Friday, December 21, 2012

Does the Grinch Really Deserve That? And Other Random Christmas observations...

Christmas is such a fun, but interesting time.  For example:
  • The song about the Grinch is really very mean.  When you really listen to the words, it's basically all full of very clever insults so I find it amusing that it's become a beloved Christmas song. (example: You're a Foul one, Mr. Grinch.  You're a Nasty, Wasty Skunk!  Your heart is full of unwashed socks....)  I know he's a bad guy, but he turns out nice in the end...does he really deserve all the insults?
  • What the heck is Figgy Pudding?!?!  (It's from the song We Wish You a Merry Christmas)
  • When you start buying gifts in October (like I did this year), you feel a lot more organized, but end up spending a lot more money because you forget what you've already bought until it's time to wrap everything.
  • Being "asleep" means something very different to me than it does to the kids.  To the kids, it means they want me to pretend to be "asleep" while I actually have to stay extra vigilant in case someone decides to jump on my while my eyes are closed, or get into something they know they shouldn't.  To me, it actually means "asleep". (Okay this isn't related to Christmas, but I still find it interesting).
  • Some of the ornaments and decorations that seemed so lame when I was a teen-ager are now so special to me.
  • How do people get the energy and money to come up with a whole display of lights, going in tune to music on the radio?  Especially if it's at their own house and they're doing it for free?  Kudos to them because we love Christmas lights!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
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Posted by at 12:53 PM 2 comments

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

What a Difference a Year Makes

When I was working on my post about 5 Easy Christmas Ornaments, I noticed something very interesting.  My daughter, who is now 4 and a half, painted several wooden Christmas ornaments.  While she was working on them, it hit me what a difference a year had made in terms of her painting ability.  Now, don't misunderstand.  I have zero motivation for her to become an award-winning artist, unless that is something loves of course, but look at the stark difference.  Here is her ornament from this year.  Pay special attention to the top star.  First she painted the exterior in green and then she painted the inside of the star yellow.  She even painted the individual circles in yellow instead of having that entire area be green:


That may not seem like a huge deal, but look at her tree from last year.  Same exact idea.  Just a wooden tree ornament but with this one, she basically just mixed everything together and didn't have the fine motor control to make separate color regions at all.


I am truly amazed at what a difference a year can make in a child's life!  Merry Christmas to all if I don't talk to you before then!! :-)


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Posted by at 1:24 PM 1 comments

Thursday, December 13, 2012

5 Super-Easy Christmas Ornaments

This year I got several requests for a post about easy Christmas Ornaments that kids could make that weren't messy or expensive.  I have to say that it always surprises me when people think I'm creative!  I am definitely not talented enough to come up with anything super complicated so I guess I've become the queen of the easy craft.  And honestly, I think lots of Moms out there are just like me and want to do something easy and fun that can be done with minimal preparation or cleanup.  So, without further ado, here are the 5 Easiest Christmas Ornament on the Planet, that even the most craft-challenged Moms can do with the kids:

1.  Christmas Tree Ornaments
For this, all you need to do is cut Christmas trees out from green paper.  They don't even have to be perfect.  I know mine wasn't!  Once it's decorated, you could just poke a hole in the top and put some ribbon through there so it'll hang as an ornament.


Then you can help them put anything you want on there.  you could do stickers, glue sequins or red and green poms to look like ornaments, or even do finger prints with finger paint.  We elected to do stickers for a few reasons:  1) It takes a long time to peel off all the stickers and keeps them busy for longer, 2) Stickers are great for developing fine motor skills (look at this pic below, you can just see those little muscles developing) and 3) My kids just adore stickers.


2.  Wooden ornaments
It really doesn't get easier than this one.  You simply buy these from the craft store in all sorts of designs, Santa, Christmas tree, Frosty, etc. (we bought ours from Hobby Lobby) and give the kids some paint.  They cost about $.75 so we bought several and this was by far my daughter's favorite ornament.  One tip is to put the paint into an old egg carton so you don't have to wash anything after you're done.  Simply throw away the old egg carton.  Also, I give my daughter four different brushes so she doesn't have to mix colors but also doesn't have to mess with washing the brushes in between each color change.  We've gotten so good at this that we don't even wear smocks anymore!


3.  Candy Canes
I remember doing these as a kid and I had forgotten how incredibly easy they are!  All you need are some pipe cleaners (red is ideal, but at first we used orange since I couldn't find any red ones and they turned out fine), and some beads from the craft store.  These are also very inexpensive and you can find them in the isle with all the ornament stuff:


Then the kids simply bead onto the pipe cleaners, which is also excellent for fine motor skills and pretty soon, voila!  A beautiful candy cane:


4.  Plastic Balls
You can also find these at the craft store and you can put anything you want into them!  We chose small bits of paper because the kids like to crinkle them up and it's great for strengthening hand muscles, which will come in later when they are learning to write.  I simply cut up a bunch of bits of paper, they crumpled them all up and then put them into this clear plastic ball.  Super easy but it did keep them busy for quite awhile.


5. Sun-catchers 
We have been doing these sun-catchers every week for several months now.  It's one of my daughters favorite projects, so you can imagine her excitement when I came home from Hobby Lobby with Christmas-themed sun-catchers for her!  The great thing is, they paint is provided, so again it's very simple and easy and they even come with holes at the top for the ribbon or twine so they can be hung on the tree.


