Parenting Sites 411

At the BlogHer 07 conference in Chicago, I learned a lot about a website called FiveMoms.com. Perhaps you’ve heard of them too. It’s a collection of five mothers, all from pretty different backgrounds, who have one unfortunate thing in common. They all have children who have gotten in deep with cough medicine. No, not to make meth as the news media would have you believing. Just cough medicine itself. According to the website, over 2 million teenagers in the last year have used cough medicine as a way to get high.

The idea for action is easy and genius: one parent reads the website, learns about the dangers, warning signs, treatments, etc and then in turn educates five other parents with what they now know. And, thanks to the website, sharing the information is as easy as the click of a mouse. The website itself is well laid out and easy to read and understand. And it is a perfect example of how just a few people can change their world. They will even send you a gorgeous and well-appointed manicure set just for helping them spread the word.

Really, what do you have to lose? You (and your friends and family) could have everything to gain.

Water safety is a big part of the summer. From learning to not run on wet pavement to knowing when it is not safe to even be in the water, kids who are near water have to learn the basics to keep the fun safe.

Fuller’s biggest thing to learn at the lake and at my best friend’s pool is going to be not to run on the docks. It makes sense to not run, but since his toddler feet can often betray him into flying through the air, it is even more important.

Splash Zone USA is a great site to introduce kids to pool and hot tub safety. The site has a song, an interactive area with games, and .pdf coloring book to print out (where the bulk of the safety tips and rules are located).

The Red Cross has an excellent section on water safety, that covers everything from general water safety to pools to water skiing. A repeat tip for almost every section is Learn to swim. The best thing anyone can do to stay safe in and around the water is to learn to swim. This includes anyone participating in any water sport or boating activity.

Lifespan.org offers great water safety tips as well, including the pressing one that you keep your eyes on your children at all times. I know that we empty our kid pool when we are done, and that seems to me like common sense, but it is just as easy for someone to to not do so and then let their kids play outside unsupervised.

I think one of the biggest tips I can give parents is to practice water safety yourself. If your children see you demonstrating how to do it right, then it will be easier for them to follow in your footsteps. And everyone will have more fun because you are all safe.

water safety, children water safety, teaching water safety

Well, most of the students around our geographic area are out of school or days away from screaming, “No more teachers! No more books!”

I remember those days, when I couldn’t wait to ditch the daily routine and sleep in, without much to do but watch soaps, swim, and hang out with friends. There was one summer that I remember as being very scheduled with tennis camp and photography lessons.

But I know that I didn’t just lounge around a not do anything mental in my summers. In fact I remember workbooks. Those pages of quick lessons and worksheets designed to keep my mind sharp and ready for the next year of learning.

There are lots of online resources available to parents on ways to keep your kids minds active and available to learning. While workbooks are fun, the internet offers a wide variety of worksheets, activities, and projects that make kids not even realize they might be learning something.

Over at Education World, there is a list of 25 activities designed to “fight summer boredom and build thinking skills.” The activities range from coloring, to making ice cream in a bag, rock collecting, and even planning a party.

Quite a few parents use the summer months to help their children focus in on a subject that he or she didn’t do se well in over the school year. Summer tutor programs are available in most cities today- from Sylvan to Score to The Honors Learning Center. Over on Math and Reading Help for Kids, they offer a list of articles about the subject of tutoring at home.

And of course, the greatest resource children have are their parents. As a family you could take a look at these summer fun activities and figure out a way to get everyone involved in learning, cooperating, and possibly exercising. It probably beats sitting around watching soaps all day.

summer activities for children, summer tutoring, family summer fun

I admit that I have been in a funk the last few days. And it isn’t helping that this funk is obviously still here on the busiest day of our week. And as I work through my funk, I look at my son and wish he would do just a little bit more for himself. He isn’t ready for potty training, so I still have to do the dirty diapers. And he is still dependent on my to get his long legs into pants and his lanky arms through his shirt.

A while back I thought I stumbled on something to help Fuller get interested in dressing himself. I bought him some Cars PJs that entranced him. He loved telling me that there was a car on his shirt and protested loudly when I would have to take it off him to put on his shirt for the day. When it was time to put the car on him at night, he would try to put it over his head himself. I wondered if this would lead to him actually putting on clothes by himself.

I have looked into tips and tricks for teaching kids on how to dress themselves I haven’t really come up with much. According to the Babycenter website, this is part of a developmental milestone called “self care.” And the best advice I found was at the bottom of the article:

Encouragement is key. Whenever your child tries her hand at a new skill, tell her you’re proud she tried (regardless of the result) and urge her to try again. Don’t always jump in to help; it’s essential that she have enough time to master tasks on her own, at her own pace. Try not to pressure her before she’s ready, either. And be flexible: If allowing her to prepare her own breakfast means you’ll have to sweep cereal off the floor, go with the flow.

