I must confess…lately I’ve been lazy when it comes to tell bedtime stories.
I use to tell a story every night to my son and daughter but lately, with the hurry to go to bed, with our conversations (that are also important) bedtime story has gone to a second third plan. I confess this is something I’ve been thinking about lately because I’m afraid my kids will lose the “reading feature” we should all have.
For some kids reading can be a natural feature but for others reading is something that has to be learned-to-like. Not reading to my kids might transmit a negative idea and although they see me reading all the time, reading a bedtime story is something experts say: it’s a “must”, it’s essential to read to our sons and daughters.
I’ve done a little research about telling a story and what I can do to make my kids wanting more stories and I come up with a few important points:
Have Fun: The main objective of telling a story is to have fun, create a bound between the parent and the child.
Learn to tell a story: For a child, a parent that is able to tell a story without a book is the best parent. The story has to have a meaning and we can’t hesitate while we tell it. The child must be aware that the parent knows the story as well as the characters he’s/she’s talking about.
Repeat as per request: Anticipating what is going to happen is good for the child development. We should keep the story for how long the child requests it but we can add small details that will keep the story interesting to the child.
Know how to choose a story: Be aware of the child’s age when choosing a story. Most stories have details that will only be understood by the child years later but that’s a good think as long as the story adds something to the child’s life.
Forget the story moral: Don’t resume the story in one sentence when finishing reading it. The message should be transmitted on the story context, not at the end. If the child doesn’t understand the story maybe it’s not an appropriate story for his/her age. Years later, without notice, they will understand it for sure.
Read before telling: Read the story before you tell it to the child, this way you already have the idea when you should change your voice, make a pause, raise or lower your voice. Remember, if you make a special voice for each character you have to keep that until the end of the story.
Of course there are other important points I must be missing here and therefore I’m willing to receive your feedback. Please take a few seconds and answer to my poll:
Leave me a comment if you would like to add suggestions/opinions regarding “Telling a Story Time”, I’ll post them on a different post in a few days.
I’m officially on vacation!! I still can’t believe it. I won’t be working tomorrow and the other 18 days after tomorrow. Uauuu!!!
Tomorrow my daughter is going to school as usual and my son is going to daycare. I’ll have a blood test done in the morning than come home to do some blogging. I want to take advantage of tomorrow morning to write a few posts and try to organize my posts schedule for a couple of days.
I know that my kids are going to request all my attention. I only have 25 days a year for vacation so this is something we long for for almost a year. I really want to spend time with them although I also feel the need to have my own time even if they are around. So, I’m preparing some children craft ideas, movies and other children activities that can keep them busy while I do some of my stuff.
Having the pool at home is lots of fun but also time consuming. When they are in the pool I have to be near to prevent accidents, I don’t want to be on the computer while they are in the pool, I want to keep my eyes on them.
I want to keep up my blogging but I don’t want them to feel that they are sharing my time with the computer. I’m going to try to keep the computer away from me as much as I can. Well…if they are watching TV I can be on the computer…
I thought about not blogging during the vacation but I like it and I don’t want to lose the rhythm of updating regularly. I don’t have scheduled posts, no extra posts to use so I just have to keep writing when I can.
My husband will be on vacation only next Monday so tomorrow afternoon, Thursday and Friday my kids will be all mine.
I read a post at The Domestic Diva called Parents tune into your Kids, this was an interesting post to read. Take two minutes and read it than come back please.
I agree with what is said by The Domestic Diva, completely, we must give our children our best attention and provide them with quality time. I couldn’t agree more.
Now talking about my situation and most full time working mothers with no one to clean the house, to help with the meals, to go shopping, how can we give our children quality time when, even on weekends we have the house to clean, shopping to do and we are so tired that we can’t even walk because our legs hurt so much.
I try to give my kids most of my free time but there are those days that, no matter how much I want to be with them. I’m not 100% with them. There are those weekends when I take them to the park but I just want them to play alone because I’m too tired to walk and play with them. However most of the times when my attention is requested, although tired and not wanting to, I manage to drag myself and play with them. Is it quality time? Maybe for them it is, they don’t even notice that I’m not ok, but that’s for sure not quality time for me. Do they deserve the effort? Yes, of course they do. They are away from me 10 hours a day and they surely deserve a mom that spends time with them and plays with them even if that’s not what she really wants, I mean, I want to, but the tired side says: go to bed, rest and let them play alone.
Most moms (not all of course) I know from blogs are staying or working at home mothers, although I know it is not easy to handle a house and kids full time, at least they are at home and they can prepare some house stuff during the day.
