Growing Together Blog Archives

This will begin with an ‘I’ and will change quickly to ‘we’. That is the way of the parent cooperative. It is also the way of the parent cooperative to find a need and then work to fill it. From the founding of schools to the digging of a dry creek bed. This story begins [...]

Potty training doesn’t have to be a power struggle if everyone is on the same page and the ownership is placed on the child – it is her body after all. For successful potty training there are two key components.  First you have to be ready to commit to the process.  It doesn’t happen over [...]

Easy fun—with no preparation, no planning, no special equipment needed, no classes to schedule, etc., etc. (exclamation point.) I’ve been thinking lately about the importance of fun in family life, and wondering why it seems in such short supply.  Sometimes I guess it is because parents are doing so many things for their children, it [...]

Flying home from a family vacation this summer, I sat behind a father with two young sons.  The youngest child was only about 2 or 2 ½ years old.  While the father tuned out by watching his DVD player with earphones and the older child took a nap, the youngest fussed and cried for over [...]

When a teacher poses questions during story time or during play, she or he is not quizzing the children. An answer or response is not always expected. Teachers are helping make connections and extensions. Children benefit from wait time and the look twice, so that they can reflect and enrich their understanding.

Signatures tucked away and hidden under freshly painted and repaired baseboards. A carefully engineered rain drainage system buried under 10 tons of specially-selected and shipped sand in the sandpit. Gentle and informed support during difficult times. We leave our marks, we shape and care deeply for the environment, we take care of each other.

We have all done it. We see the cookie crumbs sprinkled down our child’s shirt or the purloined item held behind their back, and we have to ask the big question: “Tell me the truth: did you . . . ”

Let’s consider the walls of a classroom; if the walls could talk, and they certainly should, they would tell the story of what the children have been doing, what they have been researching, and the concepts they have been investigating

Emory Luce Baldwin pulls from her Parent Encouragement Program (PEP) “bag of tricks” and real life to describe how to build, “special time.” A way to drink coffee and read the paper? Alone? Without neglecting your child’s needs? Do tell!

How do we reassure children during troubling times? Emory Luce Baldwin shares reassurances and comforting words to help us and our children “look for the helpers” and reestablish perspective.