"Mommy, Why Are You Crying?"

As a parent with Facebook, I read A LOT of parenting articles that people post, even if they have nothing to do with the stage my children are in or if I agree or disagree with the author - I find myself reading a lot of parenting blogs. It is never with any judgement especially since I had two children who never took pacifiers so they always screamed in the supermarket and I had one champion sleeper and one child who didn’t sleep through the night until she was 18 months old and I had one child who baby led weaned and another who I thought would walk down the aisle with a pureed menu at the wedding, but I love to hear different perspectives and any helpful advice is great advice – parenting is really hard!

Today I found myself in a really awkward position and realized I don’t remember reading any advice on the matter – even Judy Blume let me down on this one. I was having an extremely emotional day and while I was folding the laundry tears just rolled down my face and my four year looked at me and said “Mommy, why are you crying? Is it because we hit the wall with the Swiffer?” I do not think I ever cried in front of my children before, am I allowed to do that? Are we pro this or against it? Will it scar them for life? I looked him straight in the eye and said “maybe it is time to put the Swiffer away if you are done helping to clean and mommy got some sad news so she is sad right now”. He then gave me a hug and said “you are all better now”. I wish so badly that everyone can get a hug from a four year old and have all their problems melt away.

This morning I saw on Facebook that someone I worked with at Mr. Youth passed away. She had a blog chronicling her battle against cancer and although I barely knew her, I read most of her posts and am in such awe of her strength and courage. My heart goes out to her husband, family and friends and hope they are all comforted at this time.

This afternoon I read a blog post about a friend of mine who is sick and while in my head I paint a picture she is on the mend, her brother’s post unfortunately said otherwise. She used to be my neighbor and I looked forward to seeing her every Saturday morning at synagogue to catch up on life and when she got sick she moved to Pittsburgh and every now and then I cry to my husband and tell him how much I miss my friend. So after the news about Briel, and then the update about Meredith, the tears just started to flow and I decided it is okay my children saw it. They should know Mommy is human and has feelings and sometimes feels sad and they should also know that it is okay to express those feelings and a good cry can actually make everything all better. (Inside Out anyone?) 

We as parents work really hard to teach our children so many things, how to use a spoon, how to walk, how to read, we cannot forget that their emotions can use some guidance as well. While sometimes it takes a hard day like today to make me count every small blessing in my life, I hope I am teaching my children to appreciate what they have and to have empathy for those who may not have what we do.

Disney/Pixar Animation Studios Artist Showcase Series

I have always been a huge fan of book jackets. I love lifting them up and sometimes finding a whole different picture underneath the original cover, as if the illustrator could not decide which one he liked more, so he put both representations of what he wanted to convey on that first thing you see (the cover) and those of us smart enough to peak underneath can find a true treasure. Disney/Pixar has started producing Artist Showcase Books – “A series of original picture books that put the spotlight on the incredible artists of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios” and so far, the two books I have seen from this series are incredible. The illustrations and characters will welcome you into their worlds and you will constantly want to return.

 

In Bug Zoo by Andy Harkness, a young boy named Ben who loves bugs is motivated by a trip to the city zoo to create his own bug zoo. When no one comes to see his exhibit he contemplates why that could be as well as the emotions of the bugs in their new residences. Ben learns that all living things have their proper place in this world and that there is a use for every empty jar one may find. Any child who LOVES bugs will love the illustrations in this book and any child who HATES bugs will also love this book. The end papers of the book are filled with facts about the bugs depicted in the story along with instructions on the best ways to catch some of them. The bright colors, attention to detail and Ben's high spirits will truly make young children want to play outside and discover the insects living among them. (And don’t forget to look inside the jacket cover for another amazing image!) This book will be available for purchase on February 16, 2016.

Cloud Country by Noah Klocek is one of those picture books you aren’t sure of it’s intended audience, but once you read it you feel you must share it with everyone you know. Is it for children looking to find their place in the world or is it for adults as a lesson on how to teach each child based on their personal abilities? I believe that to be the magic of this book - there is truly something for every reader. The child will relate to Gale, a little cloud who loves to gaze at the Earth from above when she should be studying for her final on how to create perfect cloud formations. When she masters creating clouds that are a little out of the ordinary for her world, the Head Guardian realizes she has a talent to create “Land Shapes” and instead of ostracizing her for not creating a “Cumulus Cloud”, he honors her the position of “Daydream Cloud” - to create the shapes we think we see when we look up at clouds in the sky, a message all parents and teachers can be reminded of: that even if your child does something a little different than expected, it does not make it any less extraordinary and should be celebrated (within reason). The illustrations in this book truly transform you into the stratosphere and will truly make you feel like you are right there at the cloud school final with Gale. I encourage you to take a look at this very cool behind the scenes video with Noah Klocek about how he created this masterpiece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQrUBrzOKfI (And don’t forget to check under the book jacket!!) 

