Search Results for: blog having an only child the preschool years

The Influence of Older Siblings on Preschoolers

A preschooler is blessed to have older siblings. A big sister is great for reading bedtime stories, doing hair and laughing. A big brother will play all day outside, let you win, and doesn’t mind if you get dirty. A sweet relationship develops between older and younger siblings. There are trying times, challenges, and disagreements but in the end a bond is formed that cannot be broken. Most big brothers and sisters have no intention of being a poor influence on their younger siblings. Many times what is acceptable and age appropriate for an older sibling is not acceptable or … Continue reading →

Will Having a Baby Enhance Your Social Life?

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In my recent article, A Baby Does Change Your Life, I discussed some ways that becoming a Mom will change you forever. Having a baby will change your life, but those changes are not all negative. Have you ever thought about how becoming a first time Mom might affect your social life? Perhaps you are worried that your child free friends won’t want to hang out anymore, or maybe you think that you won’t have the time, energy, or desire to have much of a social life anymore. Well, if you are thinking about your nights on the town hitting … Continue reading →

Parenting A Child With Schizophrenia

Michael and Susan Schofield’s six year old daughter has schizophrenia. The LA Times has an article that describes what it is like to parent a child like Jani. The article describes what Jani was like as an infant, how her daily life is now, and the stresses involved with parenting a child with an extreme form of mental illness. The article tells the story of Jani and her parents. It was clear right from the start that Jani was different from other infants. She didn’t sleep for more than half an hour at a time, and would scream if she … Continue reading →

Patience is Having an Alternative

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As parents, we are challenged daily and hourly to be patient. We may be challenged more than once a minute, in fact. It is hard to be patient and I don’t like it much. I would much prefer to do what I want to do. However, doing what I want to do is called my pre-child life, and I don’t think that I’m going to get that back any time soon. Having a child involves patience. If you want to do to the store, you need to dress someone or two or three. You need to get them out of … Continue reading →

Who Are Your Preschool Parenting Gurus?

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Tomorrow I get to go to a workshop by Beverly Bos, one of the gurus of early childhood education. Not only will this be useful for my work and my writing, I hope that it will be useful for my parenting too. She is speaking about the importance of childhood play. Who are your parenting gurus? Our local Gordon Neufeld is one of mine. He has written the book called Hold On To Your Kids, a guide to staying attached to your children no matter what. In a culture where we encourage our children to be independent from birth, staying … Continue reading →

Reasons to Love Having an Only Child: The Preschool Years

When I was growing up, only children were perceived as very negative little human beings. My mother told me that only children were spoiled and lonely. They didn’t know how to socialize. I grew up pitying only children and vowed to have at least four children of my own. I had two siblings and loved being the big sister. Then came my daughter, and then came a host of medical challenges that made it difficult for me to have more children. I found myself in an interesting position: I needed to confront my stereotypes about only children, because I was … Continue reading →

Preschoolers’ Health Improving

Preschoolers aren’t getting any fatter, according to a new report. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just announced that the nation’s obesity epidemic has stabilized in the past five years among preschool-age children. According to researchers, 14.6 percent of 2- to 4-year-old children were obese in 2008, which is about the same as in 2003, but still higher than in 1998 when about 12 percent of preschoolers were obese. The CDC defines obesity as having a body mass index, which ranked at or above the 95th percentile on growth charts. Much has been made of preventing childhood obesity … Continue reading →

Battle Royal: Preschoolers vs. Sunscreen

Parenthood is filled with ironic moments. Though the one that stands out the most for me (especially this time of year) is the unpleasant task of slathering my preschooler with sunscreen. The daily battle is akin to naked wrestling with a greased pig and usually ends with me wearing way more SPF than my little sun goddess. The irony of this daily, drawn out war-by-the door is that I grew up in Hawaii during an age when most parents thought UVA and UVB rays were only emitted from Buck Rogers’ space age laser gun. When I was a tween I … Continue reading →

Is Your Preschooler Overscheduled?

This summer I decided to give my car a break. Instead of pulling in and out of karate, basketball, swimming, piano, soccer, gymnastics, art, cooking, and ceramics class parking lots, our family vehicle has been cooling its wheels in a shady garage. Score one for the aging Nissan… and for the aging mom. The preschooler, well, she’s not sharing our joy. Not entirely anyway. After months (make that years) of juggling a less than relaxed routine of classes, activities, playgroups, and kiddie seminars, I figured I’d trade in the overscheduled routine for a more laid back summer schedule; one that … Continue reading →

Homeschool Questions: Keeping Preschool Fun

“Q: A lot of people are anti – schooling for preschool age, but by 4yr. old is asking to play school, and wants to do “home work” like his cousins. A friend was generous enough to give me a preschool activity book. I’ve tried to stay away from “instructing” him by counting cars and sorting colors of marbles, but when he’s playing, he gets frustrated with me when I suggest counting or sorting in the situation. But then later he’ll say, “I want to have school” and pull out that activity book and work/play in it for quite a while. … Continue reading →