Stephanie O'Dea from A Year of Slowcooking talks about child development.

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Meet NieNie from the NieNie Dialogues, Mary from OwlHaven, and Stephanie from Totally Together Journal. They're here to answer all of your questions on how to get your kids to unplug and use their own imagination. Click here to submit a question.

This week Stephanie O'Dea from A Year of Slowcooking and Totally Together Journal talks about encouraging your children to develop at their own pace.

There’s a lot of competition in life. There’s also a lot of competition in parenting---something I wasn’t aware of until I brought my first newborn home from the hospital 8 years ago.

I was startled when complete strangers would stop me in the grocery store and ask if my baby was sleeping through the night, or if she could roll over yet (she couldn’t/wouldn’t do either). I spent way too many middle-of-the-night hours consulting Dr. Google and parenting message boards to determine if my teeny baby was on track, behind, or a prodigy. I obsessed, I really did.

I’m actually kind of embarrassed now by my former self, but I think many new moms follow this same path until they finally come to the realization that each and every baby and child is different, and no Fantastic! Brand-New! Educational! toy or learning system is going to make a whit of difference in the long run.

I appreciate open-ended toys that have no “right” or “wrong” to them such as wooden building blocks, Lego^®, and Duplo^®, and I think my children do, too. It’s discouraging to play with a game or activity that is a bit too advanced, and boring to play with something designed for super young children. Building with Lego^® and Duplo^® is such a fantastic way to level the playing field—super young children can play enthusiastically with older siblings, and are overjoyed that even Dad likes to join the fun.

I’m not a stranger to technology, nor am I scared of it, but I do think that going back to basics while my kids are still quite young is beneficial to their developing minds, self-esteem, and bodies. What do you all think?

-Stephanie

Stephanie O'Dea writes the popular blog A Year of Slowcooking and Totally Together Journal.  Her cookbook was recently released and she has two darling daughters (and is due in December with baby #3.)  She has also run childcare centers for the court system.

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