Photographer mom is proud of her post-preg body Posted by Kia@Mom365 on February 15, 2011 at 12:30pm

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Our admiration has to go out to mommy blogger Erin over at Starving Artist Ink, who published some strikingly honest and beautiful pictures of her post-pregnancy body in a post simply titled "the shape of a mother."

Strong mom-baby relationships may protect against later obesity Posted by The Baby News on December 28, 2011 at 11:30am

It's probably happened to you at least a few times in your life: You're stressed or sad or lonely, and to help yourself feel better, you head to the kitchen and grab another bowl of ice cream/candy bar/bag of chips. It's called self-soothing, and starting during late childhood, it's something some of us do a lot. People who habitually self-soothe with food risk ending up obese.

A longterm study to be published in the January issue of Pediatrics links adolescent obesity with the relationships moms form with their toddlers. The study followed almost a thousand kids, checking in with them when they were 15, 24 and 36 months old, and then again when they turned 15. During the first 3 years, researchers studied the interactions between the toddlers and their mothers, focusing on how secure the children were that their moms were there for them during times of stress and how sensitive their moms were to their feelings; then they looked at their notes to see if there was any connection between the quality of the mom-toddler relationships and the adolescents' weight.

The results: Children who were least secure and had the least responsive mothers during their toddler years were more than two times likely to be obese at age 15. The reason: According to lead study author Sarah Anderson, a toddler whose mother doesn't or can't help her children handle stress is more likely to learn to use food as a way of self-soothing. Quoted in a news release, Anderson said:

Sensitive parenting increases the likelihood that a child will have a secure pattern of attachment and develop a healthy response to stress. A well-regulated stress response could in turn influence how well children sleep and whether they eat in response to emotional distress -- just two factors that affect the likelihood for obesity.

We're guessing that as moms, our own patterns of self-soothing probably influence our children's, too. And the more stressed we are, the harder it is to respond to our babies' stress.

How do you control your stress?

Ribbon weaving and painting in preschool by Deborah J. Stewart, M.Ed. on December 18, 2011 in Centers,Creative Art,Ribbon Painting,Ribbon Weaving an

Yesterday, I shared how we made ribbon trees in our prek class but we have also been exploring ribbons with our threes too. This doesn’t have to be a holiday activity. In fact, these ideas are great ways to use up some of that left over ribbon from the holidays…

I set out these dish or sink mats (from the Dollar Store) along with several skeins of ribbon at one table for a little ribbon weaving and tying…

The key to making this fun, is letting the children choose ribbon to cut and weave rather than having the ribbon already cut up…

Some of the children preferred to weave the ribbon in and out of the holes…

And some of the children preferred to tie knots with the ribbon…

Very open ended process that invites great use of fine motor skills!

We also explored a little ribbon painting!

We set out some colorful paint, scissors, and different colors of ribbon for the children to paint with. The children cut a length of ribbon, dipped it in the paint, and dragged it across the paper any way they wish…

We covered the entire table with paper and let the children freely paint with the ribbon anywhere they wanted. When the paint dried, we cut up the large ribbon painted paper into individual squares for each child to take home…

The children enjoyed ribbon painting together…

Order Deborah's Children's CD today!

www.teachpreschool.org

Copyright 2011 © Deborah J. Stewart

All Rights Reserved!

Contact Deborah for permission to sell, post, publish, or distribute all or any part of this article!

Is it Okay to Lie About Santa? by Laura Lewis Brown

As parents, we know that Santa doesn’t exist, but does that mean sharing this myth with our children is really lying? If Santa is not part of your family’s tradition or culture, then there is no need to even consider encouraging that belief in your child. But if you are struggling over whether or not to tell Santa’s story, you may take comfort in the notion that it doesn’t really harm children to imagine.

Santa Claus Is One of Many Myths
“Kids up to four, five, six, seven live in what we call fantasy life magic years,” says Dr. Benjamin Siegel, Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the Boston University School of Medicine. “They are influenced by what they see and hear around them. They get very excited about characters in their life that have special meaning for them.” Those characters include superheroes, monsters, animals and even Santa.

While there are many ways to encourage your children to be good, the story of Santa is just one of them. Siegel points out that Santa, for most families, is a jolly man with helpers who brings presents to children who are good. Sure, there are tales of coal in the stockings of naughty children, but it would be hard to find a child who actually received that on Christmas morning.

