So, we have switched from having a daycare provider at a daycare center to the children being at home with a "Nanny" for lack of a better term. They seem happier (the children that is) and it makes my morning less stressful, so that makes me happier.
Our Nanny doesn't live with us, she arrives in the morning while I am getting ready and gets the children breakfast. They are usually sitting at the table happy as can be when I leave. I get kisses from them and off I go.
At daycare there would be days I would be LUCKY to even get a wave goodbye, never mind a kiss! There were fits and tantrums getting dressed in the morning, there were fits depending on which daycare teacher was in the classroom at drop off.
The only thing that hasn't changed, is super excited children when I walk in the door from work... "MOMMY MOMMY!! You look pretty Mommy!!" or "Up, Up!! Up Peace" How can resist? I scoop up "A"arron and get a nice big hug and wet kiss! Even our Furbabies are happy.. they get the privelage of not being a crate for 9 hours a day!
Do any of you have a Nanny or in home caregiver? What are your likes and dislikes? AND.. what do you do about taxes?
So I am not the DIY Crafty kind.. I try, but really it isn't me.
I am in love with Pinterest, but seriously I have no clue when I am supposed to have time enough to ever actually create any of the stuff I love on there!
But the hubs and I decided we needed to figure out how to give the girls an allowance. We are in the camp that you don't get paid for chores. Chores are expected, they are something you do because you are in a family, you live in a home. As adults you don't get paid for chores, you just do them because they need to be done. So, how do we accomplish giving them allowance that they can earn and teach them about the responsibility of chores? Well, I had a great discussion with my friend D (who has a fab Etsy Shop ~ The Super Cute Boutique) and she is in the same arena my husband and I are. Chores are Chores and you don't get paid for them (sorry to rat you out D). But within that discussion, D and I developed a plan! A LOOPHOLE to the no payment for chores sentiment.
The Plan:
The children will be required to do chores/tasks based on their age range (e.g. ages 2-3 appropriate chores).
They can do chores/tasks that are in the age range above theirs to earn money (e.g. ages 4-5 appropriate chores).
The chore tiles go up to about 16 years old and starts at ages 2 & 3.
Since our girls are ages 4 & 6, they will be required to do their daily/weekly chores based on ages 2-6.
To earn money they can do chores in the 7-9 age range (e.g. vacuuming, dusting, etc.).
We will use the white board to track their earnings and if they want to "bank" the money rather than physically keep it their banks.
Then, I print out the names onto the paper and put the magnets on the back or you can adhere them with just a few pieces of double stick tape.
Print out your "Chore Tiles" and collect your items (the magnets, stickers, and "Chore Tiles").
Place the magnets on the back of your cut out "Chore Tiles" (you can skip the next step if you don't want to use the epoxy stickers and just print the "Chore Tiles" on a nice thick cardstock).
For the magnets, I used the epoxy stickers (make sure you don't touch the sticky side, you'll get fingerprints on them) and the sticker magnets.
Then CAREFULLY place the epoxy stickers to your "Chore Tiles" ... I used the magnets to hold the "Chore Tiles" so that I could place them on the super sticky epoxy stickers.
And here is our FINAL PRODUCT!!
This process was quite time consuming, but I luckily had the help from "C"indy.. she happily stuck the magnets on the back of the "Chore Tiles" while I dealt with my epoxy stickers.. again CAREFULLY. Oh, and I duplicated some of the tiles because each girl needs to be responsible for the chore (e.g. brushing their hair, brushing their teeth, taking a shower); whereas some chores really can only be accomplished by one person (e.g. feed the dogs).
And because I am the coolest blogger EVER.. I am giving you the pdf version of the "Chore Tiles"!! Yup that is right.. for a limited time you've can win you're very own DIY CHORE CHART, from your's truly! Just Click Here!! After that they will be available on Etsy!
Weekly Theme (Start Monday, continue with the theme all week) This week's theme is A. The vocabulary word are ant, and, arm, apple ,ape.
Books to read aloud that support the theme: (You can choose one book to read all week, or a new book for each day. These are just suggestions, you may find others related to the theme in your library.) Books to read aloud: Ten Apples up on Top! by Dr. Seuss The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman Alligator Shoes by Arthur Dorros Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing by Judi Barrett
Poems that support the theme: A Little Red Apple A little red apple Hung high in a tre. I looked up at it, And it looked down at me. "Come down, please," I called. And what do you suppose? That little red apple Dropped right on my nose! The Apple Tree Way up high in the apple tree, Four little apples hung over me. I shook the tree as hard as I could. Down came the apples and mmmmm! Were they good!
