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How Big is Your Worry? Helping Anxious Kids Find Calm.

February 23, 2017 by notjustcute Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Positive Guidance and Social Skills, Uncategorized 3 Comments

The realization dawned on me as my husband was driving (because with four kids, it seems we can only have complete conversations when we leave the house alone).  I had been rattling off some of the behaviors I’d been observing in one of our sons.  Behaviors that were really getting under my skin.

He was worrying.  Not just normal day-to-day worrying, but taking those little worries and blowing them out of proportion, then adding a few more unrealistic worries on top of them for good measure.  He was tying himself in knots over situations he couldn’t control or change, situations that would likely never come to fruition anyway.

[Read more…]

Keep Them Passionately Curious

February 1, 2017 by notjustcute Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Learning through Play and Experience, Uncategorized 7 Comments

einstein child

I was once asked during a presentation for a parents’ group what it is that preschoolers need most to prepare them academically.

[Read more…]

Discovering the Culture of Childhood

December 21, 2016 by notjustcute Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Uncategorized 2 Comments

lenses

We each view the world through our own unique lenses.  There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just the product of who we are, where we’ve been, and what we experience.  Through all of that, we then filter how we perceive the world.

[Read more…]

The Danger of Performance Hang Ups in Early Education

November 17, 2016 by notjustcute Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Learning through Play and Experience 3 Comments

A few years ago, the Gesell Institute, named for developmental pioneer Dr. Arnold Gesell, decided to test the premise that kids today develop more quickly than they used to.  They took the developmental norms established by the work of Dr. Gesell in the 1940s and launched a three year study concluding in 2010 to gauge whether or not the same framework still holds up.  What they found, of course, is that even over the span of decades, the developmental norms remain the same.

[Read more…]

Whole Child Development: An Observer’s Guide

November 14, 2016 by notjustcute Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Uncategorized 3 Comments

“What are your objectives?”

[Read more…]

Hit this Reset Button on Grumpy Days

July 13, 2016 by notjustcute Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Learning through Play and Experience, Positive Guidance and Social Skills 4 Comments

reset with play

I don’t remember what it was that set him off in the first place.  But he had passed annoyed and had clearly moved on to angry.

[Read more…]

How a Baby with a Mustache Taught Me to Be a Better Parent

June 9, 2016 by notjustcute Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Learning through Play and Experience, Positive Guidance and Social Skills, Uncategorized 2 Comments

“I left a baby gift for you on your doorstep. It’s the perfect thing for a mom with four boys.”

My friend mentioned this to me casually as we both worked in our neighbor’s kitchen, preparing refreshments for a wedding.

The “impulsive three-year old” section of my brain wanted to drop what I was doing and immediately run next door to tear open this gift.  What could possibly be the perfect baby gift for a mom who had just had her fourth boy?  It was even more intriguing to me because this friend is an amazing mom herself.  She has seven children, and while I’m sure she has stories that would contradict my accounting, every one of them always seems so well-behaved, so kind, so creative, so smart, and so sweet.  She certainly knows a thing or two about motherhood, and so I hoped that this gift was some secret of the trade.  A talisman from my Jedi master.

The “responsible adult” section of my brain won out, and I helped out with food for a few more hours before making my way home to find a small wrapped box on my doorstep.  I slid my fingers through the tape and pulled out the box.

And started laughing immediately.

Here’s a look at what I found inside:

binky

That binky.  I laughed because it was hilarious, but I also laughed at myself for thinking the gift would be so serious. [Read more…]

Now What? Simple Steps for Advocacy from Rae Pica

May 25, 2016 by notjustcute Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Uncategorized 1 Comment

first step

As I wrapped up the Read Along of Rae Pica’s book,  What If Everybody Understood Child Development?: Straight Talk About Bettering Education and Children’s Lives (affiliate link), I intended to do a typical Q&A follow up with Rae. 

[Read more…]

How Positive Parenting Shapes the Brain

May 13, 2016 by notjustcute Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Positive Guidance and Social Skills, Uncategorized 2 Comments

Positive Guidance and the Brain

Q&A sessions can feel a little like an out of body experience.

[Read more…]

Intrinsic vs Extrinsic. How Do We Motivate Kids? :Read Along Section 9- What If Everybody Understood Child Development?

May 11, 2016 by notjustcute Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Positive Guidance and Social Skills 4 Comments

child

Whether you’re a parent or an educator (or both!), child behavior is at the top of your concerns at some point in each day.  In the latest section of our read along series, What If Everybody Understood Child Development?: Straight Talk About Bettering Education and Children’s Lives (affiliate link), Rae Pica explores several topics surrounding our adult approaches to managing child behavior.  She shares a key concept that is at the heart of what I teach about Positive Guidance : [Read more…]

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I’m Amanda Morgan. Here’s what I’m about…

In early education, there is too much distance between what we know and what we do. I bridge the gaps that exist between academia, decision-makers, educators, and parents so that together, we can improve the quality of early education while also respecting and protecting the childhood experience.

Content Copyrighted (2008-2025), Amanda Morgan, All Rights Reserved

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