Focus and Discovery

Just add water!

2011-03-01T10:10:00.000-08:00

This was originally post January 26, 2010. With the twins now being 18 months, we have been rediscovering the magic of water!

I have a bunch of little boys in my family. And I'm getting pretty good at recognizing the difference between deliberate naughtiness and boy curiousity. This post actually goes for little girls too.

When one of my children has taken a full glass of milk, water, juice, what have you, and dumps it on the table, it is most likely to see the effect. As a first time mother I was irritated when this would happen. Now I know better. My preschoolers and toddlers only get about an inch of drink in their cup at a time. Sure, this helps keep the mess to a minimum but it doesn't satisfy their curiousity and encourage them to discover.

So I give them cups and buckets in the tub to dip and pour with. The bathtub is a great place for learning. This is how I taught my oldest to pour milk from a gallon. He practiced in the tub. I also occasionally shower with a little one and have given them a cup in the shower to fill up and pour with wonderment all over their head or on the shower door, or just a big splash on the shower floor.

We live in California right now so the next tip we can benefit from on a near-daily basis. Send them in the backyard to make their messes. A big container of water on a plastic picnic table and a bunch of measuring cups and spoons. You could also just set them in the grass. Remember though, children can drown in as little as two inches of water. Do not leave them unsupervised.

If you live where there's snow, fill a spray bottle with water, add a few drops of food coloring and decorate the snow!

I love to also teach them to wash their hands. We've taught them (repeatedly) at the bathroom sink. We sing songs about it. But every once in a while, like once a year, I bring out a dishpan of water and a bar of soap and we talk about it and all take turns washing.

Water is a fun way to explore cause and effect, learn life lessons like cleanliness, learn about how healthy it is for our bodies, and more!

Popsicles

2010-03-03T08:21:00.000-08:00

Granted, it's March. Most of us aren't ready for popsicles yet, but oh well!
I like homemade popsicles more than store-bought for many, many reasons.
1) they're much, much, MUCH cheaper, at about 30 cents a batch (maybe 1 dollar for juice ones) instead of 3 dollars.
2) The kids can help with it. These would be a good activity for learning solids/liquids, or hot/cold, or pouring, or mixing, or helping, following directions, etc.
3) They're not as huge as store bought popsicles. I can barely make it through a whole store-bought popsicle before it melts, and my kids don't stand a chance against the ticking time bomb that is room temperature. These little treats are small enough for even my 1 year old to get down before it turns into a major mess. If they want more, they can always have two!
To make homemade popsicles:

Kool-Aid Popsicles
1 package kool-aid, your favorite flavor
1 cup sugar
4 cups water

Mix together. Pour into ice-cube trays and put a stick of some sort in each spot; tooth-picks, popsicle sticks, chopsticks, or skewers all work. Freeze for about 3 hours or until solid. Pop out of the spots and enjoy.

If you're not a fan of Kool-Aid or want to make it healthier, try this recipe:

Juice Popsicles
1 frozen container (12 oz, I think, the tube kind that makes 2 quarts) juice: grape, cranberry, or apple work good
1/2 cup sugar (1 cup for cranberry or pineapple)
4 cups water

Mix together. Pour into ice-cube trays and put a stick of some sort in each spot; tooth-picks, popsicle sticks, chopsticks, or skewers all work. If desired, place a small piece of whole fruit in each cup too, like a tiny piece of apple, a frozen raspberry, or a slice of strawberry. Freeze for about 3 hours or until solid. Pop out of the spots and enjoy.

*Note: these recipes make about enough to fill 2 ice cube trays. If you want, you can freeze all the popsicles. Or, you can add enough water to double the leftover in volume (for example: if there's two cups of the leftover popsicle mix, add 2 more cups of water) and drink it like regular kool-aid. This does NOT work with the juice type, because you added sugar. It will be extra sweet if you try it.

Picture disclaimer: I know my son Lee is making some strange faces in these pictures. It's hard to smile at the camera when you're sucking on a cold popsicle!

