"We learn better when we are happy.” Paul Sutherland, COO STEPi.

"Most children can't wait to start kindergarten and approach the beginning of school with awe and anticipation. Kindergartners and 1st graders often talk passionately about what they learn and do in school. Unfortunately, the current emphasis on standardized testing and rote learning encroaches upon many students' joy. In their zeal to raise test scores, too many policymakers wrongly assume that students who are laughing, interacting in groups, or being creative with art, music, or dance are not doing real academic work. The result is that some teachers feel pressure to preside over more sedate classrooms with students on the same page in the same book, sitting in straight rows, facing straight ahead.” Read more.

Kids, Would You Please Start Fighting? - Lead in Creativity doesn’t come from agreement, it comes from good-natured quarreling. It’s time we teach our children that. 

How to Get Your Mind to Read - There is a lot written about "reading" as a skill. Reading builds on what we know, so it is not just "be a good reader" and you're all set. You need to have comprehension, and that takes reading information-rich materials. This is a thoughtful scientific article that anyone interested in literacy and education should review. Comprehension depends on what you already know. Let’s start there. 

Is Your Child Lying to You? That’s Good - If i say to you “DID YOU EAT THAT BISCUIT? If you did, I will beat you!” Do you think you are going to get a “yes” from a 3-year-old? Do you think you are going to get a “yes” from a 30-year-old? How we parents can set our children up to be liars. This article on parenting is a great read for all parents who wish to raise successful, loving, virtuous, happy kids. Kids who know how to deceive are smarter and better adjusted. 

Why the Moral Argument for Non-Violence Matters - Peace and nonviolent conversation gets “lost in translation” so to speak. This is an essay that really communicates how I feel about nonviolence and peace as a spiritual practice (although as a SPIRITUAL PRACTICE is not how the author explains it). He calls it a principled approach. A highlight of the essay is: So, violence can be an effective tool to protect yourself and others against a threat, and it can be used to express outrage about injustice. There is great value in both.Yet violence is also limited in one very important way, and that is that violence can never create relationships. 

Violence can never get you closer to reconciliation, closer to King’s “beloved community,” the reconciled world with justice for all people. And that is perhaps the most significant difference between a principled nonviolent approach and an approach using violence or nonviolence that is strictly strategic. The goals are different. 

What's the Worst Kind of Praise You Can Give? - Years ago, I wrote an article entitled, “Excellence is not Competitive,” after watching some 4-H girls on our humble, very low budget, 4-H team cry when they lost in horse competitions. The girls had fun, they loved the tournaments, they loved sharing their love of all things horses, so who cares if the girl whose rich parents bought her a beautiful $10,000 horse, a personal [horse] trainer and installed a indoor arena on their estate won over the bow legged glue factory mare, borrowed tack, and rummage sale saddle that the girls on my 4-H team used. It’s about doing your best with what you have, friendship, enjoying your horse and each other. 

There’s a wise old saying: “Comparison is the thief of joy.”  

If we really want to help our children succeed, grow into emotionally intelligent, wonderfully happy, inner-directed adults we must praise the activity, and identify and reinforce what we want to continue in our children, and not say, “Wow, that is the best crayon art I have ever seen!!!!!” While this article is about how praise hurts business it is a must read for every parent, caregiver, teacher, coach or individual who wants to use science, research, and common sense to guide her or his actions. Bottom line: We must stop comparisons.... 

Reading aloud, play, and social-emotional development - Introduction to this study: This is a bit dense for the reader, but is important stuff if you find yourself in an argument with someone about the importance of reading, being connected to, and enjoying time with very young children even for 5 minutes a day. It shows that the connecting with children thru story, reading, experiencing a book together helps to develop the child's brain and emotional intelligence, even helping the child build better self control and focus. I have also placed below this posting an article from the NYT that cites this study. 

Reading aloud, spending story reading time with a child, having fun, and playing imaginative games helps children developed their minds, emotional intelligence and also [not surprisingly] helps them deal with emotions like anger and sadness. This is a great article that every caring person that has children in their lives should read. Seems that spending time is the key with helping young children and even for 5 minutes a day it appears there is a benefit. 

