Whole Child Development
Learning to be a good listener is a critical skill. Kids need to learn to be active listeners (here’s how I teach it in the classroom) and adults need to remember to be good listeners too. But there are also things we do as we speak to children that may increase or lessen the likelihood that children will actually be listening.
I couldn’t help but think about parents and teachers who love and teach children with challenging behaviors as I drove along the hills behind my childhood home this past weekend.
It was not lost on me that I read most of this section while my three oldest boys, dressed as ninjas, ran in and out of the room, engaged in an ongoing sword fight/kidnapping plot/tickle war with my husband.
Anyone who’s had more than one child can attest that kids come with their own quirks. Different temperaments, personalities, and needs. It makes sense then, that there’s no ONE, RIGHT way to parent. It takes an array of tools and approaches to be responsive when you’re dealing with different kids — or simply the mood of the moment.
When children present us with their most challenging behaviors, it’s easy to fixate on what they’re doing that gets under our skin. We claim the behavior as the source of our frustration: he throws tantrums / she won’t listen / they constantly argue. But change rarely comes by focusing only on the symptoms. We have to care enough to get to the real source of the behavior.
Remember how you raised your eyebrows and squirmed a bit when you heard the title, “It’s OK NOT to Share”? (OK, maybe some of you didn’t even bat an eye.)
It’s time!There’s been such a great response to the selection of Heather Shumaker’s book, It’s OK Not to Share and Other Renegade Rules for Raising Competent and Compassionate Kids (*affiliate)
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