Sing a song. Seriously. Right now!

14 Feb 2012 Leave a comment

by Kim in Classical Music, Introduction to..., Just Fun Stuff, Parenting Tags:

Here’s an interesting article about the many benefits of singing: “It sounds and feels good” by Hema Vijay.

What particularly interested me was how “MOP” performs –

In his concerts, he simplifies a classical song, breaking it up into phrases, so that even lay persons can pick up the melody and sing it.

I would love to go to a concert like that!

As a related tidbit, when my daughter was a mere baby I remember singing everything as I carried her around, ie. “Now we’re going downstairs” or “Oh the phone is ringing” etc. Now I’m thinking it was doing me as much good as it was entertaining her. (Or maybe I’m overestimating the entertainment properties of my voice…)

Parenting Trends – the swing of the pendulum

29 Jan 2012 Leave a comment

by Kim in Parenting

Here’s an article on the times news website about the 1970s trend of “permissive parenting” and how it was all wrong.

A pretty black and white commentary, not much depth to it, but thought-provoking. I definitely think it’s not such an either/or proposition, every parent tailors their parenting strategies to the needs, strengths and weaknesses of the individual child. The real concern is when a parent (or pundit) buys into one or another ideology 100% and takes it full steam ahead, refusing to temper it with doubt or amendment – damn the torpedoes!

The bigger issue re. “Thoughts and ideas have been replaced by feelings” is how this has happened in the adult sphere beyond parenting… self-help mania, reality tv, celebrity obsession, personality journalism, popularity contest elections… Children grow up mirroring adult society, not solely by reacting to how their parents treat them.

Still, useful to contemplate. Self-esteem is good, but empathy is better. And the ability to control and manage one’s emotions is a vital skill that needs to be learned.

Raising Readers

26 Jan 2012 1 Comment

by Kim in Books, Parenting

Much parental hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth occurs over the extent – and type – of reading that children do. It’s a high-stakes concern, since academic proficiency is greatly aided by voluminous reading. Young bookworms almost effortlessly gain a larger vocabulary and an instinctive knack for proper grammar and spelling, not to mention all the spiritual/artistic/empathetic/etc. benefits of literature.

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