Wow Long Time no Write

Yeah it has been a while I need to get back into writing!  Only have a minute right now but I will write again later.  I just received my letter of acceptance into the Elementary Education Program at USU
Woot.  I will be starting in the program this coming January and I am so excited.  Sterling got a job with Rocky Mountain Power and is moving to Salt Lake on the weekdays so I will only see him weekends, I am so sad, this is soo hard but hopefully it will get us moving in the right direction financially to be able to adopt.  I will miss him TONS!!

Love you all but gotta get to work :)
Love,
Carly

Outdoor Fun!!

We are having a huge problem with obesity in our country and the epidemic is starting younger and younger with children.  A major part of the problem is all the processed foods that we eat and the fact that our bodies are made to crave fattening things, which kept us alive back in the day as hunters and gatherers but for now with the grocery store just a car trip away it is an instinct that is very challenging to overcome.
This is how obesity has increased in just the last few years!!

This is an issue that I have not quite figured out myself yet. So instead of informing you on something that I dont know much about I will give you some insights on the other side of the equation = Activity!
We live a very sedentiary lifestyle and the children watch their parents sitting all day so that is what they think is normal.  Then very exciting and interesting things are created which encourage children to sit and zone out all day such as television and video games.  While that may be more normal for an adult it is definitely not normal for children.  They need activity to keep them healthy but also to learn the skills and coordination that they will need to be sucessful in life. 



When an adult actually takes time to do something active with a child it makes such an impact on that child!  These are activities for you to do with your child, the more we encourage them to learn these skills and the love of being active the less disease and heartache they will have to go through later in life. 

So at school we have had a goal to have two different outdoor activities every day at school and it has been so much fun!!  I will share some of them with you.  These are great and the kids have loved them!!  First, we started with balancing activities.  So we started with a piece of tape on the ground and having the kids walk on the tape like a balance beam. Next we have a balance beam at school but you could easily make one.  Just take an old 2x4 board and lay it on the ground and have them walk on it.  It doesn't need to be high.  If they are under 5 just get a whole bunch of shorter lengths of boards (go to home depot if you dont have them laying around and buy a 2x4 and just have them cut a whole bunch of 18" lengths or do it yourself.)  Let the child lay them out in any pattern or way they want and then practice walking around on them. 



Next do stepping stones (this can be anything somewhat flat that the child can pick up and move).  Have them jump from one to the other.  They will challenge themselves if they are ready and try to move them further apart to jump further this is a great activity for them.



Next let them try balancing with their small muscles.  Get easter eggs and put something in them so when they hit the ground they explode open.  Put the egg on a large spoon and have your child take one and you and do races without dropping your egg off of your spoon.



Then we moved on to some other activities.  First we tried your basic tag, then we moved on to freeze tag.  Whoever gets tagged needs to freeze and someone has to climb underneath their legs to unfreeze them (ps this is hard to do for adults we learned you have to teach this to kids but they have to crawl under each others legs because an adult crawling under a child doesnt work.



The best tag we learned though was ribbon tag.  Everyone sticks a piece of ribbon in their pocket or their beltloop if this is not an option just tuck it in the top of your pants.  If they are as long as the child's leg that is about right.  They dont have great muscle control yet so they need something to grab onto that is not such a small target but you also don't want them to trip over it.  Then you try to get other people's ribbons.  Kids don't really care who wins or loses they just have so much fun playing.  They really understand getting tagged as well because it is a concrete thing (when their ribbon is taken they were tagged).  This was so much fun the kids have begged to play it again almost every day since.



Another fun thing is bubble's.  I learned that every time I give a child bubbles they inevitably spill them or the wand is too big for them to have enough force to blow out the bubbles.  Then I went to a wedding and found the solution!!  Wedding bubbles!  You can get them at almost any dollar or craft store.  It is a tiny amount of bubbles so if they spill then no big deal, and it is easy for them to make bubbles with the tiny little wand and they love catching them on the wand after they make them.  You buy a big thing of bubbles and let the children have the small wedding bubbles it is a blast.

Next try bowling!  We just filled up a bunch of old bottles with a little bit of water then we put them all in a row on the cement and gave the kids balls and they bowled to see how many they could knock over. Then we showed them how to line them all up again and they played the whole time we were outside.



