Instead of a "Bucket List" - April Activities for Kids

Back in December I suggested to come up with a list of fun activities for winter, a so called "bucket list", and we did! For spring, I am posting a suggested activities calendar for kids. Its fun! (Source: http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/calendar) Grab your ideas for the play dates, moms!

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One of "Those Days"

Today will go down in history as "one of those days".  I'm sure many of my mommy friends will be able to relate.  You know one of "those days" when you just should have trusted your "gut" and not left the house?  Yup.... That was me!

I left our local community centre this morning (they were having a special kids Easter event) at 36 weeks pregnant carrying my 35lb kicking and screaming 2 year old *sigh*. This was after what i think were three very generous warnings about waiting in line (patience), staying close to mommy (obedience) and listening with your ears (attentiveness) - three character qualities that we've been working really hard at.

We are now home having a "time out day" which includes us watching his Brother Francis movie about "Forgiveness".  He requested it after a discussion we had about how he should to say sorry to mommy and Jesus for his behaviour (we are a practicing Catholic family).  I thought it was an excellent idea! In fact; I think we will spend the day learning more about this forgiveness and repentance as a result.  

In reflecting on what had happened; all I can do is chalk this up to a learning experience and a really good lesson for me as a mom.  I really need to learn to trust my "gut instinct" (or if your a Christian family, those little messages that God sends you) a little more. Obviously when your child wakes up rotten (like we all do at times); probably not a smart idea to take him out to a major event where there will be lots of temptation and chaos.  It's actually probably not fair to even expect a 2 year old to be able to handle something like that given his temperament that day.  Lesson learned! 

The great thing about days like today is all the great things we learn from it - both us as moms as well as our children.  I'm actually really looking forward to a day of teaching and reflection with my son about behaviour, forgiveness and remorse.  

Luckily I don't have many days like this  ;)

Thank You,

Connie & Jonathan Berenguer

Founders / Directors

E. connie@connieberenguer.com

W. www.goobergang.yolasite.com

 

Resources: Brother Francis series of DVDs for children. Especially "Forgiven". 

See http://www.catholicchapterhouse.com/store/dvds/children-s-dvds/brother-francis-forgiven-the-blessings-of-confession

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30 fun things to do this Holiday Season and the rest of the winter

I love the lists of important stuff to do with your kids during every season. I found many kinds online and decided it would be fun to make our own! So together with Connie we compiled a fun list of activities to do this winter. Technically, the winter just begun a few days ago, so here it comes!

1. Decorate for Christmas differently than last year.
2.  Light up the decorated tree every night. 
3. Build a snow castle (almost done! Not enough snow still...) 
4. Bake some cookies for gifts and eat them instead. 
5. Watch Christmas cartoons and movies all day. 
6. Make snow angels. 
7.  Light up the fire in the fire place and cuddle around it. 
8. Burn an aromatic cinnamon-scented candle. 
9. Have a slumber breakfast party with friends. 
10. Cook and eat a new dish.
11. Cut down a real Christmas tree at a farm 
12. Take a winter train ride 
13. Go for a winter hike in a forest 
14. Go crazy carpeting (mom and dad too!!!) 
15. Peak in your stocking  
16. Write a "special" Christmas coupon for your spouses stocking  
17. Go skating!! 
18. Jump in the snow and then into a hot tub.
19. Watch at least one foreign movie, something different about the Holidays Season
20. Catch some snowflakes, look at them closely 
21. Cut snowflakes out of paper 
22. Make a bird feeder. Here is a great idea!
23. Learn a new song 
24. Forgive somebody 
25. Check out a book from a library and read it 
26. Dance every morning... no time? How about while making breakfast! 
27. Visit an old friend.
28. Make a plan for the rest of the year and follow through.
29. Make a snowman out of something other than snow.
30. Have a late night up with kids. 

Please comment! Add your things-to-do and I will add them to this list.

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Cure for Tantrums

 

My son has really bad tantrums.