What parents should assess is the values they are trying to impart and whether this myth encourages those morals. “Every culture has a fairy tale or myth that belongs to its historical identity,” Siegel says. “If the myths are good and talk about sharing and helping your neighbor, then that’s really nice.”

It’s Tradition
For many families, the excitement of leaving cookies for Santa, watching through the window for his sleigh at night, waking up early to open presents and sharing all that goes into believing in Santa Claus are special and unique to their given family. That tradition is why many parents share the story of Santa–because that’s what they learned growing up.

Caroline Jorgensen, a mother of two boys who blogs at Morningsidemom.com, introduced Santa to her sons because it was natural to do so, even if it felt wrong at times.

“It never seemed like an option not to tell my kids that there was a Santa,” she says. “But, once I did, I was surprised to find myself feeling bad about it. I was lying to my child. There he was looking up at me, expecting me to explain the world to him, and I was telling him that a fat man in a red suit who snuck into our house once a year was as real as the green grass outside. To top it off, my firstborn was scared of Santa for a few years.”

As her son outgrew his fear of the man in the red suit, Jorgensen realized why parents tell their children about Saint Nick in the first place: magic. “It’s amazing, isn’t it? Presents of every kind appearing under the tree,” she says. “Adults don't get that kind of magic. How wonderful that they can have that.”

Santa Isn’t Just One Story
If you decide that Santa Claus is going to be part of your family’s Christmas tradition, there are many ways to tell his story. You may be surprised to find a myriad of Santa books waiting to be read at the local library.

There are books about environmentally conscious Santas and about animals, even dinosaurs that dress as Santa. There are Santa tales featuring popular characters like Corduroy and Curious George. Many parents may stick to the traditional “The Night Before Christmas,” which now comes in many variations. You can also check out illustrated children’s Bibles to provide a religious perspective, or find a book on the history of Saint Nicholas.

There is no right or wrong way to tell the Santa story. “Some holiday books are touching and poignant, others are fun and frivolous. It depends on the child,” says Marisa Conner, Youth Services Coordinator for the Baltimore County Public Libraries. “We find that for families it’s a very personal thing. A lot of parents want to pass on what they believed as a child, what they were excited about.” Whatever book you choose, the point is to encourage your child to dream.

“As an educator and as a person, I find that fantasy books do engage the imagination,” Conner says. “Children learn at some point what’s make-believe and not. That’s the fun of life. It makes us see different personalities.”

When They Find Out
Parents worry that they will have to break the news to their children and shatter their whole vision of Christmas. However, many children come to this realization on their own around age seven or eight, Siegel says. And when they do, they are basically unscathed. Siegel cites a study that revealed that children who learned the truth may have been upset, but not nearly as upset as the parents.

“Most kids do fine when they learn a myth is not real,” he says. “Sometimes parents feel very badly because they want their kids to continue to believe in Santa Claus. Maybe parents like the myth because it makes them feel good, or because kids get disappointed in them when they find out the truth. Kids realize that parents aren’t so powerful, but that happens in adolescence anyway.”

Jorgensen admits dreading the day her sons will find out. “When I thought about my sons not believing the other day, I suddenly felt sad. When they don't believe, then it changes Christmas for me too, doesn't it? Completely. I lose the magic too.” However, Jorgensen also realizes that providing the Christmas magic involves a lot of work, and it will be nice to have a break from sneaking around late at night to have everything in place for children with big expectations.

Talking Through the Disappointment
Whether your kids find out on their own, from an older child on the playground, or from you, there are ways to handle the disappointment.

If they are upset that you lied, acknowledge their disappointment and ask about their feelings, Siegel recommends. You can explain that Santa is a myth that your family has chosen to share. “Santa Claus is part of Christmas and we believe in Christmas,” you can tell them. Siegel recommends comparing the experience to the tooth fairy or Easter bunny, and encourage children to remember the fun and excitement that made the event special.

Children should also have the opportunity to define what Santa Claus means to them. They may surprise parents when they reveal that they knew all along, but still had fun playing along with the game.

Until their children catch on, parents may just want to enjoy the magical world of Santa that they have helped to create. Sure, Santa may not really exist, but believing in him for a few years can be tremendously fun, even for parents.