Physical Activity

2010-02-23T09:01:00.000-08:00

I've added a new (for me, at least) area of focus to my FAD lessons with my kids: Physical Activity.

This is coming from a person who has a lot of issues with physical activity; which is why I'm implementing it! I had a couple of bad experiences when I was a kid with exercising, and it has crippled me. I do not want the same thing for my children. So now, every day as part of our lessons, right along with music time and story time, we will have Physical Activity time. Right now it is snowy where I live. We stretched our bodies, ran in circles, danced, and laughed. It was a blast. The funnest thing was seeing my little one-year old trying to copy us too, and I gained immense satisfaction over the knowledge that my kids will be full of good physical experiences that will hopefully sustain them through the days where they don't get picked first to play kick-ball.

With childhood obesity rates on the rise, and not much help from the restaurant business, it is so important for us as parents to take charge of our kid's health. Since I've already blabbed away about food, this is the second part: keeping fit. I believe that kids that learn good physical habits in the home are at a great advantage in school.

Now, like always I ask you: any good ideas for fun physical activities for kids? Particularly indoor ones. I would love some more input for what has helped you or what you like.

Have a FAD button!

2010-02-15T23:31:00.000-08:00

Home Cleanliness: My Thoughts/Your Thoughts

2010-02-09T09:27:00.000-08:00

First off, I'm asking for some advice. Please read the following and then give me your ideas.

With small kids, it seems like the cleaning in my home is endless. 98% of my house is carpeted (everywhere except the bathroom, including the kitchen). I have to vacuum at least 3 times weekly to keep the house looking decent; not even presentable. Every day I pick up toys, garbage, and laundry; except Thursday, which tends to be the day when I just can't take the constant hassle of cleaning, and it isn't yet the weekend when I can get out of the house/have my hubby's help to get the house back in shape.

My man and I have come up with a few things we do to help keep the house in a semi-orderly state, but I could really use a few more ideas.

Here are my successes:
1) There has to be some major compromising. I want my kids to have a creative, happy, open atmosphere to grow up in. I don't want their imaginations to feel restrained by anything--not super-strict cleanliness, but not awful messes either. I think either extreme is distracting for children. I aim for somewhere in the middle.

2) We keep all the toys under child lock. May sound a little extreme, but see the next few points.

3) In the morning, we let the kids pick 3 toys for the day to play with. If partway through the day they want to switch, that is totally fine. They put away the toys they're done with, and then take out new ones.

4) Right before dinner, the toys go to bed. They are put away for the night. Then the kids wash up for dinner, and we have our evening time together as a family, for playing games and reading books and maybe watching a movie.

Here are my struggles:

1) The kids LOVE the kitchen. They get out all my cooking utensils and take them all over the house. I have no clue where my biscuit cutter is at this moment because the kids played with it months ago. And considering the very central location of the kitchen in my house, and the metal cabinets that can't have child locks screwed into them, I'm not sure how to keep them out of there; yet I can't let them just have free reign, because some of the utensils are breakable, dangerous...or at best, will have to be cleaned after every play session.

2) I have a hard time motivating the kids to pick up after themselves. I have a 3 1/2 year old who I think is old enough to learn how to clean up, yet I'm not sure the way to go about it. Do I reward/bribe? Do I punish for disobedience? How much of the mess should I clean up as he's puttzing around putting away 1 or 2 toys? And how long can I wait before just finishing the job myself?

3) Lastly, I don't like picking up the same messes every single day, two or three times a day. Once a week? no problem. Twice a week? doable. Twelve times a week? kill me now! Any ideas on how to make it from day to day without pulling my hair out?

Thanks! ~Lisa

Errands

2010-02-09T07:28:00.000-08:00

You can make errands a fun experience with your child. When you go to the post office, ask to see if you can show your child how they sort mail, or at the store show them what goes on there. It will become more fun, and an enjoyable experience for your child.