 

He cries, he yells, he doesn't know what to do with himself. He doesn't want me to look at him, he doesn't want me to talk to him, but he doesn't want me to leave. I get down to his level and sit with him, but it can take a long time for him to calm down.

 

From what I've read, we are supposed to 'hug it out'. But to be honest, it just doesn't work for us right now. When I try to touch him, his tantrum escalates.

 

 If he is beyond it, he sometimes gets to a hyperventilating state and doesn't know how to calm himself down. What works for us is blowing bubbles! I let him blow bubbles, which encourage deep breathing, and he is able to calm down at least enough for us to communicate.

 

 

 

Anyone else have any tricks  up their sleves?

 

Emma

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Birthday party for a 2 year old. Fire truck theme.

It's been a challenge for me, but I think I did it. I had a few ideas on what to do for Santino's 2nd birthday party, I followed through on most of them. Here's what I did.

I knew I wanted to do a small playdate-like party for Santino, just with a few of his friends. I wanted to make it a theme party, just for fun and also to give me a better direction for my ideas. I am a kind of person who can't just create something something. I need a theme, a direction, some kind of constraint. Then it becomes easier somehow, just because so many options that otherwise overwhelm me, get cut off and I can stay on track.

A few months ago I thought I would do a Bob-the-Builder theme, but Santino's recent new obsession with fire trucks gave me a new direction.

To make a theme birthday party for a 2 year old, you don't need much. Here's the checklist:

1. Invitations
2. Snacks
3. Entertainment
4. Cake
5. Favors

And that pretty much covers the basics. You can also add decorations here, but I didn't go as far as purchasing fire truck balloons or banner flags, and decided to keep it simple.

So here is a play-by-play of my planning and executing.

Invitations

I opted for a simple and free invitations, so I used email to send them out. I made a digital photo, wrote an invite and gave it a little design in photoshop. And here it is, my own fire truck theme invite!

I specified the date, the time and the length (I made it early morning, more suitable for toddlers), and I also mentioned that second hand gifts are welcome: we welcome the Reduce-Reuse-Recycle idea in our house. Plus, I realize that all these toddlers' moms are stay-at-home, the incomes are limited, and I didn't want to obligate them to buy expensive gifts. Santino doesn't care if its new. He will appreciate any truck or a book about trucks, and that's what I said on the invite.

Snacks

I didn't want to have a bunch of unmanageable toddlers high on sugar running around and bumping in each other, plus I don't promote sugar snacks in our home, so I arranged various fruit slices on pretty plates on a small table. I added toddlers' favorite fish crackers and home made mini carrot cakes. My original idea of "design your own topping" didn't come to life due to various reasons, but toddlers were happy with just the bite size cupcakes. I put lots of carrots, also added butternut squash, nuts and raisins, and put only half the sugar as it is required by the recipe.


Entertainment

I did think of a few fire-truck-themed games, but they all involved water, so required being outside. I realized that would have been too much of a mess, and decided to keep it simple, just playing downstairs in Santino's toy room. It was not that well organized, but toddlers didn't care. Whatever toys they had to play with, they spread all over the room, making such a mess, that I thought I would never be able to clean it. It did take me a few days after the party to finally sort everything through properly.

I turned on some nursery rhymes music, hoping they would dance and sing, but they were too busy. One mom said, in reply to my concern that I didn't have any special games for them, "them just playing like that is fine; I actually wish this how it would be the whole time". And she was right about that.

I had purchased 3 "tunnels" for the kids on a garage sale. They loved playing with those.

I prepared some puzzles and some stacking toys, but they were not in demand. Morning party for the 2 year olds was filled with more active games.

A few nights before, I put together a playlist of fire truck videos and had it playing continuously in another room. I figured, that at some point the kids will get tired of each other, and some will want to calm down and would love to watch some videos. Santino can watch fire trucks on TV for hours, so it was more interesting for him, that for other kids.

