Target Your Trouble Spot

Chances are, your mornings are not chaotic all over the board, but the problem can be traced down to one or two key trouble spots. Think about what it is that you never seem to get to do or the area that always pushes you behind schedule and work on it.  Don’t try to apply all of my tips at once; work on one at a time.  You’ll be more successful this way and less likely to be overwhelmed with a bunch of changes all at once.  I also suggest starting with something that can be easily fixed.  By starting “small” you’ll have success sooner, which will motivate you to tackle the next problem.

I’ve mentioned in a previous blog that shoes were a trouble spot for us and I explained how I handled it.  Another example comes from a friend of mine.  Her nemesis was her daughter’s hair.  She couldn’t seem to make it out of the house with her daughter’s hair fixed.  Her daughter has one of those heads of hair that needs to be brushed or fixed, she’s got so much of it!

My friend finally learned that unless she fixed her daughter’s hair before they came downstairs for breakfast, it didn’t get done. So she developed the habit of fixing her daughter’s hair first thing in the morning. By getting it in braids, a pony tail, or a barrette, she had it done and out of the way. Then, later in the morning, when her daughter got herself dressed, my friend didn’t have to remember to go do her daughter’s hair and when they left the house, she didn’t take a “wild child” with her.

There’s another simple solution to this same problem: keep a brush in the car.  Then you can always brush it when you get where you’re going.

So you see from these two examples (the shoes and the hair), there are multiple ways to address your trouble spot.  Think “outside the box” about solutions to your trouble spot and an idea will come to you. Try something for a few weeks and see if it makes a difference. Either you’ll have your problem solved or you’ll know that you need to try a new approach.

When the Trouble Isn’t a Task

As I talked to a few other parents, I discovered two common trouble spots that weren’t “tasks” to be completed, but much bigger issues:

• Motivating a Child to Get Ready (also known as the dawdling child)
• Abnormal Days/Change of Daily Routine (that one or two days a week when your schedule isn’t normal and you’re required to be out of the house earlier than normal)

Motivating a dawdling child is a HUGE topic and one I won’t cover here in Morning Madness. I’ll post a blog with some ideas for dawdling children in a few weeks, so check back.  But as for the problem of needing to be out of the house earlier than normal, if you slowly start to apply the steps I’ve written about in these four blogs on “Managing Morning Madness,” hopefully those “abnormal days” won’t set you back.  If you plan ahead, pack the night before, have a nutritional breakfast ready for in the car and  get your kids trained to be involved in the morning routines, you should haven’t any trouble being out the door earlier than normal…with the exception of possibly having to set the alarm a little earlier and get out of bed sooner.  But you’re on your own for that discipline!

-posted by Donna Venning, who  felt that her stress to get out the door was starting to come out in erratic driving, so she developed her morning habits so that she can leave her house in a calm, peaceful, pleasant manner, making her a safer, nicer driver!

Tempo allows us to introduce some of the beautiful Italian terminology that all musicians use.  Largo means slow. Adagio means moderately slow, but largo is the very slowest tempo marking there is. (I do admit, though, that the word adagio is a more beautiful word than largo…) 

When a child moves their body slowly, they are mastering gross motor muscle control.  I love to watch them move in slow motion because they don’t really know how to move slowly. Some of them do a stop motion technique – they move and freeze, then move and freeze over and over again. Some of them inch along; their bodies full of tension and seemingly ready to explode with full-blown motion at any instant. 

Some of them just stop and watch me (We do lots of slow motion activities in acting classes, so I am really good at it!) I know they are watching me so that they can figure out how to do it – and soon they begin to try to stretch out their movements, and extend their limbs to the farthest point away from their bodies. Their facial expressions slow down and delight fills their eyes as they begin to realize that they are suddenly in control of this marvelous thing they call their body. 

Because, let’s face it, when you’re a preschooler, you very often feel as if your body is in charge of you. The need to move is so overwhelming that even when your internal child knows you need to sit, like for circle time, your body is demanding that you move, and mostly you feel powerless to stop it.

