When we hear or read about computers in our schools, the subject is usually the dearth of them, the fact that we need more or that children should be exposed to them at a younger age. The assumption that computers belong in the classroom is rarely questioned. But some argue that the new technologies made available through the computer are being overused and that the losers are our children. "If education is about anything at all, it is about helping us to meet, understand, embrace and enlarge our destinies," Talbott writes.

The physical act of being a child has changed drastically in recent years. Not too long ago, much of a child's physical activity during the day involved moving the legs as he ran or rode a bike and the arms as she threw a ball or climbed a tree. Of course children still do this -- but not nearly as much as they used to, especially if they live in cities. Now, many children spend much more time moving their right index finger up and down in micro-movements as they click on a mouse or their middle finger as they press the arrows on the keyboard to shoot off a missile to knock that enemy space ship out of cyber-space.

A year ago, my husband and I held our breaths and took the plunge. For years, I had been thinking that life would be better -- if not easier -- without television. I'd always limited our children to an hour-and-a-half a day, but it took a long time for me to build up the guts to get rid of the tube altogether. After all, it was a great diversion during the witching hour or when I was dying for a rest in the afternoons.

To prepare my young children for an new experience or transition such as going on vacation, starting preschool, the birth of a sibling or staying with Grandma for the weekend without us, I make small, stapled construction paper books that explain and illustrate what is about to happen. You don't have to be an artist or a writer to create "transition books" for your kids. I write one or two sentences per page and illustrate with photographs or pictures cut out from magazines (art is not my strength!) When I feel ambitious, I cover them with clear contact paper.

"Breathing in, I am calm. Breathing out, I smile. "Next time you are angry or jealous of your brother or sister, or when you are unhappy with a friend, stop and do this exercise." This advice was addressed to a group of children by a student of the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, internationally renowned Zen master, peace activist and Nobel Prize nominee.

Two of the oldest and most respected institutions devoted to understanding children -- Bank Street College of Education in New York City and Parents Magazine -- teamed up long ago to bring to the public a classic called "What to Expect of a Young Child." Written by Irma Simonton Black for Parents in 1941, the article was reissued three times in pamphlet form by Bank Street. Although the black and white photos and the language bespeak a former era, the information is as relevant and important today as it was six decades ago.

In Part I of this article, we introduced Irma Simonton Black's ideas about what to expect from children from infancy to three years. Black wrote a classic article called "What to Expect of a Young Child," which appeared in Parents in 1941. She contends, and anyone would agree, that in order to have healthy, fulfilling relationships with our children, we need to know what they are capable of at what ages. Too many conflicts and misunderstandings erupt because parents expect a two-year-old to share when she cannot or a three-year-old to hurry when he is not yet capable of doing so.

It's October and we're all turning our attention to costume-making (or hunting) and pretend play. Why is it that children are so excited about Halloween? Why do children love pretend play and more importantly, how should we as parents relate to this excitement? Is encouraging the imagination important to young children and if so, why? To find out more about the crucial role of imagination in childhood, we created an all-new Imagination section. Since reading these thought-provoking pieces, I have a new respect for daydreams, for free time in which to do nothing, for the freedom to let the imagination - perhaps our most powerful mental tool - roam.

How many times have you read something written by an expert and thought: Oh, he's an expert. What does he know? He's not here in the trenches with me. Yet, we seem to be a generation of parents hooked on experts. The bookstores are loaded with their books. Magazines feature their words of wisdom. Web sites and radio call-in shows enable you to directly ask them questions. It's understandable. We don't live in a traditional culture anymore when child-rearing do's and don'ts were passed on from Grandma to Mom to us. Things have changed so much since Grandma's and even Mom's time that we often feel their advice is antiquated and ill-suited to today's generation of children.

Six-month-old Jeremy is lying on the living room rug, looking intently at a board book, when his Uncle Luis breezes in through the front door. "Hiya, fella!" he says, lifting his nephew high in the air. Jeremy frowns in protest. Putting the baby down, Luis turns to Jeremy's mom, Lucia Chan. "What's wrong? Did he get up on the wrong side of the crib?" "No...I think you just interrupted him," says Lucia. "Huh?" This from Luis. Both adults look down at Jeremy, who has gone back to his book and seems utterly content.