Valentine's Day Playdough

2010-02-04T21:54:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day Playdough

1 cup flour
1/4 cup salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 Tbsp oil
about 4 drops of red food coloring drops
2 Tbsp clear glitter (optional)

Add the food coloring to the water before mixing with dry ingredients. (I used 4 drops of red food coloring for this shade of pink). Mix all ingredients in a non-stick pan and heat on medium, stirring, until it forms a ball (It really will form a ball so keep stirring-- and it doesn't take long). Take out of pan and knead until it reaches desired consistency. Be careful. It will be hot.

While kneading, I added about 2 Tbsp. of clear glitter. I packaged the playdough in these take-n-toss containers from Wal-Mart (for my three oldest kids at the time) and stamped it with a small heart-shaped cookie cutter before putting the lid on. Also, cool completely before putting lid on. These were their prizes at the end of their Valentine's treasure hunt one year.

Happy Valentine's Day rolling and cutting and playing dough with your little ones for less than a buck! Visit LifeAsMom for more Frugal Friday ideas that may or may not be kid-related.

Lunches for happy kids and sane mommies

2010-01-30T10:15:00.000-08:00

First off, let's talk just a titch about eating with our families.

One meal a day. Research shows that children who eat one meal a day with their families as a sit-down, all-together meal, are less likely to get into drugs, alcohol, and teen sex; they have higher test scores and better concentration in school; they are happier, better-rounded, have higher self-esteem; and are generally "Better" kids than those who don't eat with their families. That is why it is important, no, crucial that we ensure our children eat with us, and that we have dinner as a family.

Now, this post is about lunch, and this post is for Nikki, just to help give some ideas of quick, easy and FUN lunches we can prepare for our little ones. This is for the days when we are sick of PP&J, Mac 'n cheese, or hot dogs.

Lunch Menu #1: Make your own "Lunchables"

Crackers (assorted kinds)
Sliced Cheese (assorted kinds)
Deli lunchmeat (assorted kinds)
Fresh fruit and vegetables

Lunch Menu #2: Salad Wraps (sorry if this one is redundant)

Whole-Wheat tortillas, spread with butter and cooked in a frying pan until brown on each side.
Assorted vegetables, sliced (cucumber, lettuce, tomato, avocado, carrot, etc)
A little ranch dressing and/or mayonnaise
sliced cheese
-Let your kids pick what vegetables they want in their wraps, and then let them go for it. Since everything is so healthy, you don't have to fret if all they want is a tortilla, a carrot, and cheese.

Lunch Menu #3: Roasted Veggies with Cheese

1) Dispatch 3 potatoes, 1 head of broccoli, 1 head of cauliflower, 4 carrots, and 1 bell pepper (or any combination of delicious vegetables...these are our favorites) into bite-size pieces.
2) In a monstrous bowl, toss assorted vegetables with 1/4 cup olive oil or vegetable oil; 1 tbsp salt; and 1 tsp pepper. 1 tsp garlic is optional.
3) spread out on a cookie sheet lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray.
4) bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
5) At the end, sprinkle 1 cup shredded cheese (your favorite kind) and bake for 5 more minutes, just to let the cheese melt a bit.

*Notes: watch out for that 30-40 minute cooking time. While this recipe is ridiculously easy and amazingly delicious, it does take a bit of time to cook. Not to prepare, just to cook. So start it around 10 or 11, depending on when you usually eat. We will eat this and nothing else for lunch; however, if you prefer something a little more substantial, you can serve it with cooked rice. This also makes a fantastic side dish with dinner.

Lunch Menu #4: Baked Potatoes

1) Bake some potatoes! I do mine in the microwave. It takes about 3 minutes per potato. Just wash the spud, pierce the skin a few times with a fork, and put in the microwave on high. If you are making lots and lots of potatoes, you can do it in the oven the exact same way (no foil necessary), at 350 for about 1 hour (except for mondo-huge potatoes, which require more time, like 1 1/2 hrs to 2 hrs, or even longer.) ALSO, the crock-pot works. These, you do want foil on. High for 4 hours, so right after breakfast put them in. Microwave is fastest, but you do what you like.
2) Serve potatoes hot with butter, sour cream, chopped green onion, or our favorite, cottage cheese. If you have some, steamed broccoli (leftovers, frozen, or fresh works), leftover cooked chicken cubes, or chopped ham is also yummy on top.

