rainbowmama
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Posts posted by rainbowmama
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SWeaters can include sweatshirts, especially hoodies
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I'd get Catan Jr. for the four year old, as it's one of my favorite games for little kids, and then normal Catan for the older kids.
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I don't carry snacks for the kids. Snacks are only at home. We have an anytime drawer that they can get snacks: it has fruit, boiled eggs, nuts, veggies..., but it's not formally served
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I just gave table food whenever I was feeding anyone else. I didn't nurse on a schedule, so sometimes they ate food first, sometimes they nursed. It didn't affect my supply.
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I saw a woman buying a little kid's drum set recently, and I joked that it was a loud gift. She said, "I know, I can't stand my daughter-in-law." :0
So, we are the only family with children at this point, and somehow, it became a game among extended family to try to find the loudest/messiest/most obnoxious toys they could find to give to the kids. They give other things, too, but this is part of it. I try to be a good sport, and most of those toys I just dump back at the giver's house after the initial enthusiasm for it abates in my house. However, the pet took this way further, and I've wondered if I should have nipped this game in the bud way earlier.
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Last year, one set of grandparents gave one of my kids a pet for Christmas, even after I explicitly told them that no pets were allowed, that I wasn't up to taking care of a pet. It took me months to get them to take the pet back to their home, and it definitely upset my kid (but I was pregnant with a bunch of kids and just couldn't care properly for this creature).
I really don't want a repeat of last year: so, how do you enforce rules about gift giving on extended family?
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We took off a couple months when I had a baby. We tend to take off days my spouse is home. We are going on a trip this summer and won't do school then. However, we don't take a lot of long breaks just because: some parts of the year are lighter than others, but they don't tend to do well with long periods of unstructured time and starting school back up then is painful, so mostly, we don't completely stop
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So, I do have a baby and other small kids in the home. Our heating situation also really needs to be revamped. I set my thermostat between 70-74, with the goal of keeping my bedroom above 65 degrees. Being cold really negatively affects my mood.
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We required a regular fitness activity. That does not mean team sports.
Martial arts (not just TKD, also look for things that might spark interest beyond fitness like Kendo)
Dance
Local walking or hiking club outings
Playing drums can be quite a workout
Check local rec and community offerings some have teen only fitness, CrossFit, Zumba, weight training and yoga classes
Geocaching
Family walk
Family bike
My nephew was in marching band, my very team sport oriented sister watched one practice and quickly realized her son was getting a workout hauling that tuba around.
I found cheap personal training on groupon for one of my dc
Anyway daily movement is important, along with longer and/or more intense activity 3-5 times a week.
We daily as a family walk and do some yoga. I had a baby this summer too little for biking, but it's something we'll probably pick up again once it warms up. It's the higher intensity workouts that we struggle with more and have outsourced to sports
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I think physical activity in an environment with other people is a really good thing. You can find the comraderie of a team and friendly competition at a lot of martial arts schools. I sold one of mine on the idea by explaining that gym class is a subject kids have to take at school, and I wasn't wasting her time with randomness, but rather allowing her gym class to be the lifelong skill of self defense. She quickly saw that martial arts classes were superior to running laps around the yard.
I will have to look more into this. We have not tried martial arts.
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None of my kids had the slightest desire to participate in team sports. I value and require physical activity, but that does not have to be an organized sport. We hike and rock climb.
DD was passionate about riding horses. DS tried it out for a bit and then started TKD, branched out to other martial arts, and found his passion in judo.
We actually do a "hiking club," but I have small children, as do others who participate, so it does not end up high enough intensity. We've looked into rock climbing, as she loved climbing trees when she was younger, but it was pricey and she was unenthusiastic.
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Don't require sports?
If she really isn't into it, why?
Or find a solo activity? Dance, skating, running?
My daughter is competitive and likes the social aspect of team sports. She just doesn't like the physical activity aspect of it. Keeping her moving as we approach the teen years is important to me. We've tried dance, but a lot of the dance programs around here get pretty serious by eight years old. She did skating last year and thought it was okay. She doesn't like running, though she will run for soccer or basketball or whatever
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My tween is not especially into sports. I think team sports have a lot of side benefits, so we've encouraged dabbling in them. As she reached upper elementary school, the number of sports the park district offered started to dwindle. By next grade, there's very, very little. I don't want the expense, travel, or time commitment of club sports: she's just not that into it. How does everyone handle sports participation for older kids who aren't especially sporty?
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Yes, I have definitely changed my opinion on many things as I've encountered new ways to look at things in the course of a light-hearted debate.
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Anyone administer the IOWA Basics through Seton? I just received our test results: the norms are set to November 2005! I didn't realize this would be so old. Are these test results even useful?
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Wow, that's so different from the way we have always done Christmas. I always wanted my son to get super-fun stuff from Santa and from dh and I. He got great gifts from other family members as well, but it never occurred to me that he shouldn't get toys from us as well.
