Parenting

How Parents Can Use the Deferred Imitation Skill

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Deferred imitation is an astonishing skill that develops rapidly. A 13-month-old child can remember an event a week after a single exposure. By the time she is almost a year and a half, she can imitate an event four months after a single exposure. John Medina – Brain Rules for Baby Deferred imitation can shed light on how we construct our mental models and long-term memory, by studying how information is perceived, encoded, stored, recalled or retrieved. Through deferred imitation (repeat and practice the actions of others, either immediately or …

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Metaphorical Thinking – The Guest Metaphor

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Metaphorical Thinking – Introduction Metaphorical Thinking – the Cloud Metaphors Metaphorical Thinking – the Guest Metaphor Metaphorical Thinking – the Web Metaphors There are two instances that the metaphor of guest can explain or enhance: treat our children as guests in our life, and how our body is a guesthouse for our emotions. The first meaning is an idea coined by Haim Ginott, a mentor to John Gottman (Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child), Adele Faber (How to Talk so Kids will Listen…) or Laura …

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The National Bank of Parents: a Simple Financial Education Strategy for Children

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I talked in Letters to my daughter: Build your “f*ck off” fund article about the importance of financial education from an early age.   In this article, I will present our strategy to teach our four and a half-year-old daughter how to manage her money responsibly. Most of this strategy is based on The First National Bank of Dad: The Best Way to Teach Kids About Money book written by David Owen. He introduced this strategy to his children, aged six and ten at the time. Once a child can …

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The Four Styles of Parenting

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The four styles of parenting

Based on the research of Diana Baumrind, Eleanor Maccoby (extremely influential in child psychology and developmental psychology, her Wikipedia page is well worth a read) and John Martin, there are four types of parenting styles:  Neglectful Parenting  Low emotional support, low expectations Detached from a child’s feelings and behaviours  As the name of this category implies, there is not much interaction between a neglectful parent and their children. Such parents are uninvolved in their children’s lives: they do not ask children about school, they do not know their children’s friends or spend much time with …

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Letters to my Daughter: Build Your “F*ck Off” Fund

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It is true what they say. Money does not bring happiness. Money buys freedom. Freedom to leave a job. Freedom to manage an economic recession. Freedom to take a leave when you feel burned out. Freedom to leave a country. Freedom to own a house. Freedom to leave an abusive relationship. My daughter, having your own emergency fund should be your top priority. You are buying a part of your freedom with an emergency fund. Read this article that renamed emergency fund to a …

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Books for 6-9-year-Olds

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This article is a continuation of Books for 0-6-year-olds, with some books that blend between years. Growing up and facts of life It is never too early to discuss such an important topic as body safety education. We can’t afford to be squeamish and avoid difficult conversations. Some of these books should be read once or twice per month. Science Diversity Inspiring people Storytelling Poetry Exquisite books

Books for 0-6-year-olds

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As the saying goes for gifts, “Give them something to read/ Something they want and something they need”, I thought I would share some book recommendations. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy any of these as a present for my nephews or our friends’ children. After comparing Usborne versus DK versus National Geographic, I think that DK has the best ratio of information per age, with the right amount of information. Of course, this is just a personal opinion. Also, I discovered two very worrisome …

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The Magical Wimmelbooks

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One of my happiest childhood moments was when I got lost in books. After having a child, children’s books made me feel like I was reborn as a child, too. One of the most requested books in our household is In the Town All Year Round by Sussane Berner Rotraut. This was my first exposure to wimmelbooks, a special form of picture books with hidden objects. Wimmelbooks are a distinctive type of picture book characterized by their large-format, wordless illustrations filled with intricate details. These books are primarily …

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