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It has finally warmed up enough here to spend long-ish periods of time outdoors (still bundled up, but without freezing noses). We went treasure-hunting on our street, and came home with rocks, which Emma put in her pockets and Johnny stuck in his pants cuffs – after first filling all his pockets:
He walked pretty slowly on the way home! We then set up a rock washing station. Emma and Johnny delighted in the enhanced beauty of even the plainest rock when placed in water:
And I enjoyed the pure joy children find so easily in the simplest activities.
I enjoyed reading Your Family Constitution: A Modern Approach to Family Values and Household Structure. Scott Gale’s writing is down-to-earth and frequently humorous. I think any family can benefit from making time to work together to identify the central values that are the most important to them, and to then figure out how to incorporate those values into everyday life. A family constitution creates a foundational framework to work off of that is easily tailored to meet individual needs, and a weekly family meeting is a great way to draw a family together around central values and goals. I do find the task of doing this in my own family a bit daunting, so I appreciate Scott Gale’s honesty as he recounts his own bumpy journey, as well as the different sample constitutions at the back of the book and the many free resources available for download through the book’s website. The book focuses on Gale’s own journey with children a bit older than my own, so I am especially excited that he graciously agreed to answer a few questions about applying the book to families with younger children: Q: I have three very young children (4, 2, and 6 months), and most of my blog readers have children within this same age range. Do you have any specific advice for parents who are hoping to get toddlers especially involved with creating a family constitution? A: The biggest advice I have is to establish enthusiasm and respect for your family’s structure by finding things that they are capable of great success with. Their chores may involve simple things such as unloading silverware, putting placemats on the table, or cleaning their designated play area. Find creative ways to entice them such as special stickers or prizes, extra reading time with mom or dad, or a viewing of a special program on TV. You can use a simple visual Family Constitution to get your boundaries, rules and consequences across (see attached template). Ultimately, the point of this is to develop the underpinnings of greater responsibility when they are older. Also, make sure to follow through on whatever you prescribe. Young kids can give a cute smile or statement to cut through boundaries. Understand that establishing consistency now will make your life and theirs much easier as they grow and your family dynamics become more complicated. Q: How about tactics for holding family meetings when children are very young? A: The key here is to make the family meeting quick and fun. Young kids won’t have the capability of comprehending or contributing on complex issues. Save those conversations for another time. A basic meeting could consist of reviewing successful completion of chores for the week, talking about an upcoming family vacation or other issue of interest, then finishing off with a game or activity that involves everyone. Once again, you’re setting the stage for future success, so don’t get bogged down with the content of the meeting as much as establishing a routine. Q: Can you recommend any particular low- or no-cost fun family activities for parents of very young children? A: There are many no-cost fun family activities. When my boys were young, wrestling and Nerf gun fights topped the list. Yard games such as all-terrain bocce (pair-up or individually), croquet and bag-toss also can create some fun after the initial investment in the equipment is made. Finally, any outdoor excursion is always good for the soul and communication. Hiking, fishing, or playing in the water are always great fun when the weather allows. Q: If you could go back in time and start your family constitution before having children (or while your oldest was an infant or toddler), what – if anything – would you change about your approach? A: The biggest change to my approach is the discussions with my wife about parenting goals and ideals would have started before we ever decided to have children. That way, we could have focused our efforts earlier and not run into some of the communication challenges that we ultimately encountered. Q: Do you have any advice on ways to teach children to behave responsibly/kindly/ethically for the sake of behaving responsibly/kindly/ethically (as opposed to in order to receive a reward/avoid a consequence)? A: The best way to teach those things is to exhibit those characteristics and to establish the expectations that the kids behave accordingly. Often time, it’s easy to overlook an opportunity to teach a lesson because it is more convenient to do a kid’s work, avoid an uncomfortable situation, or steer around a conversation in the interest of time. Since parents only have a certain number of hours in a day to accomplish a lot of conflicting tasks, it helps to have a road map (such as a Family Constitution) to distribute time based on importance rather than urgency. ********************************* I received a copy of this book to review, and I have been offered a second copy as a giveaway. I’m very happy to say that this giveaway is open WORLDWIDE! To enter:
You can leave separate comments, or you can tell me which things you did in a single comment – I’ll compile all entries into a spreadsheet to choose the winner so it doesn’t matter to me which one you do. This giveaway runs until 9am US Eastern Time on March 15th, at which point I will choose a winner via random.org.
