A Different Way to Discipline
Discipline is a hot topic. Below is a gentle approach that encourages mutual respect.
Identifying Your Child’s Underlying Needs
One of the major ideas of peaceful parenting is that what we often term “misbehavior” is actually an expression of an underlying need. In the past several decades, parents have gotten...
Saying Sorry in Silence
Earlier this week, I had the remarkable experience of seeing how powerfully my own “inner story” affected my daughter, Katy. Yesterday, I had yet another amazing experience: witnessing the...
Unschooling: A Man of Few Words
My husband Ted did not come to the unschooling life as quickly or as easily as I did. It was kind of a long road for him, with some serious doubts and struggles along the way. So it’s been very...
Radical Unschooling: Works in Progress
My daughter Katy has been the subject of many of my radical unschooling posts. That’s because she’s given me plenty of much-needed opportunities to practice my peaceful parenting approach!...
Unschooling: Sharing the Power
Power. Such a loaded word. And with power comes the potential for mis-using it. Recently my daughter Katy has been thinking a lot about power. Specifically, she’s been thinking about how much of...
How Punishments Backfire: An Unschooling Perspective
The day after Hurricane Irene hit we had no electricity (we had no electricity for days, actually, but we shall not speak of that). It turned out that a downed transformer just around the corner was...
Navigating Emotions
How to help your child recognize and work through their big emotions
Like Yoga, but Furrier
Last week, our family finally took the plunge and entered the world of pet ownership. This was the culmination of two years of pleading on the part of our daughter, Katy, who was desperate for a cat...
Farewell, Sweet Cactus
Those of you who checked my status on facebook yesterday have already heard the sad news. Faith’s cactus is now among the dearly departed. Surprisingly, the sad passing of our cactus is not...
Peaceful Parenting: It’s All in my Head
My daughter Katy reminds me very much of myself. Nowhere is this more apparent than when she has what many people would call a “meltdown”. I remember what it felt like at her age to...
Unschooling: Respecting Negative Emotions
My friend stopped over yesterday – and she was pissed. After a knock startling in its violence, she whipped open the door, removed each shoe and threw it down, slammed her purse on the nearest...
Small Bodies, Big Feelings: A Peaceful Parenting Perspective on Emotions
Last night, my daughter Katy was upset. Really, really upset. A while back, I would have said she’d had a huge “temper-tantrum” or “meltdown”. You know what that looks...