The power of self-expression: How we can help our kids own their feelings

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been personally victimised by your toddler’s tantrum. Yep, we’ve all been there.  Your lovely little toddler is really good at making you smile with their sweet kisses and the cuteness of their sweet laughter. Unfortunately, toddlers are not just all roses. They are really bad at controlling their feelings. And by really bad I mean the sound of a grocery store meltdown over the wrong brand of cereal, or...

The surprising benefits of nurturing your child’s creativity

A child’s imagination is a pretty incredible thing – from the fantastical characters they invent to paintings they create and more, a little one’s innocence and sense of wonder can really lead to some magic.  “They say that ‘play is the work of childhood’ and in such a busy world we need to allow kids to have space to get bored in order to get creative,” says Gen Muir of Connected Parenting. “Sometimes this means...

Your child’s first words: A complete guide to teaching toddlers to talk

When my toddler started talking, I joked with my husband that I now had my own Man Friday, you know Robinson Crusoe’s best friend on the island.  Except I spent most of my days with him glued to my hip.  We communicated in two-word sentences: “Bird, go.” “Me cookie.”And we’re just one word away from Cookie Monster’s “Me want cookie.”  It was cute. And I loved it every time he called a “Butterfly” a “Flutterfly” or said...

Child meltdown

What NOT to do when your child is having a meltdown

 Ever feel like you can’t find the right words when your child is having a tantrum? Or wonder why the words you do say seem to make it worse?  Whether our kids are sad, upset, frightened or they have completely lost it, we as parents usually struggle to regulate ourselves. We often have a strong urge to help our child feel better or stop the crying. This comes from our own discomfort with emotion. The...

Child meltdown

Does your child seem to have a meltdown right after school or daycare?

They may be experiencing after school restraint collapse. Many parents can relate to the feeling of being so excited to pick up their child from day-care or school and less than 30 seconds after being out of the gate, your child is falling apart. This can look like whinging, fighting with a sibling or a full-blown meltdown. This is known as the “After School Restraint collapse” and is a result of our child working so...

Development Tips

5 simple ways to break down big questions into curious answers…

Asking questions plays a crucial role in your child’s development and how they learn and make sense of the world. And while it can be a bit overwhelming when our little ones come to us with a big question, (hello the dreaded ‘where do babies come from?’) we should avoid the temptation to give them all the answers right off the bat – or worse, to deflect and say you’ll tell them when they are...