How Trauma and Resilience Cross Generations - Dr Yehuda is an epigenetic scientist. What I find interesting in this transcript from her “On Being Project” interview is the influence of those people who during pregnancies or are around our children effects their future in so many ways. Dads, Mothers and Caregivers must pay special attention to their own behaviors, habits, thoughts, emotional stresses, and how they handle them, as all that effects the children in their lives. Fascinating interview, worth the time to read it.  

A bit from the interview: 

“ON BEING: You quoted this passage from Ezekiel: “The fathers ate sour grapes, and the children’s teeth were set on edge.” / Dr Rachael Yehuda: Right. In the Bible it’s rhetorical. But the idea is that it’s a hard thing to imagine that if your father ate sour grapes, the children’s teeth will be rotted, and yet, [laughs] science is teaching us exactly that.” 

Reading To Your Toddler? Print Books Are Better Than Digital Ones - In the most rural of villages, tucked deep in the countryside of Uganda, I witnessed with my own eyes the pure joy of a 3-year-old opening her first book ever. She sat in her mother’s lap, a very young lady in her teens, who could barely write her own name, let alone read. Together, the mother and daughter bonded over just the images in this children’s storybook. They turned the pages together, pointed to different pictures together, and laughed and smiled together. The power of a “book-book” (as they call it in this article) is very real. As is the time spent with your child or your learner, together reading a book. 

This Is Your Child’s Brain On Reading - A quick read about the science of reading and what happens to the brain during and after a child reads. Interesting!  

Children Won’t Say They Have Anxiety, They Say “My Stomach Hurts!” - As we grow older, we become more self-aware, more educated, more capable of putting our feelings into words. But for young children, this isn’t the case. While they may be far from understanding or knowing they have anxiety or are experiencing depression, they do know they don’t feel quite right. And they’ll find some way to let us know. This quick read explains more about how children will communicate their negative feelings.  

DADDY Does It DiFfErenT - With disproportionate statistics showing that boys are “becoming dumber… are more likely to be unhappy… are more violent, intolerant, bigoted, and indifferent to suffering,” it’s about time that men are empowered and encouraged to positively parent in their own styles, in their ways. As author of “Daddy Does It DiFfErenT” and founder of STEPi comments, parenting “is all about perspective, and Dad’s unique viewpoint offers a great counterbalance to Mom’s.”  

How Different Kinds of Intelligence Can Help Your Kids Learn - What is your preferred way of learning? Do you connect with words and articles, or images and videos? Perhaps a good strategy to help you remember is through writing, or for others through music or drama. These various forms of learning are referred to as different kinds of intelligences. And just like you have different ways of learning, so does your child or your student. This short article reviews some of the more prevalent intelligences and notes ways to help you identify these in your child or student.  

Nurse-Family Partnership: Parental Education and Early Health Result In Better Child Outcomes - Professor James Heckman, a Nobel Laureate and an expert in the economics of human development, recently took a look at a program designed to help strengthen the scaffolding around mothers with their children, from newborn to age two. The results are quite amazing. As a society, we must listen to the research and realize that if we want our children to have long term life success, the time to shower them with parent, societal, and education resources is prior to age six. 

How Praise Became a Consolation Prize - while there is a difference between fixed- and growth-mindset, it appears that we all may have a little bit of both perspectives that we, consciously or not, practice. This article interviews Carol Dweck, a psychologist at Stanford University who first identified these two mindsets. It’s a brief read and easy to understand explanation of the difference between each mindset and how we embody each perspective in ourselves and/or influence each perspective in our children.  

How Spanking Affects Later Relationships - If you think spanking a child, for any reason, is ever okay, please read this article. If you’re a teacher, caregiver or parent that wants to know some of the science behind why spanking is an evil action, read this article.  

10 Tips For Cultivating Creativity in Your Kids - Imagine, Create, Play, Share, Reflect - take a few minutes with this article for helpful ideas on ways to support your child's inner creativity.  

Education for the Sustainable Global Citizen: What Can We Learn from Stoic Philosophy and Freirean Environmental Pedagogies? - This article describes the new Global Education First Initiative (GEFI) launched by the United Nations to accelerate the progress towards universal access to education.