Parenting

My 5.5yo daughter is very shy, so I've been pushing her into hobbies to help managing her shyness. I've talked about how being shy is fine, but it's something to work on, otherwise she'll have a really hard time making friends. I'm shy and told her about that.

I took her to a gymnastics class (we do gymnastics together at open gym), but she refused to join the class. I said if she does one activity (even just a game at the end), I'll get her ice cream. We spent the time sitting on the side.

She didn't do it, so I figure no ice cream then. She's pretty mad. I'm not mad with her, but just of the opinion that we had a deal, and if she wants the reward, she needs to earn it.

Too harsh? Too soft? Alternatives?

I finally started to listen to "Sold a Story", then in a panic reviewed how my school system is teaching children to read.

While listening to episode 2, "The Idea", I learned that many students were taught how to read with the skills that are certain to make them poor readers. (This made me reflect on the recent news that a great many Americans don't read at the 6th grade level.)

I hope that you all check what your school district is doing, and like me find that the school district is following a good plan. (Minnesota requires the reading plans for school districts to be made public. I read the plan, and then I ran it through Gemini to check against "sold a story" as this is not my area of expertise.)

As an aside many reading program have suspiciously terrible names, like "Read Naturally". While the google I use found the main site quickly, criticisms of that program are harder to locate. (There are many criticisms of other programs that use the phrase "read naturally".)

Does anyone here have any firsthand experience of the pros & cons of home schooling? Whether as a parent, child or friend/family member/neighbour?

Self portrait made by a 5 yr old and we are all the person in red on this blessed day.

Hidden Brain podcast

Episode title: Parents: Keep Out!

Publish date: 24/11/2025, 20:00:00

Podcast length: 01:23:04

If you’re a parent or a teacher, you’ve probably wondered how to balance play and safety for the kids in your care. You don’t want to put children in danger, but you also don’t want to rob them of the joy of exploration. This week, we revisit a favorite conversation with psychologist Peter Gray. ...

People seem to like it (German): https://chaos.social/@markusseifert/115837668962928429

Apparently making her stop playing to get ready for bed (15 minutes past the normal time I might add) is worth loathing of the highest degree. Threenagers.

As an American parent, I'm probably not going to stay up for mine lol. Celebrating the UTC new year. Woo!

Not sure if memes are welcome in this comm, if not I can take it down :)

My wife and I are looking to buy our first home and naturally are concerned about schools for our kids. I was looking at one school and it had a "B+" from Niche but a "4" from GreatSchools which are kind of contradictory? Does anyone have any advice on which sire is better, third options, or are all these sites actualy useless lol?

Article Authors:

• Colin King | Director, Mary J. Wright Child and Youth Development Clinic, Western University
• Amy Rzezniczek | Ph.D. Candidate, School and Applied Child Psychology, Western University
• Rachel Krahn | Master's student, School and Applied Child Psychology, Western University

Awful to see the steady dismantling of the CDC. There are doctors and science advocates coming together to scaffold and build up trustworthy sources of info outside of the CDC. I follow epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina and she has a great newsletter she started up around Covid and has kept going - https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/ She recommends the general public avoid the CDC web site now. She recommends healthychildren.org powered by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Some U.S. states have also partnered together i.e. the West Coast Health Alliance that have pulled away from the CDC recommendations. A friend of mine in health noted it's a big reason why we (I'm in California) can still get our Covid vaccines regardless of age while her sister in Oklahoma was denied. I know there are some North Eastern states that have also partnered up. Going to be very different healthcare messaging to navigate state by state...

My kid can't really read yet, but they brought me home a book. This exchange occurred in the first ten pages:

"Papa, that man is as black as ashes, isn't he?"
Papa laughed. "Dogs and horses come in different colors, don't they?"
"But he's not a horse, is he, Papa?"
"No, he's not a horse." Papa patted her on the head. "But colored folks aren't much different."

I WONDER WHY THIS BOOK WAS FREE IN THE LIBRARY.

(I'm not blaming my kid, they chose it just based on the cover.)

It's an exciting policy, and I didn't realize the history of such experiments being tried in NY.

Can anyone offer some advice on getting an 18-month-old to sleep at night?

Until now the three techniques we've had are 1) feeding to sleep on the boob, 2) walking to sleep in the sling and 3) falling asleep in the car. Number 3 is only good for naps in the daytime, number 2 is getting difficult as our kid is getting big and heavy (and is a PITA at night anyway, and number 1 is starting to become less reliable/effective.

What have you learnt about getting kids (particularly this age, if relevant) to sleep?

Many thanks!

my daughter has stolen a few things. She's 7 now but it started when she was 6. It was from school a few times - at first it was seen as a mistake and for her to return at item.

She was always told "it's the school's" or "person X will be sad if doesn't have y back".

Recently however she took some chewing gum from a shop. When I saw it I took her back to the shop, we gave it back and she apologised to the shopkeeper.

I told her about how it is not nice, can make people sad, it is illegal etc. she didn't get a dessert that day (our usual day for having one). And I wrote a few questions on a bit of paper (why stealing is bad, what will you do if you feel like doing it again etc.) and asked her to answer them - she wrote the answers down.

Less than a week later she got a pencil off a boy, gave it to her mum and said that she won two pencils. We checked this with the teacher and the teacher said there was a boy who 'lost' a pencil and was upset about it.

So she knows it is wrong, but is continuing to do it. It is difficult to catch her in the act of it. Has anyone dealt with similar behaviour in a child of a similar age? Any recommendations?

I can force myself to shout at her (this would scare her as I don't shout), I can take her to the local police by pre -arrangement , I'm not sure what the best approach to stop this behaviour is. It could have possibly been going on since she was in nursery as we've always accounted for things showing up as normal mistakes not intentional stealing.

Me (after spinning them around): Do you know why people get dizzy?
Kid, 6: accuratelyish describes the workings of the inner ear
Me: uh ... Yeah.

What have you been putting in your children’s lunches?

I usually try to do something I know they will eat like a croissant, waffle, bagel, muffin, or crackers;

something I hope they will eat but don't, like celery or cucumber:

And snacks ( apple slices, cookies, granola bars, grapes, berries, etc).

What are some lunches you make?

Inspired by this post: https://vger.to/lemmy.ca/post/53785551

In 1890, a German scientist named Robert Koch thought he’d invented a cure for tuberculosis, a substance derived from the infecting bacterium itself that he dubbed Tuberculin. His substance didn’t actually cure anyone, but it was eventually widely used as a diagnostic skin test. Koch’s successful failure is just one of the many colorful cases featured in Dead Ends! Flukes, Flops, and Failures that Sparked Medical Marvels, a new nonfiction illustrated children’s book by science historian Lindsey Fitzharris and her husband, cartoonist Adrian Teal.

The couple decided to collaborate on children’s books as a way to combine their respective skills. Granted, “[The market for] children’s nonfiction is very difficult,” Fitzharris told Ars. “It doesn’t sell that well in general. It’s very difficult to get publishers on board with it. It’s such a shame because I really feel that there’s a hunger for it, especially when I see the kids picking up these books and loving it. There’s also just a need for it with the decline in literacy rates. We need to get people more engaged with these topics in ways that go beyond a 30-second clip on TikTok.”

Their first foray into the market was 2023’s Plague-Busters! Medicine’s Battles with History’s Deadliest Diseases, exploring “the ickiest illnesses that have infected humans and affected civilizations through the ages”—as well as the medical breakthroughs that came about to combat those diseases. Dead Ends is something of a sequel, focusing this time on historical diagnoses, experiments, and treatments that were useless at best, frequently harmful, yet eventually led to unexpected medical breakthroughs.