Learning to move slowly assists in giving your preschooler the much needed confidence they need to know that they are, indeed, in charge of their body. 

A Simple Way to Practice at Home
Put on some slow classical music and have a slow motion dance. You may need to invent a story (boys are more likely to require a reason to move slowly) to explain WHY you want them to move in slow motion. Maybe their super hero persona has been zapped by a slow motion ray by their arch nemesis, or their fire fighter persona is trying to walk through a vat of maple syrup to save a kitten in a burning tree… any little scenario will do. A prop will make this game more fun and loosens up their inhibitions- and yours too! Scarves and streamers are really good options. For you super hero – a cape is always best.  

Don’t have slow classical music? Go to iTunes and search for LARGO. Most classical composers named their music in descriptive terms, so the tempo setting is often listed in the title. I also searched for LENTO (just a little faster than Largo) and ADAGIO. One word of caution: I would steer away from anything with lyrics because the story in the song may inhibit your child’s motions, and creativity. Instrumental music allows them to create their own story.

-posted by Miss Allison, who sends you off you to search for LARGO. Let today be a cyber shop and dance till you drop day!

In these economic and global times, we can find ways to maximize budgets while still enjoying quality and in some cases quantity of goods through re-using.

Last semester in one of my classrooms, a mother mentioned checking out Woodinville’s Cruzin Kidz boutique and consignment for my new baby. She deemed it ‘the hottest one-stop shop here on the Eastside’. She wasn’t kidding! I personally have purchased Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bags, bedroom décor, DVD’s, new See Kai Run shoes, excellent books, new hair accessories and double jogging strollers from Cruzin Kidz within the past six months. I figure, why not enjoy saving money while wearing our favorite brands and styles!

Therefore, as a special Thank You to our Studio3Music friends & families, we invite you to the first exclusive after-hours Sip & Shop Holiday event at Cruzin Kidz this Friday, Nov 13, from 7pm-9pm.

Grab your girlfriends and join us for an exclusive, adult-only Studio3Music & Cruzin Kidz after hours Sip & Shop event. As a Thank You to our Studio3Music friends & families, we have partnered with Woodinville’s premier consignment boutique, Cruzin Kidz to offer you a one night only pre-holiday shopping spree with unbeatable pricing, brand name clothing and accessories, all sizes, products, equipment and more. Raffle gifts, door prizes and adult beverages provided.

Visit them online at cruzinkidz.com. Cruzin Kidz is conveniently located in downtown Woodinville off Woodinville Snohomish Road behind our Kindermusik studio at Studio I Dance. Cruzin Kidz 13400 NE 175th St Woodinville, WA 98072.

-posted by Miss Kim, who looks forward to seeing you there and enjoying a wonderful evening with friends and family!

1.  Phil and Ted Stroller (with double ‘jump seat’ attachment) – This is my newest discovery but it still makes the list because it is so wonderful that I’ve sold every other stroller that was taking up space in our garage since this one is so top notch.  It has options for every possible baby/kid scenario.  It is incredibly lightweight, it folds up so small that it takes up a fraction of the space in back of my van compared to my other strollers.

2.  Ring Sling style baby carrier (like the one I bought from this darling Etsy shop) – I’ve been through about 12 different baby carriers.  Most have been sold on Craigslist.  The only remaining ones around here are an Ergo, a Baby Bjorn and my ring sling.  The ring sling is so easy to nestle a newborn in and so quick and easy to slip a growing baby into for a hip carry.  Mine is a deep cranberry Tencel material and it still feeling positively yummy.  It packs up super small (which has become one top priority criteria these days!).

