mama smiles

Review and Giveaway: Shushybye

I was reading posts on The Product Review Place one day when I saw a notice requesting reviewers of a new book intended to help young children look forward to bedtime. You only have to look at my goal posts from last year to know that bedtime at our house can be an ordeal, and while I was a little dubious as to much how green, purple, and orange creatures could help I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try.

We were sent a copy of the book (which comes with a CD of the book being read out loud and a couple of songs), as well as the new “Close Your Eyes” CD by the Shushybye band (see cover photo below). Emma enjoyed the book, and has asked to listen to it with the CD and for me to read it aloud several times since we first received it. The book makes me feel sleepy, which might be appropriate for a bedtime story. And bedtime at our house has been going smoothly, for a change.

The biggest hit, however is the band CD – although it does NOT help the kids sleep! Emma asks me to put it on so she can dance around the living room! I don’t mind – the music is fun, and it’s a good way to get Emma up and moving.

I’m hosting a giveaway of the “Shushybye Sleepover Surprise” book with CD and the “Close Your Eyes” CD for one of my readers with an address in the US or Canada. To enter, visit www.Shushybye.com and tell me one thing you found interesting on the site (mandatory entry). You can get extra entries by sharing your favorite bedtime tip (one entry), following this blog (one entry), or subscribing to this blog via email (one entry). This giveaway ends March 22nd at 9am US Eastern Time, and a winner will be drawn using random.org. Please make sure you include a valid email address in your comment form so I have a way of contacting you if you win.

Pizza!

Wednesday night I got brave and let the kids help me make pizza from scratch while Lily napped. I even used a rolling pin – a goal for last year that I achieved only once. Our bread maker kindly mixed the dough (we used the pizza dough recipe from my favorite bread machine cookbook). Emma helped roll the dough flat while Johnny stole bits of dough to eat. I’ve learned that pizza dough rolls out much more easily if you flatten it and then let it sit that way for 10-20 minutes before rolling.

Both kids added sauce. I’m convinced that the secret to good pizza sauce is to puree fresh tomatoes instead of using canned ones. I actually like to pre-cook the crust a bit, but skipped it this time as dinner was already running late. I usually cook my pizza on parchment paper, but I skipped it because I wanted to try setting it on rice flour instead. I definitely prefer the parchment paper method, so we’ll go back to that next time.

Next came the cheese. Emma was (predictably) much more attentive about seeing that the cheese made it onto the pizza.

I added the rest of the cheese, pineapple, and BBQ pulled pork for a dinner that was happily eaten by all – including Lily, who managed to nab somebody’s crust to gnaw at with the single tooth that made its appearance Tuesday evening after a day of clinginess.

Thank you cards

I finally got Emma’s thank you cards sent off last week, after many sessions of her writing cards to Tinkerbell instead. We used the same method as last year, with strips of cardstock folded in half. She enjoyed writing the cards once she decided Tinkerbell had received enough love (although I did notice that Tinkerbell’s name made it onto a couple of her friends’ cards), and it was fun to see how far she has come from the “IOIOIO” pattern written on her thank you cards last year.

Wordless Wednesday: So Happy Together =)

Outdoors at last!

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.

Review and Worldwide Giveaway: Your Family Constitution

This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations, Elisa!

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:

Tell me why you are interested in this book (mandatory entry)
Tell me one “trick” that really helps your family life run smoothly (1 extra entry)
Tell me what you like most about the book’s website (1 extra entry)
Follow this blog (1 extra entry)
Subscribe to this blog via email (1 extra entry)

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.

Zen Garden to I-Spy bottle

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!

Model Magic matching/memory game

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!

Wordless Wednesday: Carnegie Hall =)

February in review and March goals

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:

Try structuring our days a little more. This is actually a goal I made for March last year, but in the end I decided to focus on habits rather than structure. That has worked for the past year, and now I want to give a slightly more organized approach a try, and I want to engage Emma in the planning process. The end result might be a list of things we want to do that we plan out the afternoon before or a (very rough) timetable for the day – or we may return to the habits approach. It’s an experiment, and I’ll let you know how it goes. If anyone reading this has blogged about a similar attempt, please link up to your post in the comments as I’d love to hear how it goes. Target areas: peace and education.
Create a home management binder. This is an idea I’ve seen on several blogs recently, and I think it could help organize our house. Here is a good description of the general idea. I’m using a three-ring binder. We’ll start with sections for meal planning, activity idea lists for the kids, a calendar, and our various structure experiments throughout the month. I’d love to hear if anyone reading this has created one of these! Target areas: health, peace, and education.
Send out thank you cards for Emma’s birthday party. ASAP, as they are already overdue. Target area: gratitude.
Make and send cards to a few family members. Target area: charity (meaning: loving, caring, and giving to others).

What are your goals for March? Have any advice on how I should approach mine? Please let me know!

Search blog

Archives

Categories