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October 12th, 2007
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You may remember this post about the excellent nature site. It got me thinking again about my favourite season- Autumn and why I love it.
With it being Autumn, the mild weather, and an unexpected day off so we could all be together. We went to a nearby local state park this week.
I wish I had found this list beforehand.
We did collect pine cones to display at home and perhaps spray gold for later.
We had great family time together on a stroller friendly walk. Lots of running, climbing and talking. I totally agree with what Michael Grose says on his blog about the talking.
I love the Autumn! Get out into nature and enjoy it!
Technorati Tags: Autumn, state park, pine cones, family time, walk, nature
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October 7th, 2007
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Which way does your stroller/buggy face?
This is a two part series on talk.
I. Walkie talkie buggies.
II. Walkie talkie parenting.
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My two biggest problems with my stroller
- The trouble with a forward facing stroller/buggy is that the sun always gets on them, whatever you do. I used a travel system with the carseat attached to the stroller. So I could cover him up in the carseat but no matter what I bought never could get the coverage and maneuver through the crowds.
2. The car seat faced me but as soon as he’d grown out of that baby carseat- I had chubby long babies so that was pretty quickly; they were facing the way we were going. I talked to the back of their heads. I never knew if they were sleeping or looking in the right direction so had to stop the stroller to look.
An interesting ongoing discussion is “Can modern stollers/buggies hinder speech?”
With the kids facing out for the crucial language acquisition stage do we talk less to them since we can’t see them and does this impact their language learning?
I think , Yes and yes.
After stopping many a time to find the little guy had dozed off it was discouraging. Other times he was keenly looking and pointing at something but I couldn’t quite tell where? what? or even why?
I remember a friend avidly looking for an affordable stroller that would fit twins that faced her so she could talk to them. In 2002, there were hardly any.
She was adamant about the need to see and talk to her babies and then toddlers. To give them eye contact and to stimulate them.
Wise woman.
“During 2005 and 2006 Talk To Your Baby has been campaigning widely on this issue, to try and encourage buggy manufacturers to produce affordable pusher-facing buggies that would be accessible to all parents and carers.”
There have been a series of news reports about how children’s language is deteriorating, as measured by the expectations of schools when they enter.There are many views of how and why this is happening.
- The widely held view that children brought up on a diet of TV for extended periods of time lack the communication skills needed to function well in school.
- The fact that poor parenting skills lead to poor behavioral and verbal skills of children starting school with many unable to settle and not ready to learn is not disputed.
- They don’t sit still; they can’t follow instructions; they don’t behave properly. Parents are blamed for not getting their children ready for school with the increasing demands put on them and those in single parent homes feel the finger pointing the worse.
Dorit Braun of parent support charity Parentline Plus feels schools and parents need to form partnerships and assigning blame doesn’t help but in fact alienates parents.”If you’re working very hard and you’re tired, and your child is tired and fractious, it’s not surprising that you might stick them in front of the TV while you prepare supper, or prepare lunch.”
She called on schools to do more to steer parents in the right direction, and “communicate clearly with parents about what would be helpful”.
“We need to be thinking more about how to relieve some of the stresses on parents, so they can feel a bit more in control of their time, and therefore enjoy the time they spend with their children,” she said.
Find some practical ideas in part II. Walkie talkie parenting.
If you can’t wait to find out more, try the literacy trust ‘Talk to your baby” campaign
***Share your thoughts. Do you think the language and speech concerns are justified or overstated?**
Which way does/did your stroller/buggy face?
Technorati Tags: talk, parenting, stroller, buggy, carseat, baby, speech, language, learning, Talk To Your Baby, communication skills, TV
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October 5th, 2007
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Play activities has their first play date …
I invited Erica and Erin over to play and they accepted. It’s always exciting to have a play date.
Erica is a busy mum to nineteen month old Erin. Play activities recently caught up with Erica who runs the successful blog littlemummy.com where she shares her thoughts and ideas on all things parenting and teaching.
How does she do it? Let’s find out how she balances both jobs.
1.What’s your favourite activity?
I really enjoy taking Erin to the park, we’ve also joined a gymnastics group which is a lot of fun. I’m enjoying activities that involve meeting other children and parents at the moment, it’s nice for Erin as she doesn’t attend nursery, and nice for me because I don’t work.
2. What’s her favourite book?
Both Erin and I are fans of the Usborne touch & feel books, their ideal for toddlers as there’s an element of interaction. We have about six now, which we’ve been reading since she was about six months old.
3. What does Erin like to do?
Erin enjoys drawing and making sticker pictures, she can easily go through a sheet of stickers a day. She also loves her kitchen and pretending to make cups of tea and sausages, and yes, they are served together….mmmm..yum
4. What was the last project you worked on together?
I keep a list of activities and ideas which give me inspiration when I’m too tired to think. Our last activity was playing with some finger puppets we had in the craft tray, and the activity before that we took her to a garden centre to see the fish and animals, we take her there regularly as it ticks all the boxes – educational, fun and free!
