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JDaniel4s Mom

growing & learning with him

Seeing Red!

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Seeing Red Activity
JDaniel has decided that everything is blue or orange. I decided that we would work on exploring the color red this week. We used the great red bag I was sent by Pam from Country Mouse, City Mouse to look for red things around the house. There were a few items that JDaniel selected that weren’t really red, but for the most part he did a great job gathering a collection of red items. Not everything he found fit in the bag.

 

We will also be looking for red spots I am going to hide around the house, coloring a page of red objects, and looking for pictures of red things in magazines this week.

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Helping your kids Understand Tragedy in Haiti and Elsewhere

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With all that is happening in the world right now I thought would post some tips on helping children understand tragedy. These tips come from Charlotte Reznick PhD a child educational psychologist.

-Talk to your children and provide simple, accurate information to questions. Allow them to tell and draw their stories about what happened.

-Talk with your children about your own feelings.

-Listen to what your children say and how they say it. Try to acknowledge the underlying feelings in their words and their actions. For example: “I can see it makes you sad to think about all the people who were hurt by this earthquake.” This helps both you and the children clarify feelings.

-Reassure your child: “We are together. We are safe. We will take care of you.”

-Be honest and don’t deny the seriousness of the situation. Saying to a child: “Don’t cry, everything will be okay,” does not reflect how the child feels and the child knows that, at least in the immediate future, this is not true.

-Respond to repeated questions. You may need to repeat information and reassurances many times.

-Hold your child. Touching is especially important for children when they are distressed.
-Observe your child at play. Listen to what she says and how she plays. Frequently children express feelings of fear or anger while playing with dolls, trucks, or friends.

-Have your child imagine not only how it “feels” to be safe, but what it looks like, what sounds she hears, what smells she detects. Evoking as many senses as possible will make the experience seem real.

-Provide play, art, and writing games to relieve tension. You can have him act out, draw, or write out a positive outcome for the situation.
-Plan something practical that your child can do to help (do a pennies fundraiser at school or draw a picture memorializing a person who may have died).

-Resolving all of the feelings related to the disaster may take your child (and you) quite a while. It is normal for a child to bring up the crisis long after it has happened and when you least expect it.

Charlotte Reznick PhD is a child educational psychologist, an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology at UCLA, and author of the LA Times bestselling book The Power of Your Child’s Imagination: How to Transform Stress and Anxiety into Joy and Succes.s

Disclaimer: These tips were sent to me and I thought they would be useful. I was not compensated in any way to post them and was have not read any of Dr. Reznick’s books.

Holidays are a Time for Family Storytelling- Mommyhood Tip

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We went to visit with my in-laws recently. I was able to spend the large part of an afternoon talking with my mother in-law. She told me stories about raising her five children. Then she focused on the various girlfriends and boyfriends each had brought home to meet her and my father in-law. I have heard many of the stories before. This time she focused on my husband’s more than she had before. She said that each one seemed nice, but after a visit or two they never came back. “You were the one that keep coming back!” she said. It was wonderful to hear her retell the events that lead up to my getting to join her family.

I hope you will take time to listen to family stories from your aunts, uncles, mom, dad or grandparents this year.

Mommyhood Tip- Birthday Traditions

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Start traditions based around birthdays. There are lots of ways to do them. Here are some I found online:

Decorate Before Waking– Decorate the living room with balloons, confetti and banners in the living room the morning of their birthday.

Birthday Frame– I like this idea one mom posted on frames.Every year on her son’s birthday she makes a picture frame using the wrapping paper his gifts came in. She buys a 5×7 wood picture frame from a craft store and makes a collage using the pieces of the wrapping paper on the mat frame that comes inside the frame. When the frame is finished she puts in a photograph of her son from his birthday party. She hangs the picture on the wall and has a memory of each birthday.

Special Plate– It is fun to have a “special” plate (or a birthday crown) for the birthday person to use at meals, that is used only for birthdays. You can make a plate or buy a fun one at the store.

Letters to Remember– Write a special letter to your child each birthday. Keep them in a special place.

Birth Day Stories– The birthday child gets to stay up a little later after the other children have gone to bed and Mommy and Daddy tell him/her about the day they were born, and how their parents felt when that special child joined their family.

Birthday Growth Picture– Take a picture of the birthday child standing back to back with Daddy (or Mommy) and compare growth from year to year.

What birthday traditions do you have? Please leave comment below telling me about your birthday traditions.

Mommyhood Tip- Bring Your Own Headphones to Use at the Library

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I was reminded of another computer related Mommyhood Tip today. JDaniel likes to hop from computer to computer and loves to have the headphones on. In my previous life as a technology resource teacher we cleaned the headphones in the computer lab often. I am not sure how often they get a chance to clean the headphones in the library. JDaniel is going to be getting a cheap pair of headphones from the dollar store to use at the library. With flu season here and lots of children with colds it will be a good investment.

Mommyhood Tips- Timing Computer Usage

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We discussed the internet and computer usage at the Mentor Moms group I attend at my church. One thing that kept coming up was the amount of time both parents and children spend on the computer. A suggestion was to set a kitchen timer for the amount of time you want to be on the computer and to stop working on the computer when it goes off. I know easier said than done.

Mommyhood Tip- Waiting Room Fun Bag

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We have a great time playing with the train in the waiting room of the pediatrician office until someone bigger comes along. I have started bringing a bag of toys and activities with me to the doctor’s office. It gives us something to do when the train is busy or when we are waiting in the examination room. I bring a coloring book, crayons, a ball, a toy car, children’s books, and an I-Spy bag. It has really been a blessing to pull out things to do when we have to wait.

It is also a great way to know JDaniel is playing with germ free toys and books.

Mommyhood Tip- Handwashing Song

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You sing this to the tune Row, Row, Row Your Boat:

Wash, wash wash your hands
Wash them everyday
Tops and bottoms and in between
To keep the germs away!

Mommyhood Tip- Create Greeting Card Picture Walking Books

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I am not sure where I first read about this idea.It is a really good way to reuse greeting cards.

Here is how you put together your greeting card picture walking book:

1.You remove the front part of a bunch of greeting cards.
2.You take a hole punch and punch a hole in one corner of each card.
3.You put a metal ring through the holes.

How do you use them to picture walk?
-You can flip through the cards and talk about what it happening on each card.
-You can look for a particular color on each card.
-You can look for a particular element on a card.(trees,animals,candles,flowers)

Older Children
-You could use them to discuss the setting of each illustration.
-You could have a child select a card and use it as a story starter.
-You could have a child select a card and make up a word problem for that card.

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