You can always play london bridge, duck, duck, goose, and ring around the rosies.  These are simple favorites.

Walks are always a hit as well!  Try to find something different for every walk.  Bugs, or different leaves you can do an art project with.  Different grass, rocks, textures to rub with crayon or chalk and paper.  Things you can glue together and make a collage.  Pinecones that you can take home and cover with peanut butter and bird seed then hang in the trees to make birdfeeders.  Watch clouds, walk to the park.  Walk somewhere and fly a kite. There are a million ideas of things you can do on a walk.  And go different places.  Even if you take your car somewhere and then go for a walk.  You will be amazed at all the things a child will see that we don't even notice anymore as adults.  A walk a day at least is so great for a child!  And there won't be any toys to clean up at the end!



These are just a few fun ideas I will post more later!!

Toodles

Ster's Birthday

So I was really excited about Sterling's birthday this year.  Unfortunately I worked over 14 hours the day of his Birthday so we couldn't celebrate on his birthday.  For years Sterling has wanted an old motorcycle that he could restore with his brother.  A few weeks ago he mentioned that he would really love to have an Ipod, then later he decided he really didn't want an Ipod but I told him he might have told me too late.  I called his brother Jacob and asked him if he could possibly find him a bike that we could afford.  He told me he would do his best and within two hours he had a bike for Sterling everyone but Ster knew about it and we were so excited to see his face.

     So Friday the day after his birthday we all gathered at his parents house, siblings, grandparents and all.  We had some great burgers and dogs roasted by Trent.  Then we had so much fun with the Butt cake that Hope made for Ster.  We lit the candles and Alyssa (our adorable 2 year old niece) helped Ster blow out the candles and then Ster showed Alyssa how to grab a handful of cake.  I need to get the pictures from Becky.
   
     Then I got to give him a box that looked as though it should contain an Ipod but instead it held a key.  He walked around the house and there it was!!  It was so fun.  He was just obsessing with excitement about starting to work on it.  We are meeting him at Jacob's Tonight so he can start.  I will get the pics up as soon as I can.
-Goodnight All-
I will try to put some more activities on soon

Never Say Never

This week my brother who has a pretty good mix of learning disabilities, (he could not even read until after 7th grade) was married to a wonderful woman named Jill in the Salt Lake Temple.  It was beautiful! When he was 12 and still acting like he was 5, none of us ever imagined that this could be possible for him.  In the last few years he has really grown up (not that he doesn't have a long way to go, but who doesn't).

Growing up he despaired at times that he would never have a normal life.  He used to think he was garbage sometimes because he just couldn't seem to understand things, or get things right.  He would cry and sob and tell us "you are normal you don't understand what it is like to be me.  I will never be able to make it through college, I will probably never get married, who will marry me?  I will never have kids.  I will always be alone."  He started trying to date a couple of years ago.  He was introduced to another girl with disabilities and he was so sweet to her.  He planned everything around her.  He bought her huge gifts for valentines and Christmas.  He did almost anything she wanted to do.  They both loved being able to say they had a boyfriend/girlfriend and being able to hang out with their married or dating friends and feel normal.

The problem was that this girl was not nearly as ready for a relationship as Matthew was.  Developmentally and socially she was pretty far behind him.  She would barely let him touch her and never kiss her.  She spent most of the time at our home hanging out with my sister and not Matthew.  She just was not ready for a real relationship yet.  This lasted a little over a year and Matthew was getting a little frustrated.  One day he just decided that he had been taught his whole life what to do to ask for something you really wanted and that he was going to try the principle.  He fasted a number of times and for long periods.  He then went to the temple and prayed so hard and really had faith that a miracle could happen for him.  He came home and told us all that he felt strongly that he was going to be married withing a year.  We all thought that is not really possible Matt but we didn't want to crush him.
He said he had tickets to a Real Salt Lake game and if I could put him on LDS singles to see if he could get a date to the game.  I helped put his profile on and quickly a wonderful girl responded that she would like to go with him.  Matt met her at the game and that is that, they have been inseparable ever since.  We all thought that no one could look past his disabilities and see the amazing Matthew that we all knew, but Jill did! sometimes I think she sees him clearer than the rest of us.  Now less than a year later Matthew is married and on his honeymoon.  I hope and wish the best of everything for them!  They may face more obvious challenges than some of us but with Matthew's faith that can bring about miracles, and the love I have seen them have for each other, I believe that they have a better chance of making it through those obvious trials than many of us do at making it through the ordinary yet unforseen ones.
Best wishes, luck and love sent out to you Matt and Jill.  I hope you have everything you ever need, and that that love you have will truly continue to bring miracles into your life!