I also painted a fire truck mock up with a cut out for the kids to stick their face in and take pictures. We kinda skipped this, not everybody was ready to play with this cut out the way I thought they would. Santino loved it though.

Cake

An hour after the start of the party, we brought the cake, made by Connie of the Perfectly Planned Parties.

I looked great, complimenting the fire truck theme, and the simple vanilla taste pleased the kids. Everybody loved the cake.

Santino loved the fire truck, that came with it, but didn't like the happy birthday song, started crying for some reason.

Party favors.

This project was a mind twister for me. I didn't know what to give the kids as a "thank you" for coming. Buying fire trucks for everybody seemed too expensive. I got the stickers, which is a great bribing tool at this age. And what else? I finally came up with an idea: fire truck cookies!

I didn't think it would be too hard to bake such cookies, but the decoration part was going to be a tricky one.

I found a cookie-cutter recipe online. This one. It worked great for me, who was baking such cookies for the first time! I'm sure it will work great for everybody.

I didn't have the fire truck cookie cutters, so I made one. I drew a simple shape on a card stock, cut it out, and used to trace on the dough! So simple. I found, that this will work great only on the almost frozen dough. If you start cutting soft dough, the edges will be very rugged, not clean.

For decoration, I mixed up some icing sugar (just regular sugar, blended in a small blender, the "Baby Bullet" one; if you don't have Baby Bullet, you can use coffee grinder) with water and some red and yellow icing food coloring. That made the red color of the cookies. To paint the details, I made some merengue icing, and then I just popped the cookies in a warm (not hot) oven for about half an hour, to harden the icing. The oven shouldn't be too hot, as the whites can change the color to brown, and you wouldn't want the cookies to become too hard.

 

For the "thank you" cards, I decided to give Santino an opportunity to participate in making this project. I mixed up some red food coloring with water and added sugar to thicken the mixture, and gave it to Santino. I also cut out a fire truck shape in a potato, in an attempt to make a stamp. The stamp would have worked, if he didn't start slamming that stamp on the cards so hard, that the shape disappeared quickly. Here's what we achieved as a "thank you" card, signed by Santino. 

So, here is a little report on Santino's 2nd birthday party. I already wrote it once, and it got erased by Santino himself. It took me a while to find the time to sit down and write it all over again.

I enjoyed preparing this party for Santino! I wish I knew what I was doing better, but I will try again the next year! After all, there are many more Santino's birthday parties to come!

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F.. this s...!

Yes, its what you thought. And I'm not angry and not venting. I want to write a few paragraphs on my experience with un-teaching my son those bad words. Well, one bad word in particular. The F word!

I guess my husband and I lived without children too long, both as a family and individuals before we got married. I worked in marketing and promotions, my husband was a DJ. Our primarily night-time lifestyle added its mark on the language we use. Used. Past tense.

As Santino grew and started developing his speaking skills, he now repeats everything we say. Except "thank you" and "please" of course. Well... even... okay, will tell you later.

So yes, he heard the "F" word, as we said it a few times in front of him, even though we had been very careful, trying to watch what we say. Only if something falls on your toe, you find marker all over the wall, poop falls out of the newly changed diaper, yes, you kind of sort of forget the etiquette and exclaim it with a passion. F...!!!

It only took two or three times, and here he was, my 18 months son, walking around, hitting a ball with a stick and saying.. you know what. If he tripped and fell, he said it. If he lost something under a couch or a parked car, he said it. Sometimes he would just mumble gibberish, passionately waving his arms at a wall, finishing up with the "F...". And the more he noticed how we laugh, the more he wanted to say it.

It was the time to make a change.

I realized, that saying "don't say f..." will only encourage Santino say it more and more. I noticed, there is a little bit of an actor in him. He loves attention, and if he sees how people laugh, he'll do it over and over. This is something I am trying to incorporate in our toilet training process. Well, that's another story.

