In an age where children's voices are easily drowned out by digital noise and societal pressures, nurturing a child's ability to speak up, literally and figuratively, has never been more crucial. Experts and local business owners emphasize the importance of fostering solid vocal skills and self-expression in young people. From techniques to care for growing vocal cords to strategies for building confidence in self-advocacy, a multifaceted approach to "voice development" is shaping a generation of articulate, assertive, and empowered youth.
Posts filed under Children
Conscious Parenting: Prepping for Baby: Find the Right Doula for You
Imagine knowing all the things, having a supportive partner, and knowing that you don’t have to remember everything. Imagine knowing that someone else has eyes out for your best interests without worrying about ulterior motives. Imagine that someone is watching out for your partner as well! It can feel like such a load off your shoulders to know that there is someone there who is familiar with the process.
The Community High Resource Program: A Student's Perspective
We asked our fellow Community High School students, Claire Lewis and Jacqueline Boynton, to share their perspective about the community resource program at Community High and their experience in photography class.
The Symphony of Development: Exploring the Importance of Music in a Baby’s Growth
In the delicate journey of a baby’s life, music weaves a melody that resonates far beyond the nursery walls. The impact of music on a baby’s development encompasses cognitive, emotional, social, and physical domains. Incorporating music into a baby’s early experiences is not just a source of joy but a powerful catalyst for holistic development.
Babywearing 101: A Crash Course in Safety, Comfort, and Ease
The world is constantly being blessed with the arrival of new little ones, and statistically speaking, you have or will become the parent, grandparent, aunt, or uncle of a brand-new baby. Emerging into a world full of new sights, sounds, and sensations, many babies feel overwhelmed by the number of stimuli they are exposed to and never want to leave their caretaker’s side. Congratulations. This is a perfectly normal baby! Human beings are classified as carry mammals, much like monkeys, and we are designed to have our babies close to us at all times—hence the velcro baby situation many caretakers find themselves in. Unlike monkeys however, our babies do not emerge from the womb with the necessary skills to effortlessly hang onto us, leading many to be confused as to what to do with a baby that never wants to be put down.
Sadist Summer Camp
It’s that time of year again: all the papers are full of ads for summer camps you can send your kids to. There’s Spanish Immersion Camp, Rock and Robot Camp, Filmmaker’s Camp, even something called Brain Monkeys Camp. We didn’t have camps like that when I was a kid. Ours weren’t nearly as specific or smart. We just had plain old summer camp.
Kids in the Community: Science for Kids
Imagine a world where your children are captivated by bubbling potions, erupting volcanoes, and soaring rockets. In this magical realm, adventure awaits. From makeshift kitchen laboratories and hands-on classes to information-packed books, parents can ignite the spark or fuel the burning passion for science with various engaging and immersive activities—some at home, some in person. Unlocking the magic of science begins with nurturing your child’s natural curiosity. Observe what they're interested in and use it to pave the way for exciting career paths in the future.
Leaps of Faith: Empowered Bumps and Boobs
It’s okay. Go ahead and laugh at her company’s name. Emily Stone would be flattered. And to emphasize the play on meaning behind Empowered Bumps and Boobs, she would probably even hand you her favorite promotional product—a pen with a squishy breast at the top of it.
Kids Can Cook, Too! And Why They Should…
Cooking isn’t just about whipping up tasty treats (although that’s definitely a big part of the fun). Empowering and nurturing children’s culinary skills extends far beyond the kitchen. It’s a fantastic adventure where kids explore, create, and learn skills that will stick with them for life. Think of it as a mix of delicious experiments and add a sprinkle of essential life lessons on top. From crafting scrumptious snacks to understanding the fuel that keeps us going, kids learn the importance of nutrition, gain confidence, and feel accomplished. In today’s fast-paced world, introducing kids to the wonders of cooking is an invaluable gift, offering them a foundation for a lifetime of healthy eating habits and a deeper appreciation for the culinary arts.
Conscious Parenting: Harnessing the Power of Talking Out Loud — The Teddy Bear and the Talker
Imagine your child is trying to figure something out, like what to do for the summer. As your child talks to you, what kinds of questions do you feel drawn to ask? Do the questions have more to do with supporting your child in exploring the parts of the conversation your child wants to explore, or more to do with your own concerns? What could enable your child to get the benefit of having plenty of room to talk out loud and to take the conversation wherever your child wants to go with it?
