Love it or Hate it?



Ahhhh....... The constant debate of using pacifiers on babies. Most of the elders (grandparents) swear by it and those who are younger (like wifey and myself) have mixed feelings about it.

While we understand the need for babies to suckle onto something for comfort, we were also worried when we read reports of speech delay (and crooked teeth?) due to prolong usage of pacifiers.... 

There are also parents who go pacifier-free and encourage their kids to suckle on their fingers for comfort. In this way, the parents need not worry about the availability of pacifiers, which is especially useful when they are out on trips or during the night when pacifiers tend to slip away from the babies mouth and that will mean sleepy parents urgently searching for the "missing" pacifier for their "angry" babies in the dark.....

Before Little Fella was born, we were still in two minds about it. But if I remember correctly, think we gave in on the fourth day after he was delivered! Truth be told, little babies are quite cute with a pacifier in mouth.

@ 2months plus...

But as they get older, especially when they are 3-4 years old, don't think it will be that cute anymore..... and the older it gets, the harder it is to quit the habit? Actually Little Fella has not been too reliant on the pacifier all along. It is mostly used as a tool for us to aid and "speed up" the time needed for him to fall asleep. At times when he was very tired, he doesnt even require the pacifier at all. Therefore on 1st Jan 2012, wifey and I made the decision to stop using pacifier on Little Fella altogether.

All in all, the transition to being pacifier free for the little one was actually quite hassle free. It only meant that Little Fella took longer to fall asleep during the initial nights but slowly and eventually he readjusted to it without too much issues.

For this, Mighty Daddy and Drama Mama is pretty proud of it! Good Job Son!      =)

P for Philosophies!

Drama Mama's recent findings on ideas/guidances to ways of teaching toddlers have greatly enlighten my own ways of thinking. Some of the excerpts from her findings are as followed:

~~  This is what I gathered after some readings. Creative, creative, creative. Never kills the curiosity of a young tots and allow them to be creative in their own ways. They are learning too, amidst doing some art that we found absurd. You know how we, the adults already have our own set of right and wrong ways of doing things in life. Despite being fully aware that we should not, we are always found guilty of guiding the child to OUR ways to doing things, at least I am......

................and some of the dont's when working with toddlers mentioned in the said website:

Do not have children do art with a right or wrong way of doing things.
Do not play structured games with strict rules of what is right and wrong.
Do not require colouring within the lines
Do not read stories that have little meaning to the child. 
Do not teach the child just by telling him about something. 
Do not regard child's play time as a non-learning time. 
Do not set unrealistic goals for young children. "          ~~


Well, today I've chanced upon this " 10 ways to get the most out of your storytime with preschoolers" which I find is quite interesting as well.

1 Get Familiar- Before diving right in to your next read, take a minute to look at the cover with your children.  Talk about the title, what could it mean?  What can you guess from the pictures on the cover?  What might this book be about? In addition to getting them interested in the book, this gives your children the opportunity to make inferences and think creatively.  They may ask questions that will be answered in the story.  What a great tool for building comprehension!


2 Make Connections -As you read, make connections from the text, to similar concepts or situations your children have experienced.  “Froggy’s mom is teaching him how to do the backstroke, just like you learned at swimming lessons today!” or “Do you ever have to help was the dishes like George did?”   These kinds of connections help children better understand events in a story, increase comprehension and make the story more meaningful.

3 Question Everything-(OK, maybe not everything, but my hippiedad would appreciate the 60s reference!)  Now and then, ask your children “why”.  “Why did he hide?”  “Why did they give the letter to Duck?”  Also encourage your children to make predictions.  “How will she get out?”  “What do you think he will do now that he has the treasure?”  These questions, once again, aid in comprehension and foster critical thinking skills, and they also allow the children to slip into the author’s chair for a moment.

4 Give the Words Meaning- As you’re reading, it’s easy to skip over words your children may not understand.  Occasionally pull out a word as you read and ask your children what they think it means.  They are often very good at using contextual clues to come up with a definition, a skill that will help them as they begin to read on their own.  You may also want to preview a book, and talk about some of the words before you read the story.  Focusing on a few terms in each book will pad their bank of vocabulary words and build language skills.

5 Picture This- Don’t forget to take in the scenery along the way.  Children’s books are notorious for fantastic illustrations.  Pointing them out and talking about the details not only increases the enjoyment for the children but teaches them to use picture clues to aid in understanding the overall story and making predictions.  These are skills that will come in handy as they become independent readers.

6 Make it Personal – Draw your audience into the story by asking what they would do in any given character’s situation.  Thinking from another character’s perspective also stretches the social and cognitive skills of these typically ego-centric preschoolers, and is another way to encourage prediction skills (see tip #3).

7 Point Out the Text-Subtly call your readers’ attention to the written words on the page.  Sweep your finger under the words as you read.  Occasionally point out familiar words and letters.  Pause at the end of a rhyme and let your children finish the rhyme, using the written word as a clue.  Let them sound out simple words as they begin to have the necessary skills.  Tying the written word to the words they hear helps build prereading skills in children.

8 Talk About Emotions- Because plots usually center around some kind of conflict, stories are a great way to teach social problem solving.  As you read, take time to talk about moral dilemmas and label emotions.  These activities not only enhance the connections with the story, but build social skills as well.

9 Extend- If you just read “The Paper Bag Princess”, make some costumes from paper bags.  Make your own green eggs and ham if the Dr. Seuss classic is on your reading menu.  Extending a book into an activity makes it both more meaningful and memorable.  Look under “Book Activity” in the category column to find examples.