Carly, your big sis

 

P.S. The wedding pics on the right were taken by Wesley our Family Historian :)

More Writing

Kids love to write at first.  Just give them a pencil and paper and let them practice writing their name and anything else they can think of.  After a while it becomes a little boring though, so change it up a little to keep them excited about writing!!

In our classroom we have little white boards and dry erase markers that the kids can write with.  We have chalk boards as well.  We have different colors of chalk, pens, colored pencils, crayons, markers, sidewalk chalk, and anything else we can come up with.

This week I just put 5-10 of the three letter words from the earlier post Beginning Readers!   
on a tray with a new writing utensil they had not used yet and the writing material for them to use (for example a white board and dry erase marker, or colored pencil and paper)  And left it on the shelf.  I did not even need to explain to them what to do they just started doing it.  It was natural for them to want to copy what they saw.  Next week I might change it up by changing the words, or by changing to a different color paper, or pencil or marker.

Tomorrow we are going to use sidewalk chalk outside and we are definitely going to be practicing writing!!  The kids love it.

By the way, if you keep one thing out all the time they tend to get bored.  Keep it out for a day or a few days then take it away for about 2 weeks or change it to something a little different and cycle a few different things.  It will keep them excited and interested.

Even kids that have every toy in the world will get bored if every time they go to play with their toys the same things are there.  Try breaking your kids toys up into groups and changing them out every week or so to something different.  You will be amazed at how much more interesting their toys seem to them when they don't see them every day.  I saw a mom who kept a few different laundry bags of toys in her basement and every week put all their kids toys in a laundry bag took it downstairs and brought a new one upstairs.  What a great idea!!  This keeps the toys interesting, without buying new toys all the time, and it also cut down on her mess only having 1/5th of her kids toys around at a time.

 

More Math For Beginners

For beginning counters I like to have this work in my classroom.  I keep it fresh by changing the objects out about once a month.  I usually just find something interesting and cheap in the seasonal section at Walmart. One time I did pretty little rocks, One time I did spiders (on sale in October), another time I did little icicle decorations (Winter).
Right now we are studying dinosaurs so I have a bunch of little dinosaurs.

All I do is get 15 objects and put them in a bowl or container.  Then I make a paper and laminate it or put it in a sheet protector that looks like this.

Then I let my kids put the objects on the sheet on the dots.  This activity is reinforcing what I have already taught with number rods, or what I showed you earlier with blocks. Kids and Math.  After they learn the quantity from these lessons they need to learn the symbols, this is a beginning lesson for the symbols 1-5.  Once they are starting to understand that I will give them this sheet.

I will let them look at the old one but use this one to put the objects on.  After some practice challenge your child to do it with out the sheet with dots.  Once they can do this they are ready to move on so make a sheet for 6-10.

Potty Training

I must admit this is not a subject I know a ton about.  We typically only have one or two kids in diapers in our class.  You can not force them, or tease them, or make them feel bad that they are not potty trained.  That doesn't work, it usually just hurts their self esteem.  There are some things that I usually do that seem to help.

First if the kid is old enough to potty train then they are old enough to stand up.  I know it can be a little challenging at first, but being able to stand on your own is a major accomplishment as a child.  If you let the child stand while they are being changed instead of laying down (the same as the day they were born), then you acknowledge that they are growing up and getting older.  Next, I don't do anything for them during changing that they can do for themselves.  They go and get the diaper, and the wipes for me I get myself some gloves.  I am very pleasant and I talk to them and ask them questions (really spend some quality time with them) while this whole process is going on.  I then ask them to take off their shoes and their pants.  It will be really hard for them at first but this is super positive for them.  Make sure they know how impressed you are when they can do things for themselves.