Way up high in the apple tree, Three little apples hung over me. I shook the tree as hard as I could. Down came the apples and mmmmm! Were they good!
Way up high in the apple tree, Two little apples hung over me. I shook the tree as hard as I could. Down came the apples and mmmmm! Were they good!
Way up high in the apple tree, One little apple hung over me. I shook the tree as hard as I could. Down came the apple and mmmmm! Was it good! Apples Apples, apples, one, two, three, Apples for you, Apples for me. Apples for big, Apples small, Apple trees tiny, Apple trees tall. Apples sour, Apples sweet, Apples, apples, are nice to eat. I Like ApplesRed apples, Big apples, Good apples, Yummy apples, Any kind of apples, I like apples!
An apple on the tree, An apple in the basket, An apple in a fridge, An apple in a store, I like apples! A squiggly little worm into my apple bit. He chomped and chomped until the core he hit. I asked him why he did it, And thought it sopunds absurd, He said, "I love apples." Now that is what I heard. Apple (to the tune of BINGO) I know a fruit that grows on trees, An apple is its name, oh! (Chorus) A. P. P. L. E. A. P. P. L. E. A. P. P. L. E. An apple is its name, oh!
In summer and in early fall It's time to pick an apple!
Chorus
It amy be sweet or may be tart, It's red, or green, or yellow!
Chorus
A McIntosh or Granny Smith, A Winesap or Delicious!
Chorus
Make applesauce or apple juice Or apple pie with apples!
ChorusApplesauce (to the tune of "Yankee Doodle") Peel an apple, cut it up, cook it in a pot. When you taste it you will find it's applesauce you've got. Gross Motor Skills Activity: (Monday) Let's Pretend Have the kids stand up tall with their arms up and say "be as tall as an apple tree". Then say "be as small as an ant". Repeat this slowly and then get faster and the kids don't even know they are touching their toes!
Have the kids pretend to be an Ape, they can walk around with their arms touching the ground and making ape noises.
Fine Motor Skills Activity: (Friday) Addition on an abacus - If you have an abacus this could be fun. If not you can use animal crackers or some other manipulatives and teach simple addition such as 1 + 1 = 2, 2 + 1 = 3, 3 + 1 = 4, 4 + 1 = 5, 2 + 2 = 4, 2 + 3 = 5. ( If your child is ready you could add up to 10 or more)
Shape/Color (Tuesday) This week you will teach the shape of a square.
Collect 3 - 5 everyday objects in the shape of a square... i.e.: blocks, pot holder, CD jewel case, etc... to share with your child and discuss.
Walk through your home looking for squares.
Cut squares out of playdough.
Put a drawing of a square on your learning poster.
Find Something Red - Have the children find something in the room that is red and have each child bring it to circle time. Have each child tell the class what they have found.
Red Chat - Have the children name as many things they can that are red. Write down their list.
Kool Aid Art - Sprinkle a little dry red kool aid mix onto a piece of paper. Have your child spray water from a spray bottle onto the paper. For added adventure, you may choose to take your children out into the rain with a piece of paper that has kool-aid on it.
Red Tracks - In a pie tin, place 3 to 5 teaspoon sized portions of different shades of red tempera paint evenly spaced about the area. Supply the children with washable toy cars that have wheels that roll. Have the children dip the wheels in the paint and roll across the paper.
Letter (Wednesday) The letter this week is the letter A.
Give your child a printout of the (capital) letter A to color. ~Letter Printouts~
Teach your child to trace the shape of the letter A using his finger. You can trace in pudding, finger paint, a shallow tray (cookie sheet) filled with rice or beans, etc.
Point out the letter A in signs, cereal boxes, etc.
Post the letter A on your learning poster.
Number (Thursday) The number this week is the number 1.
Show your child 1 object to count, or eat 1 cracker, 1 cheerio, etc.
Show your child the written symbol (numeral) for 1 and put on your learning poster.
Add 1 sticker to your counting book.
Show your matching index cards for the number 1 to your child.
Draw 1 square on a piece of paper and count it with your child.
Walk around your home counting 1 of many different objects.
Song / Nursery Rhyme / Fable (Friday) The song this week is The Ants Go Marching. Recite often!
The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching one by one, The little one stops to suck his thumb And they all go marching down to the ground To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The fable this week is The Ant and the Dove. Recite often!
A Dove saw an Ant fall into a brook. The Ant struggled in vain to reach the bank, and in pity, the Dove dropped a blade of straw close beside it. Clinging to the straw like a shipwrecked sailor to a broken spar, the Ant floated safely to shore.
