Hey, folks! I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks with my family. My stepdaughters are visiting, and we've got family coming in and out, and I want to be "present".
I will miss the blog, but I look forward to coming back refreshed and reenergized!
Have an amazing holiday season! I'll see you on the other side.
Monday, December 21, 2015
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Sneaky Parent: Working K5 prep into holiday activities
Out of my circle of friends, I was the first to have children. I launched that ship relatively young--I was nineteen when my eldest was born, 23 when the youngest came along. Add in my stepdaughters, and I am currently involved in parenting four different age groups: teenager, tween, elementary-aged, and preschool.
It's a madhouse sometimes.
One of the bugs of this position is that I get to hear a lot of "new parent" worries, because I've been there, and my kids are alright. In some ways, at least from my experience, it's hopeful to see parents who have made it through and come out the other side, whose children seem to be in one piece.
It surprises me how many parents worry over preparing their children for school. I'm going to launch my Sneaky Parent series with some ways that you can help prepare your children in relatively simple ways.
There's an entire industry devoted to the idea that you have to bend over backwards to prepare children for school, to teach them to read, to get them to count, but I'm here to tell you--it's not true. You don't need to spend a fortune, and chances are good, most of the materials we talk about in this series will be things you already have, can afford easily, or can substitute for things that you do have. I'll try to indicate if there are substitutions any time I can.
Let's be real: The underlying message in this marketing is that you can't do it. You can't teach your child to read. You can't prep them for school. You aren't able. And that, too, is untrue. You are completely capable of building a strong intellectual foundation for your miniature monsters.
There's no secret here. As a species, we are programmed to enjoy learning. That is, I would argue, our most important and successful adaptation--our ability to enjoy just figuring things out. Not even for practical purposes, but often for just the hell of it.
I like to say, when I am asked, that you don't necessarily need to teach your kids to learn--you just need to know when to get out of their way. It's much more about guiding them than teaching them something new.
And that's the very feature that makes it so easy to integrate into things you're already doing.
So today, let's talk about K5 prep and how we can use activities around the holiday season to work on some important facets of preparing for K5. I'm focusing on kindergarten specifically because that seems to cause a lot of anxiety for parents who are approaching it for the first time, and also because Little A is currently getting pumped and ready to start next fall.
I'm going to organize this first post by doing a skill and then the activities you can use to explore it.
So here we go!
It's a madhouse sometimes.
One of the bugs of this position is that I get to hear a lot of "new parent" worries, because I've been there, and my kids are alright. In some ways, at least from my experience, it's hopeful to see parents who have made it through and come out the other side, whose children seem to be in one piece.
It surprises me how many parents worry over preparing their children for school. I'm going to launch my Sneaky Parent series with some ways that you can help prepare your children in relatively simple ways.
There's an entire industry devoted to the idea that you have to bend over backwards to prepare children for school, to teach them to read, to get them to count, but I'm here to tell you--it's not true. You don't need to spend a fortune, and chances are good, most of the materials we talk about in this series will be things you already have, can afford easily, or can substitute for things that you do have. I'll try to indicate if there are substitutions any time I can.
Let's be real: The underlying message in this marketing is that you can't do it. You can't teach your child to read. You can't prep them for school. You aren't able. And that, too, is untrue. You are completely capable of building a strong intellectual foundation for your miniature monsters.
There's no secret here. As a species, we are programmed to enjoy learning. That is, I would argue, our most important and successful adaptation--our ability to enjoy just figuring things out. Not even for practical purposes, but often for just the hell of it.
I like to say, when I am asked, that you don't necessarily need to teach your kids to learn--you just need to know when to get out of their way. It's much more about guiding them than teaching them something new.
And that's the very feature that makes it so easy to integrate into things you're already doing.
So today, let's talk about K5 prep and how we can use activities around the holiday season to work on some important facets of preparing for K5. I'm focusing on kindergarten specifically because that seems to cause a lot of anxiety for parents who are approaching it for the first time, and also because Little A is currently getting pumped and ready to start next fall.
I'm going to organize this first post by doing a skill and then the activities you can use to explore it.
So here we go!
Monday, December 14, 2015
Habit Helpers: Read the newspaper.
Okay. So I'm a serious reader of current events.
But when I started considering how to do this habit, I realized I have a serious flaw in how I handle current events: I'm to the point where I rely mostly on blog posts.
Yes, when something catches my eye, I may do more in-depth research. I will click the links and find as original a source as I can for things that seem outrageous to me. But overall? I'm way comfortable just reading about something, cracking a couple of jokes in the comment section, and not going any deeper than that.
I don't know that I am willing to commit to reading the newspaper. Since we don't currently get a paper, it would be a little bit involved. But I do think that I want to mix things up and start visiting NEWS sites, and not just blog sites.
So I'm going to be taking a look at the AP, Reuters, New York Times, The State, and my local newspaper and try to make time every single day to check in and see what's going on. And who knows? Maybe this will be one of those instances when I switch from digital to printed. ;-)
But when I started considering how to do this habit, I realized I have a serious flaw in how I handle current events: I'm to the point where I rely mostly on blog posts.
Yes, when something catches my eye, I may do more in-depth research. I will click the links and find as original a source as I can for things that seem outrageous to me. But overall? I'm way comfortable just reading about something, cracking a couple of jokes in the comment section, and not going any deeper than that.
I don't know that I am willing to commit to reading the newspaper. Since we don't currently get a paper, it would be a little bit involved. But I do think that I want to mix things up and start visiting NEWS sites, and not just blog sites.
So I'm going to be taking a look at the AP, Reuters, New York Times, The State, and my local newspaper and try to make time every single day to check in and see what's going on. And who knows? Maybe this will be one of those instances when I switch from digital to printed. ;-)
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