Try Bingo To Help Reading Skills

Here's an idea for a custom Bingo game that reinforces early reading skills:

Supplies:

• Card stock paper
• Scissors
• Pen

To make:

• Use two (or more) sheets of card stock as your Bingo cards.
• On these cards, draw a grid of squares (4x4 or 5x5 works well).
• In each square, write simple words that you think your child will be able to read.
• Cut more card stock into small squares that will fit in the squares drawn on the cards (these are your Bingo chips).
• Copy the words that are on the cards onto the chips as well, making sure that there are the same number of word chips as there are cards (so each player has the same word chips).
• Make an extra set of word chips - these are your "caller" cards.

To Play:

Turn a caller card over to reveal a word. Each player finds their matching word card and places it on its spot on their Bingo card. The first player to make a line wins.

My daughter and I play this all the time, and her four year old brother plays as well. He is actually able to match up the words based on the letters they contain, even though he can't yet read them all (he can sound out some simple three letter words). Because this reading practice is presented in the form of a Bingo game, they have fun without realizing they're "doing homework" ;-)


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How I Taught My Son Our Address

I made it into a song.

I used a random melody that begins and ends on the same note (so it makes sense to your ear) and sung the address over and over. He loved hearing it, and asked me to "sing it again, mama!! sing it again!!". Tonight as I was tucking him in for bed, out of nowhere he sang it, with the address correct.

(awesome)

I don't think he'd be able to recite the address without the melody, but that doesn't matter. What does matter (lol) is that I don't think he knows it's his "address"; as in, if someone asked him for his address, he wouldn't know to sing the song.

LOL, oh well, one thing at a time, right?
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Bratz Dolls Will No Longer Be Sold In 2009

Have you heard? This was news to me but here's a link from a CNN site:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/04/news/companies/bratz_dolls.ap/index.htm

Apparently Barbie and Bratz (or the makers of ;-) have been in a legal dispute and the Barbie side has won. After the current holiday season, Bratz dolls will be pulled from store shelves and no longer available for sale.

LOL If you were a collector/investor, wouldn't now be a good time to stock up?

Hmmm....
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Treating A Child's Fever

I am not a nurse or a doctor, just a Mom trying to figure out what the right thing to do is.

J has had a fever for a couple of days, and has not had his usual energy level (when he voluntarily lies down on his bed instead of playing, you know something's amiss!). He's still a happy little guy, talkative and smiley, and there's been no vomiting - just coughing and a "sniffy" nose. And the fever.

Last year when this happened (it usually does about once or twice a year for him - Alyssa is not as prone to fevers but Joseph usually gets them), I gave him ice packs to cool him down. This made him shiver, and yet he got hotter! Once I did a bit of research I understood why:

Fever helps the body fight off in infection of course. What I didn't know is that if you ice a fever, you actually cause the body temperature to increase.

We all have an internal thermostat that keeps our body temperature around 98.6F. Unfortunately this is an optimal temp for bad bugs to thrive, so when we get sick the internal thermostat resets to a higher temp, and the body works to maintain that new setting (a. to help kill the bug, and b. to optimize our immune system's performance).

So when you ice a fever, you're fighting against the body's natural immune system response, requiring that even more heat be generated to try and reach that new internal thermostat setting.

Here's a link from a Nursing forum with a conversation specifically about icing kids' fevers: http://allnurses.com/forums/f18/ice-packs-fever-207206.html

Bottom line, I've discovered, is that you're better off leaving the fever alone (assuming it's not too high, of course - then you may want to see your Doc) and focusing on making your child comfy. Lots of fluids, comfy PJ's, favourite show on tv, and naps if they're willing.

There goes my timer again - I have to get A up for school. I'll be back!
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5 Steps To Using Words, Not Fists

My son (the lil' hammer dude) is like most kids - impressionable and teachable. (I see this as an upside to having kids, because if you don't censor your own bad behaviour, they pick it up!!).

note to self - hide the candy wrappers better so my six year old doesn't see them in the garbage and get upset when I won't let her have any

Anyway, more about Lil' J. He has learned to talk about his anger, rather than hitting. Here's what worked for us:

Step 1) Intervene if he is hitting, pushing, or otherwise being physical with his anger.

Step 2) Sit down at his level and wait for him to calm down.

Step 3) Ask him why he is angry, listen to what he has to say.

Step 4) Tell him that it is OK to be angry, but that it is NOT OK to use his hands to show anger.

Step 5) Show him another way to express his anger: for example, by using words.

Steps 4 and 5 are particularly important. I truly believe that kids are not born wanting to hit or be violent - they just don't know how to express themselves. I also think it's important that he deal with anger, so that it's not bottled up inside.

This morning, for example, he didn't get to play in the school playground like he usually does because of the rain. He was very upset, but because we've been through the five steps listed above, he walked nicely with me, holding my hand, and talked about how angry he was. I told him that I understood, I'd be angry too, it's OK to feel that way, and I was very proud of how he uses his words to tell me.

Because he had been taught how to express himself without getting in trouble (which would have made him angrier), he got over it in about two or three minutes, and started laughing talking about something else entirely.

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