Soon after, the Ant saw a man getting ready to kill the Dove with a stone. But just as he cast the stone, the Ant stung him in the heel, so that the pain made him miss his aim, and the startled Dove flew to safety in a distant wood. A kindness is never wasted.
For this Week's Lesson in PDF Format - Click Here!
It sounds like I know what I am talking about.. but I don't I am learning and not really teaching, because we have a childcare provider who will be doing that.
But I wanted to help her teach the children, so I ordered some workbooks and "The Busy Preschooler Book" its full of crafting/science/art projects.
And I am going to start a section on this blog, for all my readers to share, that I'll update weekly with a lesson plan and weekly theme. And as always if you have any suggestions and/or comments PLEASE share them!!
Here's a hint to the upcoming week's Lesson: A & 1 (yup we are going to in order!).
Introducing a fellow Foster Parent.. to discuss some of the more "uncomfortable" aspects of being a parent and her tips/tricks to get you through it:
We never intended to be foster parents. We certainly never intended to foster a severely sexually abused young girl…she was outside literally ALL of our placement criteria. Yet, as we learned, foster care is a world where many things we don’t expect happen. So it was that in mid-2010 we took a foster placement of a beautiful 3yo girl named Tara (NOT her real name) and we have learned some very sad and disturbing lessons about the affects of Sexual Abuse (SA) and the realities of helping such a child heal.Our approach from the start was to model normal family interactions and to include her in our very affectionate family as much as she was comfortable with, while being vigilant and providing redirection or instruction as needed. We did not share the nature of the abuse Tara suffered with anyone not strictly necessary; we did not want her to be stigmatized as she had been in her previous foster home. Within mere days Tara blossomed. She was starved for “normal” affection and attention and seeing her personality emerge was really a great feeling. Not everything was goodness and light, however.
While we knew Tara’s SA history, I was still taken completely by surprise the first time Tara disclosed to me. As she became more comfortable the disclosures of SA began and quickly increased in frequency; usually while getting ready for bed, rocking or bathing. I talked to Tara’s therapist as well as our local Children’s Assessment Center for advice on how to handle these disclosures in a way that preserved the integrity of the disclosure for the case while also provided Tara with the appropriate comforting responses. The guidelines that came from these discussions served me well:
Make it Safe: Welcome your child’s statements or questions about their birth family. Provide the child with opportunities to talk about anything that comes to their minds. As hard are some things are to hear just remember: if they can’t talk it out, they will act it out.
Be calm: Your first reaction will set the stage either inviting the child to go on, or shutting them down. Talk of sexual goings on is taboo to many of us and your instinct may be to recoil and change the subject, particularly when taken by surprise. Make every effort to suppress that instinct.
Listen! Make eye contact, nod, try for an expression of “caring, polite interest”. I would consciously try to note key information in my head while listening so I could report the details accurately.
Allow the child to lead the conversation and allow them to end it when they want to. Our FD would actually say “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” When she was done. Respect the child’s boundaries.
If the child is willing to engage in dialog, ask open ended questions only: what happened then? What happened next? Where were you? Can you show me? How did that make you feel? Believe me, I know you don’t want to hear or see ANY of the answers to these questions (I have images in my head that STILL make me think “that can’t be right, can it?”) but it is important to get details if the child is willing and able to provide them. You can cry later.
Avoid leading questions: It is important to avoid even the appearance of planting ideas or leading the child. Don’t say “Did so-and-so do that?” or even “that must have been…” If you couldn’t understand the child ask them to repeat rather than saying what you thought heard.
After the child relays the facts, thank the child for telling you, acknowledge that it’s hard to tell secrets, remind them that secrets are bad and telling the secrets is the right thing to do, reassure them nothing that happened was their fault. Offer consolation (“I’m sorry that happened to you.”), validate the child’s feelings (“I would have been scared too.”) and, if the child is comfortable, hold and rock the child while reassuring them you still care about them.
The hardest thing for me was that our FD would tell me something her daddy (or others) had done to her and then ask “did your daddy do that to you?” This question is fraught with ‘was it just me’ and ‘was it my fault’ undertones. Always be honest and gentle. In this case I said ‘no, honey, my daddy didn’t do that. Daddy’s are not supposed to do that, it was wrong for daddy to do that.’ If faced with a hard question take a moment to compose your answers. It’s also OK to say “I don’t know”. I used “I don’t know” whenever she asked a “why did he/they…” question and then followed immediately with a validation that it was wrong, bad and not her fault.
What to do afterwards:
IMMEDIATELY document the conversation, get down all the details while they are fresh. Report the facts and only the facts. For example:
Communicate the disclosure to the appropriate party: Our case worker had us send the disclosure via email and she confirmed by return receipt that they were relayed to CPS (due to an on going investigation). Some agencies ask the FP to report directly to CPS.