Of course it takes longer, but it is very good for the child.  Anything they really can't do I give just enough help that they can do the rest.  I let them undo the diaper, then I have them hold their shirt up and I take the diaper off and clean them up well.  I let them push the foot pedal on the diaper pail and I throw it away.  I then let them put the new diaper on as well as they can (sometimes I just give them underwear to wear, or at least a pull up) i make sure it is secure and on comfortably then I have them put their pants and shoes back on themselves.  I help them with buttons and ties only if needed.  I let them wash their own hands afterwards, and I wash mine.

If they are in underwear and they have an accident I use the same process I let them do everything I just am there to help if needed,  and I do the cleaning (to make sure they are really cleaned up well).  I have them wash their hands, then put on the new clothes that they got out of their backpack by themselves before we went to the bathroom area.

If they did not have the confidence to go to the bathroom on their own this will help them start to gain that confidence that they can do things for themselves. It helps them gain self esteem instead of tearing it down.  And although you won't ever really say it eventually they will start to understand that going to the bathroom in the toilet is much easier than the whole process of cleaning up when they don't.

Note- I really don't like diapers once they are old enough to potty train.  I don't really even like pull ups.  Yes they are convenient and help prevent some messes, but a child really understands the consequences in a more real to life way if they are just wearing underwear.  Especially if it is summer and they are playing outside a lot, they won't get stains on your nice couch or on your carpet.
Also- Make sure they are in appropriate clothing--  That is clothing that they can take off and put on by themselves.  They shouldn't need your help in order to go to the bathroom.  Do everything you can to make it a situation where they can do everything for themselves, even if it means keeping a stool in the bathroom so they can get on the toilet by themselves, or whatever will make the situation as user friendly to a child as possible.

And those are my thoughts-- Let me know if you have more ideas for potty training moms :)

Tip from a friend given to me was to have another child show your child how they go to the bathroom in the toilet.  Especially if your child looks up to that child that may help them want to go, or not be as afraid.  She also thinks it was super helpful to have someone else on her side like someone at the preschool or daycare talking to her child and encouraging them as well!

Stressed

It has been a crazy last few weeks!!  I am taking 19 credits at USU, and work started at the preschool.  I have been trying to do training and go to school!  Finals are next week and I am now working 40 hrs or so a week!
CRAZY!!  I love the teacher I am working with this year she is amazing and doing some really cool art projects with the kids.  She is also there for all the time and I can't be right now because of class.  My kids are adorable this year and I am so so excited because nap time is going much better than last year so far.  If you want you can come try to get 20 kids to all take a nap at the same time!  Not the easiest of tasks I assure you. Anyways tons going on but writing here is keeping me sane.  It gives me a break from the crazy and I love it.  I hope it is helping others besides me as well.  Good Luck with all your endeavors and,

Toodles!!

Relationships

One of the first things that a child learns is the relationship between things.  For instance: big and small, narrow and wide, long and short, close and far.

In the Montessori Classroom we teach  lessons for each thing that we have on the shelf in the class.  These lessons are usually taught silently unless you need to teach vocabulary words.  Children have a hard time listening and watching at the same time.  While we are showing something if we want to talk we stop showing, talk, and then go back to showing, to give the child a better chance to soak everything in.  The reason we teach lessons is so they know how a certain thing is supposed to be used.  You would not believe how many small objects and things like glass and knifes and other things are in a Montessori Classroom.   The children learn so much from these things, for instance one of their favorite lessons is squeezing an Orange to get orange juice.  First they wash the orange and then they cut it open with a knife.  Because we teach the children how to use everything we can have so many more things in the classroom for learning that you probably would not naturally think of allowing a child to touch or be around.

In the Montessori Classroom one of the first lessons taught is The Pink Tower.  The pink tower is a series of 10 blocks that increase in size by 1 cm on three sides all the way from 1cm cubed to 10cm cubed.  We teach this lesson by bringing all the blocks to our rug (A Child's Space & Respect ) one at a time putting them down randomly.  We hold the blocks on the top with one hand so we can really feel the difference in weight as we lift them.  We sit at the rug and have the child sit next to us (usually on your non dominant side so they can see better).  First I find the three largest blocks I compare them by putting my hand over them to see which is tallest.  When I find the tallest I put it as the base of the tower.  Then I find the largest out of the two remaining.  I put it on top of the first block.  Then I put the last of the first large three on the tower.  Then I find the next three largest blocks and repeat until the tower is built.  I put my hands near the base of the tower spread apart and narrow them together as I raise them up the tower.  This is to help them visually see that it goes Larger to Smaller as it raises.  I then verbally label the blocks.

