As you may know, Lovevery now offers The Reading Skills Set. It’s a phonics-based program that makes reading fun, motivating your child to read through play. It covers skills from pre-K through Second grade. In this episode, My New Life host Jessica Rolph talks with Sprout Labs CEO Carla Small about the neuroscience behind dyslexia, and why it has nothing to do with reversing letters. Carla and Dr. Nadine Gaab created EarlyBird, an early literacy assessment used in school districts nationwide.  Mentioned in this episode: Brought to you by Lovevery.com  SproutLabs.com Receive weekly emails about your child’s development, and stay in the know about new play essentials, promos, and more by signing up at Lovevery.com Follow Lovevery and Jessica Rolph on Instagram  

Spencer Russell, a former kindergarten teacher and dad behind Toddlers Can Read, shares his journey from struggling reader to literacy advocate. He discusses engaging ways to teach toddlers reading skills through play, emphasizing the importance of phonics. Spencer reveals simple strategies like starting with just three sounds and making learning enjoyable. He also addresses the literacy crisis, offering practical solutions for parents. His insights, backed by half-a-billion social media views, provide a treasure trove of knowledge for nurturing young readers.

Math is all around us. When it comes to teaching it, the challenge lies not in creating the opportunities, but in recognizing them. Counting grapes while they disappear is a fun one! Around the age of 4, a child’s mathematical knowledge takes a big leap forward. They go from counting and recognizing numbers, to understanding 1:1 correspondence and being able to complete simple addition. As parents, we can support them in this leap by providing things to count, line up, and compare. Lovevery’s Montessori Math Bars & Number Tiles for months 43-45 are a great place to start. On this episode, My New Life Host Jessica Rolph is joined by the principal investigator for Boston College’s Thinking and Learning Lab, which studies cognitive development with a primary focus on mathematical knowledge: Dr. Elida Laski. Dr. Laski is also on the editorial board of the Journal of Montessori Research.   Takeaways: By supporting early math, we’re activating the same pathways in the brain that will support literacy. For example, knowing that the symbol 3 refers to three objects is the same thing a child has to do in early reading when they look at an arbitrary combination of lines that represent a B and know that it makes the sound buh.    Beyond learning the numbers, exposing children to early visual repeating patterns like red, blue, red, blue, also builds a foundation for later math learning.    There’s research that shows that labeling the count set after you’ve counted with your child can make a big difference. So don’t just count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and assume your child knows that represents five. Go the extra step, and say: “So we have five pegs.” This concept is demonstrated in the Lovevery wooden counting box.   The Lovevery Montessori math bars not only show that numbers represent a larger quantity as you move up the count sequence, but also visually show how much more. You can reinforce this in the day-to-day, by asking your child: How many more floors do we have to go to get to number 6?   Rather than leaning on tools like flashcards, Elida recommends more authentic math activities, where you’re: counting real things; comparing who has more crackers, who has fewer; and placing things in order so that you can see their relation to the count sequence.    Mentioned in this episode: Brought to you by Lovevery.com Receive weekly emails about your child’s development, and stay in the know about new play essentials, promos, and more by signing up at Lovevery.com Follow Lovevery and Jessica Rolph on Instagram  

Julia, an expert in Montessori education, discusses the early age at which children can start practicing handwriting. She highlights the importance of the moveable alphabet in familiarizing children with letter sounds. Success in forming words leads to improved reading and writing skills over time. The podcast explores the physical and intellectual aspects of handwriting, emphasizing the gradual and organic learning process in creating a strong foundation for literacy.

Learn how Montessori classrooms teach children to spell before they can read, emphasizing phonemic awareness and hands-on learning. Discover the importance of starting with letter sounds, building words with moveable alphabet. Explore practical tips for parents to support their child's reading journey at home with joy and engagement.

Rebecca Parlakian discusses teaching empathy to 4-year-olds in the final episode. Empathy is caught, not taught, and requires acknowledging children's emotions. Suggestions include imagining situations from a child's perspective and prioritizing empathy in daily interactions.

