1. Interaction: Consistent, long-term attention from caring adults actually increases your child's capacity to learn.
2. Touch: Holding and cuddling do more than just comfort your baby - they help his/her brain grow.
3. Stable Relationship: Relationship with parents and other care givers buffer stress that can harm your child.
4. Safe, Healthy Environments: Environments should be free of lead, loud noises, sharp objects, and other hazards.
5. Self-Esteem: Self-Esteem grows with respect, encouragement and positive role models from the beginning.
6. Quality Care: Quality Care from trained professionals can make the difference when you can't be with your child.
7. Play: Play helps your child explore his/her senses and discover how the world works.
8. Communication: Talking with your baby builds verbal skills.
9. Music: Music expands your child's world, teaches new skills, and offers a fun way to interact with your child.
10. Reading: Reading to your child from the earliest days of life shows its importance and creates a lifelong love of books and helps grow a healthy brain.
Source: The McCormick Tribune Foundation
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
What is Nurturing Parenting?
According to the Nurturing Parenting Program for Parents and Their infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers, Nurturing Parenting is first and foremost a philsophy that emphasizes the importance of raising children in a warm, trusting and empathic household.
The philosophy of Nurturing Parenting is founded on seven principles:
1. Feelings of Attachment: Attachment mean a bond a between parents and their children. Attached parents convey a deep love to their children that is unconditional. When children feel loved unconditionally, communication, trust, and respect follow.
In the Nurturing Program parents learn:
The importance of establishing nurturing parents routines for daily times parents and children spend together. These important events are diapering and dressing times, feeding times, bath times, play times and sleep times.
Parents also learn the importance of building a warm, cozy, safe home that promotes feelings of closeness.
2. Empathy: Empathy is the ability of parents to put themselves in the place of their children in attempt not only to recognize their emotions, but also their motives.
In the Nurturing Program parents learn:
Parents and children build their empathic abilities to care for themselves and others.
Families focus on establishing structure and discipline and practicing healthy communication patterns.
3. Nurturing Oneself: Taking time in getting one's own needs met forms the foundation of understanding and helping children get their needs met.
In the Nurturing Program parents learn:
To use their personal power to get their needs met.
To make good choices to enhance their self-worth.
4. Gentle Touch: Early and continual parent-child touch has been studied generations. Children who experience warm and gentle touch develop and maintain healthy relationships throughout their life through a strong and healthy sense of self.
In the Nurturing Program parents learn:
The benefits of massage, while both parents and children learn to use gentle touch in communicating their pleasure and love with each other.
5. Discipline: Setting limits through family rules, teaching right from wrong through family morals, and teaching respect and worth through family values are all part of a nurturing family.
In the Nurturing Program parents learn:
Proven alternatives to hitting, spanking, and yelling as forms of communication and discipline.
6. Expressing Feelings: Helping children learn appropriate ways to express their feelings is an important aspect of nurturing parenting. Anger, sadness, and frustration are just as important to express as happiness, love and contentment. Emotional competence helps children and parents stay in control, demonstrate respect, and foster an atmosphere of communication.
In the Nurturing Program parents learn:
Healthy ways to express feelings.
Appropriate ways to show respect for self, others and their environment.
7. Expecting and Self-Worth:
Knowing what to expect of children as they reach physical, emotional, and intellectual milestones is important in the development of children's positive self-worth.
In the Nurturing Program parents learn:
Stages of development and ways to build children's overall self-worth.
The importance of close and stimulating interactions that foster positive brain development.
The philosophy of Nurturing Parenting is founded on seven principles:
1. Feelings of Attachment: Attachment mean a bond a between parents and their children. Attached parents convey a deep love to their children that is unconditional. When children feel loved unconditionally, communication, trust, and respect follow.
In the Nurturing Program parents learn:
The importance of establishing nurturing parents routines for daily times parents and children spend together. These important events are diapering and dressing times, feeding times, bath times, play times and sleep times.
Parents also learn the importance of building a warm, cozy, safe home that promotes feelings of closeness.
2. Empathy: Empathy is the ability of parents to put themselves in the place of their children in attempt not only to recognize their emotions, but also their motives.
In the Nurturing Program parents learn:
Parents and children build their empathic abilities to care for themselves and others.
Families focus on establishing structure and discipline and practicing healthy communication patterns.
3. Nurturing Oneself: Taking time in getting one's own needs met forms the foundation of understanding and helping children get their needs met.
In the Nurturing Program parents learn:
To use their personal power to get their needs met.
To make good choices to enhance their self-worth.
4. Gentle Touch: Early and continual parent-child touch has been studied generations. Children who experience warm and gentle touch develop and maintain healthy relationships throughout their life through a strong and healthy sense of self.
In the Nurturing Program parents learn:
The benefits of massage, while both parents and children learn to use gentle touch in communicating their pleasure and love with each other.
5. Discipline: Setting limits through family rules, teaching right from wrong through family morals, and teaching respect and worth through family values are all part of a nurturing family.
In the Nurturing Program parents learn:
Proven alternatives to hitting, spanking, and yelling as forms of communication and discipline.
6. Expressing Feelings: Helping children learn appropriate ways to express their feelings is an important aspect of nurturing parenting. Anger, sadness, and frustration are just as important to express as happiness, love and contentment. Emotional competence helps children and parents stay in control, demonstrate respect, and foster an atmosphere of communication.
