Life begins at six--at least in the minds of six-year-olds. . . . In kindergarten you are the baby. In first grade you put down th...e baby. . . . Every first grader knows in some osmotic way that this is real life. . . . First grade is the first step on the way to a place in the grown-up world.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The trick, which requires the combined skills of a tightrope walker and a cordon bleu chef frying a plain egg, is to take your [pr...eteen] daughter seriously without taking everything she says and does every minute seriously.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Life with a daughter of nine through twelve is a special experience for parents, particularly mothers. In a daughter's looks, acti...ons, attitudes, passions, loves, and hates, in her fears and her foibles, a mother will see herself at the same age. You are far enough away to have some perspective on what your daughter is going through. Still, you are close enough, if reminded, to feel it all again.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The middle years are ones in which children increasingly face conflicts on their own,... One of the truths to be faced by parents ...during this period is that they cannot do the work of living and relating for their children. They can be sounding boards and they can probe with the children the consequences of alternative actions.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Children of the middle years do not do their learning unaffected by attendant feelings of interest, boredom, success, failure, cha...grin, joy, humiliation, pleasure, distress and delight. They are whole children responding in a total way, and what they feel is a constant factor that can be constructive or destructive in any learning situation.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In the middle years of childhood, it is more important to keep alive and glowing the interest in finding out and to support this i...nterest with skills and techniques related to the process of finding out than to specify any particular piece of subject matter as inviolate.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The responsibilities of parenthood take on a more subtle cast during the middle years. . . . Our child is becoming a more consciou...s partner in his or her growth. . . . Each time our children take a new step, each time we allow them to move ahead to try something they've never tried before, we go through a period of doubt and questioning and ambivalent feelings until the new skill is mastered or the new rules are established. It is one of the most common experiences of parenthood, and it is also one of the most challenging.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It may comfort you to know that if your child reaches the age of eleven or twelve and you have a good bond or relationship, no mat...ter how dramatic adolescence becomes, you children will probably turn out all right and want some form of connection to you in adulthood.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A girl in the middle years also becomes more centered in her soul-life, the feelings of her heart, and she needs our guidance to l...earn to express her uniqueness, those small seeds that will someday sprout into gifts, talents, and resources.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In everything from athletic ability to popularity to looks, brains, and clothes, children rank themselves against others. At this ...age [7 and 8], children can tell you with amazing accuracy who has the coolest clothes, who tells the biggest lies, who is the best reader, who runs the fastest, and who is the most popular boy in the third grade.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »