Handwashing

By the time your child is 4 years old they should be able to wash and dry their hands on their own. Younger children will need help, and sometimes older children might need assistance and/or supervision. But even adults don’t necessarily follow standard hand washing hygiene, despite hand washing being the number one way of Read More

Non Art Fine Motor Skills

Exposing your child to a wide range of fine motor activities can increase their skills and confidence. But for preschoolers who aren’t motivated to do typical fine motor skill builders (like art, lacing, beading, writing) finding fun activities can be a challenge. What are fine motor skills? These are the skills that involve the use Read More

Too Much Empathy?

Most of the time, we are concerned that our children aren’t empathetic enough.  But sometimes parents worry their child is “too empathetic.” What is Empathy? Empathy, at its most basic level, is the ability to tune into another person’s pain.  Empathy is the foundation for kindness and helping behaviors. Empathy requires the cognitive ability to Read More

Sisterland

Sisterland >> By Salla Simukka Ages 9-12 One of my favorite books growing up was “Best Friend,” by Shirley Simon >> The story explores the concept of friendship from the point of view of a young girl. Making friends, losing friends, what today we’d call “friend drama,” and finding friends in unexpected places. So I Read More

Mad Libs

Mad Libs is a word game; it consists of stories that have missing words. The missing words are replaced with “prompts” for a player to fill in the blanks. The result is usually a pretty funny story!