Whole Child Development
In this article from the Wall Street Journal, as well as in this TED Talk, Steven Johnson tells a fascinating story of an Indonesian city, devastated by the tsunami in 2004. This city had received eight high-tech neo-natal incubators from relief organizations to aid them in caring for their youngest patients. Several years later, a researcher visited the hospital in Indonesia and found that not one of those incubators was still in working order. And so they sat, broken, and in storage.
I’ve got a thing for well-illustrated books that really capture the endearing quirkiness of kids. That’s the first thing that made me love Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy
Just this afternoon, he and his brother were at odds about how to play together. As they got flustered and frustrated and began to grouch at each other, I stepped out to intervene. In a split second, I had to decide whether to intervene by settling it myself, or by taking the time to teach them to own their problems and problem solve together.
I’m sharing a post over at Toddler Approved, all about helping kids learn to take an active role in problem solving. To keep things exciting, this post includes ninjas, snowmobiles, trains, and motorcycles. Well, sort of. Here’s a little taste:
Teachers and parents of young children are notoriously good problem-solvers. When discontent arises, we swoop in, assess the situation, and set timers, create turn-taking lists, grab another item for sharing, or utilize some other method from our bag of tricks. We are so good at problem solving because we get so much practice! This is all well and good, and at times a skill of survival, but to truly benefit children for the long run, it is ideal to involve them in the problem solving process. It may slow things down a bit, but eventually you will find that you are “swooping in” less and less as the children build their own sets of social problem-solving skills and become more independent.
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