Lumina International School

📚 Book Reco June (for parents)

What if the way we speak could change the way our children respond? ✨

This month, Maria recommends How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish, a parenting classic that has helped millions of families build stronger, more respectful relationships with their children.

Rather than relying on rewards, punishments, or repeated reminders, the book offers practical communication tools that help children feel heard, understood, and more willing to cooperate.

Through simple everyday situations, parents discover how to:
• acknowledge emotions without judgment
• reduce power struggles
• encourage problem-solving and autonomy
• set limits with empathy
• strengthen connection and mutual respect

A thoughtful and practical read for any parent looking to nurture cooperation, confidence, and emotional intelligence at home.

💚 A timeless resource for replacing conflict with connection.

Iron is one of the most important — and most overlooked — nutrients for toddlers and preschoolers. Here's what you need to know 👇

Why iron matters: Iron supports your child's brain development, energy, immune system, and growth. And children under 5 are particularly at risk of not getting enough.

TOP TIPS TO BOOST IRON
✅ Include an iron-rich food at every meal — breakfast, lunch, and dinner
✅ Mix it up — offer both animal sources (beef, lamb, chicken, tuna) and plant sources (lentils, tofu, edamame, oats, white beans, iron-fortified cereals)
✅ Pair with vitamin C — it can increase iron absorption by up to 6x. Think mango, strawberries, capsicum, tomato
✅ Watch the milk — limit cow's milk to 500ml per day for toddlers and preschoolers, and don't serve dairy at every meal

BEST IRON-RICH FOODS
Beef • Lamb • Chicken • Tuna • Lentils • Tofu • Edamame • White beans • Oats • Iron-fortified oat cereal • Spinach • Tempeh • Chia seeds • Peanut butter

👉 Want to know more? I've written a full blog post for Lumina School:
https://www.luminasg.com/blog/is-your-toddler-or-preschooler-getting-enough-iron

Written by Karlien Duvenage - Registered Dietitian | kdietitian.com

We often respond to what we see.

The shouting.
The hitting.
The refusal.

But in early childhood, behaviour is rarely the real message.
It is communication - unfiltered, unfinished, still learning its language.

At Lumina, we believe limits are essential.
They keep children safe. They create clarity. They build trust.

But limits alone are not enough.

Because stopping a behaviour is not the same as shaping understanding.

A child who hits is not “being difficult.”
They are showing us something they don’t yet know how to express differently.

So we stop the action.
And then we stay for the learning.

“I won’t let you hit because I can see you’re upset. Let me help you.”

This is where guidance begins -
not in control, but in connection.

This is what shaping young minds truly looks like.

> Discover how we approach emotional growth at Lumina.

When we ask what kind of school the future needs, we often assume the answer lies in innovation, new systems, or evolving expectations.

But the real shift may be simpler - and deeper.

What we need is many schools that understand how children learn and what they need, not just what they should learn.

Because education is not only about delivering content. It is about understanding development.

How attention forms.
How emotions influence learning.
How curiosity drives engagement.
How safety and relationships shape every ability that follows.

When we reduce education to outcomes alone, we miss the process that makes those outcomes possible in the first place.

Children do not learn in isolation from how they feel, connect, and experience the world around them. They learn through it.

So the question is not only what we teach.

It is whether we are paying attention to how children are actually learning in front of us.

The future of education may not depend on creating entirely new models.

It depends on how deeply we are willing to understand the child in front of us today.

At Lumina, this understanding is where everything begins.

A child’s tears after hearing “no” are not a sign that something has gone wrong.

Disappointment, frustration, and anger are part of growing up. Our role is not to remove these emotions, but to help children move through them with support, empathy, and clear boundaries.

A new Lumina Lens by Maria Lamrani Alaoui ✨

If this resonates with the kind of learning environment you want for your child, we would love to connect.

What makes a preschool truly different?
It is not only about what children are learning.

It is *how* they are allowed to learn.

Research in early childhood shows us something important:
Young children learn best when they can experience, explore, test ideas, make mistakes, and try again.

Because the brain does not learn deeply through pressure.

It learns through connection, curiosity, repetition, and meaningful experiences.

So when a child is building, experimenting, questioning, or figuring something out in their own way, learning is already happening.

And when children feel safe to explore, confidence grows alongside knowledge.

Because meaningful learning is not rushed.
It is experienced.