This isn't exactly what we bought, but you can get the idea:



For more ideas on easy crafts and activities for your kids, please check out my new book!  We have hundreds of ways to keep kids busy in productive way, improving fine motor skills, strength, sensory skills, and much more!






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Posted by at 1:17 PM 4 comments

Monday, December 10, 2012

I Hate Lying to My Kids About Santa

I really hate to even write about this, because I know this might make me sound like a nut job, but I sort of hate the fact that Santa exists.  I remember as a kid, the moment I found out that Santa wasn't real.  I truly felt betrayed and I suddenly began wondering what else my parents were lying to me.  I got over it of course, and I do love the Christmas season and I never had to get therapy or anything (haha), but I still wonder why our society feels the need to tell lies to our kids from the day they're born?

Think about it.  Here are the problems I have with Santa:
  • It's a total, 100% lie.  We tell our kids to always tell us the truth, but we create these extravagant lies about this mythical creature that brings them toys.  Why is that okay, just because we're the adults?
  • We tell them they only get toys if they're good.  They're on their best behavior throughout December, but what happens on January 1st?  They suddenly don't have to behave because there is no elf watching over them?  That's crazy, I want them to behave all year, not just at Christmas.
  • Santa gets all the credit.  I do all the work, the shopping, the wrapping, etc., and they don't feel like they have to really thank me, because they think Santa did everything for them, which also means they don't have to really be grateful, because they think everything is magical.
  • Santa didn't even exist until about 100 years ago, when he was created by a department store.  People survived without Santa for hundreds of thousands of years and still managed to celebrate Christmas in a festive way.
This year I secretly decided that I would try not to really talk about Santa because I thought that if I don't really mention it and make a big deal out of it, maybe they won't feel so upset when they learn the truth.  I tried to just focus on Christmas itself, Christmas lights, baby Jesus, and getting presents for each other.  The problem I found is that Santa is everywhere.  He is at the grocery store, the department stores, he's on TV constantly, and everyone is asking them if they have an elf, if they've been good, and if they're on the Good List or the Naughty List.

I will say that I've had a great time this Christmas, and I've really enjoyed thinking creatively about Christmas, but my experiment clearly failed.  My husband thinks I'm crazy so I've decided to just everything happen without controlling it, but I'd love to know your thoughts.  Do you feel bad lying about Santa, or am I totally crazy?!?

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Posted by at 7:24 AM 16 comments

Monday, December 3, 2012

Mommy I Want to Do it Myself! (Overcoming My Need to Micro-manage)

The other day I was brushing my teeth with one hand while scrolling through emails with the other hand while also trying to wriggle out of my pants in preparation for the shower.  That's when it hit me that maybe I really am in too much of a hurry all the time. For example, my daughter has been trying to buckle herself into her car seat but it's pretty tough and I know she can do it if I give her enough time, but it seems like we're always in such a hurry.  

Being in a hurry though, is all relative.  Susan Case, former Kindergarten Teacher and best-selling author (and my co-author) maintains how important it is for kids to have the time to learn to do practical things by themselves.  She says, "Kids need to feel empowered.  They need to feel like Mom and Dad trust them and that they have the room to grow and learn."

I knew she was right.  When I hurry the kids along or just take over something they were trying to do, I might as well be saying, "You're not good enough so I need to take over."  That's certainly not something I want my kids to learn so I decided to put this in action for Christmas preparations.  When it was time to get my Christmas Cards ready, at first I just wanted to get it done as quickly as possible, and I hated the idea of her getting paper cuts or messing up the envelopes, but I decided to give it a try and she totally proved me wrong (she's four and a half).  We did it together and she stuffed and licked about twenty envelopes.  Not only that, she saved me a ton of time and was very efficient and she took a lot of pride in her work.


Next I let them have a big part in decorating the house.  Overall, they did a great job and only fought a few times.  Little Buddy wasn't quite as interested in helping, but he's getting there (you can see him below, stuffed into a doll bed, which is where he sat for much of the Christmas decorating):




I have to say that I was very pleased with all of these successful experiments.  I love the idea of having little helpers around the house, and I really don't want them to think that I think that they aren't good enough in my eyes.  By the end of the weekend, I got really brave and let her paint her own fingers and toes. I supervised closely, of course, but she painted every single finger and toe all by herself.  And I didn't even clean them up after she was done.  I've come a long way and so have my kids.



For more ideas on empowering your kids and giving them activities to do around the house, please check out my new book, which I co-wrote with Susan Case. The Happy Mommy Handbook: The Ultimate How-to Guide on Keeping Your Toddlers and Preschoolers Busy, Out of Trouble, and Motivated to Learn was released this summer.  If you have ever tried to cook dinner while your kid clings to your leg and cries, this is the book for you!  As we did above, we give you a Mom's point of view and a teacher's point of view, so that you can do activities that not only keep the kids busy, but also keep them motivated to learn and develop their natural curiosity.  Kids behave better when they are given challenging projects to work on, which will in turn give you more free time to do the things you really need to do, like washing dishes, paying bills, and relaxing so that you can be a better Mom!

We were thrilled be to be given the opportunity to talk about this to you in person!  Check out this video we created to show you more about the book!

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Posted by at 12:45 PM 8 comments
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