First, I thought we'll just ignore him, and this word will die and fall out by itself, as nobody pays attention. That wasn't the case, Santino kept saying it, savoring every moment he got to use it. Plus, it was really hard to keep telling everybody, just not to pay attention. I gotta admit, it was funny, the way he said it.

Then I decided to turn his attention from the bad word, to something more acceptable by the society. He didn't budge. Next, I tried re-setting his mind, to thinking he is saying something else. Like right after he said it, I would say "funny", in an attempt to convince him, that that was actually the word he was trying to say.

I experimented with various words, including "fudge", which I hated. It just didn't sound ... satisfying. Wasn't right.

Finally, I found it! Fire truck! It really only took me about 5 or 6 times, after which Santino almost completely forgot THAT word, and switched his attention to fire trucks. It is his new obsession.

And by the way, for about 7 or 8 months now, every time I give Santino something I would say "thank you mama", if he does something I ask, I say "thank you Santino", I've been reminding of the "please" word multiple times per day since January as well. Did he say it? No. Not once. Only about a month ago, when after every time I heard Santino saying F... (not that often anymore, I must say), he finally started saying "please" and "thank you". Sometimes even without prompt!

Thank you, baby!

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Ideas For Setting Up A Play Room / "School" Room

When Jonathan turned 6 months old and started to crawl, I really started to feel the "need" for some sort of "play room" for him.  I was tired of my entire house being a play zone.  Tired all the nicks on the walls, things getting damaged, baby-proofing to the 9's and mostly not having a space for him to be a KID and not always have to tidy up cause people may come to the door and see a demolition zone!  We had bins in every room of toys.  What was once our "new home"; professionally decorated to our likes; had now turned into a child's den. It was time to move to renovate!

Now, I totally understand that everyone's situation is different and not everyone has the ability to just randomly create a new "space" in their home.  For us, we had an unfinished basement with some ideas in the back of our mind to someday renovate it.  Apparently now was the time! If you are considering renovating your basement too or another room in your home to create a play room, or for my homeschooling friends - if you are looking for "school" room ideas OR if you even just want to make your regular home space a little more "kid friendly"; here are some things that we did that we are finding is working great!  In fact, I am writing this article as a response to a request from others parents who have been to our home for play dates :)

THE ZONES:    our new play area consists of different areas or "zones" as I call them.

The Kitchen

When Jonathan first took a liking to "kitchen play"; we just didn't have the space or money to invest in one of those really neat / large kitchen play seats.  So instead we just got this little table top mini kitchen :)    I like how it takes up less space and is easily portable / removable.    We have a ton of "play food" and kitchen items.  I took a bunch of plastic kids tableware out of our own kitchen and gave jonathan his own shopping bag, chef's hat and apron to finish off the look

**beware -- the play kitchen food is a huge mess-maker :)  Although its lots of fun, be prepared to be picking it up off the floor all the time :)   (http://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?productId=11651726)

 

jonathan cooks in his "kitchen".  This particular table top one was from Costco.

Jonathan sets the table for baby and puppy.  This table couples as as art table.

The Chalk Wall

These are hugely popular.  You can buy chalk board paint at most big box building stores today.  We got this one from Home Depot (http://www.homedepot.ca/product/chalkboard-paint-black-887ml/980042).  Note that it doesn't have to be black!  you can get it made in any colour you choose.  Also -- there is a magnetic base that you can put on as well if you'd like to also have a huge magnet board *although I hear it doesn't work too great.   **be sure your walls are smooth or sand them.  And great ready to do at least 3 coats :)  To clean our board / wall, we just use a wet microfiber cleaning cloth.  If you are worried about "chalk dust", there is really cool new dustless chalk (Crayola) and chalk paint.   But, once again, remember that this is a kids room so a little chalk mess is not a problem in a designated kids play area.  Id caution more about doing something like this in a bedroom.....

http://www.crayola.com/browse-products/12-ct-anduseptic-antidust-chalk-sticks.aspx

