Helpful Mom

Now that I am thinking I’ll try my hand at homeschooling the girls I’ve begun to see learning opportunities everywhere.  Katrina has begun wanting to kiss me 20times before bed.  Well what mom isn’t going to take that while it lasts ;P  And I began to realize that it was a great chance to help her with her counting at the same time.  Now we have gotten as high as 40 with no tears or formal learning times.

Dot to Dot activities are great too for learning number order and hand control for future writing skills.  Helping put silverware away can be sorting and classification, as can sorting laundry items.  Everything can be counted, and you can do shape of the day and have them look for that shape all over.  And another easy one to tuck away for one of those moments when they are bored and losing it in the car it to try to find the entire alphabet-one at a time in order, on signs, cars, store fronts, whatever.  It gets them working as a team looking for those letters and it reinforces letter order.

Sorry it’s been so long.  Last week was a crazy whirlwind, 3 book sales, the Ronald McDonald house garage sale, and catering dinner for 60, all along with all the normal day to day things with the girls.  Thank goodness for a supportive husband, naptime, and preschool mornings.

So today I was making easy pretzels which the girls absolutely loved making and they were very easy.

The recipe goes as follows from:                                                                   

1 package of yeast and 1 1/2 cups of warm water mixed together until the yeast fully dissolves.  Add 1 tsp. salt, 1 Tbs sugar, and 4 cups of flour.  Mix and knead the dough until it is smooth.  Roll and twist the dough into letters, numbers, or other shapes.  Lay the pretzels on a greased sheet, brush with a beaten egg and sprinkle with salt.  Bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes.

The girls really got into it.  They love to help me bake anyways but this had lots of fun steps for them to get involved.  As we added the flour I told Katrina that we needed 4 cups of flour and I had put 1 in how many more do I need?  3!  And so on, she thought it was great and I knew I’d snuck in a little basic math.  They loved helping to knead the dough and of course creating all kinds of letters and shapes.

They come out pretty white not brown like pretzels, so if you wanted to color them it would be another fun opportunity to teach about mixing colors.  Funny the girls now ask me all the time what different color combinations would make, and we buy those Trix yogurts by Yoplait that come with two colors in the package and they want me to mix them together to see what colors it makes.

I was reading in one of my magazines an article about how we should set an example to our children of going to vote and how if you vote they are more likely to as well.  But the way the story began really reminded me of how our children are watching everything we DO even more than what we say, and how we have to be so very careful to make sure our actions match our words.  In it it had this poem by a nun that was given to the author when her baby was born:

“Be careful where you go, young man, be careful what you do.  Two little eyes are watching you now- Two little feet will be following you.”

Isn’t that the truth, no matter where you are no matter what you are doing your kids are sure to find you and want to do it with you.  One day I was dropping my girls off at my moms for the day and Katrina really didn’t want to be left behind, so in an effort to make her not want to come with me I told her she didn’t want to join me because I’d be scrubbing the floors and ceilings.  And she says I want to help you!

The article goes on to say that some of this is obvious but when you’re so focused on giving the essentials-food, love, basic hygiene-it’s easy to overlook that those little eyes soak up so much more from you too.  Things you might not even be aware you’re transmitting.  Like how family members treat one another, and whether respect and affection are part of those interactions even when you are sleep deprived or stressed.  How strangers are treated.  How often please and thank you punctuate the day.  Or even whether you come to a full stop at a stop sign.

The kids might look oblivious, but they are watching.  It’s enough to make a mom self-conscious(which is probably a good thing).  Last spring we had a mom come share at our group about teaching your children manners.  And what she shared wasn’t what you might have expected about sitting them and teaching them here’s what you do in this situation or that one, but is was more about how we should be setting that example.  Instead of saying(or yelling) “eat your food”  we should ask them politely, “Please eat your food”.  Or can you please pick up your cup for mommy, instead of give me your cup.  It’s easy to forget that just because you are in charge it doesn’t mean you get to be bossy, instead we should be modeling the behaviour that we want them to inherit.  Which right now it’s self control and patience, which is being worked into mommy and child.  If they see you fly off the handle how can we expect any more from them?

I’ve been reading this great book called Childwise, it’s by Gary Ezzo, the same author who wrote Babywise.  I highly recommend both books, but that’s beside the point.  What I read that I really liked the other day was his distinction between when a child should say they are sorry or if they should ask forgiveness.  Basically he says that when a child does something accidentally, like spill their drink or bump a friend they should say they are sorry.  They didn’t mean to do it, it was not done on purpose.  But when a child willfully does something that they know is wrong like hit their sibling, that is when they should ask for forgiveness.  There is something in the act of asking for forgiveness that is humbling and can act as a deterrent in the child repeating the behaviour.

OK so sometimes you have to reign in your kids imaginations to protect them from hurting themselves or others.  Take this example: the other day Katrina got out of bed because there was a “bug” in her room.  Joel went up to kill it, but after much looking he couldn’t find it.  So he gave her a fly swatter and told her that if she saw it again she could kill it herself.  Crisis averted.  Fast forward to the next day when two little girls are chasing each other around the house with a fly swatter saying it’s your turn to kill me.  I’m the bug kill me!  Joel says OK no more fly swatters and Katrina says that’s OK just use your hand to kill me.

Another fun thing we do is let the girls play with water in the kitchen sink.  They just love to fill up containers and cups and pour them out, over and over and over.  To do this with a minimum of mess I always lay a bath towel on the floor before they start.  Then bring in our all wood chairs from the dining room and turn them so the backs are against the cupboards, all the way in so their fingers won’t get pinched accidentally.  They each get their chair so they don’t push each other off.  And I always take their shirts off because as hard as I try they are going to get wet.  Also I make sure there’s no knives or other sharp or breakable dishes within reach.

