How to Grow a child...

A bit of Montessori

stinasmiling — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:10:00 +0000

Toddler’s Talent

stinasmiling — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 23:47:26 +0000

Daddy Swimming

A couple of days ago my little sunshine drew this picture of his Daddy swimming. It must have been a year or more since he’d actually seen his Daddy swimming, and to me he appears to be diving… In any case, he told me that it was his Daddy swimming!

He then proceeded to purposefully add a mouth, eye, stubble, arms and then legs, to which he added trousers and shoes.

I thought it was fantastic – of course!

My son is only just two and a half, and this little masterpiece will now take pride of place on my mantle piece… until he draws another at least!

Education and evolution

stinasmiling — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:42:48 +0000

This is 2nd part of a series of videos available on YouTube discussing Montessori. In this video Dr Steve Hughes discusses the need for a new way of educating, and this is what particularly resonated with me.

Teaching a child how to learn effectively is far more important than just imparting dry facts that will soon be forgotten and redundant in our ever accelerating world.

It was Charles Darwin who said “Survival is ultimately dependent on the ability to change and evolve”. Isn’t about time our children’s education reflected this too?

Everybody, EVERYBODY has the potential for genius!

stinasmiling — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 01:11:23 +0000

I am absolutely thrilled to have found this Tony Buzan video - I’ve been reading his books since my early teens, and I’ve been mind mapping ever since!

At first glance it might not seem as though you can directly apply the ideas in this video to teaching a baby or toddler perhaps, but I have some alternative interpretations for younger children that I hope to be sharing with you in the next week.

… because ’Everybody, EVERYBODY has the potential for genius!‘

Albert Einstein

stinasmiling — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:21:55 +0000

”Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.” Albert Einstein

Getting Started with the Doman Advantage

stinasmiling — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:44:48 +0000

I’ve used the Doman advantage to get started teaching my two year old son, so I thought it would be a good idea to share this video here - it could help you get started too!

Looks like Rudolph was sleeping on the job again!

stinasmiling — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:22:02 +0000

What a lovely fun and food fueled Christmas we’ve had. As you can see it took its toll on this little one - it didn’t keep him down long though, he was soon up and bouncing again.

I was very happy to see that the learning game with my son hasn’t gone unnoticed amongst my family. He received lots of lovely learning toys this Christmas. Which I was very excited about, I could barely wait to start playing them with him. Unfortunately I was cooking Christmas dinner this year, so I had to wait until boxing day before I had my chance.

Luckily his Nan was there to step in and enjoy some learning fun with her grandson too.

Potty Training

stinasmiling — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:55:54 +0000

Today is Sander’s second day of potty training. I’m not expecting miracles, that he’ll actually sit on there with out screaming like he’s being tortured is miracle enough. He’s doing it with a smile on his face too – a cheeky grin to be more precise. I think the fact that I almost had a meltdown with excitement when he pooped on the toilet for the first time yesterday, made him eager to please. Or at least amused him sufficiently for him to want to do it again.

Sander is two years and two months, and over the last few months, I’ve tried him just sitting on the potty or the toilet – neither way went well. I decided it would be better to wait until he was ready, rather than push him to bend to my will. Besides two year olds don’t stand for much pushing.

Instead I would tell him when I or his Dad went to the toilet (and what I was doing). And show him too, pointing out that the toilet was where Mummy and Daddy go for a wee wee.

And so yesterday he runs to get his nappy bag just as he was starting to do a poop, his aunt says to him, ‘you’re a big boy now, why don’t you go on the toilet?’

I sighed, expecting another – ‘NOOOOOOOOOOO mum!’ So I knelt down and asked him if he wanted to go poo poo on the toilet, as expected he started to say no… And then suddenly he changed his mind and nodded resolutely – the rest is history.

… Well, at least it’s a good start anyway!

Montessori Counting Beans

stinasmiling — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:18:24 +0000

I thought this looked like an interesting and fun way to introduce counting.

Conscious Parenting

stinasmiling — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:48:41 +0000

Everything is Energy is a radio show hosted by Kristin and David Morelli. In this show they talk about conscious parenting, and feature an interview with Melissa Greczy.

Melissa Greczy is the Co-founder of Project GiftEd; a fantastic blog, which promises to Revolutionize Education and Transform Mankind. There are some interesting ideas on the radio show, so it’s definitely worth listening - and when you’re done scoot over to Project GiftEd where you’ll be spoilt for choice on the subject of parenting and education.

Click there> Everything is Energy Radio Show