Month: July 2008

Baby Dancing

 

Diana Suskind is a professor at Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts and is the person who introduced me to RIE and to Magda Gerber’s work.

She is a wonderful, creative lady and a tireless advocate for RIE. She has literally traveled the world introducing Magda and the RIE philosophy to parents, children, and child care providers. In fact, she is now headed to Nepal to continue a project she started there a year or two ago.

Diana also coined the term “tarry time” to describe the time it takes for a young child to respond to a stimulus, such as a request from a parent, or a change in body position. Since everything is so new to infants it takes them a longer time to process and respond to what is happening, and adults can help young children by slowing down and waiting, thus giving the child the time she needs to fully integrate her experience. I will write more about tarry time in another post.

My intention in this post is to introduce you to a sweet board book for children, that contains an important lesson for parents as well. Baby Dancing was written by Diana and is now available for purchase directly through Diana or this website.

Baby Dancing takes the reader through the seasons of a baby’s first year or so, depicting the natural gross motor milestones a baby achieves from laying on his back, to standing and walking. The soft watercolor drawings and the simple, lilting text celebrate each achievement.

One of the cornerstones of Magda’s teachings is to never interfere with a baby’s natural gross motor development but to allow it to happen naturally. This means no tummy time before a baby has learned to roll onto her tummy by herself. It also means not propping a baby into a sitting position before he can achieve that position on his own. Baby seats, baby swings, high chairs,exersaucers, and baby jumpers are all discouraged.

I know, it sounds hard, but it’s not, and it saves tons of money on unnecessary baby equipment as well! The payoff is a young child who is at ease and secure in his body, and often very graceful in his movements.

This is what Baby Dancing is all about, plus it’s fun ( no preaching ), and little ones love having it read to them again and again.

You can now download a copy of Baby_Dancing (in English and Spanish) from Diana’s website Stonework Play.

 

Time Out

I realize it’s been awhile since I’ve written. Today, I want to share a few new resources with you.Let me preface these recommendations with just a little background, if I may.

I just returned from a wonderful weekend retreat at Kripalu Yoga Center in Lenox, MA. I danced, ate good food, spent time in the whirlpool, walked, met some amazing women , had the best seat in the world to view 4th of July fireworks, (as well as 3rd and 5th of July fireworks). engaged in soul searching, journaling, meditation, and yoga, and had more FUN than I can remember having in a long time.AND there’s no wine, or TV there. Evening entertainment consists of chanting- in another language! Internet and cell phone usage is very limited and restricted to certain areas.

I know to some of you what I just described does not sound like YOUR idea of fun, but if you are a Mom, or someone who cares for children on a regular basis, I bet you get it because when you’ve got children to attend to 24 hours a day, the mere idea of going to the bathroom to pee alone sounds like fun!

Anyway, this past weekend was all about self renewal and self care. I was reminded once again of the importance of slowing down and taking time for myself in order to have the energy and joy to continue to nurture the children and families I care for and try to inspire in my work.

I count myself as so lucky and blessed to be able to do (and get paid for! ) work that I love, have chosen, and that feeds and challenges me to grow every day. Yet, if I don’t periodically take time to renew my energy and resources, I find myself with less to give to the children and parents who count on me.

Which leads me to the point of this entry. Finally!

I’m not a big believer in time out for children, but I AM a big believer in time out for adults! So often, when adults send children to a chair for a time out, it is because WE are angry and frustrated, and don’t know what else to do. The child is just being a child.

About time out for children, Magda Gerber often said : “Time out from what? From life ? From learning ? Isn’t it better to stay in life and learn from whatever is happening?”.

Magda’s belief was that young children didn’t benefit much from time out because they lack the ability to sit and reflect on their actions, and if they did indeed possess the ability to self reflect and foresee consequences, they might not be acting like little monsters in the first place!

But children are children, and they need a lot of time and a lot of support from loving adults to become reasonably co-operative and socialized .In the meantime , the adults in their lives have to be patient, and be good role models. This is by no means an easy task on the best of days!

So we as adults, parents, and caregivers, have to take care of ourselves, and renew our reserves on a regular basis if we hope to be able to give our children the support they need.

I’m a big believer in reading, communicating,and sharing resources to help parents achieve their goal of finding ways to “fill up” in order to renew their reserves of energy, patience, and good humor, so that they might then have more to give to their children.

Unfortunately, there’s just so much junk that is pushed upon (marketed to) parents, that I often have a hard time coming up with resources that I can recommend whole heartedly.

Which is why I get so excited when I find resources I can recommend without reservation.

Today, I have two for you – both of which you can access on the web. Do yourself a favor and take a minute to log on to the following sites. I promise you won’t be sorry you did ! ( If you click on the web addresses below, you will go directly to the sites – but don’t forget to come back to Regarding Baby!)

First go to www.lifeorganizerbook.com, which is a web site designed by Jennifer Louden (my retreat leader this past weekend),and then go to www.dork-central.com.

The second site is the brainchild of Christena Frei , and is designed for children ages 9 – 13, but is SO cool,and so much fun, you’ll be glad you visited too ! Have fun and Enjoy !