As a parent, you want the best for your child. But do you find yourself rushing to buy the latest gadget to give your child every advantage?
Can expensive toys really replace quality time with parents? Well, not in my house. I like to think that my children learn from the little things I do, not the gadgets I buy them.
Why do we always have to make things more complicated than they really are?
Children watch and listen to everything we say and do. They crave love and interaction from the day they are born. No device can ever replace those things.
Sometimes, it's the simplest things that matter most.
Here are excerpts from articles you may be interested in reading:
"The more actively engaged an adult is with a baby, the more his brain will grow. Children who receive little attention from adults have smaller brains than their peers." ~SLJ's The Amazing Brain: Babies start learning to read the day they're born
"86% of the general public believes that support from parents is the most important way to improve the schools. Lack of parental involvement is the biggest problem facing public schools." ~Education.com's What Research Says on Parent Involvement in Children's Education (found via @EDUBEAT on Twitter)
We're all busy, and the guilt all parents feel often causes them to rely on outside solutions to alleviate that guilt. But we all have something special inside of us - and need to trust ourselves - to supply our children with everything they need.
We don't need a teaching degree, or workbooks to guide us. Our children just need us to be ourselves when we are around them. They need us to listen, and to take an active interest in their activities.
No one can do that for us.
Don't misunderstand me, though: it's not necessarily the quantity of time we have with our children, but the quality of the time we spend together. No matter how busy we may be, we need to dedicate time every day to just being with our children.
And hopefully, that time doesn't always involve advanced technology, because no gadget can ever replace a parent.
