About

Develop your parenting skills with Regarding Baby to:

~ Understand & respond sensitively to your baby’s cries

~ Transform routine caregiving chores (diapering, feeding, bathing) into times of connection and co-operation

About Regarding Baby

The word Regard has several meanings; a protective interest, a feeling of respect, and affection.

One of my most important teachers, Magda Gerber, often talked about helping parents and caregivers to see babies with “New Eyes.” Since my area of expertise is infants and toddlers and I focus on helping parents learn to relax and slow down, do less, and to respect and respond to their baby’s needs through sensitive observation, Regarding Baby seemed to make perfect sense as a name.

 

RIE Certified child educator Lisa Sunbury & RIE founder Magda Gerber
RIE Certified child educator Lisa Sunbury & RIE founder Magda Gerber

 About Lisa

I have dedicated my life to caring for, supporting, and advocating for infants, toddlers, and their parents. I have over twenty years experience working in the field of Early Childhood Education, in a variety of roles.

After earning a Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education from Lesley University, I worked as a nanny, and as an infant/toddler teacher in several respected childcare programs. While attending a workshop led by Diana Suskind, which focused on the unique needs of infants and toddlers in child care centers, I was introduced to Magda Gerber’s philosophy of infant care.

Intrigued by Magda’s work, I went on to study with her for three years at the original home of RIE (Resources For Infant Educarers), in Silver Lake, California. There I earned a certificate of completion in the program to become a RIE Associate. I remained in California for ten years, teaching Parent/ Infant Guidance Classes, consulting for childcare programs, and mentoring adults in the RIE Approach. In addition, I served for two years as the Site Supervisor for Cottage Hospital’s Infant/Toddler Program, which was the only RIE Certified program in California at the time.

I also taught RIE Foundations through the University of California Santa Barbara, have presented at several early childhood conferences, and had my writing published in the RIE Newsletter and the Giant Encyclopedia of Activities for Infants and Toddlers.  

I previously served on the RIE Board of  Directors and as a member of the board at Santa Cruz Toddler Center.

I maintain professional memberships with RIE and the National Association of Early Childhood Education (NAEYC).

In 2012, I left my position as a nanny for the family I had been caring for seven years to move to Florida to become a relative caregiver to my newborn niece. (Her adoption was completed this past year, in May of 2015.)  In 2014, I returned to Santa Cruz, with a toddler in tow, and worked briefly as a teacher at Santa Cruz Toddler Care Center. In addition, I  have been providing phone consultations for families and teaching RIE parent/infant education classes since 2012. This year, I am looking forward to expanding class offerings and workshops and offering additional resources online.

 

2 thoughts on “About”

  1. Hi Lisa, I hope you will have the time to read my message. I have 2 boys, a 3.5 year old and a 15 months old. They share the same room. They sleep wonderfully together. The problem is in the morning, the older one wakes up early, around 6am and wakes his brother up, wake time is not till 7am so he is pretty good about staying in his room until we come and get him, but I am worried he is not getting enough sleep and he is depriving his brother of the morning sleep too. Bedtime for both of them is around 7:30. The older has 2 hours of quiet time during the day where he is in his room and he is free to nap or read books and he likes this time too, he naps maybe once a week. Any tips on how to make him sleep longer in the morning? He seems tired when we go get him at 7am, I feel like as soon as he wakes up, he gets so excited about putting on a show for his little brother that he jumps out of bed, whereas if he was alone in the room he wouldn’t get out of bed that fast and might turn and fall back asleep. Thank you so much for your time.

    1. Hi Marilyn, The short answer is that you can’t really make him sleep later. What time is he waking up? Because if he’s in bed asleep by 7:30pm, and he has a 2 hour quiet rest during the day, it’s quite possible he’s ready to be awake by 6:00 am.

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