I came across a nice recipe on the “Attachment Mamma” blog. Here’s the description she gives:
A little slice of YUM and something easy and fun to do with toddlers on Christmas: making old-fashioned Christmas sugar cookies. This recipe has been passed down from my late Grandma, Betty Bay to my mom to me.
The cookies she shows in the blog post look like little Santas. Very cool! It’s last minute for 2009, but if you are looking for something fun to do with your toddler, this is a great idea. Keep in mind these are pure sugar/butter/flour so you don’t want to be consuming bus loads of these things … but it is the holidays. Indulge a bit.
Here’s a link to the original post.
Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!
|
Hey, I'm Chris Thompson.
I help stressed-out parents deal with toddlers.
Grab the free lesson I've
prepared for you. You'll love it.
|
My wife came across this awesome website when we were looking for an online game to help our daughter learn to read. It has all kinds of really cool flash games and spelling activities. I send this out by email to all of my subscribers and I was thrilled to get so many replies from people. Lots of you already knew about it, but way more had never heard of it and thanked me for the suggestions.
Check it out. You’re going to like it.
According to Kristen Baisden, a school district psychologist:
“parents often fail to hold their kids accountable for poor decisions. The result is they often excuse bad behavior, finding it easier to hold others, including themselves, accountable for their children’s irresponsibility.”
I agree with this statement 100%. You don’t need to constantly yell and nag your kids. If you do, you are training them to ignore you.
Here’s a link to the story I’m talking about.
What do you think, people? Agree, disagree?
When I was younger, I used to work as a lifeguard and swimming instructor. It was a great job for me because I loved working with kids all of my life, and I was great at teaching them to swim.
Here are a few tips that I think all parents need to know when it comes to kids and swimming.
- It absolutely has to be fun. Always keep kids smiling in the pool. This builds up their positive association to the water.
- Focus on breath control before anything else. Kids need to learn how to inhale, then submerge, then exhale slowly and comfortably. One great game is “The elevator game” where the child’s mouth is the elevator. You go to the top floor of the building (above water), inhale all the “people” and then go down to the bottom to “let the people get off”. You want to encourage slow, controlled breathing.
- Use the bathtub to encourage comfort in the water. Your kids are going to take baths anyway, right? While they are in there, have them go under water, open their eyes, and pick up objects. Make a game out of anything and encourage them to have fun.
- Do not say “Hold your breath!” I’ve seen this mistake time and time again, usually from parents who are not strong swimmers. You don’t want to pass on your bad habits. Pass on better habits. See the “breath control” item above.
- When learning to float, have kids relax in the water. Say you’re working on back floats. Have your kids pretend they are a cloud relaxing in the warm sun, on a calm day. This is better than having your kids all tense, neck cranked down to their chest. A relaxed child has his chin up, and ears in the water.
- Get down to their level. Crouch down in the water and talk face to face. When you work on back floats, support your child’s head on your shoulders so they *feel* how close you are. It makes them feel safe.
- Stop when they are obviously sick of whatever you are doing. It’s no fun if you push them to keep doing things they would rather stop doing. Teach stuff in small doses and keep it fun. When it isn’t fun, do something else.
I hope you all find this set of lessons to be useful. Believe me! I had a lot of success teaching kids of all ages.
Please remember to check out my audio program for parents, called “Talking to Toddlers”. It will help you deal with the terrible twos, and child behavior.
