Many countries including Canada and the US put an overly  high priority on teaching kids to read by age 6 or even earlier.   However, in many European countries including Scandanavia, kids are not rushed into ready until 8 or even 9 years old.  US programs such as “No Child Left Behind” force-feeds young children books and then tests them on their abilities, both of which can have very negative affects.  Children who are told to read more books, and recall them in detail are less likely to develop a passion for reading, and enjoy reading as an activity later in life.  Some young readers will even quickly see themselves as bad at reading when they fail to measure up during testing.  Brain research clearly …

I was very lucky to attend a local event where we had Kim John Payne (see http://www.simplicityparenting.com) come to give a talk on child discipline. Kim has a Masters degree in education and has been a school counselor, adult educator, consultant, researcher, educator and a private family counselor for twenty seven years. He regularly gives key note addresses at international conferences for educators, parents, and therapists and runs workshops and training’s around the world. Our event was sponsored by our local Waldorf School here in Nelson, B.C..
Kim started off with a clarification on the word “discipline”.  It really comes from the word “disciple” which means “to be followed”.  

Homeschooling (also called “home education” in the UK or “home learning” elsewhere) is exploding in popularity in North America.  Some factors include more “stay at home” families who work remotely, and have more flexibility with travelling while checking in via Internet.  Others say this is a reaction to help children avoid the peer pressures of sex, drugs and alcohol which is more pervasive at a younger age in the public system.  Whatever it is, academically and socially, it’s benefitting children who school at home.
Internationally, 9 to 10 years of compulsory education is required in most countries, starting from age 5 or 6.  One notable exception is Germany, however, where homeschooling is illegal (and has been since 1930).  This is somewhat ironic, since Germany is the …

Many parents I know too quickly dismiss Waldorf education for their children before investing any significant amount of time to understand it. The debate between public and private systems is a highly divisive issue.  Often the decision is an economic one, but I’ve found that like anything in life, if you are willing to spend a little time learning the ideology behind a new concept or idea, you will be rewarded. We’ve found this with Waldorf.  First however, parents have to put their own ingrained and traditional biases and sometimes even egos aside, and think of what is best for our children’s needs and development, not our own.  Things that we enjoyed as a child such as television, electronics and branded plastic toys …

Childhood development experts used to believe that if we taught our kids to have good self-esteem, they would grow up to be more self-confident and resilient.  The problem with that is that boosting self esteem means that you are actually teaching them to compare themself to others, often in a competitive way.  Competition in children is widely discouraged in many leading alternative school systems such as Waldorf and Montessori.  Competitive behaviour and even competitive sports among young children actually can harm self-esteem and makes having compassion or empathy for others more difficult.  When a child tries to be a “winner”, there are also “losers”, and having a child feel that they have “lost” is extremely damaging. Where self-compassion is a way of relating to your self …