Lunch Menu #5: Oven Chimichangas

1) In a large bowl, mix together: 2 cups cooked rice, 1 small can refried beans, and 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese. Also good: black beans, corn, salsa, sour cream, chopped green onion, cooked chicken, cooked pork, mashed avocado, etc. Add in what you like.
2) place 1/2 cup of the bean mixture in a flour tortilla and fold into a little square. Place in a casserole dish or on a cookie tray that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Place seam-side down.
3) Top completed chimichangas with a little shredded cheese and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes, until the cheese is melted and chimichangas are hot through. Serve with more sour cream or salsa, if desired.

*Note: since you mix together the filling cold, this is a great use-up for leftovers, and a great place to get kid's help. They can help stir the filling, pick what they want in it (you can even make a basic filling, and then spread out the other things and they can spoon in things in their own...just figure out a way to mark them when done), and they can help fill the chimis.

For more recipes and meal ideas, go check out my food blog. It's not as well organized for lunch menus as this post, but I think I've written enough here for one day.

Be a Contributor!

2010-01-27T09:04:00.000-08:00

Nikki mentioned this on her post below, but I thought I'd put in another little plug here:

Focus and Discovery is now (and always has been, and always will) searching for more contributing authors!

FAD is a blog for parents of young children, or parents of older children who have been the block a few more times than us young ones, or anyone who has any interest in the well-being and education of the next generation. We talk about lesson ideas, tips on how to teach kids, fun games that have helped us in our parenting, success (and failure!) stories, and generally inspire each other to be better, and to have fun with our children.

If this sounds like something you would like to be a part of, please leave me, Lisa, a comment with your name and email address (or, if you don't want to put your email in such a public place, you can email me directly at (lisa.sheffer) @gmail.(com), without the parentheses). I will be happy to invite you to be an author of Focus and Discovery.

Only one minor request: keep the spirit of FAD alive. No obscenities, or vulgarities will be allowed.

I hope you come join us! We would love to have your ideas, even if you only post once or twice a year.

Love, the Administrator

I heart happy lunches.

2010-01-27T00:01:00.000-08:00

Every Wednesday is a half-day at school for my two oldest kids who currently go to public school. They come home in time for lunch. One Wednesday a few weeks ago, I was experimenting with festive holiday kid meals and thought up this super easy one.

lunch meat and sliced cheese
bread
mayo
cookie cutters of your choice

Sometimes I cut a great big heart, shamrock, bunny, star, circle, or gingerbread man out of the middle of the sandwich. I eat the discarded outside edges and the rest is the perfect size for my preschoolers combined with some crunchy veggies or pickles.

This particular day I made platefuls of festive sandwich makings, handed them plastic knives, and let them go at it. (We also make PBJ cookie cut sandwiches.)

The benefits:
an opportunity to learn safe knife handling
the sense of accomplishment in a DIY meal (sort of DIY)
and fun!

Making lunchtime fun and creating smiling faces works for me!

Other of my Works-For-Me-Wednesday posts that may or may not pertain to teaching young children, can be found over here. Thank you for visiting Focus and Discovery. Please leave a comment if you would like to be a contributor and our blog administrator will contact you.

An article I wrote a few years ago and originally posted on a WFMW post can be found here with Associated Content -- The Ultimate Family Guide to an ALL OUT Valentine's Day Celebration. It is chuck full of ideas for this fun upcoming holiday. And here's a link to my family blog where I'm hosting a contest to win beaded holiday socks for a special little girl in your life. The contest is easy. All you have to do to enter is submit a name suggestion. Then the winner will be drawn at random from the entries.