3.  Food.  Dinners I mean.  Okay, so it’s not a baby or kid product.  But there is something completely magical about getting to dinner time and having someone bring you food when you have a new baby.  Or in the months/years that follow when the days are still quite chaotic and exhausting, opening your freezer to find….real food.  Not a frozen pizza or corn dogs.  Food that nourishes and leaves you feeling full and good.  Food that you made.  Food that your friend who has five kids made you and brought to your freezer.  Food that Dream Dinners made or maybe the deli at Costco made?  Yes, that kind of food.  Absolutely priceless. 

4.  Swaddling blankets.  For new babes who startle themselves awake.  The Miracle Blanket saved our life more than once when we were going crazy with fussy babies.  It is weird looking and expensive but worth it’s weight in gold. 

5.  A diaper bag that is organized,  functional and easy to clean.  I had to delete the word ‘cute’ because honestly, it wasn’t on my list.   For our first three kids, this was the Eddie Bauer diaper bag backpack.  It worked so hard for me it didn’t matter that it wasn’t pretty or trendy.    It was big enough to hold snacks and baby supplies and serve as my ‘purse’ even once we had three kids.  It was small enough to fit under the stroller.  It was black and waterproof.  Need I say more?  I love that backpack. But for baby four I did splurge and get a cute pink camo Wendy Bellisimo diaper bag that I have had such fun using the past year!

The things I didn’t need that I bought?  The list is long but on the top of it would be the giant carseat stroller combo thing.  I would have just needed a good carseat and then maybe the cheap little carseat carrier stroller if at all.  Also things like bottle warmers and powder scented bags for dirty diapers.

And all the baby toiletries I thought I needed!  I had lotions, creams, washes and products up the wazoo.  And now, we just use Burt’s Bees Baby Wash for all 4 kids and some apricot oil if their skin is dry.  Same for baby medicines. Holy cow! We used to have a baby medicine for EVERYTHING.  And we shelled out doses of Tylenol like it was candy.  Last year I threw it all in the trash (since it was expired anyway!).  And now we have homeopathic tablets we use as needed and give a dose of Tylenol every once in a blue moon.

My how things change!  I am continually amazed at how simple things can be, how much we can do without (whether it is voluntary or involuntary) and how my perspective on parenting is ever evolving.  Just when I think something is worked out…it isn’t.  There is no “I have arrived”,  there is simply “We’re at least on the road” and doing our best every day (which on days like today means getting really, really dirty and laughing till we scream…and eating tamales from the freezer that I bought from a darling little Mexican girl at a garage sale).

-posted by Karissa, mommy to Rylee, Caleb, Kyler and Audrey, and who blogs on a regular basis inbetween the chaos!

Here’s why children want – and NEED – to move. Our brains fully develop through movement activities such as crawling, rolling, turning, walking, skipping, reaching, swinging and much more. The brain has a plan for development that involves specific and intensive motor activities to make full use of our complicated nervous system. The nervous system of each human being must go through a series of developmental stages before the brain can operate at its full potential. All children “program” their motor and perceptual equipment, nerves and brain cells by using their whole body and all their senses.
 
Movement is fundamental for the development of the central nervous system but movement and rhythm are also essential for the development of the soul. When a parent moves with her child, a special bonding takes place that is extremely important for social and emotional growth. When a parent sings to his child, not only are language skills being developed, but also a sense of love, comfort and harmony. The special touching, laughing and rhythmic moving that takes place in a music and movement class and together at home lays a very strong and much needed foundation for a happy, healthy and joyful life!
 
So… put on your music, especially your Kindermusik, and just get moving!

-Adapted from an article written by Anne Green Gilbert, Director of the Creative Dance Center and Kaleidoscope Dance Company in Seattle, Washington, and a consultant for Kindermusik International.

We expose our children to a variety of experiences – things to see, hear, taste, touch, smell, people, new ways of moving or thinking – and new neural connections are formed in their brains. But not all of these connections will remain intact. It is only through repetition (or “practice”) that the neural connections become strengthened enough for skills to form.

