What Do Toddlers Need To Thrive?

In Sync With Understanding Young Children: 

Seattle's Teacher Tom and Zurich's Department Of Education 

Exploration takes courage and a little attitude!

1) Teacher Tom writes a great blog sharing his inside world of pre-school adventure and child rearing secrets. One of his most recent posts, Echoes, is a real powerful example of how to handle a child's dilemma with a playmate. The three year old child, himself, displays an amazing sense of patience, perseverance, and respect. As Tom points out, clearly there has been excellent parental role modeling at this 3 year olds home. This post brought tears to my eyes, it was so beautiful.


2) Konstantin Bahr, head of the division of Educational Planning in The Department of Education in Zurich, Switzerland just released a series of 40 short videos with many language choices that shares incredibly simple, but profound, insights as how to interact with very young children.

Bahr asks the question, "What do toddlers need to thrive?".



He follows, "Our answer is daily care, attention and love are most effective for babies and toddlers to thrive. And there is no need for anything extraordinary. Learning opportunities present themselves in countless moments of everyday life! We would like to invite you, having a look at the video clips we produced, as a very practical resource for early childhood education and care professionals to work with parents, for vocational and in-service training, or for parents themselves."

The 40 short (2 - 4 minutes) are available in 13 different languages. Click on the link provided, choose your language and jump right in. The 40 clips are broken down by age and theme (less than one to four), but most involve multiple ages & themes.  

I enjoyed all 40 films, but some of my favorites were: 'Cake', 'Train', 'File', 'Hands', & 'Vegetables'.

Bahr claims his philosophy is simply:

I've got it, dad!

"An assertive passion to show how rich everyday life can be for babies and toddlers".

Papa Green Bean's Conclusion

To be in sync with young children's developmental needs takes an 'assertive passion'. Teacher Tom and Constantin Bahr have it. Many parents have it naturally. Our collective goal is to ignite the spark of passion and understanding within parents who don't have it, so that they can grasp the simple immensity of what their babies and toddlers need to thrive. 

Having this understanding makes raising children more joyful and rewarding. 

We should all be so lucky, Papa Green Bean