Making it Work

January 10, 2013 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

Barbara Nicols is one of our First Steps family. She has a gift for writing. Thank you, Barbara, for sharing a day like we all have from time-to-time and telling us what you did with it.

Diane

Okay so I don’t exactly enjoy grocery shopping. I love making food, dreaming up new recipes and combinations, pouring over my favorite worn Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, measuring & ingredients for a new recipe.

I love seeing the excitement on little faces as they clamber to the table on a Saturday morning, grabbing eagerly for a homemade cinnamon roll or banana walnut waffle to eat with their blueberries or pineapples.

But I don’t love shopping. In fact sometimes, most times I dread it. And it is even more dread-worthy (is that a word) when I must bring my little twosome along. The twosome are jolly and raucous and completely adorable and mostly manageable when they are within the familiar confines of home and yard. But put them in a brightly lit supermarket with hundreds of thousands of hands off items, anchored to a rickety and crowded cart, forced to watch me linger over which head of broccoli is the firmest, which type of milk for my tea, which bag of frozen edamame has more…and they go just a little bit cuckoo. Grabbing things off the shelves, giving a poke or an unwanted tickle to their sibling, fighting over who gets to put the steel cut oats in the cart (yes, just about anything looks exciting when someone else is getting to do it!)…Needless to say I don’t exactly enjoy shopping with my children. At least not all of them at once…when I’m pressed for time and on a strict budget..

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Encourage the Faint-hearted

January 4, 2013 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

For the last few months I have been sending parts of Positive Parenting from Mike’s web site, Intermin

These lessons come from a parenting teaching my husband does on I Thes. 5:14-“Now we exhort you, brothers, warn the unruly, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.”

Children do not do what we expect of them for different reasons. We’ve spent the last couple months talking about warning the unruly. This month we’ll discuss encouraging the faint hearted. I realize the examples are about older children than yours, but the lessons are good reminders of ways we can deal with our children when they don’t meet our expectations.
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The Race

It’s Track and Field Day at the international school. The high school boys line up for the 1600 meter race. At the sharp, “Crack!” of the starter’s gun the runners explode from the starting line, each boy straining to get the maximum results from his body. Sixteen hundred meters later, one would win, one would be the fastest, the best. Four others would lose, though they may have trained and competed just as well.

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Potty Training

December 26, 2012 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

By the time our child is two years old, we are tired of changing diapers! We eagerly look forward to the day our child uses the potty all the time! But mom, it’s a process. It takes time and patience on your part. The good news is, your child WILL learn to use the potty. You won’t be changing diapers when he is school age. Here is some help in choosing the right time and a good method to use.

Toilet Training Resource Sheet

What’s So Important about Crawling?

December 11, 2012 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

As a mother, I remember celebrating each of my children’s development milestones, from rolling over to sitting on their own to crawling and walking. After all, each stage of physical development is important… or is it?

In 1994 the American Academy of Pediatrics started to encourage parents to put their babies to sleep on their backs to help prevent sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). SIDS has decreased more than 50 percent, but according to several studies an inadvertent result of the campaign is that more children are meeting their motor milestones later or bypassing them altogether. This is because the lack of time on their bellies doesn’t allow children to develop their upper bodies enough for the classic hands-and-knees crawl. Some children will only crawl for a short period of time, crawl “funny” or skip this milestone completely. The question this raises is, “Is crawling really that important?”

The answer is, “Yes.” Along with strengthening the trunk, shoulders and hand muscles, the mechanics of crawling stimulate different areas of the brain that are important for future learning. When a child begins crawling, this repetitious movement helps stimulate and organize neurons, allowing her brain to control cognitive processes such as comprehension, concentration and memory. When an infant crawls, she visually determines where she wants to go and physically moves in that direction. Her hands become the guides and the child’s first test of hand/eye coordination becomes established. This skill set is used later in life for reading, writing and sports activities.

Written by: Heather Haring, OTR/L, MedCentral Pediatric Therapy

How to Warn the Unruly

December 7, 2012 By Diane Constantine 1 Comment

Last month we talked about the need to warn unruly children. This month we talk about how to do that.

We can learn how to warn our children and enforce those warnings, no matter what our temperament is, or theirs. The key is to not allow yourself to become a passive parent. Here are some strategies that will help:

Be Definite in Your Warning

Indefinite warnings are wasted warnings. As an example,. which one of these parents will get the best results:

Parent number one: “John, don’t be so naughty. If you don’t straighten up, you’re going to get it!”
Parent number two: “Susie, do not hit your brother. If you hit your brother again, you will sit on your time out chair for ten minutes. Do you understand?”

If you picked the second warning, you are right. Little Susie will get the message. If she doesn’t, her parents will know exactly what to do.

A definite warning is much stronger than an empty threat. The second warning identifies the unruly behavior, states the parent’s expectation, and explains the consequences of disobedience. The first warning, though full of emotion, is vague. You can almost hear the shouting and feel the tension. But it doesn’t really say anything. John will probably ignore the first warning, and the parent who gave it will become very frustrated.

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