest in this next class already, so don’t wait, if you’re interested.

If you’re new to my site, you may be wondering what  Tele Class is.  It’s a six-week course that is truly multi-media, with conference calls, video footage, readings, and online discussion.  The way it goes is this:  each week has a topic, and before the class you go online and read my thoughts on that topic.  Then each Sunday we have the ‘class’ by conference call, where we watch video footage of me with the kids at Rainbow Bridge, stopping frequently for comments and questions.  At the end of each class I give an assignment (usually ‘try this at home and report back how it goes’), and people report back twice during the week on how the assignment is going.  For me, the online discussion is my favorite part of the class: it’s inspiring to hear when things go well for people, and when things don’t go well people get support as other class members give ideas of things they’ve tried, and of course I offer suggestions as well.

For full details, click on the tab ‘Upcoming Classes’ above.  If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email me at faith@joyfultoddlers.com

Warmly,   ~Miss Faith

Acting Out

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Dear Miss Faith,  My three year old is having such a hard time lately, acting antagonistic towards his baby brothers, and no amount of helping him or punishing him is seeming to work.  I’ve tried everything I can think of and I’m at a loss…It seems like he has lots of opportunities to get his big energy out…what do I do when nothing seems to work?

Continue reading →

Picky Eater and Play at Mealtimes

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Dear Miss Faith,
In the past month we drastically changed our family’s diet, and my 3 year old is slow to warm up to the new food.  I see some progress but he has a new trick that is getting old very fast. We sit together as a family at the table for mealtimes, there is a lot of playing, singing, talking, clowning around, and very little eating going on. Half an hour goes by and he has only put a few bites in his mouth. There is no firm No’s (anymore), no tantrums of him wanting the bad food, he is just ridiculous and distracted. Continue reading →

Dressing for Snow

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With snowy weather on the horizon or outside your door, the idea of getting kids dressed to play outside can be daunting. “Is it really worth it?” you wonder to yourself. “We’ll probably end up spending more time dressing and undressing than we will outside. Maybe we’ll just stay in today.”

Well, take it from me: IT’S WORTH IT!!!! If you think dressing one child, or even two children, to go outside is more than it’s worth, just remember that I spent my first three years of teaching at Boulder Waldorf Kindergarten with EIGHT toddlers and one assistant. And going outside was always worth it. Even when it didn’t seem like it would be worth it, it was always worth it. Even when it meant dressing eight 1- and 2-year-olds in a row, it was still worth it (although we’d usually split them up, and do four outside before lunch, and four outside after lunch). Continue reading →

Silence

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How often does today’s child experience silence?  How often do they have nobody talking to them, no tv or radio on in the background, no cd’s or computers, no honking horns or blaring sirens?  How often do they have none of these, all at the same time?

Today’s child is surrounded by a world that is go-go-go, and is filled with chatter.  We adults are used to it, and can filter it out.  But unlike adults, children cannot filter out their backgrounds by any method except falling asleep.  We often don’t realize just how exhausting it is to really notice every truck that flies by, every airplane that flies overhead, every sound coming at us and the energy (if not the content) of every word being said.  So I just wanted to give a reminder of the value of silence, so that we can consciously seek it out for our children.  In fact, the worst culprits of noise in children’s lives is often us: the loving adults in their lives.  Many of us talk at our children all day long, scarcely pausing to take a breath.  We comment on everything we see, everything we think, everything. Continue reading →

Responding to Biting

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Dear Miss Faith,

I have a 2 ½ year old an 18 month old, and both are biting.  We’re doing as much as we can to prevent them from biting in the first place, but my question is about what do to once a bite has happened.  In general, when one bites another, we say “no biting.  look you really hurt her/him” in a stern way as we comfort the child who was hurt.  is this a good approach?  it doesn’t change things but hopefully in the long run it will sink in someday. thank you again.  your advice is so appreciated.  Be well, MM Continue reading →

Book Review: Simplicity Parenting

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I was looking for a certain post the other day, and it came to my attention that some of my posts didn’t make the transfer over from blogspot!  I don’t know why, but I will go ahead and re-post them gradually.  This one is a book review of Simplicity Parenting that I wrote almost a year and a half ago.  Since then the book has taken the early childhood community by storm, and my mom gives out copies of the book to all of her daycare families–she thinks it’s that worth it.  If you haven’t read Simplicity Parenting, you should definitely check it out. Continue reading →

Refusing to Speak

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Hi Faith,
My friend just turned me onto your blog and the timing couldn’t be better! I have a 16 month old daughter that has stopped talking! She will grunt and/or whine instead. She said her first word at around 1 year old and added another 5 or 6 words to her vocabulary within the next month or two. But at about 14 months, she stopped talking. She still makes animal sounds – cat meow, dog bark, cow moo– and will say the word ‘No’ when she’s REALLY upset (fortunately very rarely). But otherwise everything she points to or requests is coupled with a grunt or whine. When she first stopped talking i thought it may be a phase or that she was teething and that it may hurt her to talk. We realized that we were enabling her so we’ve made an effort to stop rewarding the grunting/whining but that often ends in a meltdown when she doesn’t get what she wants. Needless to say, we’re feeling a little frustrated around here. Help! Continue reading →

Tele Class is Full!

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Just a quick announcement that the January/February Tele Class, Joyful Days with Toddler and Preschoolers, has filled up!  If you would like your name put down for the next class, drop me an email at faith@joyfultoddlers.com  and I’ll send you a message when I set the dates.

Warmly, ~Miss Faith