Activities for 1 Year Olds September 11, 2011 By Rachel

Our tots love to explore their surroundings. Through our weekly play activities link-party, It’s Playtime, and from roving the internet we have found lots of activities to help stimulate and engage our toddlers. If you have any suggested activities, please feel free to submit them in the weekly link-up or leave a link in the comments.

Here are our favorite toddler activities:

• Sensory Activities
• Discovery Toys
• Baby Toys
• Craft Ideas for Toddlers

Sensory Activities:

A lump of clay and household items or toys can keep a toddler entertained for hours! You and your tot can go on a texture hunt, make a book of different textures to explore (via Bloesum Kids), use the lid to a box to create a sensory version of hide-n-seek with family photos (via Inspiration Surrounds), enjoy a washrag maze (via Lilla A), or match textures as you feel them inside balloons (via Tutus and Turtles).

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Discovery Toys:

Toys don’t have to be fancy for kids to enjoy them! Some of my infants favorites are created with items found around the house. We made I-Spy shaking bottles, Imagination Tree added glitter to her oil and water bottles, over at Pre-school Play they have a smorgesboard of bottle ideas including one where they added marbles to shampoo, Southern Thomas added colorful items to plain water to create a collection of visual effects and Cluck, Cluck Sew made a bottle-free discovery bag for her kids to play with.

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Baby Toys:

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One of our most popular DIY creations is our toddler clipping toy – sure to entertain! But there are other ways you can create toys from everyday objects! Counting Coconuts made blocks from tree branches, mix pipe-cleaners and a sifter and you have toddler poking fun (via The Imagination Tree), an old cereal tub or a large tin can when decorated becomes a drum (via No Time for Flashcards) and help your tot practice fine motor skills with pom-poms and a tupperware tub (via Engaging Toddler Activities).

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Craft Ideas for Toddlers:

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Finger paint with edible paints. A Bunch of Keys made finger paint from condensed milk and The Imagination Tree made paint from flour and food coloring. Don’t want to risk the mess? Angelyn’s Life has a great solution. Put the paper and the paint in a bag. Tape it shut and watch your tots squish to their hearts content. Have dried out markers and maybe a tot like mine who likes to color on herself? This blogger made watercolors out of her old markers.

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Do you have any ideas for baby’s, toddlers, preschoolers, or elementary aged kids? Favorite family crafts or activities? I’d love to feature them – link up to It’s Playtime. I bookmark my favorites for days like today!
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Temper Tantrums: What Your Toddler is Trying to Tell You (and How You Can Help) By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine

When your toddler is melting down, it's easy to chalk the tantrum up to anger or frustration (and to get angry and frustrated yourself). But a new study that analyzed the sounds that tots make when their pitching a fit shows that there may be more to a tantrum than just a lot of screaming -- and may offer parents a way to cope.

In the study, which was published in the journal "Emotion," scientists recorded the sounds toddlers make during tantrums and discovered that not only does each type of sound (screaming, yelling, crying, whining, and fussing) have its own "distinct acoustic features," there's a definite pattern to the vocalizations as well.

"Screaming and yelling and kicking often go together," study co-author Michael Potegal, an associate professor of pediatric clinical neuroscience at the University of Minnesota, told NPR. "Throwing things and pulling and pushing things tend to go together. Combinations of crying, whining, falling to the floor and seeking comfort -- and these also hang together."

So, what's really going on when a toddler is having a meltdown? "Frustration certainly is a trigger," James A. Green, head of the department of psychology at the University of Connecticut and a co-author of the study, told Yahoo! Shine. "Blocked goals can results in frustration, which leads to anger. Same is true of adults, actually."

But the scientists also discovered that, contrary to popular belief, toddlers aren't just melting down out of anger, they're also feeling sadness at the same time.

"The impression that tantrums have two stages is incorrect," Potegal said. "In fact, the anger and the sadness are more or less simultaneous."

Certain conditions can make it more likely that a toddler will melt down, Green points out. "Fatigue or illness can lower the tolerance for frustration," he points out. "Toddlers, or so the conventional wisdom goes, simply do not have as many cognitive 'tricks' up their sleeves to deal with these situations." (Older kids, however, should be better able to deal with such situations, which is why their angry outbursts are called rages, not tantrums.)

