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In my #GentleDiscipline book I talk about the problem of a #naturedeficit and how spending less time in nature is negatively affecting our children, both physically (their eyesight is getting worse as a result) and emotionally (more difficult behaviour). Children today are far more likely to be able to identify corporate logos, than they are tree and wildflower species. Nature words are disappearing from their vocabulary at an alarming rate as they spend far much more time indoors, in play centres and in front of screens. Simply, our kids need to get outside more - and so do we. Especially if we want to protect what little nature is left on our planet. We need to raise kids who treasure it! . Forests played a huge role in my own upbringing, one of my favourite possessions was my tree spotting book - I can still name almost every species of tree, just by looking at its leaves, or bark. If I didn’t write books, my dream job is to work as a gardener. Forests make me feel calm and revitalise me more than any other landscape (and I spent the first five years of my life growing up on the coast). They have played a large role in my kids’ lives too - we make full use of our @nationaltrust passes and are lucky to live close to a beautiful large ancient, protected forest and we’ve been on many @forestholidays as a family. We were lucky that their school run weekly forest school sessions too (though the need for forest school makes me feel sad). . Children today need to climb more trees, have more conker fights, play with sycamore aeroplanes, make fairy tea parties with acorn cups, gather more blackberries and eat them straight from the bush, make more daisy chains and leaf prints, dissect owl pellets, play in mud, collect forest treasures and breathe more fresh air. This little book has lots of great ideas if spending time in forests isn’t second nature to you - or your kids. . . . #foresttherapy #forestschool #naturekids #wildkids #naturematters #wildings #wildthings #hugatree #gentleparenting #naturalparentingSo much truth in this. It doesn’t matter what brand of clothes your kids are wearing, when they slept through the night, when they potty trained, when they start reading, how many words they know, what you do today and how many tantrums they have. What matters is that they are loved and accepted for who they are.....and that means starting with accepting yourself and all that you offer to them. Forget the superficial stuff and focus on the love 💕💕 . . . #gentleparenting #gentlediscipline #gentlesleep #positiveparenting #attachmentparenting #naturalparenting #bedsharing #cosleeping #unconditionalparenting #mindfulparenting #mindfulmotherhood #toddlercalm #babycalm #sarahockwellsmith #parentingtipsI came across a tweet by @neildegrassetyson this week, saying “Scientists are simply adults who retained and nurtured their native curiosity from childhood” and it reminded me of this picture of my daughter when she was a toddler. She had found a bottle of sun cream (a baby one, so that thick, sticky greasy white stuff) and tipped the whole lot out over herself and my rug. . My first instinct was to yell, angry that she’d wasted a whole bottle of expensive cream and ruined my rug too. Then I paused, she hadn’t been deliberately naughty. She was experimenting, being naturally curious about the properties of the cream and how she could manipulate it. She was actually being pretty darn clever. There was no malice or manipulation behind her actions, just curiosity. Now, 9 years on, she’s a fantastic scientist and still as curious as ever. . I could have shouted and chastised her on this day, but instead I decided to see the good in what she’d done. I snapped the picture for posterity, held my tongue while I spent *hours* cleaning her, her dress and the rug and learned that I needed to be cleverer about where I kept the sun cream in future 😉 . . . #gentlediscipline #gentleparenting #positiveparenting #positivediscipline #attachmentparenting #naturalparenting #mindfulparenting #mindfulmothering #toddlercalm #sarahockwellsmithWishing you all the strength you need to get through this week 😘 . . . #monslay #mondaymotivation #gentleparenting #attachmentparenting #positiveparenting #mindfulparenting #mindfulmotherhood #mindfulmothering #parentinginspirationTop Posts & Pages
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Tag Archives: gentle parenting
The Three Biggest Mistakes Parents Make When Disciplining Children
It doesn’t matter if you’re an authoritarian parent, hot on punishment and reward, or a gentle parent, focused on connection and empathy. Your kid is going to misbehave. Because that’s what they do….. Continue reading
How to Praise Your Children in a Gentle and Effective Way
Praise is a controversial topic in Gentle Parenting circles. Many mistakenly think that gentle parents never praise their children and eschew any attempt to show children that we are proud of them. In fact, this is simply not true. Praise can and does form a role in Gentle Parenting, however it looks different to the praise that most people know and use.
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Gentle Parenting – You Mean ‘Hippy, Pushover Parenting’? Busting Ten Gentle Parenting Myths.
…if people ask me to explain gentle parenting in a nutshell I always say the same “treating children how we would like to be treated ourselves”. To this day I don’t understand why it is so controversial, except perhaps that we don’t treat ourselves very well? Continue reading
Posted in Babies, Mothering, Preschoolers, Teens, Toddlers, Tweens
Tagged childcare expert, discipline techqniques, gentle discipline, gentle discipline book, gentle parenting, gentle parenting book, gentle parenting expert, how to discipline, natural consequences, parenting expert, positive discipline, positive parenting, problem with naughty step, problem with time out
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Gentle Parenting: the Myths, the Misquotes and the Mis-reporting.
Yesterday I was contacted by a journalist who was writing an article for The Sun newspaper (a large UK newspaper) asking me about gentle parenting for an article. This would have been a good opportunity to present a factual, evidence based article, instead she … Continue reading
Gentle Parenting and Me – By Sarah Storey
Welcome to the first of my special guest interviews on why gentle parenting matters to parents around the world. For this special first interview I chat with multi gold winning Paralympian Dame Sarah Storey about breastfeeding, bedsharing, tackling tantrums and postnatal bodies. Continue reading
Aiming for 70/30: When ‘Good Enough Parenting’ is Enough
All parents make mistakes, all parents have days that they are not proud of. All parents make sacrifices and compromises. No parent is perfect. It is these mistakes that are the most important in terms of our growth as parents. Each time we don’t quite do our best we can learn and we can teach our children how to handle disappointm Continue reading
Posted in Babies, Mothering, Preschoolers, Teens, Toddlers, Tweens
Tagged gentle parenting, gentle parenting book, gentle parenting doesn't work, gentle parenting expert, gentle parenting rules, issue with gentle parenting, parenting martyr, problems with gentle parenting, self care, what is gentle parenting, what's wrong with gentle parenting
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Why we Need to be More Tolerant of Toddler Tantrums
All toddlers tantrum. Granted some more so than others, however tantrums and toddlers go hand in hand, you don’t get one without the other. The thing is, they’re not being naughty, manipulative, bad or disruptive (purposefully anyway), they’re just being toddlers. Actually they would probably rather they didn’t tantrum so much too. Continue reading
Posted in Toddlers, Uncategorized
Tagged gentle parenting, how to manage toddler tantrums, how to stop toddler tantrum, how to stop toddler tantruming, how to stop toddler tantrums, mother asked to leave john lewis, Sarah Ockwell-Smith, the gentle parenting book, toddler calm, toddler expert, toddler taming, toddler tantrum, toddler tantrum john lewis, toddler tantrums, ToddlerCalm
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Can Gentle Parenting and Mainstream Schooling Ever Mix?
Is it possible to parent gently and send your child to mainstream school? A question I’m often asked by parents. What should parents look for when choosing a school? How should they handle homework and behaviour policies that go against their … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Preschoolers, Tweens
Tagged Alfie Kohn, benefits of homework, democratic schooling, downsides of homework, Forest School, gentle parenting, golden time, home education, how to choose a school, john holt, michael gove, montessori school, nicky morgan, OFSTED, questions to ask a school, sats, school behaviour management, school cloud system, steiner school, taking holiday in term time, traffic light system, unschooling
7 Comments
