Child Power
10-08-2019
Last year, the Guardian newspaper held an experiment where several families gave up the rules laid down by parents, and handed the power over to the children.
Your Turn!
29-06-2019
Okay, it is summer and it may not be the right time of year for this blog - but rain and boredom can strike at any time, so I’d like to embrace the un-trendy and give a shout out to board games.
It’s always easier to have a conversation with your children (or any other human for that matter) while you’re doing something else. Walking is good, because you’re side by side, breathing regularly and out of doors. Cooking is good for the same alignment reasons, and you’re both focused on a shared task. But games are great because the emotional odds are already ramped up, so you tend to get more honest responses.
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Letting Modesty Prevail
01-06-2019
Fashion is a slippery master. It pervades almost every aspect of our lives, not just music and clothes, but attitudes, values and personality traits. These days the tenet that ‘you can achieve anything if you want it enough’ is all pervasive. Similarly I see a trend towards ‘loving yourself’ gathering momentum. Less in favour are the not-so-thrusty attributes of modesty and humility.
Do What I Say
18-05-2019
Last year, Amazon released the Echo Dot Kids Edition, which is apparently more able to decipher the way that young children speak.
For some time now I’ve been pondering the effect that getting used to barking orders at our devices will have on us.
“Siri, what’s the weather like in Edinburgh?”
“Alexa, phone Dad.”
Great Expectations
20-04-2019
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about ‘praise’ - this week, I’d like to deal with it’s cousin ‘expectation’.
That voice that comes from inside us, telling us not to even bother trying, because we’re just no good at it; telling us we are and always have been hopeless at maths, spelling, art or whatever - that voice came from somewhere.