My hope with Make and Takes is to share a few parenting insights from what I’ve learned as a teacher and parent that’s helped me teach and raise my own kids. As I’ll be sharing fun ideas or methods I’ve found helpful, I’d like to open this up to the questions you may have too. And if I’m unable to answer your questions, I’m going to find out who can, bringing in other experts on all kinds of parenting topics. Like questions about teens, I’m clueless! I’ll be asking all of you in a few years… it’s coming all too quickly.
So ask any question related to parenting you’d like, either here in the comments or email me at marie{at}makeandtakes{dot}com. I’ll choose a few questions to answer each month in a blog post. I’m excited for the discussions we can have here, as I’ll need you to share your advice and methods in the comments too!
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Marie – as a Kindergarten teacher, maybe you can address what is age appropriate in terms of a child’s reading ability. I think we sometimes feel that children should be reading when they enter Kindergarten…therefore making a parent of an emerging reader feel like their child is behind. Not sure if this is a good question for discussion or not…but thanks for reading it! Ü
We are having a problem with the 5 yr old lying right now that is driving us crazy. And he is so cute and so believable most of the time, too! I am pretty sure he gets the *concept* of a lie and his lies and made us stories are so he will not get in trouble or so that he can get his way but very frustrating for us and his teachers.
(like yesterday he drew in marker on the hall floor- he had purple ink on his fingers, it was his drawing style, the only other person in the hose is the baby but he insisted he did not do it but that his 11 yr old brother did *sigh*. )
Any tips??
Deanna, we just went through this with our oldest son. What we did was let the consequences fit the actions. For example he got many privileges taken away because we explained to him that if we can’t trust him to tell us the truth about things at home how would we trust him to be good at his friends house. Things like that we just made sure the he understood that lying ruins someone’s trust in a person and explained what trust is. I hope that helps a little. :)
I like the idea of addressing lying…maybe at several age levels?
Something I struggle with is remembering my daughter is only two. Could you address several skills and share where children should be with them at different age levels?
(Example: Reading: age x say abcs, age x recognize 75% of letters, age x recognize name and name letters in it, age x use pictures to “read” book)
Other skills: counting, drawing, writing, cutting, social skills like ???
I remember I had a first grader who still drew stick figures. I slowly worked with him to develop arms and legs, but maybe I was rushing him…
Though I am a former teacher I never took an early childhood development class…so I am very curious about this young age. If you would want me to further develop questions like these, I’d be happy to, but I bet an expert could quickly understand my questions.
Thanks!
Any tips on your kid just being annoying? Like, clicking thier tounge endlessly or baby talking , harmless but annoying things. Do you correct, ask to stop or just bite your tounge?
I really need help with my almost 3 year old. I just had our second baby 4 months ago and my 3 year old is REALLY acting up. I can’t get her to listen to anything I tell her to do and she has tantrums about the littlest thing. I know that part of this is normal 2-3 year old stuff, but it’s getting out of hand. I try to spend as much alone time with her as I can to give her attention while my baby sleeps, but I don’t know what else to do. Time-out, distraction? What works best. Thank you so much.
Our 3 year old has been getting up at the wee hours of the morning (between 2:00 and 6:00) almost every night for the last 6 months or so. She comes into our room and wants to either get in bed with us (which we don’t allow) or, if it’s closer to 6:00, she tells us the sun is up and it is time to get up. She frequently will wake up her sister (16 months old who shares a room). Any advice on how to get her to stay in her bed until a certain time or at least until I come and get her, but still have her be quiet enough in her room so she doesn’t wake up her sister?
Victoria
My three year old has been doing the same thing. Have you tried taking her straight back to her room and sitting with her for a minute or two? Also, we lay a stack of books by Alora’s bed so she has a quiet something to grab first thing in the morning!
Thank you for doing this! I, myself, am a teacher but don’t know the first thing about toddlers. I have a 17 month old and I do work at home for an online school. I am looking for activities or ideas on how to keep my little guy learning and playing, without the TV, when I need to focus on my students. Thanks so very much and have a wonderful weekend!
Marie – What a nice idea! Already I can see how this will be helpful to so many mom’s!! Everybody has questions at one time or another!! Kids are there own creatures-and as soon as we have them figured out they change!!
Becky-Perhaps playdough is something that might be good to try if he won’t eat it, you know your child best-some 17 months olds will eat it, some won’t. Another great thing is big plastic tupperware with objects to put in and take out. That is always a favorite at that age. I know my son LOVED anything with wheels at that time and loved to play with cars and truck for hours! Water play is also very entertaining-but can get messy! If you have a stool at your kitchen sink and you can see him from there you can watch while he plays with a sink half full of water and some cups and funnels. I can think of more, but I’ll stop now! lol!! Best of luck.
Onna
Great questions everyone! Thanks for commenting and emailing. There will be upcoming posts that will hopefully address and answers all of your questions. Keep them coming if you’ve got more!
Oh my Marie I have one! How to get your children to sit quietly for an hour/hour and a half at a time. Like at church, special occasions, etc. I swear I am going to get kicked out of church if I can’t keep my 3 yr old from being such a loud mouth ;)
Victoria-
Our 3 year old daughter did the same thing. After too many sleepless nights and too much coffee, we introduced the “sleep fairy”. We purchased the sleep fairy book from Amazon and would read it every night before bed and left out a bag for the sleep fairy to put a treat in. Then on any night she slept in her bed all night, there would be a treat in the bag (ranging from a sheet of stickers, lollipop, small toy). The $30 in toys were VERY worth it. The “sleep fairy” even works on vacation as their sleep schedules tend to get a little messed up.
We also purchased a timer that we hooked up to a lamp in her room. She is not allowed to get out of bed until the light comes on. They sell a goodnight light online, but the timer is much cheaper.
Good luck!!!
What do you do in the car when your kids are fighting in the backseat?
This morning my son was speaking roughly to me, so I told him to speak nicely. His response was “tell Dad to talk nicely to me, and I will talk nicely. I have learned from him how to talk. He told me to shut my mouth yesterday. Then he told me to shut up.” This has been a constant battle for me. And I am losing it, in both senses. My husband does not speak nicely to me or the kids. He raises his voice. He is never pleasant. When I talk to him about this he denies it, or if he agrees with me he says that’s just the way he is and I have to accept it.. Well, I do not find it acceptable, I do not want my kids to end up like him. What can I do?