Please and Thankyou...what more could a girl want?

In these fast paced days we live in, racing around to get our kids here and there, It seems having and placing value on good manners has somehow been lost. Is it that were just to busy to make small talk and to say please and thank you? Because of my injury I am making friends with a lot of elderly people. When I am at good old saturday morning water aerobics, or when I am walking as slow as a snail on the treadmill, I am hangin with the oldies everywhere! I feel like I am gaining a vault of wisdom and insight. I have gotten so many great tips on gardening, crochet, sewing, cleaning, and most of all how to raise quality individuals. I can't believe how much these old folks seem to have it right. I realize I am an old fashioned gal in so many ways. One of these ways is understanding the value of good manners. It is such a rarity. I want my boys to be made of the same quality stuff as my husband is. They have won half the battle because they have such a good role model to look up to. I don't know anyone who is a harder worker than my hubs; A quality I think is amazing. I have been really trying to indroduce the idea of manners and politeness to the boys and it has been the cutest thing...Ok so Dyl still has terrible manners. He yells in everyones face, throws food and does other not so good mannerish type things, I am hoping as he gets older we can work on it. But I cant believe how much Arlo is soaking it all up. Sometimes we think politeness is just something people should know, but the thing is they dont, heck I have realized that my manners are just appauling half of the time. We have all been working on it and it has been the cutest thing. I have basically been refusing to do or get anything for anyone unless they phrase it correctly. I absolutely love hearing "Mom, may I have a snack please?" it just sounds like music to my ears. So does "Thank you for dinner Mom, may I be excused?" Which is now a requirement before leaving the table. I also love to hear Arlo responding to people in a courteous manner. He has really been working on this one. He is a shy little guy so it can be hard for him at times, but after I explained that the polite way to respond to someone greeting you is to look them in the eye and respond with a strong and loud voice, he has been doing it! I also explained it is always polite to ask how they are doing back. Yesterday when we went to school, with no prompting by me, he looked a teacher who greeted him at the door right in the eye and told her he was doing good, and asked how she was. She was completely taken off guard. It was the cutest thing ever! I cant believe how far this polite umbrella goes. It works with backtalk, which is really hard to do while being polite, sharing and cooperating with friends, which are both polite things to do. The polite list is endless. I am having a good time with this. I cant believe how much hearing please and thankyou makes a mom feel...

Happy St. Pattys!

We had a great time this year on St. Patty's....

A Magician came to visit at Arlo's schoolAnd afterwards he had a class party!Mom made some sweet & salty chex mix for class, well actually the Leprechauns made it...Then while the boys were napping the Leprechauns came to visit our house and left some sneaky suprises....They left a note for Arlo which said;

Arlo my lad while you slept we were here

and we left you some Leprechaun juice we hold dear

drink up my boy and you soon will see

This special juice will make you lucky like me

PS

Look for something special on your window too,

we left it for the wee one and you.

Sincerely,

Lucky Lester III

(A very lucky Leprechaun)

Here is our special clover they left on our window Dyl was a huge fan of the yummy green treats they left
Arlo was very impressed and excited to drink his special juice. He wanted to share some with mom and Dyl so we would be lucky too.

On our way to t-ball practice later that day Arlo said, "Mom I think that the Leprechauns are sneaky little guys and their just really nice. But I think that juice is workin, I do feel really lucky now."

The fun we have been having

When it snowed last week, Arlo and I had some fun...

Had a great time at the aquarium!

They have penguins now! they were so cute and fun to watchThe Eels are always a favoriteArlo, Dylan and their friend Jacob looking at the lobster We had a lot of fun with my friend Jen and her boys. We love to visit and havent been in a while.

Here's the boys getting into boxes, I was shocked how long this kept them entertained

Taking Back Childhood

I decided along with my New Years Resolution of reading a parenting book every other month I would also post a review for the books I find helpful. I thought this might be good for other moms out their looking for helpful tid bits with the child rearing thing.

I admit I am a bit obsessed about the topic of Media and its effects on our kids. I tend to read lots of books and articles on the subject. At this point I am not sure if Its a good thing for me to research or not. The problem with information is it can REALLY freak you out. This book has admittedly freaked me out. It is an excellent book and very informative. As a parent I want to know what types of effect media is having on my boys and how it has changed over time. The challenge is, I find myself struggling to figure out how to protect them without being a totall hippie freak about it who bans all electronic devices from the house and has my children play with sticks all day.

I want my boys to be able to relate to other kids their age and have things in common; and lets face it, media is a HUGE part of kids existance these days. I think my interest in the subject really sparked when I started teaching. I was absolutely astounded how much social interactions with kids have changed since I was in school. It seemed at times that kids simply didnt know how to play unless a media device was involved. I noticed this particularly seemed to be a problem with boys. Kids have cell phones, ipods, video games, TV's and computers. For some kids these devices combined made up a huge part of what they were doing all day. In this book, and others I have read on the subject, it is estimated that the average school age child is exposed to 42 hours of screen time per week. Thats like a full time job. The effects are just now really being researched and understood.

The book talks about how children seem to be lacking creativity in their free play and the main reason for this is the astounding amount of time kids spend in front of some type of screen. back in the day we used to pick things we did with our parents like going to the Doctor, a restaraunt, or shopping and invent an entire play scenerio around it. What educators and day care facilitators are noticing these days is that boys in particular re inact scenes that they have watched in movies. They play in a scripted form repeating actual lines from the movie or tv show. The type of play is focused on violence. For girls it seems to be primarily focused on dress up, make up or some type of superficial nature also depicted in movies and TV. Now the book does say that kids a few generations ago also had play scenerios revolved around TV and movies, the difference was they would use it as a spring board and come up with all kinds of imaginative, creative scenerios from their that were their own, and not something they had already seen.

The book also talks about how not only TV but commercialism and consumerism are targeting our kids and therfore us to buy buy buy, and the types of toys that are being sold do not lend themselves to creative play, which we are finding is so absolutely crucial to raising a well rounded forward thinking person who can contribute to our planet in a positive way. The key with toys apparently is to sprinkle in a few that are open ended toys. This means they do not serve one specific function, say as like a transformer does but rather they can be many things. art supplies, blocks, and general building materials. The open ended toys help kids to use their imagination and create rather than use a toy over and over with one intended function. The author suggests a good way to use these toys is to have your kids use them in conjuction with the specific toys that our kids want to play with.

There is so much more that the book delves into on this subject but the main highlights are the ones described above. I would definately reccomend this one for any parent interested in this subject, which I have to say is an important one with the world we are living in today. It has really made me take a look and re examine not only the amount of media Alro watches, but the kind of media.

I did try and take the book with a grain of salt because I really do believe that it is perfectly normal and according to another great book I have read, Raising Cain: it is very important for boys make up scenerios pretending they are their favorite superheros and fighting the good and bad guys. Boys love to use swords and sticks and this is a fundamental part of their growth. It is very much in their DNA to do so. The question is are they being imaginative with their play and are they able to play at all? A lot of the boys I taught just plain couldnt seem to do it, but the good news was they all got into it with a little help. So I don't think it's all a lost cause, just a great one to be informed about.

PS anyone intrested in this may also want to check out a really great article on the subject http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html