If timeouts aren't effective with your child, try different twist. The folks at Positive Discipline suggest using "Positive Time Outs" as tool to teach children anger-management and self-soothing techniques.
"Positive-time-out is totally different. A child (or students in a classroom) designs a "positive time-out area" filled with pleasant things to help him calm down until he can access his rational brain and "do better."
After he has designed his "positive time-out area." he gives it another name such as "my space," or my "my cool off spot." Giving positive time-out another name helps eliminate the negative feelings of punitive time-out.”
Then allow your child to "choose" to go to his positive time-out instead of being sent. During a conflict you might say, “Would it help you to go to your ‘feel good place?” If your child says, “No,” ask, “Would you like me to go with you?” (Often this is encouraging to a child and helps increase a connection, as well as calming down.) If your child still says, “No,” (or is having such a temper tantrum, she can’t even hear you,) say, “Okay, I’m going to my time-out place.” What a great model for your children.
Go to your own Positive Time-Out
Going to your own positive time-out is often the best place to start during a conflict. Instead of asking your child if it would help her to go to her feel good place, just go to your own. Your time-out could be a physical place. It could also take place by taking deep breaths, counting to ten (or 100), meditating on how much you love your child, etc.
Not for Children under the age of Three to Four
If a child isn't old enough to design his own positive-time-out area, he is not old enough to understand any kind of time-out—even positive time-out."
Building Healthy Families
Friday, March 30, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
"Eggcelent" Learning Ideas
10 Fun Learning Games Using Plastic Eggs
Hide-n-seek puzzles
Print off some pictures, cut them in half and place one half in an egg and the other half in a different egg. This is a great activity for language development since you can talk about the object once your little one finds the matching pieces.
Egg counting
Pick up some stickers at the dollar store and put the numbers 1,2,3 on the eggs. You can have your little one count and add just about anything to the eggs (pom poms, pasta, paper, stickers, erasers...). This activity also works on fine motor skills since they have to open/close the eggs.
Capital and lowercase letter matching
For this one, place the capital letter on one half of the egg and the lowercase letter on the other half. Then mix up all the pieces and have your little one match up the capital and lowercase letters. This can also be used with all capital letters or all lowercase letters to work on letter recognition.
Egg word scramble
This is an activity for older children who are working on spelling. All you need is some alphabet letters and either matching objects or pictures. Place both the letters and the object in the same egg. Explain to your child that each egg contains an object (or picture) and the letters that spell that object. Then have them open the egg and see if they can spell the word.
Object matching
For a simple task, have your little one open all the eggs and then find the matching pairs. For older children or to make it a little more challenging, place all the eggs in an empty egg carton and play a little memory game.
Egg memory game
This one is somewhat similar to the activity above. Instead of playing a memory game where you try to find matching pairs, show your little one all the objects in the eggs and then place the tops on them. Then ask your child, "Where is the pig?". To make it easier just do one row at a time.
Sound eggs
Add a variety of things to your eggs (marbles, rice, bells, etc), super glue your eggs together and then have your child try to find two matching sounds.
Emotional eggs
Use a marker to draw different faces on your eggs then separate your eggs. Either tell a short story or talk about an emotion and have your little one try to make the correct face (ie. "When Susie went to the store with her mom she got a balloon. How do you think Susie felt?"). For older children you can have them draw the faces on the eggs themselves.
Egg color matching
Super simple!! Just separate your eggs and have your little one put them back together.
Rotten egg game
You can play this game two different ways. For working on same/different, you can place like objects in all of the eggs except one. Then add a different object to the remaining egg. Have your child open the eggs and find which one doesn't belong or is different. To work on turn taking, you can put a variety of objects in all of the eggs except one (leave this one empty...that's the rotten egg). Then take turns opening eggs until someone gets the "rotten egg".
All of these fabulous learning ideas were found on another favorite blog!
http://playinghouseinmaryland.blogspot.com
Hide-n-seek puzzles
Print off some pictures, cut them in half and place one half in an egg and the other half in a different egg. This is a great activity for language development since you can talk about the object once your little one finds the matching pieces.
Egg counting
Pick up some stickers at the dollar store and put the numbers 1,2,3 on the eggs. You can have your little one count and add just about anything to the eggs (pom poms, pasta, paper, stickers, erasers...). This activity also works on fine motor skills since they have to open/close the eggs.
Capital and lowercase letter matching
For this one, place the capital letter on one half of the egg and the lowercase letter on the other half. Then mix up all the pieces and have your little one match up the capital and lowercase letters. This can also be used with all capital letters or all lowercase letters to work on letter recognition.