10 Make it Enjoyable- You certainly don’t want to implement every one of these ten strategies with every page you turn.  Breaking up the story too frequently makes it incoherent and tedious.  The most important rule for a fantastic story time is to make it enjoyable.  Find comfortable, cozy spots for reading together.  Be expressive as you read, and really draw the children in.  Let your children choose the books you read whenever you can, and don’t hesitate to repeat their favorites.  If you do nothing more than create wonderful, happy associations with reading, you’ll go a long way in instilling a love of reading in the children you love and teach!


Phew! Its sure aint easy being a modern parent nowadays! However, on the same note, I do find it quite an eye opener to be able to view, digest and impart certain teachings which I hope will be beneficial to our little one.

So what other teaching methods/philosophies have you come across?

Source: http://notjustcute.com/2009/06/27/10-ways-to-get-the-most-out-of-story-time-with-your-preschoolers/

One Tooth, Two Teeth and Many More

Used to think that it is alright for the little one not to brush/take care of his milk teeth as they will eventually be replaced with the permanent ones, right? Wrong!

In fact kids should be exposed to proper oral hygiene since young and brushing the milk teeth regularly is an important step to achieving it. According to the pediatric dentists, if the conditions of the gums and initial milk teeth are not good, chances are that the permanent ones will be affected too!

And when is a right time to start brushing one's teeth? When your child starts to grow his/her first tooth and when they are being introduced to more solid food. As the number of teeth grow, the chances of food being stuck on or inbetween the teeth increases.

Now let's take a look at a picture of my cheeky boy again.

Plenty of teeth spotted (checked). Taking more solid food nowadays (checked) Time to introduce toothbrush!

So one fine day..........................

Little Fella made friends with a little blue toothbrush. And this was the easy part. Do baby teeth need to be brushed? Yes! Can a toddler brush their teeth effectively on their own? No!

Daddy & Mummy now have to think of ways to teach little boy to brush his teeth properly. As kids don't develop the muscular control and skill required for good brushing until sometime between the ages of 5 and 7, they will require physical help each and every time.

Toddlers are curious and playful by nature and one good method is to involve them during the parents' own toothbrushing activitiy. They will naturally be excited and will want to try and mimic the same actions, just dont bank on it that they will do a good job.

It is advisable to brush at least twice a day and to avoid sugary contents after brushing, especially during the night brush. Hmm...... Now Little Fella has the habit of going to bed immediately after his night milk feed..... seem like we will have to make some adjustments along the way...

All these information are quite intriguing as it reminded me to constantly update myself on stuffs that I took for granted. Think my earliest memory of brushing my own teeth were during the primary school days where we were told to line up along the school drain to brush our teeth, Ha!

   

What does Parenting means to you?

Parenting, like so many other things in life, is grey. There is no one right way to raise your child. Every child is different and so does every parent. Every parent have their own methods and philosophies and every child takes to it differently. One man's meat might be another's posion. You get the idea....

Parenting is like one big experiment involving many trials and errors in order to concoct on a successful "formula". And many parents secretly harbour the hope of buying this "formula' off the shelves and turning their kids into instant genius or something. But hey, doesn't it take out all the fun in parenting in the first place?

The following quote from a mummy in a parenting magazine best sums it:

As a parent " We get the chance to see a life grow, be an influence, have an impact and learn at the same time." 

You see son, the thing on the floor........

Look Mummy! I can walk down the stairs!

Now, climbing the steps seems harder....

Mummy! Water!!!

This is my favourite picture from last week. My two "precious" having a good time.

How do you praise your kid?

Came across an interesting concept the other day which I will want to share. Although when I smugly informed Drama Mama about it, only then did I realise that she is already aware of it. Hey! Why did'nt tell me? Anyway, here goes:

We often will praise our kids for being "so smart" or "so clever". (I'm guilty of it as well)
However, studies have shown that we should praise our kids for making the effort rather than just their intelligence.

Over a period of time, the kids will tend to avoid  making mistakes and its risk of being embarrassed in order to continue and be smart. Here's what Carol Dweck, a top psychologist, discovered when she took 400 students and gave them a simple puzzle.

After the puzzle, the students were given six words of praise.

Half were Praised for Intelligence: "wow, you must be really smart!"

The other half were Praised for Effort: "wow, you must be hard working!"

Dweck was testing to see if these simple words could alter the students' mindsets. The results were notable.

After the first test, the students were given a choice of whether to take on another difficult or an easy task.

Two thirds of the students praised for intelligence chose the easy task (as they do not want to risk losing their "smart" label) but 90 percent of the effort praised group chose the tough test. (as they wanted to prove how hard-working they were)

Then the experiment came full circle, giving the students a chance to take a test of equal difficulty to the first. The group praised for the intelligence dropped 20 percent compared to the first test while the effort praised group improved by 30 per cent. Failure had actually spurred them on!   

"Praising childen's intelligence harms motivation and it harms performance."

The reason is simple: Praising intelligence nudges children towards the fixed mindset - it suggests that intelligence is of primary importance rather than the effort through which intelligence can be transformed.

This reveals a radical new approach  where we should praise the effort, not talent, and we should teach kids to see challenges as learning opportunities rather than threats.

When parents and teachers adopt this approach and stick to it, the results are remarkable. Kids will not give up easily and keep trying.... till the task is complete.

Wow! This is definitely new and very interesting to me. What's your take on it?


Source from http://edunloaded.com/