Let yourself feel. I found that the efforts of maintaining calmness during the disclosure needed an offsetting vent for the rage and sadness. I would talk to my husband, another foster parent, run on the treadmill or just take a bath and cry.
There are few things that are worse for any parent than dealing with a disclosure of sexual abuse. However, as we have seen in our experience with Tara, children can heal from even the most heinous abuse when given an environment in which they feel safe to process and deal with their experiences. We are thrilled to report that after 10 months in our home Tara was able to be safely reunited with her brother, who had been placed seperately, and continues to do wonderfully in their pre-adoptive placement.
I've recently been asked to do a product review for CSN Stores (GO ME!). This is an online company with over 200 unique sites (can you say COOL?!?), they have merchandise from ranging from furniture, cookware, fitness equipment, baby necessities (including furniture, strollers, bedding), children's toys and even wooden swing sets. Yes a WOODEN SWING SET can be PURCHASED of all places ONLINE!!
I am not sure what product I will be reviewing, yet, but I can tell you that it won't be a swing set (although that would be AWESOME!!maybe next time..HINT! HINT!! especially this amazing one to the right ------------------------>). I am leaning towards reviewing a product in the educational category. But am also thinking about other baby/momma/toddler necessities... I am little wishy washy. :D
But the reality is that, I really need as much help, educationally, as I can get with this girls. As an example: Little Miss "B"ella thinks that school buses are "Dween".. even though I repeatedly remind her they are "Lellow".. ummm err "Yellow". On our rides to "school" (aka daycare) in the morning we pass SEVERAL "tool buses" (yes she means school busses, although remembering my rides on the bus, I would say that there are days when it probably is a "tool" bus), I will tell her a "Look a School Bus! What color is it?" she responds "Dween!!" and I say "Nope, Yellow." and then we pass another... this one is "Lellow", but after about the 5th bus and as we are pulling into school (with no buses around) I say "We saw a lot of school buses, huh? What color are school buses?" and she says (after saying "lellow" 4 times now) "DWEEN!!" at this moment I feel like Homer.Simpson.. DOH!
Any.who! I am really excited about this whole product review thing!! Check out their website and see if there is anything you all could reccomend or would like me to review! I have a few things in mind, but if there is something that garners enough "votes" that'd be AWESOME!!
"B"ella is 3... she is in FULL BLOWN toddler mode! One day she likes something, the next she doesnt like it! Needless to say, dinner is not the most enjoyable moments in our day. So, I've been toldread.. children need to be exposed to a food up to 10 times before they "LIKE IT". And I can say that its actually mostly true, at least with "B"ella. "C"indy just says "It's not my favorite, but I still gotta eat it!"
We've worked our way through carrots (the rule is that they need to eat 4 baby carrots and then they can have a slice of pizza -- they were each eating 2 to 3 slices of pizza without the carrot rule -- and I am sorry, but I can BARELY eat 3 slices of pizza in one sitting!). She will even eat Califlower (mashed, with sour cream, salt and pepper, and cheddar cheese). And she also eats cabbage!
Now our a Drama Veggie is broccoli. As a kid I LOVED broccoli.. still do!! I found a website that has some tips for getting your toddler to eat broccoli (come on this veggie is packed with fiber!)... can't wait to try anything to get her to eat it. :D
So do you have any Drama Veggies? Or suggestions on how to work your way through the Drama and onto the Veggie?!? On a side note.. fruit isn't a problem.. these two will eat anything and everything in the way of fruit.. they even ate a kiwi.. and those things look scarey!!
"B"ella is potty trained (so we were told) she was doing really well with her Number 1 on the potty and NEVER has an issue with Number 2. My understanding is that the last part of potty training are the child's BM's... typically they continue to have them in their pants until they are fully trained.. and "B"ella only has her Number 2's in the toilet.
But recently she has decided that wetting her pants and sitting in them and then lying about it -- example:"'C'indy peed my paints." (yes the girls say "paints" instead of "pants"). So after 3 changes of underwear this past Saturday.. I have put her back in pullups and placed all of her "big girl undies" in a clear container on the counter in the girls' bathroom. She was told that if she didn't wet herself for 1 week she could have them back (yes, I realize that is an eternity in her world, but she has done it before).
We recently started giving both "C"indy and "B"ella M&M's when "B"ella goes on the potty instead of in her pants. The thought was that "C"indy would encourage her younger sister to go to the potty when she did so she could get the candy.. but that doesn't seem to be helping any.
So, for those of you that have been through the potty training phase.. any HELP/ADVICE would greatly appreciated!!