Have you ever played “hot/cold” with your child? It’s good for a laugh, particularly when a child can’t find something in plain sight. But it’s also great at teaching young children flexible thinking, or the ability to adapt to change. As they are searching for the lost item, they are listening to directions and staying flexible when they have to change course. In this series on executive function, we’ve been looking at ways to help our children build these skills, which include working memory, impulse control and cognitive flexibility. These mental tasks take practice and must be learned and relearned. All the while, you’re laying the foundation for school-age success. Joining Host Jessica Rolph to explain the neuroscience behind flexible thinking is Dr. Stuart Marcovitch, a professor in the Department of Psychology at UNC Greensboro.   Takeaways: While routines help children know what to expect, you can start mixing up the routine a bit at age 4. It gives your child an opportunity to practice flexible thinking. Maybe you brush teeth and then take a bath, instead of the other way around. Games like the Lovevery Reach for the Stars Matching Cards — where you sort by shape, and then code switch to sort the same cards by color — are great for building flexible thinking. Offering children choices is another cognitive flexibility technique, because it allows them to consider various alternatives simultaneously. Stuart recommends offering choices while cooking with your child: Do you want to cut the carrots into rounds or slice them into sticks?   Mentioned in this episode: Brought to you by Lovevery.com  Receive weekly emails about your child’s development, and stay in the know about new play essentials, promos, and more by signing up at Lovevery.com Follow Lovevery and Jessica Rolph on Instagram  

Learn how to build frustration tolerance in children by allowing them to lose in games. Understanding that our brains develop over time, especially the prefrontal cortex responsible for executive function. It's important to coach children through losing rather than avoiding unhappiness at all costs.

The podcast discusses the importance of executive functioning skills in children, highlighting impulse control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Dr. Melissa Clearfield explains how children's ability to think ahead is crucial for goal achievement. Strategies for developing these skills, such as practicing cognitive flexibility through fun activities, are shared. The role of parents in supporting and nurturing executive function in preschoolers is emphasized.

Our guest today is a mother of four children, ages 5 to 17. She knows well how the demands of parenting can run you into the ground. She made the choice to step off the “struggle bus of overwhelm” — as she calls it — but it was a move that took time, and conscious effort. The secret? Establishing clear boundaries. And choosing not to identify with the “mother as martyr” role. So many of us look for our partners to validate how hard we are working, before we give ourselves permission to delegate and take a break. Or hold onto resentment because we feel we are shouldering more than our fair share of the parenting burden.  In this episode, Julie Tenner gives us permission to ask: What do I need to show up as the best version of myself in this family? She is an Australian-based relationship expert who shares her wisdom as co-host of the podcast Nourishing the Mother. You can also find her at julietenner.love. Takeaways: If you find yourself resenting the people you love, it’s a sign you need to re-enforce your boundaries. Score-keeping is something we slip into when we’re feeling under-valued. Time to have a conversation with your partner about what you need out of each of your roles. This conversation around roles is constantly shifting. Revisit the agreements you make regularly because our needs as adults shift with the changing children around us. Julie likes to think about it as tending to the you, to the me, to the us and to the family inc. Julie talked about setting limits around breastfeeding and the inevitable resistance that a mother will come up against. Responding to your baby’s cries from a loving place, firm in your boundaries, can sound like: “Yeah, it’s really hard for you. I know you really want to have a feed, but I can’t give that to you right now, but I love you and I’m here.” Julie is a big fan of delegating. She reminds us that when delegating, we need to let go of how the task is executed. It’s not going to look exactly like it would have, if you had done it. But we can’t do this work on our own, so time to lean into the team!   Mentioned in this episode: Brought to you by Lovevery.com  Find Julie Tenner at julietenner.love Receive weekly emails about your child’s development, and stay in the know about new play essentials, promos, and more by signing up at Lovevery.com Follow Lovevery and Jessica Rolph on Instagram