Moms Don't Get Sick Days...

This cartoon has been hanging on a bulletin in my parent’s house for as long as I can remember and I never really understood it until I became I mother myself (sorry mom!). Unless you are fortunate to have 24/7 help, chances are if you are a mother and you’ve ever gotten that terrible cold or flu, morning sickness when you also have to take care of other children, a migraine or just “coming down with something” then you KNOW that as sad as it is, the last thing you want to do is cook, bathe, change and worst of all - play with your children.

During the winter months when it is too cold to go to the playground after school, I try very hard to show my children attention during that time until I have to start preparing dinner and do whatever they want, which is usually painting, playing with play-doh, cutting with scissors,baking, or anything else they can think of that will make a huge mess and big clean up job for me and I am okay with this because otherwise they would sit in front of the tv or their iPads from the time they come home from school until they go to bed. However, when I get sick, (which thank Gd isn’t very often, but when it hits it is the WORST), I cannot bring myself to do any extra clean up, sometimes I do not even want to get off the couch. On those days I do turn on the tv and hand each child an iPad but it is always with extreme guilt and sometimes the worst happens – my kids still want to have an after school activity even though Blaze and The Monster Machines is on! This made me evaluate my children’s capabilities and toys to come up with a list of after-school fun that does not require mommy to be a participant (unless she is feeling better). I am sharing this list with you – maybe you have some go-to ideas that work for you, or maybe you have a basement or designated play area so this doesn’t even apply to you because the play table isn't also the dinner table or the mess just isn't as "in your face", but I have found that my kids would sometimes rather me be their audience anyway than fellow participant.

I hate reading to my children when I have a sore throat or am so tired that I can barely see straight, so if they request story time after school I tell them to save the books for bedtime when Daddy comes home or look at the book yourself (which often translates to: this is no longer book time) and that is okay. I often offer coloring books or blank paper and crayons and tell them to color pictures since they clean up the crayons when they are done and I am happy to display their artwork on the wall. If I am really lucky I can get a full fifteen minute coloring session. If it isn’t a headache I am suffering from, I encourage my children to take out their instruments and sing me songs. Band time is the best – they play (bang) their pianos, guitars, drums and recorder and I sit on the couch with my feet up enjoying the ridiculous verses my creative children come up with. I always suggest playing with Legos or puzzles but sometimes a full clean up job doesn’t happen on its own (especially when 1000 Legos are involved). There is nothing like having an apartment full of toys and your children telling you they have “nothing to play with”. I like to use my “sick days” to remind my children of their train sets, doll houses, pretend food and kitchen and when they are bored of all of these ideas, I simply tell them “Mommy is sick and needs a checkup”. Nothing heals you faster than a Fisher-Price Band-Aid from a two year old doctor.

Hang in there moms – spring is almost here and that lingering cough will disappear and our kids will stop bringing home ear infections. Until then, do what it takes to get through those hard weeknights, whether it is extra TV or iPad time, coloring, building or singing. (And if you are ever offered an extra set of hands – TAKE THE HELP!! You are already your child’s hero – take that nap if Grandma is offering babysitting time!) One more thing, if you do know a fellow mom suffering from a winter cold, you can surprise her and send her a free tissue box from Kleenex.com. 

 

And if you’ve never seen the amazing : "Moms don't take sick days" DayQuil commercial. 

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!

My Son's IPad...

Yes, you read that correctly. My SON is the proud owner of an iPad mini. He got it for his second birthday. What does he do with it? He learns many nursery rhymes courtesy of Fisher Price, he learns stories thanks to Nosy Crow, and he learns his letters, numbers, colors and shapes thanks to many other developers. My son is not yet two and a half, but he knows the entire upper and lower case alphabet by sight. He can count to 20 and can count backwards from 10. He knows so many names of shapes I am shocked (pentagon? decagon?) and he knows all the colors of the rainbow plus grey, pink, brown, black and white. While I wish I could say I taught him all of this myself, I have come to conclusion that the IPad is his teacher, and I simply reinforce what he is taught in his virtual classroom. I make sure we play games based on what he is learning throughout the day. When we are out on a walk we will spot things he sees in the stories he is read (ex: trees, traffic lights, zucchini or peppers at the supermarket). We sing the songs he learns throughout the day, and my most favorite, I watch him draw circles or certain letters on the window when they are fogged up. It is such an incredible thing to see how my child takes what he sees on a screen and applies it to paper and the world around him.

