I wish I had the knowledge and experience of raising a young boy and girl when I was younger myself.  I think it would have helped me better understand gender differences experienced later on in adult life. The natural differences in boys and girls are astounding and very distinct, especially at a young age.  We all know the stereotypes as adults: women are more emotional, better communicators and team players.  Men are more about action than words, and doing it themselves etc..  Toddlers playing with big trucks, smashing toys and wrestling with each other often contrast with girls playing with dolls, putting on pretend shows and playing tea party.  But are we teaching them to reflect our own gender preferences, or is there a natural …

Crying is communicating, and babies start to communicate straight from birth.  Language (especially English) is a very difficult concept to learn for developing children. That said, they have an immediate desire to connect both physically with their parents, but also socially using whatever form of communication they can. Babies are able to move their hands and limbs far before they are able to manage sounds required for speech. Introducing sign language to your  hearing baby is an excellent way to advance their spoken skills, and reduce their frustration and crying.
Teaching your baby sign language takes time, but it is worth it, and has been show to actually acelerate spoken language skills rather than delay them.  Babies first need to develop sufficient motor skills in order …

Young children under the age of 3 to 4 years old live in the present.  Although they are often brought together in playgroups, they simply are not capable of more advanced adult-like interactions like “socializing” or playing together (they actually “parallel” play). Their left brain (rational/analytical/language skills) and right brain (creative/emotional) are not yet fully talking to each other (via the corpus callosum), and their behaviour is in fact governed mostly from their right brain hemisphere. Kids are emotional creatures, and many parents try to be rational with them using adult concepts to drive their behaviour.
One parenting technique is the use of consequences for managing behaviour. “If you hit your brother again, then you won’t get a popsicle”. The reality is that a …