Egg word scramble
This is an activity for older children who are working on spelling. All you need is some alphabet letters and either matching objects or pictures. Place both the letters and the object in the same egg. Explain to your child that each egg contains an object (or picture) and the letters that spell that object. Then have them open the egg and see if they can spell the word.
Object matching
For a simple task, have your little one open all the eggs and then find the matching pairs. For older children or to make it a little more challenging, place all the eggs in an empty egg carton and play a little memory game.
Egg memory game
This one is somewhat similar to the activity above. Instead of playing a memory game where you try to find matching pairs, show your little one all the objects in the eggs and then place the tops on them. Then ask your child, "Where is the pig?". To make it easier just do one row at a time.
Sound eggs
Add a variety of things to your eggs (marbles, rice, bells, etc), super glue your eggs together and then have your child try to find two matching sounds.
Emotional eggs
Use a marker to draw different faces on your eggs then separate your eggs. Either tell a short story or talk about an emotion and have your little one try to make the correct face (ie. "When Susie went to the store with her mom she got a balloon. How do you think Susie felt?"). For older children you can have them draw the faces on the eggs themselves.
Egg color matching
Super simple!! Just separate your eggs and have your little one put them back together.
Rotten egg game
You can play this game two different ways. For working on same/different, you can place like objects in all of the eggs except one. Then add a different object to the remaining egg. Have your child open the eggs and find which one doesn't belong or is different. To work on turn taking, you can put a variety of objects in all of the eggs except one (leave this one empty...that's the rotten egg). Then take turns opening eggs until someone gets the "rotten egg".
All of these fabulous learning ideas were found on another favorite blog!
http://playinghouseinmaryland.blogspot.com
Monday, March 26, 2012
Local Company Brings Elite Cloth Diapers
National cloth diapering craze hits Oregon as more parents look to lessen their carbon footprints and save big bucks. Flying Cloud Gifts, a company owned and operated in Wallowa County, recently began selling the highly acclaimed FuzziBunz Elite Diaper System and wants to spread the word about this amazing product to Eastern Oregon families with infants and children.
FuzziBunz® was founded by stay at home mom, Tereson Dupuy. Her son was suffering from severe diaper rash. Dupuy’s doctor told her to ditch disposables. When she couldn’t find a cloth diaper that was easy to use and easy to clean at home, she decided to invent one.
Flying Cloud Gifts is providing you with the Elite diaper line that will take your baby from birth to the potty training stage, and each diaper comes with 2 cotton inserts for complete comfort for your little one. They as well come in Funkadelic Apple Green, Watermelon, and 8 other colors. Perfect gift for the stay at home mom.
To learn more about FuzziBunz® or to purchase one, please visit Flying Cloud Gifts in Enterprise Oregon visit them online at www.flycloudgifts.com
Monday, March 19, 2012
Parenting Tool Cards....A Fabulous Resource
Thanks to the wonderful people at Positive Discipline, parents now have free on-line access to dozens of Parenting Tool Cards. These problem-solving tools are meant to help parents understand and find options for some of those most challenging parenting moments! Check out some of the great examples and head to the link below for many more.
http://blog.positivediscipline.com/search/label/ParentingToolCards
http://blog.positivediscipline.com/search/label/ParentingToolCards
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Easy Recycled Bird Feeders
In a time with so many activities and opportunities for children, it can be hard to miss some of the simple wonders nature has to offer. Bird feeders provide a craft children can make, an on-going responsibility to keep the bird fed, and hours of entertainment and education observing, counting and even recording the hungry visitors. So why not include recycling to the list of advantages?!!? When I saw the following idea for Playdough lid feeders from one of my favorite sites, I knew it was something to try and pass on!
What you'll need:
play doh lids
yarn or string
scissors
glue gun
peanut butter
bird seed
Directions:
1. lay out all your play doh lids
2. using your scissors, cut pieces of yarn or string that you will use to hang your feeders
3. using your glue gun, glue the yarn or string to the back of the play doh lid (the indented part will be the part you want available for the peanut butter and bird seed). Allow to dry.
4. fill the indented part of the play doh lid with peanut butter and then press it into some birdseed.
Happy Feeding!
What you'll need:
play doh lids
yarn or string
scissors
glue gun
peanut butter
bird seed
Directions:
1. lay out all your play doh lids
2. using your scissors, cut pieces of yarn or string that you will use to hang your feeders
3. using your glue gun, glue the yarn or string to the back of the play doh lid (the indented part will be the part you want available for the peanut butter and bird seed). Allow to dry.