Bodies

2010-01-04T11:32:00.001-08:00

Our FAD lesson today was about our bodies. I drew a picture of a body and we had a great time talking about each of our body parts and what they do.

We covered our eyes, then plugged our ears, then practiced wiggling our hands and feet. We talked about being sick, and how that is when our body doesn't work or feel right (very basic terminology for a 3 year old). Then we talked about what we can do to make our bodies feel healthy. I really liked this part as a parent, because it was a fun way to warm Lee up to things he struggles with. For Lee, I particularly focused on eating healthy foods, exercising, and washing our hands, faces, and taking baths. A child who doesn't like the doctor's office or brushing his teeth, though, could really use a lesson on what the purpose of these things are, and that could help.

Since our lesson was about 11:00 this morning, I let him color pictures and we sang songs while I prepared lunch and then we tasted all the healthy foods that I had made (lean stuffed meatballs, carrot sticks, and baked french fries) and talked even more about eating healthy.

(*Note, I'm making this sound like Lee has bad eating habits. He doesn't. It just happened to work out today that we were eating at the same time we were working on FAD.)

Great songs for this lesson would be: "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes," "I'm being swallowed by a Boa Constrictor," or other songs labeling body parts. We have one we like to sing, I think it's from Sesame Street, called "No one like you." I searched YouTube in vain for this song, but oh well; the words are cute and simple and list body parts too.

This one turned into a really great lesson, and the icing on the cake was when my husband came up for lunch, asked Lee what we'd done that morning, and Lee told him without a single prompt, "We did school time, about our bodies! And so our bodies can be healsy!"

Success!

2009-11-16T20:12:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to submit a huge thanks to Nikki for the suggestion of theme day. I planned on doing orange today, but Lee really wanted red, so all day long we had a "Red Day Party." Everyone in our family wore red, I found some raspberry jell-o in the cupboard and made it for lunch, along with spaghetti. All morning long Lee would come running to me as excited as he could saying "Look! Red! Look! Red!" After lunch we had a "Red Day Party Parade" and found red things to make into hats, red things to bang on, and red things to wave as we marched around the house singing made up songs about the color red.

The kids loved it, I loved it, and it was an overall great day. A few things that I found out while trying this today: -This would be a fantastic way to help a kid figure out things that they might be struggling with. Like that one letter they can't quite nail down, or that color they never seem to identify correctly...or even a behavioral concept, like "sharing day" or "sitting in the car day." Making a party out of it and getting your kid super excited for it helps them identify with that topic in a new and fun way, and all the repetition of focusing on just one thing all day long gives them the extra boost they need to remember it. -This also helps me as a mom be more creative. I didn't pay a single penny for our party today, but I did think about red all day and what more I could do. Like I said, I remembered that I had red jell-o. I made up songs. Lee suggested the parade. I tapped into my inner feminine desire to create good and special things, which helped me feel like a better person, and consequently, a better mom.

I love it when we have successful days like this. It wasn't hard, it wasn't expensive, and it worked SO well. I will definitely be doing more theme-day parties in the near future.

Theme days: Colors

2009-11-15T21:04:00.000-08:00

When my oldest two kids were under three we often had "theme days." I felt like choosing a theme like specific colors made the planning easy.

I remember a blue day when we had blueberries with our breakfast and blue milk, blue hard boiled eggs (from Easter egg coloring kits- but you could just use food dye and follow the directions on the box), colored with different shades of blue crayons, pointed out blue objects around the house, and even dyed the bubble bath blue with food coloring.

I think it was after several days of different colors that we had an activity one day with colored water teaching our primary colors and secondary colors by mixing them.

If you're feeling adventurous you can even make your own playdough in your theme color. I like to use this recipe posted about here. I don't usually add the glitter though. I personally don't like the smell of store-bought playdough. So if we're not making peanut butter playdough than this is what we use.

Positive Parenting

2009-11-14T20:39:00.000-08:00

I'm often kind of shocked at how many different parenting self-help books and strategies are out there. Some are really out there. But one "method" really rings true to me.