Encourage, let go, and be flexible. I think getting out of my funk would help too. Or just letting Fuller wear his PJs all over the place.

self care, toddlers, parenting flexibility

Adding to the list of parenting experiences of which I am fearful of we have one quickly approaching.

Potty Training.

I can’t quite pin down why I am afraid of this because I know it will free up a lot of our lives and budget. Fuller will be able to take care of this bodily function and we can start saving our pennies for the next time we buy diapers for a little one.

I have been trying to get advice on the subject and everyone keeps pointing me to various books. While I don’t mind reading books, it just takes me a little while to get my act together to actually get the book in my hands. Which is probably why I tend to get so dependent on the internet for its advice.

So far, from my journeys into the internet archives, I have read about potty training readiness. This is usually where I get worried because I keep wondering, “Is he really ready?” I know I am ready to stop changing his dirty diapers. I know I am ready to stop traveling to the other side of the city to go to Sam’s to buy the bulk diapers we really like.

A few months back I tried to take the About: Pediatrics Potty Training Readiness Quiz. I thought the quiz was really long for an online quiz (I’m so used to those online quizzes that tell me while color I am or what character of Harry Potter I am) and I quit before finishing. I also think I lied on some of the answers because I figured if I answered “No” the quiz would tell me Fuller wasn’t ready. I think in reality I wasn’t ready.
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Fuller has awesome grandparents. My inlaws are enjoying their roles as the doting grandparents and I love taking Fuller to hang out with my parents. We just got back from a two week trip going South to visit Grandma Linda and Grandpa Albert, taking a short break at home and then heading North to visit Vieja (my mom).

Fuller interacts differently with each grandparent, mainly because each grandparent is so different. My MIL likes to sit and cuddle with the grandkids, or watch them play at her feet. She will happily change diapers and make sure they are fed or hydrated.

My FIL likes to spoil, spoil, spoil. Cookies and ice cream for breakfast? Sure, at Grandpa Albert’s house! Trip to the playground? Of course Grandpa Albert will take you! On this recent trip Albert and Linda took the grandkids (my niece and nephew were there too) to the dollar store to have them pick out anything they wanted.

My mom loves to plan things for she and Fuller to do together. Making cutout cookies, reading books, singing songs, and playing the piano are at the top of their list. Mom also enjoys doing some clothes shopping for her only grandson. This helps us out financially as well, which is one of her goals, and I appreciate it.

And my dad (aka Grandpa Fred), who is currently serving in Afghanistan, is looking forward to teaching Fuller to canoe and enjoy nature. Daddy would take walks with Fuller as long as Fuller’s legs will carry him.

The Grandkids and Me Foundation is a foundation dedicated to improving grandchild relationships through camps, stories, meetings, and grandkid days. According to the 11 truths about Grandparenting:
There are approximately 65 million grandparents in our country today; by 2020, that number will grow to 98 million. And Don Schmitz’s ABC’s of Grandparenting is inspiring to read and understand what role a grandparent can play in your child’s life. (Seriously, I have tears in my eyes reading it.)

I believe that the relationship that Fuller has with his grandparents is going to help shape him into the man we want him to become. Any child’s realtionship with his or her grandparents is very important. I think knowing your parents’ parents helps children understand their own parents and where they come from. Over at parenthood.com, their article on the subject points out that grandparents give kids diversity, because they all have different ways of looking at things based on their own backgrounds and values. Fuller will learn a lot about different cultures from my parents’ different travels around the world. And Damon’s parents can give him a first hand account of living in Montgomery, AL during the civil rights movement.

What kind of relationship do you hope your children have with his or her grandparents? What do you do to help build that bond?

grandparents, relationships, grandchildren

I have a confession: I am scared to take Fuller shopping with me. I’m not so scared that I am paralyzed by the idea, but I am constantly running the scenarios through my mind and having to psych myself up in order to get through shopping.

I worry that Fuller will becoming a screaming idiot that I can’t control. Or I worry that he will knock over a display or swipe something from a shelf that will end up in my purse and caught in the detectors. I get frustrated when I know that taking him on any shopping trip will make the experience last about 40 minutes longer. I have to tell him “No” so many times I feel bad. I have to force him to sit down in the shopping cart (”On your bottom!”) over and over.

As time goes by, I do think about it less and less, and it is a fact of life that Fuller has to come with me often. But I still fret over it, mainly because I know it would be easier to just do it by myself. (Maybe there is a little mourning for the loss of my independence in there as well.)

Well, as is the theme of this site, I decided to turn to my back up parenting method (my first being my instincts) the internet.