I see people judge me ALL the time. They tell me it's extremely bad for him and that I should be ashamed that he has "so much screen time" (how do you know how much time he has on this device? What makes you think he is always on it?) but I am not and I take pride in the fact that I am a mom not ashamed to say my son can navigate an Apple product better than I can. He has learned SO MUCH from his preschool education apps that I truly believe this tool is essential in teaching early literacy. There are many different ways to teach reading skills. What better way to teach the letters than an interactive interface? It's 2014, there is no way children can get along in this world without technology, so put the right apps on your IPad and give your child the gift of reading on a whole new fun and engaging level.

Disclaimer: My son does not sit on his IPad all day. He has time limits because I believe that it is important he does not stare at a screen for a prolong amount of time and he also needs to talk to people and read books and eat and play outdoors....

"Hey Mommy, Pick A Book!"

This is the phrase I look forward to hearing everyday around 2 pm. That is the time I shut off all the technology devices (TV, IPad and my cell phone) and we have reading/play with your toys time. This lasts until 3:30 when Little Einsteins starts on the Disney channel. I know I haven't posted in a while, but I had a second child in June, and then I became a stay at home mom. The world forgot to tell me that everything I do for myself (including blogging), would have to take a back seat for a while and that's okay.

Being home with my 6 month old and my 28 month old has been quite a challenge for me. As one who loves to be in fancy clothes and high heels all day, that has all been traded in for comfy shirts and skirts due to so much time spent at the playground or at home (especially now with the cold weather upon us)! So followers, it's not that I haven't been reading, I just haven't been telling you about it lately.

I believe the time has come to remix this blog. Reviews are great, but as a children's librarian and as a mother the time has come for me to share with you the importance of Early Literacy. Not just because I took a continuing education class on it last month and not because I need to increase my numbers at "baby storytime", but because school is getting harder for our children, and we need to take back their childhood while preparing them for the real world. I am ready to help each and every one of you have your child knowing the ABCs and their Numbers by 2. (Sorry, my book is not yet published). The best part? You don't have to do much - except spend some time with your baby/toddler! You already do that? AWESOME! You are a hard working full time Mama? Excellent - here are some tips for your caregiver. Your caregiver doesn't speak English? Jackpot! She can sing and dance in whatever language she knows best - your baby will LOVE it!!!

I will try to post these helpful tips as often as possible, but I cannot promise daily due to my crazy work schedule. In any case here is an overview of how to get started:

We are parents in 2013. Our children need to be all kinds of literate. They need to know about reading in addition to technology and the world around them - trees, dirt, snow, food, clothing etc. I know there are many studies out there that say "no screens for anyone under 2 years old". I don't think anyone who wrote that had an 18 month old at home who also needed to cook dinner and get the laundry out of the washing machine and into the dryer. Spoiler alert: My 18 month watched television. However, I was the one in charge of the remote, which is why he spent a lot of nights watching "Wheel Of Fortune" which led to his knowledge of the letters in the alphabet. My advice (and I will definitely discuss this at length in another post) is to allow your child screen time if you need to, both a television and an IPad, within moderation, and make it a bonding time for you and your child. That way, there is still family time and the child learns these items are part of the world, not rewards.

As for those under two years of age, welcome to the world of giggles and bouncing and preparing your child for everything there is that needs to be learned! All babies need to be read and sung to, in any language. Board books are great (I will post my top picks for books at every age and stage). A lot of my personal favorites can be found at www.downtownbookworks.com, and singing to your baby is an absolute must, even if it is just your schedule of the day. Babies love rhyme time, so get that baby on your lap and sing "Open Shut Them". I promise you that if you sing that every day for a week, by day 8 your child will anticipate when to open up their little mouths (and that's a really big deal in the literacy world!)

The time has come to prepare our youngest children to live in a world that is filled with a lot of things that did not exist when we were young. We have to make sure they use their imaginations when they build with their blocks, and still want to dress up in tiaras and cowboy hats. But, there is no harm in having your two year old be able to recognize the letters in his name!