It's called "Positive Parenting." To get straight to the gist of it, the goal is to give your children so much positive praise and attention that they won't resort to poor behavior to get the attention they need, and when it comes to discipline, the removal of that positive attention is more of a punishment than the time-out or whatever discipline you use. To be really successful at this, you need to praise your child for nearly every good behavior, even tiny babies. At first it is difficult to remember, so put a pebble in your shoe or turn all your clocks sideways or something so that you are reminded to give your child positive praise. Kids just starting this method will need a lot of praise to get accustomed to it--around 100 positive notices a day. After a few weeks, when the child and yourself have built a relationship around all this praise, it doesn't have to be quite as much, around 50 times a day, but the more the better.

Now, I'm not an expert on positive parenting, nor do I get all my needed praises in, but whenever I notice my kids doing something right--from using a spoon, to sharing toys (even if they're not sharing perfectly), to helping in the kitchen, to simply NOT making a scene in the middle of the grocery store, I try to let them know that I appreciate their good behavior, that I think they are smart or cute or well-behaved, or a good sibling, or just a good kid.

There's all kinds of what-if situations with this parenting method, so I could write a novel on it; but other people already have, so I won't here. This is just to remind me, and to give all of you, my favorite ideas on parenting. I love how happy our home is when I search all day for good things my kids are doing, instead of grumping about their poor behavior. The kids aren't perfect. But the smile my son gets when he knows he's done something right is priceless. And my daughter's happy little laugh--nothing better.

Floor Time

2009-11-07T14:23:00.000-08:00

Floortime is special.
During floortime, get down on the floor so you are playing within the child's focus or interest and at his or her level.

Floortime helps each child:
*become more alert and develop a longer attention span
*take more initiative during play and have fun learning.
*become more flexible and tolerant of frustration.
*become a better problem solver.
*learn communication and relationship-building skills.

5 Steps to floortime

1. Observation
*Tune in to your child
*Notice your child's state of awareness and general mood.
*What is your child interested in? What are his or her favorite toys and/or play activities?

2. Approach
*Fit your approach to your child's level of energy.
*Open the communication circle by asking to join your child's play or by letting your child choose what to play with.

3. Follow the Child's Lead
*Join your child's play.
*Imitate the child; do what he or she was enjoying doing.
*Take turns.
*Help the baby be successful. Do not take over.
*Smile and support your child in play.

4. Extend and Expand the Play
*Take your child's imagination and ideas one step further.
*Extend the play by changing it slightly.
*Try something new with the same toy or activity.
*Then wait for the child to try and imitate you.
*Support his or her attempts to try new things.

5. Close the Communication Circle
*Be aware of when the child is tuning out.
*Let the child be in charge.
*Has your child had enough or wants a different activity?
*Wait to see if the child will re-engage.
*Then jouin your child in his or her next interest area.

Getting ready for Halloween

2009-10-23T06:39:00.000-07:00

I've been focusing my FAD lessons on Halloween preparation these past few weeks, and my son is so excited that it reminds me of how beautiful childhood really is. We've made garbage sack ghosts (a big white garbage sack with grocery store sacks stuffed in the head, then tied off with string and a face drawn on, hung from our trees in the yard), decorated with other little things we found in the basement, and found things going on in the community to attend. We also sing any Halloween song I can remember, practice our trick-or-treating, and make witch, monster, and ghost sounds. Our lessons also extend to Autumn, and often include going outside to play in the pretty leaves, or just sitting on the porch and watching them fall.

It is fun for me and for Lee to have these special holiday lessons. He is learning our family traditions and how to celebrate life. I love them because I learn to live in the moment, and how to find joy in the little details. I can't wait to do the same for many upcoming holidays!

