The holidays have been very productive. Today the ‘Garden room’ construction was finished.
It has been really special to see it grow and my 8 year old has developed such an interest in building. The builder was a lovely family friend who so patiently and gently answered questions and took Josiah on as an ‘apprentice’. I loved watching them together. What a treasure.
At one stage during the day Josiah came in and burst into tears – he had hammered a thumb. Once I would have lovingly told him to ‘toughen up princess’ but after some recent reading about the sides of the brain my response was different. I bent down, gave a hug and let him know that I knew that hurt, followed by treatment of frozen peas!
When children are emotional the right side of the brain is talking! When they tantrum, it is all right side, when they seem unable to listen to reason, it is all right side. The problem we have as adults is when they are in ‘right side mode’ they cannot relate to left side logic when we try to reason with them.
The answer to this problem is to connect to the right side, let the child know that you understand their emotions and why they are feeling like they do. Then, this seems to open up and balance the brain so the left side is ready to listen and some calming down can begin.
It has been good to start reading again! I am presently looking at “The whole-brain child’ by Daniel Siegel and Tina Bryson.
This is my attempt to summarise chapter 2, which I have found incredibly helpful. So practical for so many areas of relating with children. So practical for teaching and relating in general.
This was a great post; it came like a bolt from above for me fresh off a ‘right brain’ tantrum from my not quite two year old!
Even though I have done some reading on this subject it was nice to touch on it again through your personal example.
The garden room looks terrific by the way, what fun!
Thanks, great to hear from you. The whole right/left brain work is so fascinating. I hope it helps with your not quite 2 year old!