I point at the bottom block and Say Big, then I point at the top block and say Small.  This is all I will teach them then I will let them use the blocks by themselves until they can build it biggest to smallest.  If they are younger this can take hours of playing with it over days, weeks or even months, depending on how ready they are.  Other kids will learn it immediately.  Usually they cant really do it right at first.  It will be so tempting to interrupt them and show them the right way.  Please try not to do this.  It is so much better for them to understand on their own then have you show it to them.  It may seem like you are helping them but if they learn it in their own they will remember it more and have a better understanding of it.  (if they are really struggling, go ahead and teach them the first lesson again the same way)

Once they can build it from largest to smallest pretty consistently you start the next part of the lesson.  Sit down with them while they are working on it and start with the largest and teach them big, smaller, smaller...smaller, smallest.  When they understand this then start at the smallest block and teach them small, bigger, bigger...bigger, biggest.  


We are constantly trying to teach children vocabulary abstractly (basically expecting them to just imagine it, or using our hands to gesture it).  They will always learn best by using concrete examples.  Something they can not just see but touch and feel.  There are a million other things they can do with the pink tower these are just the first two lessons. If you are interested in learning more let me know and I will post some more.  I will try to make a video (this is much easier to see than to read!)

 

If you don't like pink (like me) there is always the option of having natural wood which I think is beautiful!

A Child's Space & Respect

This is a lesson that helps children understand respect, and courtesy for space.  This is awesome for getting all those things off your floor that your child spreads out.  It also helps the child feel like they have some control of their environment.

In a Montessori lesson in the classroom there is almost always a rug.















This rug is put on the ground (sometimes we use small ones that can be placed on a table) and unrolled, then the space on that rug is that child's space.  If they need more space they can add another rug, but their works need to stay on their rug.  This way they child can choose where they work, in that little patch of sunlight, or in the same area as a friend or next to a window where they can see outside, etc.

This is a great way to do this at home as well.  First all your child's things stay on a little carpet instead of all over the place.  Next that rug is the child's space and no one may touch it, or step on it, or play with anything on it, unless they get permission from that child.  It gives the child some control of their environment, it makes them feel like they can create and work, and no one can ruin or mess up their work.  It helps them focus.   Also since they only have a small space, unless they lay out more rugs, they have to clean up first to get something else out or it gets too crowded in their space.

There are so many interesting small things in a Montessori classroom and the children want to touch and use everything!  When they first come in to the classroom they have to learn to respect other children's space.  They will see a child working on something and it is natural for them to walk over and touch it or try what the other child is doing.  In a Montessori classroom you will frequently hear the other child say something like: "this is my work, please wait until I am finished to touch it," or "if you want to work with me will you please ask me first," or "please don't touch my work but you can watch me if you like."

You might think that this does not go along with teaching a child to share and be social, but in all actuality it is much more realistic to life. It also show's the child the same respect that we as adults expect.  Can you imagine if you were working on a computer at the library and someone came up and just started pressing keys on the keyboard.  What if you complained to the owners of the library and they said "you need to learn to share."

This is what we do to children all the time, they are learning and using some object or toy, possibly creating or figuring out something really important in their mind, another child comes over and starts breaking the block tower they built, or coloring on a paper they just made a masterpiece on, or even just bothering them so they can't concentrate.  They come to us and tell us what happened and we as adults tell them, you need to learn to share.  How Rude!  We expect respect and to be able to work in our own space as adults, but we usually don't give children that same respect.

As an adult if someone touched what we were working on, especially if it was just a curious child, we would probably use the same words that a child in a Montessori classroom would use.  "This is my computer, please wait until I am finished to touch it," or "if you want to work with me in my space will you please ask me first," or "please don't touch my project but you can watch me if you like."

We are not teaching the child to be antisocial, we teach them to have respect for them self and for others.  We teach them that what they do is important and that they have a right to not be interrupted.  We teach them that they need to ask someone first, if they want to join them in doing something.  It is just basic respect that we anticipate others will give to us as adults.  We try to teach children to give us that respect, but it is rarely given to them in return.  They learn it so much more quickly if you let them feel what it is like to have that respect.