In the Nurturing Program parents learn:
Healthy ways to express feelings.
Appropriate ways to show respect for self, others and their environment.
7. Expecting and Self-Worth:
Knowing what to expect of children as they reach physical, emotional, and intellectual milestones is important in the development of children's positive self-worth.
In the Nurturing Program parents learn:
Stages of development and ways to build children's overall self-worth.
The importance of close and stimulating interactions that foster positive brain development.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
The Period of Purple Crying
The Period of PURPLE Crying begins at about 2 weeks of age and continues until about 3-4 months. There are other common characteristics of this phases, or period, which are better described by the acronym PURPLE. All babies go through this Period it is just that during this time some can cry a lot, some far less, but they all do go through it.
Parents try many ways to keep the baby from crying, or stop the crying, and some of them work, well, they seem to work for awhile. “I take my baby in the car and drive around the block in my PJ’s,” said one mom. “That worked for three nights but on the fourth, he would not stop crying. I tried several others things like warm baths, singing and swaying and nothing worked. Then all of a sudden he would just stop, for no apparent reason. His crying is so unpredictable”, she said.
During this phase of a baby’s life they can cry for hours and still be healthy. The acronym PURPLE is used to describe specific characteristics of an infant’s crying during this phase and let parents and caregivers know that what they are experiencing is indeed normal and, although frustrating, is simply a phase in their child’s development that will pass.
It is important to learn to deal with the frustration over not being able to comfort your baby. Parents need to know it is ok to feel frustrated, as long as they are dealing with the frustration in appropriate ways. We recommend the following coping techniques:
· Use techniques to try and stay calm while calming the baby.
· Take a break and hand the baby over to your spouse.
· If your spouse or no one else is available, place the baby in a safe place, take a 5-10 minute break. (It is ok to leave your baby for a few minutes- it is better than carrying the baby around while frustrated.)Try and do something relaxing and then go back to your baby.
· Make sure anyone who is looking after your baby knows and understands the Periods of Purple Crying and how to deal with it. The last thing you want is for a caregiver to shake the baby out of frustration.
For more information: visit http://www.purplecrying.info/
Monday, January 9, 2012
President Obama Proclaims January as National Mentoring Month
January 3, 2012: President Barack Obama has issued a proclamation designating January as National Mentoring Month, saying, “Every day, mentors help young Americans face the challenges of growing into adulthood. By setting a positive example and sharing their time, knowledge and experience, mentors play an essential role in preparing our Nation's youth for a bright future. During National Mentoring Month, we celebrate the contributions of all those who cultivate a supportive environment for the next generation, and we recommit to expanding mentorship opportunities across our country.”
January 2012 marks the 11th anniversary of National Mentoring Month, an annual media campaign to recruit volunteer mentors for young people. Spearheaded by the Harvard Mentoring Project of the Harvard School of Public Health, MENTOR and the Corporation for National and Community Service, this year’s campaign tagline is Invest in the Future. Mentor a Child.
Mentors, backed by quality mentoring programs, play a powerful role in preventing substance abuse and youth violence, as well as boosting academic achievement and workforce readiness. Studies have shown a more than 250 percent return on a $1 investment in mentoring and a myriad of quality of life benefits to the mentor, too. Mentors help build young people’s character and confidence, expand their universe and help them navigate pathways to successful adulthood. Despite this proven impact, the gap between the number of mentors and the number of young people who need a mentor is still too large. While three million young people have a mentor, 15 million need a caring adult mentor in their lives.
“National Mentoring Month gives the mentoring field an opportunity to collectively celebrate the proven impact of quality programs and the impactful service of mentors nationwide while also sounding the call to grow the movement through increased volunteerism and financial investment ,” said MENTOR’s President and CEO David Shapiro. “We thank our national partners across sectors, including the media and funders who make it possible to sound that call, and we thank the Mentoring Partnerships and programs that creatively implement and expand the campaign every year and work to close the mentoring gap everyday.”
“We feel fortunate that President Obama shined the spotlight on National Mentoring Month in this proclamation, and we applaud his and First Lady Michelle Obama’s personal commitment and example through their mentoring programs in the White House,” Shapiro added.
In his proclamation, Obama noted, “Last January, we partnered with businesses across America to launch the Corporate Mentoring Challenge, which calls on corporations to begin or expand mentoring programs that pair children with positive role models, foster leadership skills and put them on the path to success in school and beyond. As part of our steadfast commitment to support our service members and their loved ones, we are funding new mentorship opportunities for children from military families. And we are continuing to engage faith and community groups to help recruit mentors who can guide our youth in education, employment and engaged citizenship.”
Michelle Obama announced the Corporate Mentoring Challenge at the first National Mentoring Summit last January. MENTOR will again host the Summit, along with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Harvard School of Public Health, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and United Way Worldwide, January 24 and 25 in Washington, D.C. The Summit gives the field and cross-sector partners an opportunity to learn and grow together to better meet the mentoring needs of the nation’s young people.
For additional information about National Mentoring Month, visit SERVE.gov/MENTOR.For more information and resources on quality youth mentoring and MENTOR’s network of Mentoring Partnerships and programs, visit www.mentoring.org.
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