5.Erica, what were your favourite play-activities when you were Erin’s age?
Much like Erin I enjoyed reading, drawing and creative activities like painting, gluing and play dough.
6. Where do you go locally for walks?
We don’t have a regular spot for walking. Over the past few months we’ve been to Cramond, Portobello and North Berwick, all coastal places. We go to the Botanic Gardens, Inverleith park or the meadows when we want somewhere grassy that Erin can roam around.
7. What everyday play-activities did your parent do with you?
My mum was always good at getting us involved with everyday activities or making up games. She wasn’t really the craft type though.
8. What’s a typical day in the Littlemummy household?
We spend the morning getting ready and doing household tasks and, for Erin at least, taking a nap. I usually spend nap time doing jobs that Erin can’t help with, like sorting the finances, and blogging. After nap time we have one of the following planned, a play date, visit to a family member or visit to library/park/shops. When we have nothing organised I turn to my list of activities which include craft, art, reading, playing, baking – pretty much anything that we can do indoors. This routine works well for us both and provides a good variety.
9. What childhood games do you remember fondly?
Most of my childhood memories centre around games I played with my brother like heads and volleys, making up assault courses and playing with his cars. My cousins and I enjoyed playing school, needless to say I was always the teacher 
10. Do you have play dates?
Our last play date was with my friend and her son, we usually let them play freely. I provided a blanket and a ‘picnic’ for lunch.
11. What open ended play ideas do you have in your home that Erin can start and stop by herself?
Erin has access to the majority of the toys in her room, including doll, jigsaws, light and sound toys etc. In the living room she has constant access to her kitchen for role play. I also leave a box of crayons, notepad and stickers on the coffee table for her to create pictures as she wishes. This variety usually keeps mischief to a minimum.
It can be a hard transition being at home with a little one or two, juggling everything. Being a parent is just so different to everything that came before.
12. What 3 things would you recommend to the parent at home and having a hard time?
- Find a routine that suits you both, ie try and have a nap time for when you need a break too.
- Try and have something planned every day, it gives you a reason to get organised and something to look forward to.
- Ensure that you keep a part of yourself, whether it’s keeping up with a personal hobby or going on an evening course to arm yourself with skills that you can use when you go back to work. I even found that blogging filled some of the void left by not being in paid employment.
Technorati Tags: play, play date, littlemummy.com, parenting, blogging, childhood memories
When was the last time you climbed on a slide?
Ran around the playground chasing your son or daughter playing tag?
Saturday afternoon the family set off to explore a new park in another neighbourhood.
The kids ran ahead and were busy climbing the ‘dinosaur bones’ by the time we both got there.
Over on the big playground, like the one below, were a family playing together.
Everyone.
The Dad was busy playing a game of tag that involved chasing his 5 kids and his wife all over the playground. They were squealing and screaming and generally having a great time. Their version of tag meant that you could unfreeze someone and they went to great lengths to free each other before trying to get to home base- behind the dinosaur bone.
They played different versions and the kids chimed in with new rules as well. It was a huge playground and they moved quickly over it.
We pretty much had the playground to ourselves that day. Only one other family who were on the swings.
It was boisterous fun…until we arrived with our little guy. The dad stopped everyone and they all stopped- wish that’d happen to me- and told them all to watch out for my little guy. And you know they did. As they came thundering by in hot pursuit they would stop and let him pass. He was so curious to all the noise and commotion, he was always trying to follow one of them. If they bumped him they stopped and picked him up and asked if he was OK and apologised. The chaser would give them chance to get away again. So all was fair.
What made the trip for us remarkable was the spread of ages they were from teenage girls down to 2 under 5 children. All playing well together. All running around and with Mum and Dad. The parents weren’t sitting around the edge like I had planned to do but actively chasing around and worn out.
They played for while and my oldest joined in- guess they were a lot more fun today than us. I didn’t blame him it was exciting being around that energy and fun.
It became far too windy and chilly so we all happen to leave the park around the same time.
No wild hysteria from their kids- that often punctuates our park visits- “I don’t wanna go home!” But kids running and parents arm in arm ( We secretly believe, holding each other up after all that running around! But more truthfully just happy to be in each others company.)
Everyone was happy ….and leaving.
This happy family scene made me think of the saying “The family that plays together stays together“
I wondered about our familyplay activities; if my kids feel as happy about a trip to the park as these kids seemed. Would I be running around with my kids as they got older or would I be too self conscious about it all?
I wouldn’t want to be running around every time I go to the park and indeed don’t. But how many times have we had family time, at the park and it be one of us to each child and not us doing something together.
It made for an interesting discussion on the way home.
*********What do you do at the park?*******
*****How do you spend family time at the park ?********
Here’s what others have done
- The Family that Plays Together… Is Much Healthier!
We are looking for some suggestions.
What do you do? Let us know below…Thanks
Technorati Tags: playground, park, family, playing together, kids, happy, together, play, activities, family time
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