When we teach them polite ways to communicate with others, they will amaze us.  It is incredible to see a child be bothered by something and instead of running to the nearest adult to solve the problem, they politely work it out with the other child.  We give them so much power and control when we teach them the skills to solve problems on their own, instead of always just fixing their problems for them.  This is how the world really works.  We will not always have someone we can run to so we can "tattle" or to fix all our problems.  We grow up and need to be able to work things out with other people.  Can you imagine how much better a person will be able to do this in their adult life, if they started learning these skills as a young child.

One more thing with this we are constantly interrupting children.  If you walked up to an adult you would say excuse me.  If you wanted that adult to go somewhere with you, you would give them prior warning and probably ask them instead of demanding that they do something with you.
Children deserve this same amount of respect.  Tell them what the schedule will be like today, and because they are just understanding time, sometimes they need warnings a few minutes before changing activities, try using an hourglass (it is a very concrete representation of time for a child).  If they don't want to do something in the daily schedule, try to work out a compromise with them.  If you go to the doctor with me we can go to that park you really like afterward for lunch.

Usually what happens (because we are all busy and just don't even think about it) is a child is in the middle of discovering some really cool thing about their world or just happy and enjoying what they are doing and we come up to them and say time to go and start putting their coat on them.  They freak out!  They have had no warning and no time to finish up what they were doing.  Don't you hate it when you have something planned and it is interrupted by someone else and you don't get to finish what you planned for the day.  A child feels this way ALL THE TIME.

They plan to stack these blocks higher than they ever have before.  They get all the blocks out and bring a chair in from the other room to stand on.  They put some pillows on the ground for if they fall.  Just as they are about to start this project that they have set up and prepared and spent time thinking about and planning, Dad walks in and says come on we are going to grandma's.  Let's go.  I bet that child would have loved to have known that soon they would be going to grandma's before they started their project.  They probably would not have made such a lofty goal for an activity, maybe they would have just built their normal block tower or chosen another activity.  It is so important for children to learn to make goals and follow through with them, but when they are constantly interrupted and feel they have no control they may just stop making those goals.  Tomorrow they may have all day to make that really high block tower, but they won't even try because they are going to get everything ready for it and probably just be interrupted again, because they don't know what your plans are.  So why should they waste the effort?

I know what I am saying can seem harsh, but I am just trying to put us all in a child's shoes, so we can really appreciate how they feel sometimes.  The first time someone shared this with me it really opened my eyes and I thought it was worth sharing.

Sending Love your way,
Carly

Learning From a Child's Perspective

"Play is a child's work"
-Dr. Maria Montessori
We underestimate how much a child is learning every day.  Their learning curve is so much higher than ours will ever be.  Before a child is 6 they learn more than an adult ever could come even close to in 6 years.  From 0-6 years old the brain is like a sponge soaking up everything, never in a person's life will they be able to learn as fast or as well as when they are this age.  Many times when we think they are "just playing" they are learning something about their environment that is so important and integral to who they will be as a person.   Remember the first time you drove a stick shift?  A child is constantly in situations where they feel that way, they don't understand the rules for everything, and they don't have the muscle memory to just accomplish tasks to us that just seem simple.

We are in the position that we have developed muscle memory for everything around us and we have figured out all the strange sometimes unspoken rules of our environment.  For those that drive a stick shift you can probably relate to this, you don't need to concentrate to know when to shift or to know how far to push or when to release the pedals.  For anyone who drives, it is not difficult to make a turn in a car like it was when you first drove, you rarely if ever over or under correct while driving.  You probably rarely think about turning on your turn signal, you don't consciously slow the car with the brake when coming to a stop, it is like the car has just become part of you, and does what you want.  Now imagine your first driving experience to how a newborn child feels.  They cant control their body, they cant make their hand do what they want, they can't just stand up and walk where they want, they have no balance or control.  They don't understand basic rules of physics like friction and gravity.  They lay down and try to take a drink out of a sippy cup and it sprays them in the face the first 10 times they try and finally they understand that they need to put it in their mouth and then lay back.  They don't understand the language around them, and they can not communicate sometimes even their most basic needs.  Do I even need to talk about all the social rules and etiquette that are involved in living with other human beings.  Imagine being put in a totally foreign environment with no prior knowledge of anything to make comparisons, now imagine you don't know how to communicate with those around you, and now imagine that you are in a body that as hard as you try barely does anything you want it to.  Half the time when you try to move your hand you hit yourself in the face.  What an amazing and daunting situation.  Yet children enter this world and grow and develop and learn incredibly quickly much faster and better than they will ever be able to at any other time in their life, and sometimes we think they are "just playing."