The Current State of Sexual Health Education in Michigan
It wasn’t until later that I learned that my experience with sexual health education was not uncommon. I assumed, as a kid whose whole world was based around school, that everything in the curriculum was what was required to be successful in life. At the time, I didn’t realize how career-driven it was: Math, Science, English, and History were the four main subjects. Nothing about growing your own food, repairing clothes, doing your taxes, paying a mortgage, how to have fulfilling relationships, how to maintain good mental health practice, and more.
Quietly Noticing
I stood about twenty feet away from my two-year-old waiting to push her on a swing or do a count down while she hyped herself up to glide down a slide. I had just gotten done with a three-mile run with her in a stroller at the loop at Hudson Mills. The only way we get through these runs is a lot of snacks and the promise of playground time, and I was ready for the playground time. To me, playground time is a time that I don’t have to keep my brain on high alert. Rinoa would play and I would catch my breath and not have to figure out how to run, push, grab, and unwrap a snack all at once as I had been doing for thirty minutes prior.
Screen Time Solutions
As an elementary school teacher for almost three decades, I’ve witnessed a dramatic shift in recent years in the behavior and habits of children. Further, I’ve seen an alarming rise in obesity and violent tendencies during that time. I attribute these changes, in part, to excessive screen time as well as a lack of parental involvement.
Elements Preschool
I discovered Elements Preschool a few months ago during my extended early childhood education studies. To my delight, it is not only a place of discovery for children, but also for adults. Soon after being introduced to Elements Preschool, I started working with Kirsten Voiles, the founder and director, with whom I share a passion for education and the arts.
Handcrafting: LIttle Bug Faeries -- A Waldorf -style Pcket Doll
Spring brings showers, flowers, and faeries back into our gardens! These cute Little Bug Faeries are great for entertaining little ones during story time, while riding in a car, or waiting to see the doctor. They are so easy to make, you’ll find yourself making one in every color of the rainbow!
Conscious Parenting: Ele's Place Ann Arbor--A Home for Healing Arts
Ele’s Place Ann Arbor is a healing center that provides peer grief support for children, teens, and their families in Ann Arbor as well as the surrounding southeast Michigan area, free of charge, for as long as a family needs. Ele's Place Ann Arbor is the only nonprofit in our community dedicated solely to helping children and teens work with, and through, grief in a peer-based setting.
Black Men Read: Expanding Possibilities Through Storytelling
“This has to change, on my watch,” Yodit Mesfin Johhson realized. The need for change became urgent when her own son was in second grade. Her life’s work in racial justice organizing took a big pivot toward the education sector with one call. It was Black History month and there were no Black men on the Mitchell Elementary School’s faculty. Her son’s teacher called to ask if she knew any Black men that would read to his classes. Of course, Mesfin Johnson arranged a roster of volunteers that rotated through the school's reading hours all throughout February. The realization that her son had no Black male role models at school collided with her own awakening to spur a deep dive of research into the educational system. “It turns out that less than 2% of U.S. teachers are Black men.”
Student Mosaics at the Steiner School — A Culmination of an Inspired Education
It is a custom at many high schools for each graduating class to give a gift to the school. Seniors typically raise money to buy a bench, a tree, or perhaps to create a scholarship fund. The class gift tradition at the Rudolf Steiner School of Ann Arbor High School is different—it is built right into the curriculum. Almost every year since the school graduated its first class in 2000, the seniors, under the direction of the school’s art teachers, Elena Efimova, Riccardo Capraro, and Nataliya Pryzant, create a large mosaic that is then permanently mounted at the school’s Pontiac Trail campus building. The resulting mosaics are remarkable in a number of ways and fulfill several functions. First, there’s their size. Last year’s piece, for example, is eight feet by eight feet, which in square footage doesn’t even qualify it into the top three of the fourteen mosaics that students have created over the years.
Handcrafting: Puckly Penguin—A Midwinter Playmate
Need a fun project to beat the midwinter blues? Make this cute penguin in a few hours sitting by the hearth. You can add a hanging loop to make an ornament, have fun embroidering his body, use him to brighten your winter table, or just place him in an unexpected spot to give visitors a quick smile.
Unschooling — Child-Led-Learning
Unschooling is a term coined in the 1970s by John Holt whose books Learning All the Time and Teach Your Own (among others), have empowered parents for decades to homeschool their children in a liberating way. Rethinking the definition of education, schooling “outside the box,” is as unique as every parent and child. It is apparent to those who observe young children that learning does indeed happen in every moment, thus children are naturally their own best teachers. Unschoolers see the community as their school.
