Toddlers are experimenting with and refining their newfound developmental skills, from walking to using words to get what they want. They are also using pretend play to understand the world around them. This means more self-awareness, imagination, independence, autonomy, and tantrums (sorry, there’s no way around this).
Here are our gift picks for toddlers ages 1-3:
Everyone gets scared. Fear is a primary emotion signaling that we are in danger, essentially ensuring our survival from a hostile situation. Although it can be overridden by our executive functions, some fears can’t be shaken, no matter how irrational they are. This is especially true for kids. Despite how trigger-happy their fear response is to the most random things, it’s all part of their growth and development.
Continue reading
“Whatever you do, don’t fall asleep.” – Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Remember when you were a kid, you watched a horror film you probably shouldn’t have and from then on, your dreams were nothing but nightmares? Yeah, that happened to me, and that movie was Child’s Play.
The truth is kids will experience their version of a Freddy Krueger dreamscape regardless of whether they see a scary movie or not. In fact, nightmares are part of typical child development as they process what they have observed and experienced in their world thus far. But does it have to be in the form of bad dreams?
Continue reading
“Charlie, have you ever stood at the edge of a cliff or subway platform with someone, and you thought just for a split second, ‘What if I pushed him?’”
“Well, not really. Usually, I follow the Judeo-Christian ethic of ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ but that’s just me.” (So I Married an Axe Murderer, 1993)
Sometimes we wonder if we’re raising our kids to be good humans. We question if we may have been too harsh or hot-tempered in the moment, and that our actions will leave our kids with permanent emotional scars. We worry that if we don’t get this parenting thing right, our children may become one of those psycho killers in a slasher movie. I recall sobbing to one of my friends that my then 2-year-old son was going to grow up to be a serial killer because I yelled at him one time.
Continue reading
Do you know how hard it is to come up with a title about jump roping that doesn’t go back to a cheesy song?
After our cartwheeling post, we started thinking about all the other recess activities we used to do in grade school: hanging on monkey bars, playing a rousing game of 4-Square, or that one week where it seemed everyone wanted to jump rope.
Although the jump roping origins is unclear, we do know it was brought over by the Dutch in the late 1600s. Kids were jumping and developing games with songs to keep themselves occupied. Some used two ropes, explaining where the term Double Dutch came from. As it gained popularity, kids would use any material (clotheslines, braided rope, etc.) they could find to make a rope and play with their friends. Unfortunately in the 1950s, with the expansion of television and radio, kids began spending more time indoors.
Now, if you peruse the internet about jumping or skipping rope, you’ll find that this pastime has generally been rebranded as a great cardio workout (Woohoo, Jump Rope for Heart). No doubt it is, but let’s talk about what else it can do for our kids’ development.
Continue reading
Child(ish) Advice 