Little Ones

My 4yo is picking up negative behavior from friends. How can I shift this?

It seems that my 4yo son and other friends of the summer camp are getting a kick out of making a little boy upset and keep bothering him because they noticed he easily cries.
I already told my son that it is not okay to bother our friends if they do not want to be bothered.
What do you recommend?

We went from crib to toddler bed and now bedtime is a nightmare! What do we do?

We moved my soon to be 3yo daughter to a toddler bed because she would climb out of her crib.
She was doing pretty good about not getting up when we put her to sleep but now it has become a NIGHTMARE. She will not stay in her bed when put down and she wants us to stay in the room or else she gets up and walks out of her room.
With this new resistance she literally takes two hours to fall asleep - yesterday she fell asleep at 10pm.
What should I do?

School drop off has become very difficult. What do we do?

My 5.75yo daughter has started to develop some really big separation anxiety since returning from winter break. She has experienced a couple of transitions with a new nanny, and I went out of town last weekend. But now I am back and today was 25 minutes of crying at school for my goodbye. Each day seems worse and worse. What do we do?

How do we speak to our child about touching private parts so that they feel safe and open with us enough to share?

Our child has had two incidents at school in the past two weeks that we are very concerned about. The first time they exposed themself at dismissal to their classmates after being dared by others. The second time they were sitting in a circle with their peers and reached a hand up another child’s shorts. The child was very alarmed and upset of course.
There is no open access to the internet. We are starting to look at the time that has spent on FaceTime with the best friend that moved away.
Could this other child have been exposed and shared this with our child?
How do we speak to our child about this so that they feel safe and open with us enough to share?

My almost 4yo had an epic tantrum. What could I have done better?

Today my almost 4-year-old had an epic tantrum at a store and although I was able to be calm and did not care about the looks I got from everyone around me, I was exhausted after his tantrum.
At the end he fell asleep at home exhausted from his tantrum and I am thinking ..
What could I have done better?
Should I have bought the toy?

I am struggling with my children's sleep and letting them know the nanny is leaving. Helpo!

I would love some sleeping advice. My oldest child 5.5yo and my youngest 2.5yo share a room at night. They each have their own bed. They fall asleep fairly normally… book, tucked in, rub back, fall asleep, I sneak out.
Somewhere around 11:45pm-2am my youngest will call me in to put the blanket on her, or my oldest will come and get me to rub her back or snuggle. This will continue through the night.
We are also in search of a new nanny. How do we tell our children?

My 4yo says she has stomach pain when she is scared of something or someone. How can we help her?

My 4 year old would say she has stomach pain from time to time, and recently, she verbalized that when she is scared of something/someone (unfamiliar adults in general) or excited about something, she would have a stomachache.
We wonder how we can help her manage this?
What are some skills/techniques we can equip her with to manage this feeling?

How can I help my son have a better relationship with his dad?

In my son's transition from one school to another, his relationship with his Dad has deteriorated. 
My son refused to go to his home, see him or talk to him.  When forced, he engaged in fight or flight, refused to eat, yelled and refused to come out of his room at his dads. 
Dad has allowed him to stay with me for the last three weeks, hoping that giving him time would help. I am at a loss how to help them with this relationship or at least get my son to the table. Please help!  I'll pass on the tips. Thank you!

My soon to be 6yo daughter needs us with her in order to sleep. How do we shift this?

My daughter will be 6 in December and we are now going on 2 years of needing to sleep with her, not just lay with her at night but sleep with her all night so that she does not wake up multiple times a night calling for us. How do we shift this?

How do I know if I am being too harsh or too lenient?

Yesterday, I took the three kids to the movies and to a park.  Before we left, my daughter grabbed her socks and I told her, she didn’t need socks because I was going to have them wear water shoes in case the sprinklers were on at the park and she wanted to get wet. She said she wanted to wear her regular shoes because she didn’t want to get wet.  I asked if she was sure and she told me yes. Once at the park, she eventually began leaping through the sprinklers, telling me she wasn’t getting her shoes wet, only her clothes, which was not the case.  Her shoes were getting wet. 

