child development | PulseonParenting

Why We Need to Read

Jun 16 2015

It’s summer. The local library has reading programs for toddlers, high schoolers and everyone in between. We parents know our kids should practice their reading skills for cognitive development, vocabulary expansion, and fluency . But the people who, believe it or not, study, the benefits of reading have much more to say about why not just our kids, but also adults, should indulge in a good read. Real Simple published an article in 2014 about this very topic, just in time for those summer reading programs. Some of the details may surprise you: 1) Ahhh, Oohhmm. Reading for just six minutes a day…

Your Child Needs the HPV Vaccine

May 20 2015

A few years back I sat in a church basement with my parenting group and listened to a male OB-GYN describe how he discussed safe sex with his own kids. Yes, that was a church basement. Yes, that was a male gynecologist. And the topic at that moment was, yes, kids and sex. I hope I got your attention. Because he sure got mine, especially as this seemed an unlikely and absurd senario. But still, the topic was pertinent and this doctor’s message clear: we as parents would be sorely amiss to assume our kids will honor abstinence at our request. He…

May 13 2015

A year ago, I wrote about whether or not to homeschool my older son and his brother and sister (How About Homeschooling? Part One and How About Homeschooling? Part Two). In those posts, I described my concerns, thoughts and feelings and was pleased to receive some wonderful feedback from readers. To all of you who shared your perspectives and positive experiences with educating your children at home, I thank you for providing food for thought. But I knew my husband and I were going to need more information before making a decision…and that meant sending our kids back to public school…

Apr 22 2015

I am in awe of the transformation. I am a little sad, too. My younger son, born breech at barely five pounds, is becoming a man. At age 12 he is hands-down taller than me, with a cracking voice, acne and, um, hair (more on that below…). It boggles my mind, a glimpse into what is in store for his twin brother, who has yet to join him in this journey. I decided to repost What to Expect When Your Son Starts Puberty from April, 2015, to help us Moms (and Dads, of course) navigate these changes, changes in our little boys that…

Jan 28 2015

I‘m going to give this to you straight. As in 23-gauge needle straight: ∗Vaccinate your kids. ∗ Let them eat dirt. ∗Don’t freak if they eat their boogers. ∗(Do freak if they eat someone else’s.) Evidence supports doing the first two. The third falls under the “can’t hurt ’em” line of thinking. And the fourth, well, goes without saying. What can hurt, as we know, is the sting from a needle delivering a vaccine, often several administered in rapid succession. But what can hurt even more are the repercussions from choosing to forgo “shots.”

Farmer Boy Ain’t Got Nothin’ on My Son

Nov 20 2014

Our family is reading aloud the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder and are enjoying the third installment, Farmer Boy. Of course, Almanzo is a typical boy ruled by his stomach and much of the first part of the book describes his daydreams about food and then the copious amount he actually consumes. However, his enormous appetite is no match for my second-born’s when he is having a growth spurt. Suddenly a seven-taco dinner (plus sides) simply isn’t enough to satiate my own growing boy. The warning sign to stock the fridge is that he talks about food 90 percent of…

The Principal Always Rings Twice

Oct 16 2014

What do parents and doctors have in common? Call. Which means we must have some sort of electronic gadget within easy reach (surgical attachment, anyone?) so the school or the sitter (or the hospital) can get ahold of us at a moment’s notice. The only difference is parents must take this responsibility round the clock, not every third weekend or weekday (which, don’t get me wrong, is plenty tough). But like doctors, we parents can have a degree of superstition about how to ward off bad news delivered by phone. For me, my mobile is always in my pocket or…

Cheaterpants

Oct 14 2014

My younger son loves to play games. And not surprisingly, he loves to win. He is so driven in fact, that he is a flagrant, and I mean flagrant, cheater. As in he grabs a handful of cards from a deck and chooses the one he wants, right in front of his opponents. Or he tries to break the rules by announcing just that and then shoots us the I-am-so-guilty-but-maybe-they-won’t-notice look. Therefore, my son has been dubbed “Sir Cheaterpants.” Fortunately he is a good natured boy and takes the ribbing well. But his inclination to “stack the deck” in his…

Learning the Language of Music (Yes, There are Strings Attached)

Oct 07 2014

I first heard about the Suzuki method of musical instruction when my sons voiced respective interests in learning violin and classical guitar. After we talked with both instructors, and observed their differing styles in response to our inquiries, I grew curious about the methodology that tied these teachers together. So enter the book for October 2014: Shin’ichi Suzuki’s book Nutured by Love. Suzuki was an accomplished Japanese violinist who astutely observed that children learn their native tongue through simple repetition. He felt that by using the same approach, with an understanding that ability is learned and not innate, children could learn…

Overscheduled, Underworked

Oct 02 2014

I’m just going to come out and say it: Kids need to work more. They need to scatter legos and build, build, build. They need to challenge each other with board games and don old clothes, pretending to be a Spy Kid, Dorothy from Kansas or Captain America. If play is a child’s work, why don’t they get to do it more often?

My name is Heidi Black and I have it all... Maybe not in the traditional sense of the phrase but I do feel I have it all: three beautiful, healthy children, a devoted husband and father and the privilege of being a Domestic Engineer. (I used to call myself a SAHM but that just doesn’t fit when my day is filled with coordinating 5 schedules and preplanning their execution, all up to a week in advance.) And now, indulging in a not-so-secret desire to write, and following the advice “write what you know” I am ready to share what I have learned from this ironic life journey and along with you, discover answers to those many questions related to parenting.

Tag - child development