Tomorrow will be cooler and rainy, but the last few days have been praiseworthy.
I'm kinda pulling a Tiger Mom approach to this whole handwriting situation. I typically spend about 20 minutes each day working with Benjamin solo on handwriting just after Claire goes down for her nap. He's required to write his name alone a couple times anywhere he chooses and we usually do another fine motor workbook page or something. He usually picks and in order to keep him cooperating, I let my Type-A slide when he wants to do 5% of each page and move on to other pages. But he's practicing writing and I have to let that go. He was eager to use sidewalk chalk yesterday and so I had him write his name. He is a whiz at the short name but the whole name is trickier. He can spell it, but the A and M have him a little perplexed. With a little help, he managed both his name and Claire's name.
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And how about a little talk of the littlest? She's fighting naptime. She dropped her morning nap at 9 months and never looked back. Now the afternoon nap? And really, she's totally unphased if she misses it and rallies to bedtime like a champ. It terrifies me! She's 27 months and I highly doubt she will be napping at 3. And yet, I know friends whose 4.5 or 5yo kids are napping. How come I am getting slighted here? She sat chatting in her crib the entire naptime today and I threw up the white flag.
Meanwhile, Benjamin is back on his obsessive kick with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory that he watches during naps and tells me regularly that he wants to go to the chocolate park with Aunt Mansa. You know, Hershey Park in Pennsylvania. Just a hop, skip and jump. He thinks it's equivalent to like a neighborhood park or something and it's just not getting through. I told him today it would be a lot of money for airfare and then admission, to which he told me he had a Disney card to pay for it all (of which he discovered in our mail pile as a fake paper credit card he quickly confiscated which was sent by the kind people at Disney to incentivize me to apply for a real one).
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I bought a running watch. I think I mentioned that before, but Amazon took their sweet time sending it to me since I don't have Prime. Am I the only one in America? Maybe. For awhile, I never justified it because I was always spending $35+ anyway with the free shipping. And now they raised it to $50 which has me a little annoyed. It shipped from the warehouse 1 hour and 15 minutes away in Kenosha, Wisconsin and yet it took 7 whole days to arrive at my doorstep. I'm certain they delay shipping for non-prime simply to get more people on the subscription model. And oddly, it arrived on a Sunday. So naturally, while the husband was heating the kids up some chicken nuggets for dinner, I took the new watch out for a quick loop in our neighborhood to test it out. And then the husband took it for another few miles that evening for more fun. I'm totally geeking out over the numbers. It's fun, fun, fun. Kinda like how I can barely remember how we survived without smart phones, I doubt I'll ever be able to run outside again without a running watch.
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Our local grocery store is having this Monopoly promotion. When you buy certain products, you earn tickets, given to you at checkout. You open the tickets and put the stupid little pieces on a game board and cross your fingers hoping you win something. Four years back, we won $2. We play because we wouldn't be able to bear having the winning piece for something greater and not knowing, but it's annoying. They also have INSTANT WINNER tickets for random grocery products you can redeem and often, I get INSTANT WINNER tickets for... wait for it ... more tickets. I received my very first (maybe ever?) instant win today.
We don't have a dog. You know what would've been cooler to win? Anything else. #irony
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8 comments:
Don't lose hope on the naps! My son tried the same thing just after he turned two. We pushed through as I wasn't ready to lose my sanity break yet. It was a phase and he ended up napping until he was almost 4.
I love Ben paying for his trip to the park with a Disney credit card! #smartkid
At least you can redeem your ticket and make a donation to an animal shelter--good deed for the day!
Will you say more about why you're really focused on writing for Ben at this age? I mean, he's obviously advanced in communication and other skills--do you feel his fine motor benefits from this practice? Does he enjoy it or get frustrated with it? In your experience as a teacher, is this handwriting practice something that will really benefit him as he starts kindergarten? (Please read the tone of these questions as genuine interest and stemming from me thinking maybe I need to do more of it with Zu--I'm genuinely curious about why you're feeling "Tiger Mom" about it.)
@Brooke
I am totally donating the dog food. I wouldn't let that go unredeemed when it could help someone or someone's animal. ;)
Benjamin has actually shown HE wants to write lately, and so I am being more "tiger mom" by requiring we hone in on his interest. That, and I know he's capable. He can write and spell his name and often wants to write out things as we do other activities (paint his letters in his name... he's kind of a narcissist like all of his age group friends). His teacher mentioned he hasn't written much for her at school and mentioned a possible OT getting involved. While I'm ALL for additional help in school for kids of all levels and intelligence, I think he's choosing not to perform for her in favor of playing at different stations in the classroom.
I think I'm just writing about it more because it's something you can physically see progress on to share and it's kind of fun for me. Being a girl, it's crazy having a boy and learning how they personally learn different at this age. I am certain with zero mom help, he will still write proficiently by Kindergarten, but it's something I can work on with him and spend time solely and purposefully praising him for, if that makes sense. He feels proud because it doesn't involve sister and he's the big kid.
I do about 276 other educational things with them as well, but I guess only post about his handwriting. Hah. (Didn't sense the questions as an issue. I love chatting about education!)
@Her and Her and Him
Phew. I'm so glad to hear that!
Ellie is hit or miss with her naps. For a while she would only nap every three days, literally. Or is she slept past 7am she wouldn't nap. Last two weeks have been better, she naps a little later than before but still in nap-time ranges. Even if C doesn't nap, the quite time alone in the crib is good for her and for you. I've left Ellie to play quiet in the crib for 90 mins before so I could have some me time. No harm in that!
And AMEN on the running watch! And I hear you on the prime shipping/min purchase thing, totally annoyed with it too. Several members of the same family can share one account I understand, that way you are only paying a third of it? Something to consider. Play date soon! And good luck on Sunday!!! Will be thinking about you!
You need prime. Since we're broke I'm using it more these days for the tv and movies but Amazon mom made it totally worth it too. Cheap diapers, wipes, detergent, cat food, etc delivered to my door=sold.
I am impressed with the writing! And the educational stuff in general. We are pretty good with adventures, but less so with daily educational activities. I need to work on that.
B totally gave up naps a little before three. He could usually always skip and be ok, even when little, but last fall, bedtime was a problem if he napped so I stopped trying. Transition to no nap and slightly earlier bedtime was surprisingly easy. Missing out on mama break time sometimes hard but nice to not have to plan around napping.
Grocery store monopoly is such a pain.
So USPS delivers Amazon on Sundays! They have a contract with Amazon and since the post office is practically broke, makes sense for them to deliver Amazon on Sunday and make some money. But that's the only service offered then.
I am glad you like your new gadget! I want to upgrade mine when it stops working (which I hope is soon) then I will order a new one and have it delivered to my door in two days because PRIME, Baby! ;)
No Amazon Prime? I seriously don't know how our household would survive. Would I actually have to go to the store? :)
Bummer about the watch taking so long. Instant gratification is so standard these days that I am sure it was super annoying to wait for it. Hope you like it! I need to get mine back out to get motivated again...
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