Blog

by Cari Pemberton
Remember the days when you (and your siblings) would pile into the family station wagon for a road trip? I can recall singing into the air vents as if they were microphones, and sleeping on the floor in the back seat (with the hump digging into my back). We didn’t have DVD players, MP3 players, or built-in tables like some minivans. We were lucky to have sandwiches and fruit and a library book.
Our kids have been bombarded with entertainment and individually packaged snacks the colors of the rainbow since they were born. They have a hard time enduring, let alone enjoying, a slower pace.

Here are a few pointers:
Get a couple hours of driving in while the kids sleep before stopping for breakfast.
As children tend to have shorter attention spans, don’t plan activities which are exceptionally long. Some museums may have age recommendations to guide your planning.
Younger children especially need opportunities to rest. Leave time in your schedule for cranky kids to have a short nap in the hotel room.

Cari Pemberton is a Certified Family Manager Coach and Director of Outreach and Training for Family Manager Coaching. She is the CEO to one husband, two daughters, two cats and one Labrador who thinks he is a person. Her upcoming events and special offers are posted at TheClutterCutters.net.

Ah, nap time.

It’s bliss. I look forward to it all day. Not just because the kids will be asleep and I might be able to get a chance to breathe but because I need a few moments to recharge.

Some day cares allow kids to sleep as long as they need; some allow only an hour. It’s up to the daycare provider.

Some parents get upset when they come and their kids are sleeping. They wonder if their kids have been sleeping all afternoon instead of doing what the parents pay for, playing & learning!

Nap time actually teaches kids important skills. It teaches kids to pay attention to the limits of their bodies. Our bodies will tell us when we are tired. You start yawning, having muscle fatigue, maybe even an eye twitch. When an adult starts feeling like this, we know we have to get some sleep. So we (as best as we can) put aside what we are doing, and go sleep. Kids get these same signals but don’t usually know what it means. Requiring kids to take naps teaches them to recognize when they are tired. Passing out in the middle of a pile of toys makes a great picture, but it doesn’t usually allow them to reach a good sleep rhythm.

The bottom line is, give your kids a chance to sleep! Learning & growing is hard work!

“You’ll never stop me!” my 3-year old daughter laughs like any good villain as she is sent to her jail, I mean, room, for a time-out, so sentenced due to criminal mischief. This defines my days.

It makes me wonder, how do my friends with 6, 8, 12 kids do it? Have these moms had some kind of divine revelation that I didn’t get? Does it suddenly click when you’ve given birth to that magic #6? How do they do it?!?!?

I’m the oldest of 5 kids. I know, for a fact, that my mom is the heroine of her own life story. Any one who could handle the 5 of us deserves that title. However, my mom keeps me awake at night. I’m pushing 30, have 3 kids of my own, a business, a mortgage, a dog & cat, and am about to get 6 baby chicks. Yet I know this is nothing to compare to what my mom had to deal with raising 4 kids (my mom gave birth to 3 kids in 4 years, and #5 was born after we moved to town) in the mountains with no neighbors, a party phone line, a wood-burning stove to heat the whole house, and anywhere from 3-9 dogs, 2 cats, a horse that would sneak from a neighbors a 1/4 mile away to come eat our dog food, & a mouthy oldest child to top it off. My mom is a marvelous cook, cake artist extraordinaire, therapist, an excellent chauffeur, an expert grocery shopper, an artist with a vacuum. Nowadays, she’s usually so calm and collected. She’s the not-always-complimentary voice in my head urging me to do better.

So I lay awake at night, going through my day in my head, seeing how I got upset with my kids, how the day care kids frustrated me with their constant nattering. How the dog knocked me off my feet while trying to catch the cat. I beat myself up trying to think of how my mom or my friends would have handled it. I do so many things the same as my mom did/does. I play classical music all day. I grew up with it and it helps calm me. I cook as much as I can from scratch. There’s something very soothing about chopping up veg for a mirepoix. I yell at my kids but try to hug them after. I attempt to decorate my kids birthday cakes. I pray as I change diapers (mostly I pray for patience.) Where am I going wrong? What’s so different? Is my temper that bad? Why can’t I be more like the super-moms I know without losing my essential Krysia coolness?

As I write this, I think I have the answer. These super-Moms, of which my mom is one, must have a super-secret pill that they take at breakfast with their morning tea/coffee that gives them boundless energy and optimism. It gives them the courage to put that cup down and face their child-filled day, kiss a hundred boo-boos, and milk goats.

All I want to know is, where can I get some? Canada, maybe?

How important is play time for your little ones, according to the Center for Early Childhood Education at Easter Connecticut State University, “play is the fundamental way children prepare for the future.” This ranges from helping children reach cognitive, social, emotional, language and motor skills milestones.

The Center makes reference that “nearly all meaningful play includes toys,” and continues to make the following profound statement, “A single, engaging toy can transform a child’s play from simple to symbolic, from repetitive to inventive, from solitary to social.”

Based on these findings the Center for Early Childhood Education recently completed their first annual TIMPANI Toy Study (Toys that Inspire Mindful Play and Nurture Imagination) under the direction of Dr. Jeffrey Trawick-Smith. Their study in a natural setting, “identifies toys that best engages children in intellectual, creative, and social interactions in preschool classrooms.”

The toy that earned the highest ratings in the 2010 study was the Melissa & Doug, Wooden Vehicles and Traffic Signs.

We at BabyPlays.com are fond of the Melissa & Doug line as well and couldn’t agree more with the roll selective toys can play in a child’s development.

Take a moment to review our Melissa & Doug line as well as other toys that can act as catalysts to reaching developmental milestones.

We welcome your comments and feedback.

Babyplays.com

Reference the following link for details on the study mentioned in this article http://www.easternct.edu/cece/timpani.html