Then all you have to do is turn the water on low and let them have at it.  The two rules in our house is try and keep the water in the sink, ie. no taking cups out water and putting them on the counter where they can get knocked over.  And no touching the sprayer.

It can get a bit messy sometimes, but it is just water after all!  Very easy to clean up and they say playing with sand and water helps kids with math.  Don’t know how but that’s what the experts say. ;P  And while they are occupied you can make dinner, or empty your dishwasher, or make a phone call, or sweep the floors, or read a book, you get the idea.

Well once I had the iRobot Roomba I was in love.  And soon found out that they also make a mopping version!  It’s called the iRobot Scooba .  And I had to have it.  With two tiny kids that were always dropping food on the floor I was always feeling like I needed to mop twice daily (not that I did, just felt like it needed it)  So I saved up my pennies, Joel and I have built into our monthly budget our own spending money that we are able to spend on whatever we want whether it be for a fancy mopping robot or a computer game for him ;P  So when I found a remanufactured one on Amazon.com I jumped on it.  So while the girls were very little I would run it every day after they had gone to bed for the evening.

It works very much like the vacuuming one.  You fill the tank with water and cleaning solution and turn it on and let it go.  I usually sweep up beforehand due to the kids.  But it does wet, scrub, and squeegee the floors although it does not leave the floors totally dry.  Due to the round shape it does not get into corners and depending on the height of your counters it may not get all the way under the edge, so I take a wash cloth occasionally and wipe down the edges manually.  But for that small amount of inconvenience my floors are regularly mopped when before I was happy if they got cleaned once a week(or rather unhappy that that it was only once a week).  Once it’s finished cleaning you empty the dirty tank and rinse it out, rinse out the filters and brushes and plug it back in for the battery to recharge.  So far I’ve had it for two years and have never had to replace any parts at all.  This one takes about 45minutes to clean a room.

Before I had the Scooba I used theHoover FloorMate, which is sort of like a mopping vacuum.  I still use this for our tiny bathrooms and for those spills which are inevitable.  Such as that spilled soda, or the time my husband knocked over that breast milk I’d just pumped.  It will vacuum up the spill and then you can mop the space up and the floor will be clean not sticky.

I had always wanted the iRobot Roomba.  After my car accident that lead to back surgery my mom bought me one.  And I am in love.  What is a Roomba?  It’s an automated floor vacuum.  It uses a rechargable battery and you just turn it on and it will vacuum your room for you.  You do have to pick up everything off the floor that you don’t want vacuumed up, and either close it in the room or use the virtual walls that come with the unit.  Virtual walls are these units that you can place in doorways or another place you want to block off so it won’t vacuum there.  We use it to block off beneath Joel’s desk because there are so many cables on the floor.  It has a cliff sensor built in so if you are cleaning at the top of stairs it won’t take a tumble.  It takes about an hour and a half to clean a room and up to three hours for it to recharge.

Some are sceptics that it won’t really work as well as vacuuming yourself might, but I am disgusted by the amount of stuff this thing picks up.  And by not having to take the time to vacuum myself the rooms end up getting vacuumed more often than if I had to do it.  Now I pick up the room before bed, turn it on and go to bed.  It vacuums the room by making spiraling pattern around the room learning the layout and then coming back to fill in.  They say every spot is gone over at least 3 times.  And the Roomba even finds it’s recharging dock and parks itself so it’s fully recharged when I get up in the morning.  So I will do things like vacuum the living room while I’m sleeping, and then start it on the family room when I leave the house in the morning, and then can set it off in our bedroom in the evening while I’m cooking dinner.

Why am I telling you all this?  Well two reasons, one is that it is an awesome time saver for moms with little ones, and two because they are on a fantastic deal on Buy.com.  They normally cost from $149.99-349 but on Buy they have remanufactured ones for $99 with free shipping.  The only negative I have about the Roomba is the hidden costs.  They have filters that need replacing every couple months, and I’ve found that the rechargable battery needs replacing about once a year.  But when compared with prices of other vacuums and the labor it saves me I recommend it wholeheartedly.

In case you were looking for more reasons to buy a laminator here are a couple.

I have a sheet that is for keeping an inventory of all the extra meals, marinades, and cuts of meat in my stand up freezer.  I laminated it so I could write on it with dry erase markers so I can keep a record of what I freeze and then erase it as I use them up.  That way when I’m making my grocery list for the week I can look at it to see if I need to purchase more of something or if I already have it stocked away.  And this way I hopefully won’t lose something to the recesses of the freezer.

Another idea I saw in a magazine that could help with older children with packing their lunches.  A mom got tired of packing her kids lunches and their complaining about what she packed.  So she created a sheet that had a checklist they could use to assemble their own lunches.  The laminated list includes choices for items they need, such as vegetables, a yogurt, and a sandwich.  It also includes options for items they want, such as chips or pretzels, which they can take twice weekly.  Now her kids are learning to make healthy choices, and her mornings are less hectic.

I was in Thrifty Shopper today and they told me all their stores are having a customer appreciation sale on Saturday, October 18 from 9am-8pm.  50% off EVERYTHING! except brand new merchandise.  Thrifty Shopper is a thrift store supporting local shelters in Syracuse, NY.

They have stores in Auburn, Baldwinsville, Binghamton, Cortland, E. Syracuse, Henrietta, Liverpool, N. Syracuse, Oswego, Syracuse, and Watertown.  Go to Thrifty Stores for store addresses.