Writing in the Montessori environment

Do we stop to think about how a child begins the process of writing? Is it only about providing paper and pencil and letting them get on with the job?

Or are much deeper processes involved - processes that involve preparing the mind and the hand to perform the complex task of writing. Read on...

http://blog.montessoriprintshop.com/2011/10/31/writing-in-the-montessori-environment.aspx

Tips To Calm Kids Down

http://practicalkatie.com/2011/02/04/calm-it-down-tips-for-helping-your-kids-relax/

A perfectly awesome post by Katie - Practical Parenting

I'm going to be using the 'pretend' balloon blowing one and the story walk most often, if I can remember to when we need to bring in some 'calm'. Ms. E loves 'pretend' ideas so it should not be too difficult! The trick will be to begin the calming process before she goes completely berserk!

Thanks, Katie!

Positive Discipline Part 4

Where are we heading with Positive Discipline?

The ultimate goal is to have well-balanced kids, who know they're loved and have the self-confidence to face life.

Thanks to Katie Mommy Moment for this beautiful round-up of the Positive Discipline series.

http://www.mommymoment.ca/2011/10/positive-discipline-long-term-goals.html

Turn a 'No' into a 'Yes'

How often do we head into tantrums and fussy behaviour for no reason whatsoever! But is that true? Is there really no reason?

The reason lies in OUR behaviour -after reading this post below, I can see where and how we go wrong as parents in our dealings with our little ones. Yes, we're rushed for time; yes, we've got other things to do BUT making them rush is what makes them dig in their heels and get stubborn about what and how they want to do things. At their own pace.

So it seems to me - for anything we need them to do, we have to make provision for enough time - enough spare time for dawdling and wasting, for getting side-tracked, so that everyone wins and we have a happy toddler by our sides.

Read on!

http://www.regardingbaby.org/2011/10/04/the-secret-to-turning-a-toddlers-no-into-a-yes/

Thank you, Lisa, your blog Regarding Baby is wonderful.      

Positive Discipline Part 3

Here's the 3rd part in the series on Positive Discipline: an excellent post once again. This series is amazing.

http://www.mommymoment.ca/2011/09/positive-discipline-praise-encouragement-rewards.html

Now if only Eyana and I can follow it by the book :)

Handling Sibling Violence

Though we don't need it yet, at some point, we just might! :) We've often seen parents getting worked up, upset, infuriated with such situations and the result is that the older child is either scolded strongly or even beaten up sometimes. Complete deterioration of the situation results and no one benefits or learns anything from the process.


A lovely post from Dr. Laura Markham of Aha! Parenting showing some skills in handling such sibling rivalry/violence situations -

http://www.ahaparenting.com/_blog/Parenting_Blog/post/The_Best_Way_to_Stop_Sibling_Violence/

Positive Discipline Part 2

Katie from Mommy Moment has put up part 2 of the Positive Discipline series. And excellent, it is, as usual.

http://www.mommymoment.ca/2011/09/positive-discipline-structure-and-limits.html

Positive Discipline Part 1

One of the excellent parenting blogs has begun posting a series of articles on Positive Discipline.
http://www.mommymoment.ca/2011/09/positive-discipline-self-evaluations.html

Though I've read so many books, so many articles, yet - parenting doesn't come easy. It's so easy to degenerate into a battle of wills, using our age and size to forcefully make the little ones conform... I often end up using the wrong words, the wrong tactics.

Every little bit of information about POSITIVE Discipline and sharing of it, helps. So I'm putting this up here so that it gets a wee bit easier to know what to do, in the right way, for our kids.

Thank you, MommyMoment!! :)

To Blindly Obey or Understand?

Can't help but post this excellent post by Teacher Tom. Read on and ponder...

http://networkedblogs.com/mDN1N

Spoiled Brats??

I came across this excellent post about all our 'problems' in disciplining our children... it's worth a read, time and again!

It raises multiple questions - all of us who're trying to do our best for our kids in terms of disciplining, upbringing, values, etc., need to read this.

Do we really need to be 'tough'?
Do we need to be strict?
Do we need to show we're the boss?
Do we need to frighten them into docility?
Where do 'spoiled' behaviours really come from?
Should we just let them 'be'?
Should we create a world of commands or a world of facts?

http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/spoiled-brats.html

Paper flowers for Show & Tell

I found this sweet little craft activity at http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/flowers/handprintflower/which we will use for show-and-tell tomorrow.

Pretty paper flowers/lilies

I got Ms. E to mark out her handprints on paper. She then coloured them in (both front and back), as best as she could, in yellow and red. I then cut the handprints out. We then took each paper 'finger' and curled it around a pencil. We got a straw and stuck about 2 inches of one end in the middle of the 'palm'. We then made a cone from the 'palm' section and wrapped it around the straw, sticking it with cello tape. So there we had our flower and stem, with the petals (fingers) curving outwards. We made two green leaves from the paper and stuck them on the straw too. Repeated the process for the other 'flower'.