My daughter creates alters with her toys. Should I be worried?

My daughter has a few toys that she has on her bedside table as a permanent fixture and refuses to have them moved. She also doesn't play with them but she likes to look at them, occasionally touch them, keep them in the same place always and no one can touch or move them. I find it freaky but I try to respect and not touch it. I worry that she may develop (more of) OCD if we do not show her that it's ok to move things and that toys are meant to be played with.

How do you help your kid when they are doing their best but it’s not enough?

My son has had a rough few days at nature school this week with impulse control and focus. He has been separated from the group a few times to try and calm his wiggles and lost privileges because of his behavior. Sometimes he just can’t sit, stay, listen, or complete a task. His brain just seems to override occasionally and I totally get it.

My daughters are clashing. How can I handle it better?

Both girls play better together at ages 6 and 8 but my 8yo tends to always talk over and correct her sister constantly. My 6yo gets offended whenever her big sister corrects her.
This is where they are both clashing now as one likes to fact check everything and say "you are wrong" and the other one just falls to pieces. How can I better handle this situation with both of them?

My older son screams at his 2yo sister and she screams right back. How can I break this cycle?

The sibling relationship in my home between my son and my daughter (2yo) has become unbearable. My son doesn’t want his sister near him but when she is playing or doing something else he goes and bothers her, screams at her - so naturally she “fights back” and screams at the top of her lungs. Help! I don’t know how to break this cycle…

How do I know if I am adding too much to my little ones schedule?

This year we have the option of extending my son’s usual PreK day by an hour, taking him from 1:30pm to 2:30pm, where instead of that hour continuing to serve as his quiet/decompressing time from school at home, it would be replaced with an active activity like gymnastics/sports/dance.
Should I give him another semester where we honor his usual "quiet time" block and try adding that extra hour next semester, giving him a little more time to navigate his energy levels?
Or just proceed with the extra hour of school, knowing that kids are adaptable and will eventually adjust?

Does my child need a tutor or an educational therapist?

My son’s reading assessment has him reading at kindergarten level. Given his anxiety and that he has been in a Waldorf environment in the past, reading/spelling has not been the focus and he’s struggling. I think we have found a new therapist but I was wondering if you could recommend a tutor or do you think an educational therapist that can work with him each week on reading and his feelings around it.

I thought I enrolled my child in a progressive school that practiced conscious discipline. Was I wrong?

I recently enrolled my son in preschool for the first time and today was his second day . He was very sad because he said one of the teachers did not give him a sticker. I asked the teacher and she mentioned that he did not want to participate in one of the language class activities so at the end the kids that participated got stickers and since he did not participate he did not get one. Now I am having  doubts about this school and about the teachers being trained in conscious discipline. What do you recommend I do?

My daughter had an epic tantrum over a gift for someone else. What is happening?

My daughter had an epic tantrum this morning. She went downstairs to make her cousin a birthday card and she remembered that we are giving her a gift that she has never had before. So my daughter came up the stairs crying and screaming how she needs to have the same gift as her cousin but in a crazy aggressive way. I tried to explain to her that when we want things that we don’t have, we can figure it out. She was still screaming and crying saying, “I hate my cousin, I neeeeeed the gift for myself”.

My little one said something inappropriate as a joke. I am mortified! How do I stop this?

The other day, a new friend's mom brought him home. When she was taking him out of the car he said “te quiero dar un beso en las tetas”  I was mortified (even though the mom was a good sport and knew he was doing it to get a laugh and he was laughing hysterically).
I can’t wrap my mind around him saying something like and I’m petrified he will continue to say inappropriate things. I don’t want moms to not want him around because he’s a bad influence. I also don’t want him saying things like that. Ever.