Butterfly Fingers

In the spirit of Arts & Crafts projects, here's another fun activity for the kids: Handprint Butterflies!

I recommend using finger paint, though any kind of washable paint will work. You will also need paper that's thick enough to hold paint.

Pour paint into a shallow bowl, big enough for the child to lay his/her hands in with fingers spread. You can also use a paintbrush to layer paint on the hands.

With both palms and fingers covered in paint, press hands onto the paper with wrists touching, thumbs slightly slanted and fingers pointing to the right or left respectively. The thumbprints can be the antennae or use black paint to draw them in as well as a body. You can outline the butterfly too if you'd like. Be creative! Use lots of colors, glue on some googly eyes or paint them in, cut it out if you'd like, or don't. Just have fun with it!

Marshmallow Igloos

Today I want to share a lighthearted winter Arts & Crafts activity that's fun for the whole family. If you find yourself stuck indoors with the kids all day, here's something you can do.

Make an igloo out of marshmallows! You can either glue them down (in which case, please do not encourage your child to eat it!) or you can use vanilla frosting to adhere the marshmallows together. A plastic bowl or a cup with the top cut off can be used as the foundation. If you cut off the top of a cup, use that piece as the foundation for the "entrance." Tin foil can work, too. You can use a paintbrush to fill in any gaps with glue or frosting. Make sure to put a paper plate or shallow bowl underneath for transport and there you have it - a marshmallow igloo and a happy child!

You can also use cotton balls for extra snow and/or white pompoms if you have em'. 

This line is long. What do I do?

You're in line at JoAnn's Fabric (one of my favorite stores.. it just has EVERYTHING) and your 4-year-old is getting a little restless. His preschool teacher mentioned something earlier in the week about the class working on reading three-letter-words. Want to kill two birds with one stone? (I hate that saying).

Have little Timmy practice reading some of the words around you while waiting in line. Even better, have a small picture book in your bag for use in times like these. Most of the items you see while waiting in line are meant for children to pick up and ask Mom for anyway, so have your child read some of words on the packaging when they bring it to you. Of course, if this little activity will cause your child to have a tantrum when you ultimately say no to buying the "French-Fry-Shaped-Gummy-Candy" then pick your items wisely. If it won't, then go for it! Your kid needs the reading practice!

Most 3 and 4-year-olds are at the beginning stages of phonemic awareness. They know that letters have sounds and they know that if they put these sounds together, they can potentially sound out a word. They just don't know all of the sounds yet probably. Some kids get it faster, some kids take longer. Either way, any time spent practicing reading is time well spent.

Look for words like CAT, HOT, PAN, RUN. Consonant, vowel, consonant patterns. If you throw in too many vowels, you'll confuse the kid. Anyway, a lot of words in the English language don't SOUND the way they LOOK. Start off easy.

So what's the tip here? Encourage your child to read while waiting in line at the store. You could resolve any potential restlessness, help your child learn to read and simultaneously make your child's teacher very happy, too!

WAIT TIL YOUR FATHER HEARS ABOUT THIS!

I mentioned in the last post that when a child is sent to another person (Mom->Dad, Teacher->Principal) to be dealt with behavior wise, the “sender” potentially loses some of his/her authority to the “sendee,” if you will.

Children are very observant and if their issue gets pushed off from one person to another, the person who sent them away loses some credibility and has less authority in the kid’s eyes. It's possible that the child will feel he has been given even more reason to brush off and maybe even not take too seriously the person who was originally in the role of authority. (Mom, Dad, Teacher, Grandma, Uncle, you get the idea, anyone.)

If your child is just absolutely defying you with every bone of their body and you say something like “JUST WAIT TIL YOUR FATHER GETS HOME!" then you'll have to deal with your unyielding child whenever Dad's not home. The same goes for a teacher who sends the child to the Principal’s Office.  Kids can be difficult and ultimately sometimes you don’t have the time, the energy, or what feels like the will to discipline your child. But just know that as soon as you hand off the power to someone else, the child will probably notice and it could potentially lead to more trouble when you’re alone with him or her in the future. Don't lose your credibility. Be the authority, even when it’s hard and you really, really don't want to. 

Having said this, I want to note that I am not at all saying parents shouldn’t work together, or teacher and principals either for that matter. There should always be a cooperative, unanimously planned course of action for discipline. What I am saying though is here is a perspective that while maybe isn’t perfect for you, is something that you hadn’t thought of quite yet.

Good luck out there!  

You did WHAT today at school?

So you picked up little Lucy from school today and the teacher looked at you with a kind of grim face and a sightly slanted smile. What does that mean? It's possible Lucy made her teacher want to pull her hair out today. If your child got sent to the Principal, Director, or any other place than the classroom, you should probably have a good long chat about it with the child. Most teachers only resolve to removing a child, i.e. sending him/her to a Principal/Director's office, to another classroom, etc., because they absolutely cannot take any more time to try and sort out the child's behavior issue themself. This does not mean your child is bad, it just means he or she is requiring too much attention from the teacher and he/she can't provide it at that moment. Most teachers want to be able to handle all behavior issues by themselves and in the classroom. This is because as soon as you send the student to someone else, you have lost a bit of authority. It's the same when a Mom sends the child to Dad (or Mommy #2) or if Dad hands off the kid to Mom (or Daddy #2). See next post for more details on that.

So in conclusion, if your child got sent out of his/her classroom today or another day, I would start a serious conversation about it with your child and try to find out the root of the problem and see if there is possibly a need for attention that he/she is craving which is something that you might be able to address.