When we had fewer kids and they were much younger, we used to do toys.Our gifts were always overshadowed and lost in the huge quantities of gifts from relatives. Our family has grown: our home has not. I already dread finding homes for the new acquisitions and the huge fights getting rid of stuff to enable the influx of new stuff brings.
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My non-passionate piano player has been taking lessons for five years and they're 30 mins. each.
I once saw the most beautiful performance at my friend's church by a pianist.
After, I asked her, "Where does he work?" Assuming that he worked in a symphony or something like that.
She goes, "At Subway."
I was like, :huh:
She repeated, "At Subway." As in sandwiches. Couldn't believe it.
That's when I realized that my son is taking lessons because a) it's good for the brain and b) he honestly likes learning and loves his piano teacher, but it will never be an all consuming passion.
Alley
I actually have a different child who has loved, loved, loved playing violin since he was very, very little. After seeing how many of his teachers have masters degrees in music but are now teaching tots to play violin and struggling financially, I definitely hope he doesn't opt to do it professionally. Still, there's something priceless about watching a child play who absolutely loves it...
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If your tween has played piano for several years casually (practices every day but it's not a main interest), how long is their lesson?
We recently switched piano teachers, and again, this new teacher wants my kid to take longer lessons. They are expensive. She's not passionate about it. I'm not sure if my expectations around lesson length for this age is off.
So, how long is your intermediate tween's lesson?
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Do you think he would benefit from the extra speech therapy?
I'm not sure. I'm not even sure he'd qualify: my oldest had/has more severe speech issues and went to public kindergarten but did not qualify for services (but did qualify for private services). The articulation errors has would be perfectly normal in a child who was three, which are most kids in his grade level at this point. I know the public school only does group therapy, so I'm not sure if it would help or not.
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I teach preschool currently and have taught public school K.
Honestly, I would keep him in preK and not attempt K until he's a solid 5 year old. But--why do you hate the idea of him being the oldest? I can tell you, it is a Good and Joyful Thing (lol) when kids come to kindergarten with some
executive function maturity. I would rather have a kid who has a measure of self-control, can listen and follow instructions, and gets along well with peers than a kid who knows how to read and do maths already.
I vote for 2 days of nature based preschool, some homeschooling, and you getting services from the school system or community board in your town that are offered to preschoolers. Around here, that's Childfind. IDK what it is where you live, but you are entitled to help. That, with private speech (or maybe without) is probably enough and wouldn't entail you running around quite as much as 3Xweek preschool.
YMMV, and prob does, but around here, public preschool is all Head Start, and it's a nightmare. There are 18-25 kids in a class, with a teacher and an aide, and a planning sub. The kids who come have very little exposure to learning materials, difficult behavior is very common, and it's all worksheet and stuff like that. BUT yours may be different. I never recommend public preschool around here, though.
This kid definitely struggles with self-control and following directions... but I definitely wonder if putting him with a bunch of less mature kids will really foster him to act more mature, since odds are a lot of those kids are more immature than him, you know?
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With all the pressure on young kids in public school, I would not be quick to accelerate child of mine. It is much easier to be one of the older kids in a class than it is to be the youngest -especially a kid with some special needs.
My oldest went to the public kindergarten with a more severe speech issue (but the SLP still decided it wasn't severe enough to qualify - though I still regret that I didn't take her privately then!) and academically advanced: reading chapter books and being able to do math with regrouping and square small numbers... and kindergarten was a complete and utter mess and ultimately led us to homeschooling. I really want this child to have a more positive experience, and I do think the lack of academic accommodation played a large role in why things went poorly.
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So, my firstborn obsessively read Little House on the Prairie from about the ages of four until 6/7 years old, and I loved what Ma said so much that I read this every year to my kids, even though none of the others found the series anywhere near as compelling.
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Do you give strictly functional gifts to all your other kids? If so, I don't see an issue -- but if everyone else is getting "fun stuff" and he's not, I think he would care.
From us, yes. They will get a bunch of toys from other family members on that day, so we don't do toys: I just don't find they appreciate an additional toy from us when they will get so very many from other family.
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I think the preschooler will care that he doesn’t get any toys.
None of the kids will get toys under the tree from us: they are the only grandchildren on both sides of the family, and the grandparents, uncles, and aunts tend to give them so many toys that we don't feel it necessary for any toys to come from us.
Magazine article: Better Off Without College
in The Chat Board
Posted
Your experience of the trades is very different from ours. Are you union? My spouse is. You have to pass a test in order to get into the apprenticeship, so at least you are literate. You have to pass a drug test to get into the union and many jobs require random drug testing, so it's harder to have a drug problem (other than alcohol) than many white collar jobs. I know at least some of the employers do background checks, because my spouse has had them when changing companies.That said, the apprentices digging trenches are making significantly more than $10/hr.
My spouse does not make six figures. He's probably at the top of where he can go without college. It did destroy his back. However, we are a single income family (and always have been) and home owners. He now works an office job related to plumbing. I really love the apprenticeship model. I really love that his company takes estimators and project managers from the field rather than people who have never worked construction. I would love to see this model implemented in more occupations. In the mean time, though? I would recommend my kids look hard at the trades.