The Arts & Crafts Area

Arts and crafts were always hugely important to me!  So we have designated bins and bins of craft supplies alone.  Everything has its own place and is labelled.  I find if everything has a proper spot and you teach your kids to respect their toys, it's not a problem to have it all out like this.  Jonathan is especially good at knowing that colouring happens only on the paper and that markers need their lids back on them.   Only 1 or 2 play doh colours are allowed to be opened at a time (even though I think we have a lifetime supply of play doh in our house!)

http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?CatIds=&webid=682538&affixedcode=WW                                                                                    

A Dymo Labeller is my best friend :)  Beware the label tape is pricey :(

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/3/HouseHome/StorageOrganization/ContainersBinsTotes/PRD~0680449P/12+Bin+Organizer.jsp?locale=en   

**These go on sale all the time.   Reg $69.99 but I only paid $35 for mine :)

The Play Area

Really this is everywhere, but I do have those foam mats on the floor in designated areas for "floor play."  Once again; every toy has a spot or bin that it goes it.

You'll notice in our home (as part of our homeschooling philosophy); we try to have as little "noisy" toys as possible.  In addition, where possible I try to get wood or cloth toys.  The less plastic the better!

Some of our favourite toys include:

1) lacing beads

Primary Lacing Beads   http://www.setonbooks.com/viewone.php?ToView=P-MDPK-37

2) Melissa and Doug wood puzzles

Numbers and letters sound puzzles http://www.setonbooks.com/viewone.php?ToView=P-MDPK-16

3) stacking toys

http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/60061967/

4) books  *note that we actually have a children's library in our home that could rival a public library :)  it is not located in our new basement play area as I find too many books in one place at any time leads to less appreciation and inattentiveness.  Instead, we have 1 bin of books in the play area and 1 in our bedroom (that I pre-select based on age appropriateness, the time of year i.e. if a holiday is around the corner, what we are learning i.e. colours, numbers, etc., our interests at the time i.e. trains, etc.)

The Reading Nook

Further to above, we have what I like to call a reading nook under our staircase.  It was an odd shape / space to fill so I thought it would make a great place to throw a bunch of pillows down for quiet time and reading.  This can easily be done anywhere with some foam floor mats and random pillows.  **I have future plans to add a curtain around this area to also couple this as a hide-out / fort area some day.

The Media Area

Yes - this basically means that we have a TV in our play room. But before I get ahead of myself let's just say that this TV is actually not really for the kids :)    We figured if we were going to finish the basement, we should at least put a sofa down there and a TV in case mom and dad ever wanted to hide out down there :)   I can see this being of more use in the years to come.  We have video games hooked up to this tv so we can do our Wii Fit in this space, etc.  jonathan also has age appropriate video games that he is allowed to play on occasion

Some of our favourite DVDs

1) Brother Francis Series

http://www.catholicchapterhouse.com/catalogsearch/result/?order=relevance&dir=desc&s=brother+francis&q=brother+francis&searchSelect=store

2) Character Builders DVD Series

http://www.aophomeschooling.com/product/prm100/

The Homeschool Area

As a homeschooling family, our needs may be a little different in terms of organizing our day.  Where possible, I try to not "model" a school classroom environment as this is not really what I want to create.  Instead, I model it around functionality and organization; mainly for my sake as the "teacher".

~ The Week Wall

These are little pockets attached to the wall of what we are going to be doing "school wise" each day of the week.  This could be worksheets from our curriculum as well as a multitude of supplemental resources I use

~ The Word Wall

This is what Jonathan is currently working on.  Right now its letter recognition, number recognition, name recognition and his colours.  Right now he knows his letters A-Z, numbers 1-20 and all his primary colours. My goal for this year is for him to recognise each of them at random, know his letter sounds and be able to write his name.  Wish us luck!

~ Mommy's Desk

This is my "cube" of resources and materials for homeschooling.  Jonathan really doesn't touch or play with these items (unless he chooses to grab his flash cards off the shelf for some extra practise of course;)

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