BellaOnline Forums Family Early Childhood Hello from the Early Childhood Editor

Greetings!

I'm Nicki, the new Early Childhood Editor here at BellaOnline. I also write the Breastfeeding site here, so feel free to mosey on over there to get to know me as well!

Please reply to say hi and let me know a little bit about you...if you are current subscriber to Early Childhood, or forum poster, tell me what have been your favorite articles, topics and discussions.

I also want to hear what topics and articles you most would like to hear about -- I am a bit overwhelmed, I must admit, by the sheer breadth of what can be written about in supporting parents (as well as educators and caregivers) of children birth through age 12, so I'd love to have your feedback on what would be most helpful!

I look forward to getting to know you here in the forums.

The stages that children grow through are fascinating to me - I still chuckle reading the book titles in the mid-1980s Gesell Institute / Louise Bates Ames / Frances L. Ilg series:

Your One-Year-Old: The Fun-Loving, Fussy 12-To 24-Month-Old
Your Two-Year-Old: Terrible or Tender
Your Three-Year-Old: Friend or Enemy
Your Four-Year-Old: Wild and Wonderful
Your Five Year Old: Sunny and Serene
Your Six-Year-Old: Loving and Defiant
Your Seven-Year-Old: Life in a Minor Key
Your Eight Year Old: Lively and Outgoing
Your Nine Year Old: Thoughtful and Mysterious

It would be great to read reviews of current books that provide similar information and more current research in how children develop, think and learn.

That being said - I was inspired by an event that was held this year in Seattle, Seeds of Compassion, that reminded me how important one to one connections are and that what children experience and learn at home and in school might be different than what we hope to share with them.

Enjoy!

Pam W
SE of Seattle

Early Childhood Education and the NAEYC
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Pamela,

I have all the Gesell books you mentioned, and find them SO enlightening and interesting. They get into such funny details, but so true.. for example, in the 6 year old book, how my 5 1/2 year old (actually, she'd want me to say 5 3/4) has started just randomly falling off chairs! Apparently this is a normal developmental thing. When I read it, it seemed so weird, when I saw it start happening, it cracked me up!

Amazingly, they do still seem to be the most recommended information of this sort, but they are a little dated. I love all the pictures on the first edition ones of the kids in the corduroy jumpers! I have a huge bookcase of parenting books though and other info on developmental stages, so I'll be on the lookout for less dated items.

I'll have to look up that seeds of compassion conferece...it sounds interesting. And yes, my daughter definitely came home from kindergarten this past year with much input that I could have done without, but with all the respect in the world for homeschooling (I strongly considered it, in fact), also much wonderful that I couldn't have given her on my own. There's some nice books on that sort of topic like "Playground Politics" by Greenspan and "Hold onto Your Kids" by Neufeld.

Nicki

Hi Nikki

I look forward to reading your articles, and yes, you're right - Early childhood is an almost limitless range of potential topics to write on.

Hi Nikki, I know of a wonderful book for frustrated parents who have tried many forms of discipline or reward ideas but nothing seems to work long term. It is called: From Combat Zone to Love at Home: The Happy Face Token System, by Debbie Preece. Debbie has raised her children with this system and wrote a book outlining the program she developed over 25 years ago. She has a great web site to show in good detail what the program is. She has effectively made an "app" for the token economy idea and explores how this program is related to the Garden of Eden.

Hi Nikki,

I have dropped by on occasion. I will look forward to you being in this forum as well because I keep parents involved in early part of childhood for daughters as well. Congrats! Have fun!

like your post.

Happy Leap Day!

Hi Nikki. Congratulations on your new site.

Hi Nikki. We have a one year old so I'll be looking out for some interesting articles from you