Game On: Playing Your Way Through Discipline
One night my 5-year old said, “Mama, we have a problem: I don’t like to sleep.” I agreed it was a problem because unlike her,…
Portfolio Categories: play
20 Activities for Fun and Play
“It’s fun to have fun but you have to know how.” Dr. Seuss Sometimes we need a few ideas to get playing moving along. I…
True Play: Why Kids Need Play Sanctuaries for Their Emotions
Play is not urgent. It will not wake a child up in the middle of the night like a bad dream or a bladder in…
Irreducible Needs: What Kids Must Have to Thrive
Raffi Cavoukian, a children’s singer, songwriter, and child advocate, wrote a song titled – All I really need – which beautifully captures from a child’s perspective their most essential…
When Play Ends and Boredom Begins
Understanding boredom in kids is serious business. A mother of a 7-year old boy sat in my office, clearly distressed and said, “I take away…
Three Things I Discovered Writing Rest, Play, Grow: Making Sense of Preschoolers (or anyone who acts like one)
For the last couple of years I have been dwelling on the subject of young children while writing Rest, Play, Grow. It has been an…
Why Your Teen Reminds You of a Preschooler
Sometimes parents lament to me in a humour filled way, that they see similarities between raising teens and toddler/preschoolers. What is it that makes them…
Why Shyness is Not a Disorder or Deficit in Kids
Shyness in children can be viewed negatively, especially in cultures that value gregariousness and extroversion. What isn’t well understood is that shyness is an attachment…
The Lost Art of Play, on CBC with Stephen Quinn
An interview based on the presentation Lost Art of Play: Helping Children Become their Own Person for the Vancouver International Children’s Festival PEP series. It aired on…
Plugged In: Growing Up in a Digital World
I remember being overjoyed when my parents bought our first dishwasher. Overnight I was rescued from the drudgery of washing dinner plates. I was even…