All About Apps

My parents gave each of my children an iPad for their second birthdays and told me to constantly have appropriate educational apps on it. I once wrote a post about my feelings towards my son’s iPad here. I often see on my news feed that parents are looking for apps for their children to keep them entertained on plane rides or at doctor visits, so today I will share with you some of my favorite apps that I have discovered.  (To help navigate the post, names that are bolded are the developer and the names in italics are the titles of the program.) I also apologize in advance that I do not remember which of these I paid for and which are free but I promise you each one I spent money on has been worth every penny and that since I only have an iPad, I only know for sure these are iPad compatible. 

At two years old, my children were still mastering the basics – letter recognition, number recognition, colors, shapes and songs. Every Fisher Price app I ever downloaded I absolutely loved.

Shapes and Colors – a brightly colored piano and floating shapes help master these skills with catchy tunes.

Storybook (1, 2, 3) – animates popular nursery rhymes and gives you the option to read along or sing along and play as you go!

Market – three adorable games for the youngest food lover. One is a grocery checkout, one is shopping for foods in the market and one is helping “Baker Bob” bake some treats for his bakery (and you can choose cupcakes, apple pie or chocolate chip cookies).

For letters and numbers, I highly recommend the Endless Learning package. You can also get each app separately, Endless Reader (which focuses on sight words), Endless ABC (which goes above and beyond beginner alphabet), Endless 1,2,3 (which teaches numbers 1-100) and Endless Wordplay which focuses on basic spelling and rhyming words. What I love about Reader and ABC is that it helps a child spell a word and use it properly in a sentence (with an adorable graphic to help a child understand the vocabulary).  I also have Little Writer by Alligator Apps that helps a child learn to trace upper and lower case letters in addition to numbers, shapes and simple words. I found that this helped my son learn to write his name and also gave him an opportunity to practice letter writing on fogged up windows.

For those of you looking for beginner apps in Hebrew, I have found success with Hebrew Tots which includes the aleph bet, numbers, colors and basic opposites and Sarah and David Interactive Alphabet Story which focuses on the Hebrew alphabet in a cute storybook fashion.

For little ones interested in sorting, matching, building towers and basic problem solving, Tiny Hands Towers, Sorting and What’s My Pair are a must for your iPad. Children will feel proud of themselves for solving each level and they get a round of applause with each completed puzzle! (And if puzzles are your child’s favorite thing, you must get them Puzzingo “the greatest puzzle on earth”!)

Nosy Crow is an amazing app developer and there is nothing of theirs that I haven’t been satisfied with. From interactive fairy tales (I have Cinderella, Jack and Beanstalk, Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks) to teaching about animal lifecycles (I have Frog and Penguin) to basic building (architecture related) apps (Bizzy Farm and Bizzy Builds), my children can stick with one of these for a half hour easily. There are problems to solve, structures to build and animals that need to be fed.

If tools and engineering are up your child’s alley, you may want to consider Tiny Bop’s Simple Machines that focuses on the use of levers, pulleys, angles and other physics related tools I never understood the mechanics of until I played this with my son. I also want to suggest the Sago Mini Toolbox, where one learns how to use tools (saws, hammers, scissors, wrenches etc.) and then build cool things like scooters and bird feeders with the tools you now know how to use.

There are some apps I have that I believe are a little sophisticated for my son (he is four and a half) but since they were the only ones that fit the bill of interest, he has them (and much to my surprise he can play them correctly and even get to level 65!). Seven Academy has two amazing apps called Crazy Gears and Busy Shapes that focus on connecting gears or shapes correctly to advance to the next level (each game has the same premise). They start off easy and get extremely complex so make sure your child doesn’t get anxious if he reaches a level he can’t complete (and unfortunately if you are my son who asks me for help at level 67 and I don’t have a clue – I just reset it to level 1). He also has amazing learning apps by Urban Pockets that teach about the mechanics of a car (My Car), the different systems in the body (My Body) and weather patterns (My Weather). He also has a great app called Tic Toc Time which teaches how to tell time and use a compass. As you can see, we are ready for kindergarten!

The last app I want to mention is Small Street. It is almost a children’s version of Sim City, where you are required to build a successful town, hire workers, collect rent and make money. I downloaded it by accident but for an older child who understands the basic concept can get addicted to this game really quickly (I would say perfect for 7-10 year olds).

I hope some of you find this useful and feel free to share any amazing apps you have found along this journey of new ways to entertain young ones in the twenty first century!