4. fill the indented part of the play doh lid with peanut butter and then press it into some birdseed.
Happy Feeding!
Friday, March 9, 2012
Using Your Kitchen as a Classroom
There are so many fabulous, entertaining ways to incorporate learning into your daily routine. One of our favorite early childhood blogs recently had an amazing post on turning your kitchen into a virtual classroom, the information was so practical and easy to apply, we just had to pass it on. Happy Cooking!
"There is so much for children to learn by spending time in the kitchen. It’s tempting to send my kids off to play while I’m fixing dinner. However, I often encourage them to stay and help me – even though it make take twice as long by doing so! Here are just some of the things that children can learn when working with their parents in the kitchen:
1. Organization and preparation – We discuss what we want to make and pick out a recipe. I tell my children the ingredients that we need and they help me get them out of the pantry or the refrigerator. We work together to make a list of what we still need and go to the grocery store.
2. Shopping – At the store, I ask my children to help me find the ingredients on the shelves. This not only helps them learn how to shop but it also keeps them from running aimlessly up and down the aisles while I do the shopping. We look at the prices in the sales flyer and compare product prices at the shelves. We use the scales in the produce section to weigh vegetables.
3. Colors – Talk with younger children about the colors of the foods they are working with. Point out how colors change with blended with other colors or when cooked.
4. Math skills - We discuss units of measurement such as a cup vs a half cup as well as tablespoons, teaspoons, etc. They count as they put multiple spoonfuls of an ingredient into a bowl.
5. Terminology – We discuss what terms mean such as saute, kneading, mince vs chop, bake, etc.
6. Science – We discuss the importance of yeast and how it makes dough rise. We discuss germs, how they can make us sick, and the importance of washing our fruits and vegetables as well as our hands.
7. Motor skills – Children can learn how to slice soft foods with a butter knife, knead dough, roll dough, use cookie cutters, juice a lemon, crack eggs, and mixing. When pouring they can experiment with different ways to pour and learn which way is the neatest and most effective.
8. Relationship building – Children love to imitate Mommy and Daddy and they want to do what you are doing. Plus spending quality time working side by side together on a project is simply priceless.
It’s a virtual classroom right in the kitchen! The learning possibilities are really endless yet we are having fun and spending quality time together."
From http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/
What is your child’s favorite activity in the kitchen?
Monday, March 5, 2012
The New (Strict) Sleeping Guidelines for Babies
When asked what readers wanted from a Building Healthy Families blog, current research nearly topped the list. So, when the most recent sleeping guidelines from the American Association of Pediatrics came across the computer today, I thought it was a tool well-worth passing on. Please share with anyone you know who has a new little one and feel free to contact BHF with any sleep related questions you may have!
If you have a baby younger than 1 year of age, chances are that he or she is sleeping in a way that goes against the latest recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). At the AAP’s national conference in Boston, which wraps up today, the Academy released their revised policy statement on safe sleeping and SIDS prevention.
Until babies are 1 year old, they should:
Be put to sleep on their back. Always, always, always. At some point, your baby will be able to roll from her back to her front and from her front to her back—and at that point, you can leave her in whatever position she ends up.
Sleep in the same room as—but not the same bed as—their parents. To keep a baby in your room until age 1 may seem… let’s say… difficult, but “these recommendations are most important in the first few months,” says pediatrician Rachel Moon, M.D, lead author of the new guidelines and chair of the AAP SIDS task force. Bedsharing is not recommended at any age, even if you’re using an actual cosleeping device that attaches to the side of your bed. “No bedsharing can be classified as safe,” says Dr. Moon, who adds that babies under 3 months are at a “very, very high risk” of suffocation.
Use a pacifier as often as possible. Pacifiers are associated with a decreased risk of SIDS, perhaps because it may position the tongue in a way that helps keep the airways open, Dr. Moon says. Pacifiers also tend to arouse babies as they sleep (I’ll say! Who else has experienced that sinking feeling every time their newborn’s pacifier popped out of her mouth and woke her up?!), and when babies are able to be easily woken, their risk of SIDS goes down.
Be breastfed. Lots of research backs up the positive connection between nursing and SIDS risk reduction.
Be fully immunized. There may be a protective effect here, too; evidence points to a 50 percent decrease in the risk of SIDS.
