How do you respond when your 5-year-old says:
"Mommy, can I have some cents? 'Cause I don't have any cents."
Happy sweeping!
Kathleen Gunther
Editor, ContestHound.com
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Baby Shopping?
My 4-year-old daughter Willa and her little friend were playing house. They had all the food and toy dishes set up and Julia found the baby stroller.
"We need a baby," she decided.
"Oh," said Willa, mournfully. "My baby died and I forgot to go to the store."
Happy sweeping!
Kathleen Gunther
Editor, ContestHound.com
"We need a baby," she decided.
"Oh," said Willa, mournfully. "My baby died and I forgot to go to the store."
Happy sweeping!
Kathleen Gunther
Editor, ContestHound.com
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Happy Valentine's Day ...
While people are always quick to point out the similarities of my three children, I find it more interesting to note their differences. Let's take the production of Valentine's Day cards, for instance.
The other night, I was elbow-deep in construction paper cut-outs of hearts. I cut while the kids pasted and decorated. All three seemed equally keen right out of the gate.
Neva set up on the piano bench and painstakingly applied stickers and stamps around the perimeters, making her choices based on each friend's personality and talents. It took several hours (including the next morning) to make the cards for just the girls in her class.
Milo began writing his name on his hearts, but tired quickly when he learned I had no "Transformer" stickers for the boys in his class. His pile of hearts is still sitting untouched on my desk, two days later. This afternoon, however, the purchase of pre-fab Spiderman valentine cards has renewed his enthusiasm. He's currently printing at Mach speed!
Willa, on the other hand, took all the construction paper out of the craft box, grabbed a glue stick and began gluing. And gluing and gluing and gluing! She was going through paper hearts faster than I could cut them. Each valentine she made -- and there were more than a dozen for all her friends at daycare -- was a full-sized sheet with hearts, scraps of paper and stickers. Each one entirely different from the next, they were more than cards: they were works of art!
If only the recipients understood the care (or not) that went into each card.
Happy sweeping!
Kathleen Gunther
Editor, ContestHound.com
The other night, I was elbow-deep in construction paper cut-outs of hearts. I cut while the kids pasted and decorated. All three seemed equally keen right out of the gate.
Neva set up on the piano bench and painstakingly applied stickers and stamps around the perimeters, making her choices based on each friend's personality and talents. It took several hours (including the next morning) to make the cards for just the girls in her class.
Milo began writing his name on his hearts, but tired quickly when he learned I had no "Transformer" stickers for the boys in his class. His pile of hearts is still sitting untouched on my desk, two days later. This afternoon, however, the purchase of pre-fab Spiderman valentine cards has renewed his enthusiasm. He's currently printing at Mach speed!
Willa, on the other hand, took all the construction paper out of the craft box, grabbed a glue stick and began gluing. And gluing and gluing and gluing! She was going through paper hearts faster than I could cut them. Each valentine she made -- and there were more than a dozen for all her friends at daycare -- was a full-sized sheet with hearts, scraps of paper and stickers. Each one entirely different from the next, they were more than cards: they were works of art!
If only the recipients understood the care (or not) that went into each card.
Happy sweeping!
Kathleen Gunther
Editor, ContestHound.com
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Tele-Education ...
There is so much controversy these days surrounding the issue of children and television. They watch too much. It contributes to obesity. There is too much violence. It numbs the brain with fast-paced, over-stimulating drivel.
While those points may be true -- proven facts, even -- you cannot dismiss the benefits of some of the programming out there. One of the favorites with pre-schoolers today is Go, Diego! Go!, about an adventurous Latino boy (the cousin of another favorite, Dora the Explorer) who is an animal rescuer. Not only do they learn about animals from all over the world, they also pick up a little Spanish along the way.
I was surprised, however, at just how much my almost-4-year-old was remembering about the animals. Willa and I were playing with her Diego toys this afternoon and she asked me for the monkey. There were two: one yellow, one brown. So I handed her the monkey closest to me.
"No, not the spider monkey," she corrected me. "I want the baby howler monkey."
Happy sweeping!
Kathleen Gunther
Editor, ContestHound.com
While those points may be true -- proven facts, even -- you cannot dismiss the benefits of some of the programming out there. One of the favorites with pre-schoolers today is Go, Diego! Go!, about an adventurous Latino boy (the cousin of another favorite, Dora the Explorer) who is an animal rescuer. Not only do they learn about animals from all over the world, they also pick up a little Spanish along the way.
I was surprised, however, at just how much my almost-4-year-old was remembering about the animals. Willa and I were playing with her Diego toys this afternoon and she asked me for the monkey. There were two: one yellow, one brown. So I handed her the monkey closest to me.
"No, not the spider monkey," she corrected me. "I want the baby howler monkey."
Happy sweeping!
Kathleen Gunther
Editor, ContestHound.com
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