Children love repetition because that’s the way they learn and remember new information best. And once your child has learned something, repetition is enjoyed because now your child can anticipate what comes next. How much more actively does your child participate in story time when she knows the ending to all the sentences? And how hilarious and clever does he think he is when he “catches” you substituting the wrong words in a favorite book?

When she can now sing along to a piece of music, repeat finger plays or recite chants, she can move on from “remembering” the words and tune, to practice using her voice and vocabulary words, and even creating something new – like extra words to the song.

It is sheer joy for a child to know they have mastered something, whether it’s building a block tower or putting together a puzzle. The child will repeat that skill to in order to continue to feel that joy of mastery.  For instance, once a child has learned to walk, there is usually this period of time when all they want to do is walk and walk. At our house, sometimes it was hard to get a new walker to stop and sit still long enough to eat at lunchtime, so we put a little plate of finger foods on a low table that he could graze on as he circled through the kitchen again and again and again. We called this “dine and dash”.

When something is successfully learned, (the neural connections are firmly established), a child receives a great deal of satisfaction, and he thinks it is “fun”. He is then driven to learn skills or information that is more complex than before.

So, I hope that you’ll remember that you are helping your child’s brain to grow, when playing Track #9 on your Kindermusik CD for the 7,219th time in a row!

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who has no answer for why her pre-adolescent child needs instructions to be repeated over and over again in order to get him to complete a task, when he is perfectly capable of remembering them the first time!

Now, considering he had a 10,000 word vocabulary (I kid you not, we had him tested), by the time he was three, and the fact that he tries to out-negotiate me at every turn, I probably shot myself in the foot. But he does love to read. So, mission accomplished.

The single most important activity for building eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children, according to the Commission on Reading. We need to read to children long before they learn to read and long after they learn to read.

But Why?
• According to Jim Trelease, in his Read Aloud Handbook, we have to hear and say a word before we can read or write it. If a child never heard the word gigantic, then he can’t say it. If he has neither heard nor said the word, he will have difficulty reading or writing it.

• Reading to older kids helps them understand grammar and correct sentence structure.

• Kids learn appropriate behavior when they’re read to, and are exposed to new situations, making them more prepared when they encounter these situations in real life.

• When read to, children are able to experience the rhythm and melody of language even before they can understand the spoken or printed word.

• They are exposed to better and richer language than is found on TV or in the neighborhood.

• Children whose parents read to them tend to become better readers and perform better in school, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

• Being read to helps kids learn how to express themselves clearly and confidently.

• It’s the single most important thing a parent can do to help a child be prepared to learn from other sources!

• It provides a family-centered activity that can be enjoyed by all ages, any where, any time.

Here are our family’s favorite read-alouds for children around 5 years of age and up:

MY FATHER’S DRAGON is a marvelous fantasy that has enchanted children for many years. Children are drawn into the story as Elmer Elevator pulls from his knapsack one ingenious idea after another in order to outwit the wild beasts. The clever black and white illustrations in this 1949 Newbery Honor Book are entertaining and fun. There are three books in this series.

THE BOXCAR CHILDREN are four orphaned brothers and sisters who suddenly appear in a small town. No one knows who these young wanderers are or where they have come from. The children make a home for themselves in an abandoned red boxcar they discover in the woods. The four ambitious and resourceful, plucky children make a happy life themselves–until Violet gets too sick for her brothers and sister to care for her. This book will delight any child who has fantasized about being on his or her own and overcoming every obstacle.

MRS. PIGGLE WIGGLE has been wildly popular with children and adults for over 50 years. Children adore her because she understands them–and because her upside-down house is always filled with the smell of freshly baked cookies, and her backyard with buried treasure. Grownups love her because her magical common sense solutions to children’s problems succeed when their own cajoling and yelling don’t.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who now struggles to find enough books for 10 year old book-loving Nathan to read!

Although we have so many uses for these heavenly balls of gas, their true and complete identity has remained a mystery. Now though, scientists have discovered that stars create music. This music provides answers to century old questions.