Apple Paint--Bird Feeder--Nature Collage

2009-10-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

Painting is always a good creativity booster. Cut an apple in half to make a star. Stick a fork in the top. Dip it in the paint and stamp circles with stars in the middle. Take a leaf that is still malleable and dip it in the paint to make leaf stamps. You could turn the apple circles into pumpkins if you draw a brown stem on the top. Get creative!

You could also make a bird feeder with an old toilet paper roll. Punch two holes across the top to thread yarn across the top for hanging. Spread glue all over the outside of the roll and then roll in bird seed. Lisa, I have extra bird seed I could drop off at your house if you want to do it.

Go on a small walk finding cool stuff like sticks, leaves, bark etc. and glue them on a paper to make a nature collage.

Peanut Butter Play-Dough

2009-09-22T13:55:00.000-07:00

Try this recipe:
Peanut Butter Play-dough
1 cup peanut butter (creamy is best)
1 cup corn syrup
1 1/4 cup dry milk
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Knead together until smooth and play! Refrigerate between uses.

I love this because it is a great thing to play with, as well as totally edible and quite tasty. You can combine snack time with play time, and you can eat it up before it gets all dry and gross like store-bought play-dough. I grew up with this treat and craved it all through my pregnancies.

Today we used Peanut Butter Play-dough to talk about shapes. You can draw shapes on parchment or wax paper and then turn it over so that the kids can line up their play-dough over the shapes. It's a fun and new way to learn lots of things, too. When I was sixteen, I taught Piano lessons and drew a staff on wax paper, then put pieces of play-dough on the lines or spaces and had the kid name the note. (You can also do that with candies or pennies too.)

Teeth

2009-09-17T15:01:00.000-07:00

Today we talked about teeth. We were able to brush and floss a stuffed animal that had lots of teeth. We then saw pictures of teeth that were well taken care of, and teeth that weren't.

As a side note, after the teeth, we had a pouring activity to develop fine motor skills. To wrap up the lesson we had bells we wrapped on her legs and turned on some nursery rhyme music to dance.

Community

2009-09-10T15:15:00.001-07:00

The saying goes, "It takes a village to raise a child." It is true, on many levels.

One thing I've tried to do, but still need lots of work on, is being a part of the community where I live. I think it's important to find the interesting and special things about each area you live in, and help your children discover them. We are sometimes willing to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to see something 'cool,' but have we discovered those little wonders in our own backyard?

My exciting lesson today came from the Ares DM-1 test. I am fortunate enough to live just an hour's drive away from where the test was conducted, which was a test firing of the rocket that will take men again to the Moon, and eventually beyond (Mars). I took the kids out, and we got to talk about NASA and outer space, rockets, and also fun things like bright lights and loud noises. But more importantly, we were able to connect with the world around us in a very physical way.

I hope in your Focus time with your kids, you take a few hours here and there to discover something special near you. Whether it's a natural wonder, or a historic building, or a local museum, finding out about your community will always be a lesson you children will cherish.

Music and children

2009-08-26T13:17:00.000-07:00

Being a former music major, I learned early on the vast importance of music in the home. Still, it can be kind of daunting for some people to sing with their kids or try to play an instrument. So, I'm going to head off on a tangent for a moment.

When a human has sensory input--they hear something, taste something, feel something, etc--it excites certain areas of the brain. Doctors have seen this on MRI's and CAT scans. It is really wondrous to behold the human brain creating memories and connections, and watching the electric and chemical impulses bouncing around. These connections are massively important in young children, who form 90% or more of their behavioral impulses before they reach the age of 3. That gives us parents just a few short years to instruct and demonstrate good behavior before our children are in ruts that it may be impossible to come out of. Crazy, huh!

So, how can we make sure the brain develops the right synapses? Music! When examining the brain during an MRI, doctors noticed that a picture or a scent would light up a certain, specific, section of the brain. However, when the patient listened to music, the entire brain was afire, lighting everywhere over and over again. How intriguing. A concept presented with music therefore reaches all of our memory and function centers faster and more completely than other forms of communication. Fellow parents, this is why it is essential that we have music in our homes.

