Are you a bit frazzled with all the different activities you're in this school year? We may not play on the soccer team or hockey team, but we are definitely a part of the squad. Is keeping these activities straight combined with household duties and play groups for the little ones giving you the flux? Read this quick article with a few good tips to keep it all together.
The skills and habits your child learns now are likely to be ones that will develop and last a lifetime. Be careful to teach and cultivate positive habits that you would like to see you child implement in kindergarten, grade school, high school, college and adult life. Who knew teaching your child to organize his blocks, cars, and stuff animals would have an effect on keeping school assignments together in order to be more productive in class? One way to begin teaching your toddler to be organized is to teach him to clean his room and put things in their proper place...and let's face it with all that we have to do, every little bit we don't, is a sigh of relief. Here are some suggestions on how to teach you little one to organize and keep his room clean.
1. Gather all toys and other items from out of closets, under beds etc.
2. Create 4 piles: Keep, Throw Away, Give To Charity, Misplaced item(should be in another room in the house.
3, Create and Label Bins to put like items in(IE: truck/cars in one bin, stuff animals in another, etc)
4. ) Define locations for where things should go. Clothes should go in closet, toys in labeled containers, books on the bookshelf and so on. Discuss with your child where each item should go. Remember when labeling containers make it conducive to your child's level of understanding. You would want to label a toddlers containers with pictures. Your child can see that the container with picture of cars should hold all the cars.
Teach your child to put one toy away before taking out another. Sometimes there will be items that your child will play with together such as stuffed animals and a tea set, however non related items should be put away.
Take the time to clean up with your toddler until he feels comfortable doing it alone. Praise your child and tell him how proud you are when he cleans up. Make clean up time part of your child's daily routine. Teaching your child these important skills now may save you time now and your child the frustration of being disorganized in the future.
Keeping our little busy bodies occupied can sometimes prove to be a challenge, and what is even more challenging is making sure that we remember to stimulate their little minds so that they are learning while they play. I love that my toddler enjoys Sesame Street every bit as much as I did, that is one program that will be around forever! Did you know that Sesame Street now has a website? It is a great learning resource for your toddler and guaranteed to be loads of fun! This site is packed with activities such as games, video, stories and tons more! The best thing is knowing Sesame Streets reputation you can feel assured that all of these activities are aimed at developing your child's fundamental skills. What are you waiting for? Visit now!
Another great website for moms is MommyReview. This site provides great information on safety, new products, activities and more, so grab a cup of coffee or tea, kick off your shoes and browse around the site! Until next time...Have a wonderful Thursday!
Family time is important to me, but it just seems the older my children get the more they think everything I say and do is "friendly". Now for all you moms that are not quite as hip as me(yeah right), friendly in teenage language(at least in the southern parts)means square. I pretty much just ignor all the smart remarks and force them to spend time with me, my husband and our two year old(we are the outcast).
I've been wanting to do a collage for my two year old's room with pictures of our family and decided this was the weekend to do it. You cant imagine the moans, groans,random Oh my goodness's!, I cant believe this!, This is so lame!, This is just plain friendly! and my favorite"Just shoot me now!"... Yep I just ignored them and explained that we were gonna help Kayla(my 2 year old) cut out picture of the family and together figure out what words or phrases we want to go under the pictures. Blank stares from everyone, but my smiling Kayla. 
Tonight was a good night. The house was miraculously quiet due to the fact that my pre teen and teenage boys decided that their on-going debate over who is the “lamest” (apparently lame is the cool word for this week) could be continued in the morning, and to my surprise my two year old energizer bunny did not keep going and going and going.
Sitting down for a cup of herbal tea is a rare treat in a house of seven, but you sneak it in where you can. Even as I sit blowing a steaming cup of tea, I reflect briefly on what insanity possessed me to come so close to Independence Day, only to rewind time and start all over again. The bottles, the diapers, the crying, the tantrums…oh the thought of it makes my head hurt! Then that little angel face creeps into my consciousness and the stress lines slowly disappear from my forehead and a smile forms. My two year old is just the cutest thing you will ever see and all the dirty diapers in the world could not taint the abundance of joy she fills my heart with daily! They are so open to the world at that age. Always discovering and unconditionally loving… Ah….what we all could learn from them.
However, don’t be fooled! When you have to run around all day like a taxi cab driver taking your older kids to sports engagements, barbershops, the mall, etc, all the while with a two year old in tow, its no picnic. I complained about the running around but then out of no where it went from bad to worst. Who said 16 year olds could drive? (I’m sure whoever it was that originally suggested it was childless). So add a jump of $100 in car insurance to add on a 16 year old driver with the increasing price of pullups! So Lets see, now I have…Dora the Explorer shoes vs. the newest Jordans, The unrelenting pleas for buying the Barbie jeep vs. pleas for buying a starter car, helping my little one learn to count past 50 vs. finding some one to help with pre-calculus! What a complete roller coaster!
Even with life being constantly hectic, I feel blessed to have such a wonderful family and cherish the challenge of giving them the best childhood and the tools they need to become responsible adults who know first hand and cherish the value of family.
Three things are key when raising children with a large age gap:
Respect the uniqueness in each child – Every child is different and moves at a different pace and to a different drummer. I learned that a long time ago (somewhere around child number two). I work hard to let each child know that I accept and love their unique characteristics, no matter how different or difficult to understand. This will also help prevent jealousy and some rivalry among siblings
Nurture the Bond- Children born with quiet a few years between can sometimes have trouble finding things in common that they can do together. Encourage older children to share hobbies and talents with younger children. Each of my boys are encouraged to spend an hour or so a day with their two year old sister. In this time I suggest my eldest child who likes to write stories share this talent for storytelling with his sister. This is something they can both enjoy. My middle son loves to draw and in his time with his sister he is teaching her to be quite the artist. My 11, and 13 year old are still very playful and love giving piggyback rides, taking her out to ride her bike and drive her car. They all have their own unique way the can bond with their sister despite the huge age gap.
Spending Time as a Family- This is critical. It is not only enjoyable , but creates lasting memories. Quality time spent together knits the fabric that strong families are made of.
It strengthens the love, the loyalty and intimacies that all families should share. There is no age gap in family time together, everyone belongs and it doesn’t feel complete when someone is missing.
So no one ever said it would be easy (and if they did, you been lied to!), but what it is…..is fulfilling, fun and exhausting, but most of all, it’s totally worth it!
Here are some of my favorite family quotes:
If the family were a fruit, it would be an orange, a circle of sections, held together but separable - each segment distinct. ~Letty Cottin Pogrebin
Bringing up a family should be an adventure, not an anxious discipline in which everybody is constantly graded for performance.-- Milton R. Saperstein
I think people that have a brother or sister don't realize how lucky they are. Sure, they fight a lot, but to know that there's always somebody there, somebody that's family.-- Trey Parker
"When you look at your life, the greatest happiness’s are family happiness’s."
Dr Joyce Brothers
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