The first google result ended up with Ten Tips for Shopping with Children over on the website The Natural Child Project. I really try to live by number 6, avoid crowds, even when I don’t have Fuller with me. It just makes sense. (A major reason why I do a lot of Christmas shopping online.) But the tip that spoke to me the most was number 2:

2. Remember that children are naturally curious.
Children are naturally curious; this is how they learn about the world around them. If they want to examine an attractive item, please don’t scold them. Instead, help them to hold the item safely, or let them know that it can be viewed but not touched. You might say “This is breakable, so let’s just look at it together.” Even if an item cannot be purchased, it can be helpful to share the child’s enthusiasm and interest in it.

I think I fear the shopping with Fuller experience so much that I often forget what kinds of teaching experiences I can glean from the time together. At home we have been working on numbers and my mind has been reshaped to show him the number experience in the store.

Health24.com has an entertaining and educational article on taking the toddlers shopping. The parent tips focus on grocery shopping. I must admit that I often find myself, due to time constraints, with a hungry toddler at the store (tip number 1: don’t take a hungry toddler to the grocery!). I usually take snacks for Fuller so that he can eat that if he starts to sign and yell “eat.”

And finally, there are 12 tips for shopping with children at ChildFriendly.org. I admit that I often push myself too much to get the shopping “done,” which ignores tip number 11. Maybe I just need to slow down and enjoy the experience of being with my son a bit more. I mean, isn’t that why I quit my job in the first place?

So, what tips or stories do you have for shopping with your kids?

shopping with children, shopping, shopping tips

I have a big day ahead of me. I have to whip this house into shape in order to feel like a proper hostess for a playdate tomorrow. Since staying at home, we have been to a few playdates and now it is time to reciprocate one. As a bonus, I am kicking my butt to get the house cleaned. (Here is a tip: invite someone that you aren’t as familiar with. I thought I would clean my house for a playdate with my bestfriend and I guess I am too comfortable with her because my house was wrecked when she came over.)

This past Sunday our church had a pancake dinner and dying eggs was part of the program for the little ones. Fuller got to dye his first egg and he seemed to have a pretty good time, so why not do it again? I called a mom from our church and asked her and her daughter to come over for egg dying, lunch, and a possible playground trip. So, in addition to cleaning the house, I am needing to prepare for two two and half year olds to dye hardboiled eggs.
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I really hope you don’t get tired of me telling you how excited I am that our neighborhood is getting a playground. The build starts today and I was so excited I couldn’t sleep past 5:30. I finally got up at 6 and cleaned the kitchen, something I needed to do, but still I don’t usually do that at 6 am. My husband is a team captain for a part of the project, so he had to be up earlier than normal.

I am on-call for childcare. If someone shows up at the site and needs childcare, the organizers will call me to go get the kid(s). On Saturday, the biggest day of the build, I will be actually working on site, doing level 1 type jobs- raking mulch, sanding wood, painting, or working the volunteer table. We have some friends who will be watching Fuller, so that takes the pressure off me.

Thinking about serving and helping others has kind of been a theme in our family lately. I know that Fuller is too young to fully comprehend what is going on this weekend, but he will benefit from the hard work of the many neighbors who are coming together to build this great playground. And when he is older I will expect that he will want to give of his time and talents in a similar fashion.
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I’ve mentioned before that our television viewing area has two PBS stations- one for Chattanooga and one for Georgia. It is kind of like a mother’s little helper everyday. In fact, this post right now is being brought to you by the words Curious and George.

I was a big fan of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. My cousin likes to tell the story of how I always knew when Mr. Roger’s would be on, even though I couldn’t tell time. I would drop whatever I was doing to go watch Mr. Roger’s. I have fond memories of Sesame Street and Reading Rainbow. I am glad to pass this along to Fuller in his early development of learning skills.

Last week Fuller’s morning viewing schedule was interrupted by nice ladies telling the kids to get their parents so they could hear an important announcement about their station. It was the standard “Please give to PBS” pitch that comes about once a quarter.

Our PBS station, WTCI, has a Kids Klub program where you can support the station and get a bunch of kid stuff in return. For $40 we got a Curious George t-shirt and tickets to a lot of local attractions. Fuller’s name will be on TV the week of his birthday (every kids’ dream, right?), and we get to go to a special fun day at Lake Winnie this summer. The nice ladies wore me down and I called up to pledge my $40. Fuller’s t-shirt should be here in 4 to 6 weeks. Hopefully it will still fit.

Another bonus of watching so much PBS is that we heard about the Family Fun Day with the Walk Around Cookie Monster. It was held this past Saturday and I made it a point to get out of the house and take Fuller to meet the famous Cookie. It was also another small way to support our local PBS station ($3 per person to get in). And Fuller got to do one of his favorite activities- bounce in an inflatable obstacle course.