Now, I'm not talking about playing a 1-man-band symphony every night to put our kids to sleep, or that we sing like opera stars to impress them. I'm talking about singing silly kids songs like "Eensie Weensie Spider" and "Twinkle Twinkle little Star." How many of us can still sing our ABC's easier than just saying them? That's because our brain can associate it with music. If you sing a goofy song, even just make up the tune and the words, to encourage a child to take a bath or eat their broccoli, you might just find it works.

Music can also be a fantastic attention-getter. I find when my son Lee has been listening to a lesson for a few minutes, he loses focus. That's when it is time to halt gears, get up, and sing a song. Maybe throw in some actions. Who cares how it sounds; this is between my 3 year old son and me. Nobody knows if I'm completely off tune. But Lee knows he's having fun, and by choosing a song that goes with my lesson, I continue to engage his brain in focusing activity.

So if you're self conscious or don't like music for whatever reason, it's time to get off your high horse and sing with your kids. They will quickly forget if it sounds good, and always remember the concept you sang to them, or the laughter that ensued afterword.

p.s. If you're still too self-conscious, go get some kid's CD's at the store and dance along.

Starfall

2009-08-24T09:05:00.000-07:00

You should all check out Starfall. My son LOVES it! It teaches him his alphabet, but it is more than that. It first can teach your kids what the letters are and how they sound, but then it goes farther and teaches them how to read. It is quite amazing. My mother actually would sit at the computer with my son in her lap playing this when he was only like..... 6 months old or something. I can't remember his age, but she started him out really soon and he is like... a pro at letters now. He can even spell his name already (he's three). I think it is amazing. Check it out! ^_^

Patterns

2009-08-24T08:08:00.000-07:00

If there's one thing I really remember from my years in Preschool (which my mother taught), it is how essential patterns are for kids. Kids thrive on routine. When they know what is coming next in the day, they are much better behaved overall, and are able to help out.

So that was my lesson topic today. We sang the days of the week song (to the tune of "Allouetta" or however you spell that, you sing the days of the week starting with Sunday through Saturday, then say "now we start again.") We also sang the months of the year (to the tune of "10 little Indians:" "January, February, March and April. May, June, July and August. September, October, November, December, Those are the months of the year.") Then I got some cans and some boxes out of the cupboard, and also some dry beans of different colors. I helped my son make patterns like: box, can, box, can, box, can... or black bean, white bean, black, white, black...

Since this was our first time with patterns, I kept it insanely simple. I would go outside and discover patterns outside, but it is pouring rain, so we did it inside. Like the way the dresser drawers stack up, or the stripes on a towel, or the funky wood paneling in his bedroom.

By rotating activities I sort of kept his attention, though the lesson still was under 10 minutes. That's okay for me, that's why I'm doing lessons like these 3 times a week. It's to help him practice focusing, and to help him learn about small, simple things around him. Not bad for my first time, huh!

Welcome to FAD!

2009-08-23T16:12:00.000-07:00

This is Focus and Discovery (FAD), a blog and forum for parents of young children.
FAD is a specific time we set within our own homes, to teach literacy and a love of learning to the next generation. FAD is a way to help our children discover themselves and the world around them, in a safe, hands-on environment. FAD is parents encouraging other parents to keep up the good work. FAD is a place for all of us to learn from each other's experiences, and to laugh, worry, love, and cry together.

Welcome, dear friends, to Focus and Discovery!

On this blog, we encourage everyone to post as often and as frequently as you like. Please keep your posts and comments clean, even if they are expressing frustrations. Here is where we can share our ideas on teaching young children the basic concepts of literacy and organized lessons. We can put up pictures of our children's projects and their successes. We can ask questions and get advice if we need it. Tell us what you're doing, and how it is going.

As a mother, I have often wished my children came with an instruction manual. Perhaps we can use this blog to share our experiences, in the hopes that all will be mutually benefited.

We invite all who are interested to join in the forum. Thank you, and welcome again.

Focus and Discovery

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