Not have anything in their cribs (or bassinets or Pack & Plays) except a tight-fitting sheet. No bumpers—not even the mesh kind. (Chicago now bans the sale of bumpers.) No stuffed animals. No pillows. No blankets. Nothing between the mattress and the sheet to make the surface softer. (“Soft does not equal safe,” says Dr. Moon. “Soft is bad.”) No elevating the head of the crib mattress by propping pillows underneath it, either, because babies can slide down to the bottom of the crib and end up in a position that obstructs their airway, or get wedged between the mattress and the side of the crib.
Not sleep in a car seat, stroller, swing, or sling for more than 60-90 minutes, and even then only under close supervision. Nothing but a crib, bassinet, or Pack & Play is recommended for extended periods of sleep. If your baby falls asleep in one of those other places, Dr. Moon recommends moving him as soon as is practical. Otherwise, they run the risk of sliding or slumping down and boosting the chance of suffocation.
Not sleep with the help of any products marketed as reducing the risk of SIDS. This goes for wedges, positioners, and home apnea monitors. “Parents believe that if a product is sold, it must be safe. They don’t always understand that these items don’t have to be tested or proven to work in order to be in stores,” says Dr. Moon.
She made an important point about why some parents don’t follow safe sleep recommendations. “Everybody thinks their baby is the exception to the rule,” she explains. “They’ll say ‘My baby has reflux.’ ‘My baby was premature.’ ‘My baby’s not a good sleeper.’” But she sees more than her share of infant deaths—at least one per month in her hometown of Washington, D.C. “We have to get the message out.”
If you have a baby younger than 1 year of age, chances are that he or she is sleeping in a way that goes against the latest recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). At the AAP’s national conference in Boston, which wraps up today, the Academy released their revised policy statement on safe sleeping and SIDS prevention.
Until babies are 1 year old, they should:
Be put to sleep on their back. Always, always, always. At some point, your baby will be able to roll from her back to her front and from her front to her back—and at that point, you can leave her in whatever position she ends up.
Sleep in the same room as—but not the same bed as—their parents. To keep a baby in your room until age 1 may seem… let’s say… difficult, but “these recommendations are most important in the first few months,” says pediatrician Rachel Moon, M.D, lead author of the new guidelines and chair of the AAP SIDS task force. Bedsharing is not recommended at any age, even if you’re using an actual cosleeping device that attaches to the side of your bed. “No bedsharing can be classified as safe,” says Dr. Moon, who adds that babies under 3 months are at a “very, very high risk” of suffocation.
Use a pacifier as often as possible. Pacifiers are associated with a decreased risk of SIDS, perhaps because it may position the tongue in a way that helps keep the airways open, Dr. Moon says. Pacifiers also tend to arouse babies as they sleep (I’ll say! Who else has experienced that sinking feeling every time their newborn’s pacifier popped out of her mouth and woke her up?!), and when babies are able to be easily woken, their risk of SIDS goes down.
Be breastfed. Lots of research backs up the positive connection between nursing and SIDS risk reduction.
Be fully immunized. There may be a protective effect here, too; evidence points to a 50 percent decrease in the risk of SIDS.
Not have anything in their cribs (or bassinets or Pack & Plays) except a tight-fitting sheet. No bumpers—not even the mesh kind. (Chicago now bans the sale of bumpers.) No stuffed animals. No pillows. No blankets. Nothing between the mattress and the sheet to make the surface softer. (“Soft does not equal safe,” says Dr. Moon. “Soft is bad.”) No elevating the head of the crib mattress by propping pillows underneath it, either, because babies can slide down to the bottom of the crib and end up in a position that obstructs their airway, or get wedged between the mattress and the side of the crib.
Not sleep in a car seat, stroller, swing, or sling for more than 60-90 minutes, and even then only under close supervision. Nothing but a crib, bassinet, or Pack & Play is recommended for extended periods of sleep. If your baby falls asleep in one of those other places, Dr. Moon recommends moving him as soon as is practical. Otherwise, they run the risk of sliding or slumping down and boosting the chance of suffocation.
Not sleep with the help of any products marketed as reducing the risk of SIDS. This goes for wedges, positioners, and home apnea monitors. “Parents believe that if a product is sold, it must be safe. They don’t always understand that these items don’t have to be tested or proven to work in order to be in stores,” says Dr. Moon.
She made an important point about why some parents don’t follow safe sleep recommendations. “Everybody thinks their baby is the exception to the rule,” she explains. “They’ll say ‘My baby has reflux.’ ‘My baby was premature.’ ‘My baby’s not a good sleeper.’” But she sees more than her share of infant deaths—at least one per month in her hometown of Washington, D.C. “We have to get the message out.”
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