Never Please Never assume that a child is "Just Playing," we are always trying to rush them around in our busy world and we are taking opportunities away from them.  How long does it take a child to walk around a building?  You may think they are just dawdling and going slow to make you mad, but sometimes they are seeing things for the first time and they are just amazed, a small rock, a bug on the ground, the petals of a flower, things that we have stopped "seeing as a child" we mostly ignore our environment and just hurry on with our busy schedule.  Can you imagine if you were seeing some absolutely amazing thing for the first time in your life and someone was constantly badgering you to hurry up and go, or even worse they just grabbed you and pulled you away from it, not even giving you a chance to protest.
I understand that we all have busy lives and are in a hurry to do a thousand things.  We don't always have time to let a child take 10 minutes to walk 20 feet.  But please understand why they are doing the things they are doing and give them the respect they deserve, their little minds are constantly learning and buzzing and doing things just as important as what we have planned in our busy schedule each day.  We all expect that respect as adults, yet rarely is it given to a child.

You could always tell them Mommy really needs to get to... before they lock the door today.  Could you please hurry to the car and we can come back later to look at that.
That shows the child so much more respect than "hurry up we need to get to... Stop Dawdling!!"
I am guilty all the time of feeling and sometimes reacting like the latter statement.  We just don't tend to see children as little humans who deserve as much respect as anyone else.  I will tell you what though, the times when I have really stopped and tried to see things from their point of view, and given the respect to them that I would give to an adult, they have really surprised me by acting like an adult and giving me that respect back.
Instead of turning and running (because they feel they have no control and this is their way of trying to gain control) and telling you nah nah nah nah nah nah

They feel respected and like their voice is heard so they respond with OK mom.  They may even work out a compromise (just like a little adult) "can we come back tomorrow."  I don't know about you but I would much rather work out a compromise than chase an angry, frustrated, child who is acting out because they feel no control of their world.

Just some thoughts, I would love to hear your real life experiences about any of this.

P.S. thanks to my sister in law for the sippy cup story about her daughter.
Toodles

Opening your Senses

So one day during the summer I went outside and just wrote down everything I felt and sensed, it was awesome I read this all the time and just relive that moment.  I thought I would share my musings, and encourage you in your own. This is a great way to bring peace to yourself and make you feel more in touch with the world around you.  Sometimes we get lost in all the crazy frantic business and forget to really stop and see what beauty surrounds us.

