Blog
SOS! December is here… (how to help your children stay grounded)
By Jet Sichterman You may have noticed by the cold weather outside, by the frosting on your car in the morning, by the full trains or extensive traffic jams in rush hour, by the advertisements in your mailbox or by the big to do list waiting for you at home and at...
Practicing Non-Verbal Skills through games
By Sara Mansson We have talked about social skills before, see for example this post on negotiating, this one about stimulating your child’s emotional development or this one about saying goodbye. There are several ways of communicating with others, many of which go...
Four Tips on Stimulating Emotional Development
We all want our children to grow up to be healthy, well-adjusted adults. The ability to understand their own emotions and to express them in accordance with the local culture and social norms is an important step towards becoming that. We know that young children need...
Getting back to Normal
The last months of the year can be a bit overwhelming for parents and children alike. There is so much to do, so much to see, hear and experience. First came fall break. Then Halloween. If you’re living in the north of the Netherlands you may have celebrated Sint...
Can’t you two just get along?
Guestpost by Sara Mansson Last time, we talked about some day to day examples of things you can do to help your children learn good negotiation skills. One thing that helps children learn this is experiencing problems that need solving. One of our tips then was to...
Teaching your Child the Art of Negotiation
Guestpost by Sara Mansson Sometimes arguments break out between our children and we wish we knew how to prevent them. Can’t they just listen to each other and compromise? The art of successful negotiation is a skill which is important to social situations throughout...
Saying goodbye to (best) friends
Saying goodbye is inherent to the international lifestyle. But even if a family decides to stay in one place for a while, as long as one is part of an international community the goodbyes continue. Children in international schools run a higher risk of seeing their...
Starting School in a New Language: Teacher tips
In my last post, I talked about what you can do as parents when your child is going to enter a school in a language that they do not yet understand. This time, my tips are for teachers who are teaching one or some children who do not yet speak the language of the...
Starting School in a New Language: Preparation
Starting school in a different language from the one spoken at home can be a challenge. Here are some tips to prepare your child.
How Jake made the Netherlands his new home
This is the story of Jake. Jake is a self-aware 10 year old boy. Jake used to live in the USA, but a few months ago his parents decided to move to the Netherlands, to a curious place called The Hague. Jake was looking forwards to the move to his new home, he saw it as...
Play & Education
What is, or should be, the role of play in children’s education? A brief introduction to Peter Gray’s perspective on the matter.
It’s not fair! – Part 2.
In my last blog, I explained how young children can only view the world from their own perspective because they have not yet developed a so called ‘theory of mind’. This is why young children have a different idea of what is fair than adults. Of course, if you’re the...