There - we have two pretty paper flowers to take to school tomorrow. :)

These are a few of her favourite things

1. Being read to - anytime and anywhere
2. Bedtime stories - Goldilocks or Cinderella or Three Little Pigs
3. Play-dough
4. Water colours - she prefers finger painting to using a brush
5. Scribbling, making circles, drawing faces
6. Jigsaw puzzles
7. Snakes and Ladders
8. Dressing up - esp. shoes, necklaces
9. Playing make-believe particularly being Teacher to dozens of imaginary kids.

Paint that puffs up!

As my exploration for interesting and useful activities continues, I came across this excellent post.

http://magicalchildhood.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/easy-puffy-paint/

All we need is self-raising flour, salt, some food colouring and water - and yes, a microwave. (And lest we forget that some parts of the world are not blessed with 24x7 power supply, we need that too.)

Mix equal proportions of the flour and salt, then add just enough water to make a paste. You can divide this lot into little containers/muffin tins/ice cube containers and then add different colours of food colouring to make the different colours.

Let your child paint with these onto thick paper or cardboard. Once the artwork is done, zap it in the microwave for 10 seconds or more, depending on the wetness/thickness of the paste. You have some lovely puffy paint work!!

Bubbles, bubbles!

Who hasn't enjoyed blowing bubbles from a soap solution! We enjoyed this as children and we now relive those carefree fun times with our own kids.

What a lovely pass-time this is - watching oh so many bubbles of different sizes, shimmering with different colours as they catch the sunlight, floating along with the breeze. Listening to my child's shrieks of delight and laughter; watching the amazement, awe and sheer joy of it on her face. Bliss.

Easy to make, no real cost and at least half an hour of a child having fun! Oh yes, let's add the benefit of blowing for the lungs!

Tangram

I found the interesting 'Tangram' a few days ago in the browse-worthy shop Warden. That man stocks almost everything! It's a bit overly priced for pieces made out of plastic - of course, made in China as everything seems to be nowadays - but I picked it up nevertheless, since I think Ms.E will spend many happy hours with it, giving her creativity full rein.

It says 5+ years on the box, but any bright toddler will find it fascinating to put the different shapes together in a myriad ways to see what they can come up with. The Montessori system deals with shapes anyway, so it's never too early to introduce this puzzle.

My husband says there should be a wooden set somewhere in the house - Yay!

How to say NO to your kids

It's all too easy to try and lay down the rules, raise my voice, show a firm index finger, show exasperation, threaten to smack, give deadlines, threaten to withdraw favourite toys, etc., when I want my toddler to stop what she's doing and do what I want her to do. Unfortunately, its mostly ineffective.

The situation deteriorates and she gets obstinate and then unreasonable and then heads into a full-fledged tantrum where 'reason' has all been lost.

All the parenting books come up with good ideas and ways of how to talk to kids and get them to do what we want.

Aha! parenting.com has created a nice concise list:

http://www.ahaparenting.com/_blog/Parenting_Blog/post/10_Secrets_Every_Parent_Needs_to_Know_about_Saying_No/

Here are some more tips:

http://www.ahaparenting.com/_blog/Parenting_Blog/post/What_about_those_days_when_he's_hell-bent_on_misbehaving/

If only it was easy to remember during actual situations! :) I shall try! ;)

Make Your Own Watercolours

Children love to paint and more the mess, the more the fun! Lots of brands of paints are out in the market, but wouldn't it be fun to get them to actually make their own paints? Children love the creativity involved in this and here's a simple enough recipe!

http://www.magicalchildhood.com/crafts/watercolors.htm

Art Materials For Toddlers

Colourful activities - are crayons the only possibilities?? Nowadays when so much of the art supplies available are washable, it's worth exploring other ideas. The Artful Parent came up with a list of 11 art materials that toddlers enjoy, perhaps more than crayons. On a side note, would I want to share my Crayola PipSqueaks with my toddler??

http://artfulparent.typepad.com/artfulparent/2011/07/forget-crayons-11-great-art-materials-for-toddlers.html

Beginnings

What triggered this blog?

What should a 4 year old know? This amazing article was on
http://www.magicalchildhood.com/articles/4yo.htm

A truly beautiful, thought-provoking article. Our kids get into the rat race too soon and are made to trundle along too fast, sometimes at a pace they cannot cope with. Stumbling, fumbling, attempting to run along, their own self-confidence and self-worth deteriorating... is this what we truly want for our kids??

Our kids DON'T need to know numbers, the alphabet, animals and their young and other kinds of text book knowledge even before they start school. As this article points out, they need to know that they're unconditionally loved, that they're safe and cherished, every step of the way.

Confident kids will be successful adults, no matter at what age they started to read or write or knew their planets.

This blog is an attempt to bring together in one place, all the things I think are worthy of our children's attention.

Childhood

Magical, ethereal, momentous; transforming not just the child, but the parents too, into something they've never been before.... that's childhood.

It whooshes past us too quickly; the little soft hand tucked into ours, moves on to different things.

This is just an attempt to hold on to these wondrous moments; maybe when the sight is dim and the joints creaky, we can return awhile to our precious past and relive these moments again.