I noticed my 2 1/2 year old walking around the back yard the other day with a small rectangular rock nestled in the palm of his hand. I watched as he excitedly moved it around as he energetically bounded around the lawn, obviously in his own world. I wondered where his imagination had taken him. Then I heard the giveaway: “Boop! Boop!” He was holding the rock out, extending his arm toward a ride along car in the yard. “My boop-boop!” He said as he looked up with a huge grin of satisfaction, having clearly just set the alarm on his toy car with his own personal key fob.
The Vital Importance of a Strong Foundation: Why Early Learning Matters
The Power of Pictures: Simple Stories, Stronger Kids
I grew up hearing the stories. How Grandma and Grandpa started out in a new state with a dog, a truck, a baby, and $10 in their pockets. The mischief and mayhem my dad and his brothers created, often at the expense of each other or their sisters, and much to the chagrin of their saintly mother. The life-threatening illness at my birth, and the miracle of my recovery. They were like colorful marbles in a kindergartner’s pocket. I loved them and treasured them, but hadn’t really given much thought to what research might say about their significance.
As I have examined both personally and professionally what makes for a strong family, I have been surprised several times to find research linking positive personal and family outcomes to families knowing the stories and histories of their families.
As an article in the New York Times stated in a review of some of the research, ” After a while, a surprising theme emerged. The single most important thing you can do for your family may be the simplest of all: develop a strong family narrative.”
Erica Layne of Let Why Lead expanded on this same topic recently, sharing the many benefits of family stories for kids.
The idea that something as simple as story-telling can build stronger kids seems hard to believe. As I said, it was something of a pleasant surprise when I stumbled on some of the research. But it shouldn’t have been surprising at all. My Master’s thesis was on the topic of ethnic identity. The review of the literature in that area is very clear: Knowing where you come from and what you’re about is correlated with almost every positive outcome you can measure. It makes sense that those benefits are not limited to knowing your ethnic story, but extend more personally, to knowing your family’s story and your own.
With this information on my mind, I was excited when Beryl Young offered to share a guest post with you about how to capture your family’s stories and preserve them in a variety of forms. It’s something feel I took for granted in my own childhood, and hope to become more intentional about with my own children.
Standing Up for Children and Childhood: If Not YOU, Then Who?
A week ago I had the tremendous pleasure of being a keynote speaker at Arkansas State University’s ECE conference. I met some absolutely wonderful people there and had a fantastic experience getting to know many people and seeing childhood from their eyes.
It’s OK NOT to Share Section 7: Sensitive Subjects
It’s OK NOT to Share Section 6: Bad Words, Polite Words, and Lies
TinkerLab Book Blog Tour: Q&A with Rachelle Doorley
Whether you’re a teacher or a parent, if you’re interested in promoting creativity, problem solving, curiosity, critical thinking, and tinkering in the lives of the children you love and teach, then get ready —- you’re going to love Rachelle Doorley’s new book,Tinkerlab: A Hands-On Guide for Little Inventors(*affiliate link).
It’s OK NOT to Share Section 4b: Kids, Power, and Action (Part 2)
Weapon play. Gender-Bender play. These are the play themes that press against our comfort zones and challenge our perspectives.
Motherhood Realized and Why We All Need a Good Friend
I have a very dear friend, whom I’ve known since I was a gangly, tree-climbing girl. We played tee ball together, had dance recitals together, and, though we spent our teenage years in different states, ended up rooming together in college.
The New Deficiency, Formerly Known as “Childhood”
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