Is public television part of your family? Do you support local public television? Do you remember PBS as a kid?

PBS, Public Television, television, Cookie Monster, kid’s tv

We are having so much fun with Fuller learning his letters. He really started it on his own, due to a Leapfrog DVD and Leapfrog Fridge Phonics set given as presents from one of his aunts. One day my husband started picking up magnet letters and asking Fuller what they were and Fuller kept giving correct answers. Then we started putting groups of letters together and asking him to pick out a certain letter and Fuller was all for that as well. It was amazing to see.

So of course all I want to do it keep giving him stuff to learn. We work on colors (using colored blocks), numbers (he knows 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 really well), and we try to exceed the daily recommended allowance of reading each day. Today he really took an interest in watching us write the letter “A” on his chalkboard. Damon tried to help Fuller write “A” and he sort of got it, but just the fact that he is interested thrills me to no end.

Which brings me what I have been searching for on the internet recently- google searches for “handwriting lessons” and “teaching kids to write.” Not that I think I need these today or even next month, but I have a del.icio.us habit that is difficult to break. I see a site, think it could be useful later and Bam! I have tagged it for del.icio.us.

I know that Fuller won’t be proficient in writing for a few years, but like I said, I like to keep this information for future use. And with the way technology is today, I wonder if he will be better at typing before he masters his pencil grip.

handwriting, handwriting resources, education

Yesterday was the one month anniversary of the last day at my job. So that makes today as the one month anniversary of me being a full time stay at home mom. I’m the type of person who gets a bit retrospective when these kinds of anniversaries crop up (I was a wreck before my 30th birthday).

This past month has been… well, I don’t think one word can summarize that month that I have had. I accomplished a few projects, I nursed a sick child for one week, I did umpteen loads of laundry, and I started shopping for a new couch.

Unfortunately for me, I have a hard time looking at everything good that happened (item number one: spent more time with my son!) and I look around and see everything that I haven’t accomplished. There is a chaos of papers on my buffet, the computer desk is a wreck, and I can’t seem to get a handle on keeping a clean kitchen. I’m getting better at actually cooking dinner and getting it on the table soon after my husband comes home (it helps when he IMs me to tell me he is on his way), but I feel like this uneasy sense of dread just trying to figure out what the family will actually eat for dinner.

There is also a phrase that I dread my husband saying to me at some point during this SAHM career- “What do you do all day?” I feel like most of my time needs to be accounted in some way. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with figuring out the blogging and home life balance. And I need to pay attention to what I actually do all day.

Time management applies to all walks of life- the high powered executive on the 10th floor of some corporation to the bus driver who keeps his/ her route running on time. I keep thinking that I need some time management skills refresher course to keep track and accomplish what needs to be accomplished.

That is where Mommy Track’d comes in. I love this site because it has so many helpful resources on keeping the sanity.The site originated as a site specifically for women who remain in the workforce after children enter their lives. But really, I see it as a site for all parents who are struggling to keep it together.

There are articles on hot topics (I love this article on kids and the TV) and a survival guide featuring articles ranging from organization to making meals quickly. There is a great section dedicated to recommending topical books (for parents and kids). Mommy Track’d also features message boards where parents can come together to share their frustrations, advice, and support for one another.

The In the Spotlight feature might be my favorite feature. I really enjoy reading interviews of other people and seeing their solutions for their lives.

Today I plan on taking time to actually list out what I want to accomplish and seeing if I can at least move some of the filing to the actual file cabinet. And then on our todo list is more finger painting.

Happy One Month of SAHM to me!

I have a sick toddler at home and I am changing diapers every twenty minutes. It drove me to google the phrase “parenting site sick kid” and I came up with this internet gem: FamilyEducation.com

I don’t want to mislead you to think the site is about sick kids, that phrase just helped me come up with today’s site to review.

FamilyEducation is a site that has been around since 1996. Their about page tells us:

Parents find practical guidance, grade-specific information about their children’s school experience, strategies to get involved with their children’s learning, free email newsletters, and fun and entertaining family activities. FamilyEducation brings together leading organizations from both the public and private sectors to help parents, teachers, schools, and community organizations use online tools and other media resources to positively affect children’s education and overall development.

I love education sites, because any way that I can figure out how to pass along knowledge to my son is golden. At first glance, I think I will like this site.

Design: The homepage is well organized and not cluttered with icons or animated sections. I have no idea if the orange background was coordinated with their sponsor, Motrin, and the main picture of the planet Mars, but it all seems to flow well. But I do take issue with the color orange. Don’t get me wrong, orange is my favorite color, but when used on the web, with a lot of content, I think it should be used sparingly. And this is coming from the girl whose first family website did have a completely orange background. I told you, it is my favorite color.

For design, we give 4 high fives!

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