I enjoy meeting not only contemporary children, but yesterday's children as well. It's nice to talk about the experiences we shared, they tell me, 'You were a good friend.' That's the warmest part.
The children should never be excluded from what I am doing and should never have the feeling of being part of an audience.
Play is the work of children. It's very serious stuff.
A child needs to be listened to and talked to at 3 and 4 and 5 years of age. Parents should not wait for the sophisticated conversation of a teenager.
Back in the old days, when I was a child, we sat around the family table at dinner time and exchanged our daily experiences. It wasn't very organized, but everyone was recognized and all the news that had to be told was told by each family member. We listened to each other and the interest was not put on; it was real.
Generosity has built America. When we fail to invest in children, we have to pay the cost.
Every word, movement and action has an effect. No other person or outside force has a greater influence on a child than the parent.
Children don't drop out of high school when they are 16, they do so in the first grade and wait 10 years to make it official.
It requires more strength to be gentle, so it's the everyday encounters of life that I think we've prepared children for and prepared them to be good to other people and to consider other people.