Tender Touch Daycare

The letter D:)

We found a Fall treasure on our walk:)

Anyone have a fire?
I have the cutest fire fighters;)

Haha

Pay close attention to the quiet ones. What looks like a perpetually calm child may actually be a child trapped in fear, panic, anxiety, confusion, anger, sadness, frustration, loneliness, or even despair. The ‘fight, flight, or freeze’ response can be an internalized reaction to a threat. And a threat is anything the heart, mind, or body perceives as dangerous. So check in with the quiet ones. Remember, still waters run deep.💞 -L.R.Knost

I love this explanation from @karenyoung_heysigmund :

“Once the brain registers threat the body will respond. This can drive all sorts of behaviour. Some will be obvious and some won’t be. The responses can be ones that make them bigger (aggression, tantrums) or ones that make them smaller (going quiet or still, shrinking, withdrawing). All are attempts to get the body to safety. None are about misbehaviour, misintent, or disrespect.

One of the ways bodies stay safe is by hiding, or by getting small. When children are in distress, they might look calm, but unless there is a felt sense of safety, the body will be surging with neurochemicals that make it impossible for that young brain to learn or connect.

We all have our things that can send us there. These things are different for all of us & often below our awareness. The responses to these ‘things’ are automatic & instinctive, and we won’t always know what has sent us there.

We just need to be mindful that sometimes it’s when children seem like no trouble at all that they need our help the most. The signs can include a wilted body, sad or distant eyes, making the body smaller, wriggly bodies, a heavy head.

It can also look as though they are ignoring you or being quietly defiant. They aren’t - their bodies are trying to keep them safe. A body in flight or flight can’t hear words as well as it can when it’s calm.

What they need (what all kids need) are big signs of safety from the adult in the room - loving, warm, voices and faces that are communicating clear intent: ‘I’m here, I see you & I’ve got you. You are safe & you can do this. I’m with you.’”

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🌻Peaceful parenting resources: http://t.co/T8goym3P6Z 🌻
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Please respect the work of authors, photographers, and artists. You are welcome to share provided you include appropriate credit and do not crop out author’s names from quote memes. Thank you. 🙂

www.LRKnost.com

Fighting a rare, incurable cancer, but I'm still here!💞 L.R.

Our words matter when talking to kids. 🧡
📷 Unknown

Artists in the house:)

Daycare yummy lunch;)
Shhh you never saw the cheetos:)

Timeline photos

Kids who are described as "hard to handle" may actually be resisting the tendency of adults to treat them as things to be handled.
—Alfie Kohn

✨ If you would like to be kept in the loop on everything Neurochild please submit your details here http://bit.ly/neurochild-connect

Timeline photos

Forget dancing like no one is watching. Dance like a toddler.
They don't even care if there's music.

✨ If you would like to be kept in the loop on everything Neurochild please submit your details here http://bit.ly/neurochild-connect

We can win
If we try :)

This is so important to keep in mind! 🙌
📷 Pathway 2 Success

Things Children Need...

Timeline photos

Timeline photos

Toddler Talk... Toddler 1: You look a little frazzled, Dude. Hard day?

Toddler 2: Hard doesn’t even begin to describe my day! I love my mommy to pieces, but seriously, she does NOT know how to share. I took one little thing out of her purse, and she freaked! Snatching and saying, “Mine!” and everything. And right in the middle of the store, too! So embarrassing. Everybody was looking at me, rolling their eyes. I felt like a total failure.

Toddler 1: I hear you! I have the same problem. And mine has been getting into EVERYTHING, too! Like, I stashed my cracker under the couch so I could have a little snack later, and she totally threw it in the trash! Who does that?

Toddler 2: You think that’s bad? Check this. I’m minding my own business, just chillin’ with my toys, and she just snatches me up and carts me off and straps me in the highchair, no warning at all. And I’m not even hungry! Then she gets all upset when I do a little physics with my food. Btw, so cool how sometimes it falls straight down and sometimes it splats against the wall. I think it has something to do with the consistency of the food and the angle of my trajectory. Just a working theory atm, though.

Toddler 1: Cool! Let me know what you figure out. How about this. I can’t get anything done! No joke! I spent all morning building this stellar block tower. Dude, you should have seen this thing. It was epic! So, I walk away for like one second, and she dumps the whole thing in the toy box! An entire morning’s work, gone. I don’t know why I bother sometimes.

Toddler 2: Same! And what’s with this new ‘time-out’ thing mine’s into all of a sudden? I get the slightest bit upset about something and, just when I need a cuddle, she sticks me in this chair and won’t let me get up! Like a chair is a good hugger? Really?

Toddler 1: That’s just wrong. Hey, how about this potty training dealio? She wants me to do my business in a little plastic bowl. We eat out of those things! Seriously, you gotta wonder what goes on in their brains sometimes...

Read more: http://www.littleheartsbooks.com/2014/08/16/sandbox-soapbox-toddler-insights-2/

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🌻Peaceful parenting resources: http://t.co/T8goym3P6Z 🌻
_____________________________
Please respect the work of authors, photographers, and artists. You are welcome to share provided you include appropriate credit and do not crop out authors' names from quote memes. Thank you. :)

www.LRKnost.com

Fighting a rare, incurable cancer, but I'm still here!💞 L.R.

Timeline photos

"Too often we forget that discipline really means to teach, not to punish. A disciple is a student, not a recipient of behavioral consequences."
—Dr. Dan Siegel

✨ If you would like to be kept in the loop on everything Neurochild please submit your details here http://bit.ly/neurochild-connect

Timeline photos

Tantrums are a sign that a child's body has shifted into the "fight or flight" pathway of the nervous system. The fight or flight pathway launches behaviors that are involuntary, instinctual survival based, ie; not “on purpose."
— Dr. Mona Delahooke

✨ If you would like to be kept in the loop on everything Neurochild please submit your details here http://bit.ly/neurochild-connect

Ice cream anyone? :)

We built a pattern tower~~
Learning is fun:0

Perhaps if angry little girls were heard
instead of silenced,
there wouldn’t be so many hurting women
struggling to understand and love themselves.

Perhaps if tearful little boys were comforted
instead of shamed,
there wouldn’t be so many angry men
struggling to express and empathize with emotion.

And vice versa.

Perhaps if children's emotions were understood
instead of punished, there wouldn’t be
so many armored people
struggling to be connected and authentic.

Children need to feel all their emotions,
without fear of rejection
to mature into their healthiest true selves.

Being hard on children
does not make them stronger.
People are strengthened through
compassion and understanding,
regardless of gender or age.
@lelia.schott
@synergy.parenting

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🦋Peaceful Parenting Resources: https://t.co/T8goym3P6Z 🦋
__________________________________
Please respect the work of authors, photographers, and artists. You are welcome to share provided you include appropriate credit and do not crop out author’s names from quote memes. Thank you. 🙂
www.LRKnost.com

Fighting a rare, incurable cancer, but I'm still here!💞 L.R.

Timeline photos

A childcare provider's prayer poster is now available!
You can find it here https://www.daycareprovidersunlimited.com/product/poster-a-childcare-provider-prayer/154?cs=true

I've got the songs. Let's turn up the volume together!

www.nancykopman.com

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