1. Wait it out. If your toddler is having a tantrum, there's little you can do other than wait it out, experts say. "My colleague and collaborator, Mike Potegal, talks about 'standing back' during the periods of most intense anger, and I think he means both physically and emotionally," Green says. "Trying to give more information to a child who has already lost control may not be very helpful."

"Best to scoop up your tyke and take her to a place where she can calm down without being disruptive to others," suggests Michelle Nicholasen, a mother of five and the author of "I Break for Meltdowns: How to Handle the Most Exasperating Behavior of Your 2- to 5-Year-Old." "Is it a drag for the parent? Oh, yes, and tiring, too. But wait out the storm and it will pass."

2. Don't threaten, cajole, or bribe. You might not be able to control the tantrum itself, but you can control how you react to it, Nicholasen points out. "Parents can make tantrums much worse by yelling at their child to stop, or by threatening them," she says.

Instead of asking questions or trying to reason with a 2- or 3-year-old, simply acknowledge that they're upset. "Toddlers who are in the middle of a meltdown are incapable of hearing our message (reasons, reassurance or warnings) until they're sure we understand and respect their message," says Dr. Harvey Karp, author of "The Happiest Toddler on the Block."

3. Offer comfort. Once children have gotten past what Potegal calls "the peaks of anger," they're more willing to be comforted.

4. Find the humor in the situation. Many parents end up just as frustrated and angry as the child during a tantrum, but as Green points out, tantrums are completely normal -- up to a point. "This too shall pass," he says. "Tantrums are normative events in development and usually decline after age 4."

While you're waiting for your tot to get over his or her anger, having a sense of humor can help. "Imagine a grown-up acting like your child, and you will soon have to stifle a smile," Nicholasen says.

5. Don't take it as a personal failure. "As parents, we are much more self-conscious about being judged when our child is misbehaving in public. The things that go through our minds are: Am I raising my child to be a wild animal? Have I not taught him enough manners? My child is acting like a little brat; what am I doing wrong? But even when you do your best, sometimes a collapse will still happen."

Why are quality toys and quality play so important?

Research tells us that young children need to be actively
engaged in play in order to develop basic learning
skills. This is how they learn about themselves and their
world. We know that quality play promotes close relationships,
language, creativity, physical development,
thinking skills and social skills. This type of creative
play is often challenged in our media centered world, as
children spend more and more time in front of a television
or computer screen.

Many times toys marketed as “educational” offer
little evidence to back their claims. Recently, as a result
of a ruling by the Federal Trade Commission, Disney
agreed to refund consumers for a limited time on the
purchase of their popular baby DVDs . The claim made
for the educational value of the product was determined
to be false advertising. Research done at the University
of Washington found that for every hour spent watching
baby DVDs, infants learned six to eight fewer new
words than babies that never watched. High tech toys
and DVDs can keep young children from interacting
with parents and engaging in creative play—two activities
that promote learning. The American Academy of
Pediatrics recommends no electronic media before age
two. Television and an increasing number of electronic
toys advertised as “interactive” may in fact, be passive
toys, only requiring children to push a button.

Consider the following criteria when choosing quality
toys.
· Is it safe?
· Does it suit the child’s age level and interest?
· Does it allow the child to participate?
· Will it challenge without frustrating?
· Does it have more than one use?
· Is it well-made?
· Will it have long-term interest so that the child can
play with it over a period of years?
· Does it perpetuate sexist or ethnic stereotypes?
· Does it stimulate aggression and violence?

Toys have limited play value when they…
· Can only be used in one way encouraging all children
to play the same way.
· Look exciting but quickly become boring because
they only require children to push a button and
watch what happens.
· Do the play “for” children, instead of encouraging
exploration and mastery.

What's wrong with toys that have a limited play value?
· Lead children to spend more time with TV or other
media, and letting the screen take control of their
play.
· Lure children into watching the TV program or
other media linked to the toy.
· Promote violence and sexualized behavior, which
can lead to aggressive and disrespectful play.
· Separate girls and boys with highly gender-divided
toys.
· Introduce academic concepts at too early an age,
leaving less time for creative play that best prepares
children for academic learning.