For some time, we have known that the surface of stars is comprised mostly of helium and hydrogen. However, scientists were not able to discover the content of a star’s core until a scientist noticed something interesting. The slight variations of fluctuating light (known as oscillations) on the surface of a star vibrate and create sound waves. These wobbly motions can be converted into sounds just like seismic waves from the earth. (see blog: “Rocking Some Serious Science”)

The discovery of sound waves from the stars has given scientists the opportunity to discover the temperature, chemical composition and motions throughout the interior of a star. Two new branches of science have emerged as a result from these acoustic vibrations, “Stellar Seismology” (the study of motion on a star’s surface) and “Helioseismology” (the study of motion on the sun’s surface).

The interior of the sun has excellent acoustics. It transmits sound efficiently since it is a spherical ball of hot gas. Scientists believe that the motion of the gas going the hot core to the cooler surface (convection) forms strong unstable currents of vibrating light, which produce a wide range of random acoustical noise. The pulsating sound from most stars generally has a rhythmic repeating pattern. Additionally, the sound the star makes depends on its age, size, and chemical composition.

To listen these heavenly tunes including sounds from two different stars, a “song” from a globular cluster (tight group of stars) and “music” from the sun, visit this page.

-posted by Miss Jesikah whose daughter often falls asleep while mommy sings “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”

Music and play are by far the best way to teach children. In fact, research shows us that music is the only activity that stimulates every area of the brain simultaneously. This stimulation allows children to learn, develop, and grow optimally in so many skills. Just think, the foundation of our language, the alphabet, is even taught through a song because it is an effective memorization tool.

A speech therapist once told me that they teach vocabulary to toddlers and preschoolers using a singsong approach. Young children respond, engage, and memorize the best with this musically interactive technique. When my son was three, I asked him if he wanted milk by singing the question. Immediately, he would respond by imitating the song using the correct words for the correct objects.

Pretend play took this singsong approach to learning to a whole new level. During his sessions the therapist would show me fun pretend play activities that would also encourage him to use the vocabulary he was learning. Rather than talk about feeding, the therapist would give my son (who was age two during this exercise) a spoon, a bowl, a cup and encourage him to feed his favorite stuffed animal. He would use the words “more”, “food”, “drink”, “done” while feeding his stuffed animal.

Kindermusik, understanding that children learn best through music and play, has incorporated these language development concepts into all of their curriculums. The “Sign & Sing” classes use a speech therapy model to learn, practice and memorize vocabulary not only in the spoken format but also through signs, which actually encourage children to speak and articulate more confidently. During class, parents and children learn the signs through songs and singsong rhymes and then use pretend play as the practice tool. Infants, toddlers, and early preschool age children receive so many benefits from this class.

So, I found a wonderful “musical playgroup.” It’s called Kindermusik. My son is now 6. And, thanks to all the developmental challenges presented in his Kindermusik classes, he has a great vocabulary! In fact, one of his favorite activities is to tell people stories.

- posted by Miss Jesikah who loves to teach “Sign & Sing,” a class she truly believes is an excellent way for parents to learn ASL (American Sign Language) as well as many other great language development tools.

A face on a TV screen might interest them a bit. But, the face in the screen is no substitute for an “in the flesh” person who responds to directly to them.

Seeing a familiar grown-up face comforts and soothes babies. Eye-to-eye contact is key to adult-child bonding and provides security.

I love it in class when the babies look and look and look at me. I start winking and then they’re really staring! Add some singing to the mix and I’ve got a captive audience.

Try some of these silly face games:
- kissy lips
- lip smacking
- alternate between smiles, frowns, and pouts
- winking and blinking at various speeds
- eyebrow raising

These games are a great idea during diaper changes and waiting in lines.

Looking for a quick bit of fun at home? Take your baby into the bathroom and explore your faces in the mirror.

- posted by Miss Anita, who loves to wink at adorable baby faces!