As though being a new parent is not challenging enough, we make life so much harder than it needs to be by entertaining odd beliefs and logical fallacies. When you find yourself competing with your partner, know you’ve got some debunking to do . Also check out the School of Ultimate Living Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/schoolofultimateliving/ …
This video was made on request: how do you handle your child’s tantrum in public spaces?
When I was young, one of the most dreadful experiences I had was being shouted and yelled at. My father could get really upset, scream, yell and pull the most frightening faces that I would sometimes pee my pants. I absolutely disliked any form of shouting, even a raised voice or loud sounds would send …
Arguing in front of the Kids – should we do it, not do it? Or is it not so much about whether we do it but HOW we do it?
One of the nice things about community living – which, yes I know, I have mentioned many times before – is having different people around, with different expressions and ideas. Here Cesar is playing with a frozen hand, which Kim came up with after they played with a kitchen glove filled with water (don’t worry …
This is from a while ago but I forgot to post it. Our own little boat experience on our little dam! Cesar loved it. I also got a chance to peddle (read = I went in the boat thinking Gian is going to stay with me but then gets out and pushes boat out into …
When it comes down to learning and education, there are a lot of different views on what is appropriate and what is not. Children are being taught too many things too early, Children need more play and unstructured time. Children need to be taught earlier, they need more structure. As a reaction to our overzealous …
When I was pregnant, I was very worried about what was ahead of me. About how I was going to be responsible for this child, how I would influence him. Little did I know, that I wasn’t so much influencing and changing him, as he was changing and influencing me for the most part. This …
In my previous blogs I walked through how my general experience of finding out that I was pregnant and how it was negatively tinted, because of how I had associated memories from my past where pregnancy has been in a negative context. Once I realised that pregnancy isn’t ‘bad’, ‘wrong’ or ‘negative’ through understanding where …
![Cesar gave Syntia his train tracks about a year ago, and before they were hers, she would play with them together with Cesar. She's had a ton of time to learn the different pieces, how to put them together and build a track, but for some reason, she DID NOT want to build a track by herself and most of all preferred to just watch as someone else built the track for her.
Lj and I knew she was perfectly capable of building a track for herself and we tried to support her to start small and show herself that she can do it. Or that we'd be here if she gets stuck, but she can at least try on her own. Any such attempts, however, were met with an absolute and firm refusal. So, we did it with her, or for her.
We started wondering, is this little girl really just taking advantage of us at this point? Are we entertaining this too much? Should we push harder? We knew she could do it, she knew she could do it, but for some reason she just didn't want to do it, at least, not yet.
And then one day, out of the blue, she takes out her blocks and starts building a track... by herself. Lj quietly waived me over, pointing at her, then signing 'shhht', lol - didn't want to disturb the moment. The track you see in the pic is the first one she built by herself. It wasn't a "beginner's" track like a simple circle or a straight line, it was a more intricate design laid out exactly and precisely how she wanted it to be, including all the elements she wanted to have as a part of it. Kabam, out of the blue.
There are other things where Syntia 'took her sweet time', like learning how to walk and potty training, where it was clear at some point that she was able to do it, but for some reason, pulled back or didn't want to do it all by herself just yet. It's so easy as parents to freak out over that, to think that children should develop skills in a particular way, like 'starting small' or doing something by yourself as soon as you're able to. But not all kids are the same in this. [Continued in comments..]](https://scontent-dfw5-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/135216034_868657797266702_107582540258970761_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=c4dd86&_nc_ohc=Z1V8WJUUqosAX-4LmjA&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=00_AfCJjAXVxtNiIi6gvUUl0MZd6cdkXtaHW6r2JeZgYPVE-A&oe=64DB2E92)