Adapted from TRUCE “Play Recommendations” and
“What types of toys support healthy play?”
www.truceteachers.org

More Christmas Poems and Songs for Young Children

Christmas poems and songs for young children, part 2

Quality Toys for Young Children

Toys for 1-year-olds

· Board books with simple illustrations or photographs
of real objects
· Recordings with songs, rhymes, simple stories, and
pictures
· Things to create with—wide non-toxic, washable
markers, crayons, and large paper
· Things to pretend with—toy phones, dolls and
doll beds, baby carriages and strollers, dress-up
accessories (scarves, purses), puppets, stuffed toys,
plastic animals, and plastic and wood “realistic”
vehicles
· Things to build with—cardboard and wood blocks
· Things for using small and large muscles—
puzzles, large pegboards, toys with parts that do
things (dials, switches, knobs, lids), and large and
small balls

Toys for 2-year olds

· Things for solving problems—wood puzzles
(with 4-12 pieces), blocks that snap together, objects
to sort (by size, shape, color, smell), and
things with hooks, buttons, buckles, and snaps
· Things for pretending and building—blocks,
smaller (and sturdy) transportation toys, clothes,
dolls with accessories, puppets, and sand and water
play toys
· Things to create with—large non-toxic, washable
crayons and markers, large paintbrushes and finger
paint, large paper for drawing and painting, colored
construction paper, toddler-sized scissors with
blunt tips, chalkboard and large chalk, and rhythm
instruments
· Picture books with more details than books for
younger children
· Things for using large and small muscles—large
and small balls for kicking and throwing, ride-on
equipment (but probably not tricycles until children
are 3), tunnels, low climbers with soft material underneath,
and pounding and hammering toys

Toys for 3 to 6-year-olds

· Things for solving problems—puzzles (with 12-
20+ pieces), blocks that snap together, collections
and other smaller objects to sort by length, width,
height, shape, color, smell, quantity, and other features,
collections of plastic bottle caps, plastic
bowls and lids, keys, shells, counting bears, small
colored blocks
· Things for pretending and building—many blocks for
building complex structures, transportation toys, construction
sets, child-sized furniture (“apartment” sets,
play food), dress-up clothes, dolls with accessories, puppets
and simple puppet theaters, and sand and water play
toys
· Things to create with—large and small crayons and
markers, large and small paintbrushes and finger paint,
large and small paper for drawing and painting, colored
modeling clay and playdough, modeling tools, paste,
paper and cloth scraps for collage and instruments –
rhythm instruments and keyboards, xylophones, maracas,
and tambourines
· Picture books with even more words and more detailed
pictures than toddler books
· Things for using their large and small muscles—large
and small balls for kicking and throwing/catching, rideon
equipment including tricycles, tunnels, taller climbers
with soft material underneath, wagons and wheelbarrows,
plastic bats and balls, plastic bowling pins, targets
and things to throw at them, and a workbench with a
vise, hammer, nails and saws.

Taken from NAEYC publication “Good Toys for Young
Children”, www.naeyc.org/journal/goodtoys.asp

Musik-Go-Round

Mrs. Vaughan suggests the gift of music for
Christmas. New studio classes begin in
February. For more information see www.musikgo-
round.

Christmas Poems and Songs for Young Children

Christmas poems and songs for young children

Dyslexia

I read a great article in the December 2011 addition of Parents Magazine discussing the early signs of dyslexia. For one, toddlers usually enjoy the repetition of sounds in most nursery rhymes and try to mimic the cadence of the poems, but children with early signs of dyslexia "may not perceive the sound patterns at all."

By five, children use the rhythm and repetition of nursery rhymes to begin reading basic words. (This is why it is so important to expose children to rhyming at an early age.) However, a child with dyslexia "will struggle with associating letters to sounds and especially blending sounds together to make words."

Finally, scientists have determined dyslexia is a brain disorder due to the help from MRIs. Areas of the brain that light up on the scanning device for regular readers are mostly dark for dyslexic readers. But these same readers with dyslexia show activity in other areas of the brain while reading. Meaning dyslexics use different methods in order to read which may make them great problem solvers. Famous dyslexics you might recognize...Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Charles Schwab, and Tom Cruise (not mentioned in the article).

Other important facts:

~Dyslexia runs in the family. "Up to 1/2 of children with a parent or sibling with dyslexia also have it."
~If you are worried your young child might have dyslexia, contact your neighborhood public school. Public schools are required by law to evaluate all children for disabilities!
~If your child is labeled dyslexic, get them in an appropriate education program right away! The sooner the better.