Here are my most-read posts from the past year.

How Many Toys is Enough – Do you feel like you’re swimming in too many toys? Feel like you can never find toys your child will play with for long? Worry that you’re not properly “stimulating” your child with the best educational toys? Read this post.

Benefits of Singing with Your Child – Learn  the benefits, and find a link to my favorite songs for toddlers – a list which includes links to videos where you can learn the tune.

Teaching about “Tricky People” vs. “Stranger Danger” – How do we guide our children in the wisdom of being cautious about “tricky behavior” without making them frightened of each new person they meet?

Your Parenting Vision / Mission Statement – Becoming the Parent You Want to Be – When caring for young children we’re often just struggling to make it through our day. But every once in a while, it is helpful to take a step back and reflect on the big picture of parenting – what are our long-term goals, and are we on a path to reach them?

Fun with Toddlers Transportation Theme – I have a whole “Fun with Toddlers” series, with several different themes, each including recommended books, games, songs, crafts, and activities. The Transportation Theme is always a big hit (especially with boys).

Schemas of Play – Does your toddler have a particular favorite way to play? Lining things up? Carrying things around? Throwing things? Hiding things? They are practicing a schema of play – learn more about what they’re learning and how you can support it.

Periods of Disequilibrium – Does it seem to you that there are periods of time when parenting is easy? And are there other periods when it’s all really hard? That’s normal and expected! Here’s why it happens and how to survive the hard times.

Materials for Parent Educators – a large collection of free printable handouts.

Late in the year, I wrote a series called The Discipline Toolbox, and there’s lots of great stuff in there, so be sure to check it out! Here’s just some of my posts on discipline, in order from where to start (to prevent misbehavior), to what to do if problems escalate.

• Your Discipline Toolbox (overview)
• The Attention Principle: pay attention to positive behavior you want to see more of.
• Tell them what they SHOULD do. Help them learn what good behavior looks like.
• When / Then. “When you do [positive behavior], then you get [something positive.]”
•  Ignore minor misbehaviors that are just annoying.
• Let them suffer the Natural Consequences of their choices.
• If / Then. “If you continue [negative behavior], then you’ll get [consequence.]”
•  Time Out from Positive Attention– this post covers the best practices for Time Out
• Impose a Logical Consequence
• Moving On

In 2018, follow me on Facebook to learn when I post new stuff, and to get reminders of helpful articles that are already on the site.