This week I took Emma and Johnny to a trial karate class. They had zero interest in the karate portion of the class (although Emma did try kicking Johnny after we got home), but they were thrilled to get to make little Zen Gardens at the end of class. We brought their Zen Gardens home, where each child played with their gardens in their own special way. Any guesses as to which garden belonged to which child? In fairness to Johnny, he originally had some larger rocks in his Zen Garden – and Emma did NOT have that many rocks in her Zen Garden when we got home. I decided to act before things got completely out of hand. We mixed the garden contents with two of our containers of leftover colored rice to create Zen Garden I-Spy bottles.
This picture is of Johnny’s garden, because – as usual – Emma has hidden hers in one of her Secret Treasure spots. I’m guessing it’s under her bed, but I don’t want a picture enough to crawl under there!
This memory game was made by making little balls of model magic, and using our stamps to flatten them. We used each stamp twice to make a matching game. Johnny doesn’t get the concept of memory yet, so he and Emma played an “I Spy” version where they tried to find the most matches with the pieces face up. Many thanks to Mama King for inspiring us to use stamps with model magic in this post!
February in our home opened and ended with sickness, so I’m hoping to bid goodbye to cold/flu season as the snow (slowly) melts from our lawn. I’m ignoring the fact that they’ve forecast snow for tomorrow… As for goals, February was interesting. I didn’t maintain a constant five-dinner list as originally planned. I’m really glad I made the goal, though, because I had enough dinners available to make something every night without going into brain lock. I did keep a list of five activities, but found that my kids kept choosing the same thing over and over anyhow. The big hits this month were play dough and legos. Valentine’s Day was spent looking after sick children, so we did not make it to the nursing home. Hopefully next year! And Mike was the sole source of our science projects, so I still have plenty of inspiration from this post. Emma’s birthday party was a lot of fun for the entire family, and a bright point during the month. And, I got some adorable pictures of Lily on her half-birthday – including the one at the top of this post of Lily immensely pleased at having grabbed the camera strap, this eating sequence, and this very cute pose. And, I even got Emma’s approval on my dinosaur chart:
Goals for March:
What are your goals for March? Have any advice on how I should approach mine? Please let me know! This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations, Thrifty and Chic Mom!
Emma recently added ballerina to her ever-growing list of career aspirations, so I was thrilled when Prima Princessa sent me a copy of Prima Princessa presents Swan Lake to review. The DVD is a hit, as evidenced by Emma showing off her new ballet moves throughout the day! Both Emma and Johnny have watched and danced to this DVD several times, and Johnny was actually the first of the kids to show an interest in it. I think the DVD is a great way to introduce kids to ballet as an art form. They get to see clips from a professional production, and talented young dancers demonstrate a few ballet moves. The DVD is not set up as a class, and the little girls run around without making any serious attempts at ballet moves. The format reminds me of Baby Einstein DVDs, complete with clips of animals and spinning toys. This is definitely a DVD I would consider as a gift to a little girl who is interested in dance – it’s fun, educational, and it gets my kids up and dancing around. It’s a great introduction to ballet, and the website includes a free teacher’s guide and coloring pages.
Prima Princess is giving one DVD to a reader of this blog with a US mailing address! To enter, just leave a comment explaining why you want to win this DVD. You can get extra entries if you follow this blog or subscribe by email; just let me know which you do. This giveaway is open until 9am US Eastern Time March 8th, when a winner will be drawn using random.org.
Our (probably 10+ year-old) baby monitor died recently, and Mike took the opportunity to give the kids an electronics lesson. They talked about hooking up LED lights, and saw where the speaker, antenna, and microphone were, but mostly they just admired the capacitors, transistors, and resistors on the circuit board.
I know Mike is really looking forward to the day when the kids are old enough to learn about computer science with Dad =)
Way back in December, Johnny spied some Uglydolls in a toy catalog. He was completely enthralled, and I’ve been meaning to make him one ever since, but finally got around to it yesterday. Mine doesn’t look quite like the real thing; I didn’t copy the design of any one Uglydoll, and the facial features are quite different. If I make another one (which I will, if Emma has her way), I will probably make the features smaller and more centered in the face, although I kind of like the wonkiness of this softie’s eyes going up on the top of his head. As much as I enjoy the creative process, this is the true reward (princess outfit and all):
If you want to give 2D character softies a try, I highly recommend this ikatbag blog tutorial. Very informative, and (bonus) entertaining to read. |
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