Winter. Depending where you are in the world, winter is too cold to go out, too wet to go out, or just too gloomy for happy thoughts. How can you and your children survive the winter under wintertime conditions?

Enjoying the season depends on planning ahead. It's not like you can't see this coming! So get some tips for attitude management, fun indoor activities, and even ways to get out and about when the weather is frightful. You'll get some simple tools to use and a whole list of great, low-cost ideas for winter fun, no matter how old your children are and how long you're cooped up together.

Get the information you need right here in this special conversation, especially for parents of toddlers, preschoolers and elementary-age children.

Maybe you've hired a nanny and you're suspicious about what she and the children do all day.

Maybe your child goes to child care or preschool and doesn't seem to be learning anything.

Maybe you work in a child care or preschool and one of your coworkers seems to be having too much of a good time.

Where does learning-through-play leave off and just plain learning begin? What should you expect from early childhood professionals in guiding your children's development in the sorts of skills you'd like to see? Can you dictate what you want your child to master without ruining your kid or your relationship with people you really need?

Get the information you need right here in this special conversation, especially for parents of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.

Has this happened to you? You buy a toy or piece of equipment, for your own child or someone else's, and within a week or two it's been recalled as unsafe. You feel betrayed and embarrassed and you're left wondering: how can a person see this coming? How can you choose items for your family that are absolutely safe?

Let's take a look at the most common features that lead to recalls and how you can spot them before you go through the check-out line. We'll talk too about manufacturers' age suggestions and what they actually mean for your buying decisions.

Get the information you need right here in this special conversation, especially for parents of toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary-grade children.

No matter what holidays your family celebrates, odds are that there's a major holiday on the horizon this month or next. And while holidays are great opportunities for connecting up with your extended family, for kids-included parties, and even for travel, this means the holidays also put your children and your parenting skills front and center.

So let's talk. How can you enjoy the season and enjoy your children while also dealing with the expectations of your in-laws, interactions among the cousins, and (from your children's point of view) strange foods, strange customs, and disrupted sleep? If you're viewing the holiday season with a mixture of anticipation and dread, let's deal with the dread and leave you relaxed and in control.

It's all right here in this special conversation, especially for parents of toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary-grade children.

Today, we’re going to talk about the things small kids find scary - things that you might not expect but that can ruin an otherwise perfectly-good day - and maybe live on for years and years like the walking undead.

This podcast is a prerecording of the keynote presentation made to the annual conference of the Washington State Association for the Education of Young Children, on October 19, 2012.

If your child can read - but doesn't like to read - then find out the reasons why is this conversation with Dr. Patricia Nan Anderson. Then get some tips on how to help your child enjoy reading and actually read more.

“Ten weeks seems like an eternity. How can I make the summer a growth experience?”

Get specific steps you can take (start right now!) to make this summer wonderful for your school-age children - with little expense.

In order to venture out into the wide world your child relies on the fact that the big things in his life are always the same. But change happens. How can you help your child adjust to important changes in your family without coming completely apart? And how should you handle it when change makes your child regress to babyish behavior? Strategies here!

How do babies do it? How do they go from a vocabulary of zero to a vocabulary of 5000 words in just four short years? Some of this seems automatic but a lot of it depends on you. Find out what you must do to support your child’s language development and why it matters so much.