Warm sun bakes my hands and face

The fragrance of country foliage and soil reaches my nose 

Small insects and prickly grass brush my skin

The sound of a chirping cricket touches my consciousness

The twittering of birds fills the air with wonder

The coolness of earth and the heat of air mix and intertwine

I watch the beauty of fluttering leaves in the wind

My eyes communicate the roughness of stone to my fingertips

Cars hum down a mountain road

The feathery tips of the grass sway gently in the cool breeze

The clouds meander past at their own pace

I can almost taste the scent of amber cream on my hands and arms

Old wood tells a tale of times past and days gone by

TASTE THE BEAUTY OF THE DAY

Luvin' Blogging

So I have decided I love blogging, it is a great creative outlet.  I tend to go through spurts though.  I write when I have a little break (or take a break because I need one even if I don't have time).  Then I get super super busy and no blogging for a while.  But, I am back.
This has been quite the crazy last 2 weeks, I found out all at the same time that I have ADHD, and my IQ is in the 99th percentile.  So I have intelligence but at times it feels like the answers are written on a bouncy ball jumping around in my skull so fast that my brain can't quite keep up, or make any sense of it all.  But at least I guess one kinda makes up for the other.
Well back to activities to do with your kids!!  OK science and reading and math are awesome but lets start with social emotional today.  Kids need to strengthen this as much as any other area!  Maybe even more.
I love to talk about emotions with my students.  I found these beautiful pictures on google that I will share so you can use them if you want.  In my class we look at the pictures and make faces like we are feeling those emotions, we talk about why we feel that way sometimes and what the name of the emotion is, for group activities I usually just go over the basics- Angry, Happy, Sad, Shy, Scared, Excited, etc.  But many of the individual students are ready to go further.
I took classes to be a foster parent and one of the social workers who taught us said that a huge problem for some kids is that no one has taught them how to express emotions and they have no way to understand what they are feeling.  One young boy, who had been through hell, went out for an activity with his foster parents one day and he told his foster parents that he was feeling funny.  They were worried, they thought he was sick, or there was a problem.  After he was with them for a while he finally could explain what he was feeling that day when he was "feeling funny."   He had been feeling happy, he had felt so little happiness in his life that first of all it was a weird feeling to him.  Second of all when most of us talk to even a baby we say things like Oh look at you, you are so happy.  Or oh you are sad, look at those crocodile tears.  These infants who cant even talk yet are exposed to things this young boy had never been exposed to.  This goes to show that we do so many things naturally that are good and right and helping our children and we didn't even know it.  This also shows that expressing emotions, something that also seems like it should be natural, is in many ways a thing that is learned through life. 
The better your child is at expressing them self, the better they will be understood.  They will have better skills with making friends, with writing and reading, and with speaking.  They will understand them self better, and be able to communicate their wants and needs more easily to others.  They will be able to relate to others more easily, it can help them have more empathy and even to be a better listener.  So don't just teach them the basics teach them as many emotion words as you can think of (you will be amazed at what they can learn!).  You will also be amazed at how hard it is to explain an emotion with words.  This is something that you need to always be able to do when you have a teaching moment, have the correct word for an emotion that you think your child may be feeling and give them that word.  Instead of them always feeling angry, maybe they are really feeling lonely, impatient or jealous and it would be helpful for them to know the difference.  Here are some lists of positive and negative emotions I found at http://www.self-improvement-mentor.com/list-of-human-emotions.html

Adequate	Awe	Assured	Able
Capable	Certain	Charmed	Cheerful
Comfortable	Compassion	Courageous	Confidence
Determined	Delighted	Eager	Energetic
Enthusiastic	Excited	Exhilarated	Expectant
Elation	Empathy	Excellent	Fascinated
Glad	Good	Great	Grateful
Glorious	Glamorous	Graceful	Happy
Hopeful	Humorous	Inspired	Interested
Joyful	Magnificent	Lust	Love
Pleasure	Playfulness	Peaceful	Pleasant
Powerful	Pride	Positive	Relaxed
Relieved	Satisfied	Surprised	Sympathy
Stable	Sublime	Superior	Thrilled

Annoyed	Anxious	Apprehensive	Agonize
Anger	Anxiety	Apathy	Bored
Burdened	Cautious	Competitive	Concerned
Confused	Contempt	Depressed	Destructive
Disgusted	Distracted	Doubtful	Disappointed
Exasperated	Exhausted	Embarrassment	Envy
Frustrated	Fear	Guilty	Greed
Grief	Harassed	Hesitant	Hostile
Ignored	Impatient	Indifferent	Intimidated
Isolated	Irritated	Jealous	Jumpy
Lonely	Mad	Manipulated	Miserable
Obnoxious	Overwhelmed	Panic	Pressured
Remorse	Revenge	Shame	Sad
Scared	Shocked	Suspicious	Stress
Tired	Uncomfortable	Uneasy	Used
Wary	Weary	Wasteful

Always take the time to explain to your child in words what is going on around them or what might be going on inside.  They will always be so much the better for it.  You could turn the emotions into a fun memory game where you match them.   You can make faces and have them guess what they are.  I have these cool things called emotion cubes.  Two are positive and Two are Negative.  One set has a picture of faces with different emotions, the other has pictures of different situations (like someone giving a gift, someone giving a hug, one with a child sitting there and their parents fighting, one with someone helping someone in a wheelchair, one with 2 kids fighting, one with someone breaking another kids toy)  Things they can understand. The cubes look like big dice.  You pick one and throw it then talk about whatever it lands on.  Easy to make and a great teaching tool.  You could do it once a day, for instance right before bed time when they want to stay up and will do anything to keep you in their room, you can have a lot of teaching moments right then!

All Right Toodles and See you all Later!!