When I come home at 7pm I still have laundry, cooking and some cleaning waiting for me, besides all the other activities (baths, playing) that involve the children. Am I proud of being a working mom? Of course not, my dream (which is slipping through my fingers) has always been to spend more time with my kids, pick them up at school, do the homework with them but the reality is different, I have to delegate those tasks to other people because…I’m working.
Should I have gymnastic classes or swimming classes to easy my stress? Of course I should, but when do I have time, when I should be asleep?
Of course I’m aware there are full time working moms in the US, moms with a career, with high status inside a company, but do they have time to blog? Probably not. The reality I see on blogging world is about moms that follow their kids, who have the computer on all day, who have time to socialize, to participate in forums. I tried to do that but I’m going down the drain, I’m tired because I can’t put up with that because I have little free time.
I’ve been blogging less lately because I’m so tired I can’t stay up everyday until 2-3am and get up at 7am in the morning.
Do I want to be a full time mom? Yes I would love to, but European reality is much different from US. Even if I blog for money, the reality is not good, two years ago if I earned 300US$ I would earn 300€, now 300USD$ means 192€ and it’s getting worse.
Do I want to work from home? Yes, I would love too but in Portugal there are no companies providing that type of work.
If there is a US company that wants to offer me a job I can do from home I will be pleased to accept! ?
I’m not criticizing anyone, on the contrary, I would love to hear from working moms to know how they manage time. I want to improve my parent skills, I’m always looking for ways to be a better mother, that’s why I sometimes instead of writing my own posts I read other mom’s blogs because I learn so much from them.
Are you a full time worker? Leave me your blog URL and I’ll be please to read about your daily life, I’m sure I will learn important lessons from you.
Before the pool I had little time to blog now, I have less time. Let me explain.
Before the pool:
We usually arrive home at 7pm, the kids watch some tv while I prepare dinner, just before dinner is ready there are the baths and then dinner. Afterwards some TV for the kids while I blog a little and than bed.
After the pool:
We arrive home at 7pm, it’s hot therefore the kids want to go to the pool. Once my husband only arrives home at about 7.40pm and I don’t leave the kids without supervision, I have to stay by the pool and dinner is postponed. This means we have dinner too late and later I’m so tired I can’t look to the screen.
Today my son had a birthday party so no pool. They are both asleep now while I’m updating my blogs.
My son and daughter are my priority so I want them to have fun in the pool especially when we have good weather. I could take the laptop outside to the garden table but they want my attention and they sure deserve it after spending 10 hours away from me.
My daughter is 4 and from time to time she “shots” me those questions I find difficult to explain to a 4 year old but I do my best to explain in a understandable way. Here’s one:
Catherine: Mom, how does the water goes from the sea into the clouds?
Me (thinking): Well, when it’s hot, a kind of steam of water comes out of the sea goes to the clouds, than the clouds have water.
Catherine (thinking): humm I got it, that happens while we sleep that’s why we don’t see it.
Me (relieved): yes that’s it.
Well, my answer was accepted and no more questions were asked.
My daughter was once again removed from the Ballet class because of her bad temper. It is the second time this happens, the first time was two months ago and today it happened again.
She loves Ballet classes but, sometimes, she doesn’t want to do what the teacher says and really refused to do it. When the teacher calls her attention and says that she has to do what the others are doing and not what she wants she gets into her bad mood and makes a tantrum. Once she refused to do what the teacher requested she was sent away from class because, and I understand, if she doesn’t want to do things right why is she in class.
I really don’t know how to handle this situation because she really loves Ballet. I had a conversation with her when we arrived home and I told her if she wants to attend Ballet classes she has to follow the teacher’s instructions. I don’t think this is going to solve the problem because at school the teacher has the same problem with her.
She’s 4 so I hope with time, she will get it but believe me she really has bad temper from time to time.
I guess spring, although still shy, is finally arriving. I’m really tired of rain and cloudy sky, I want to get out and be able to walk without worrying about carrying an umbrella or getting wet shoes. It has been a hard spring for the kids because the weather is never good for them to play outside. Most of their free time is spent in the computer, video games or TV.
My daughter likes to color and draw so it’s easy to keep her entertained inside the house, my son, well is a boy and therefore likes to play soccer and more outside related activities. With the weather change and bigger days we will be able to play more outside. Although we arrive at home at around 7pm we still have daylight and if the weather is warm than they can play in the back or front yard.
I’m not that kind of mother that worries about dirty clothes, dirty faces, dirty hands, everything can be washed so I just let them play outside freely. My daughter loves to catch bugs and worms (ugh! yes worms), one day she even arrived at daycare with one on her hair, a black one, she didn’t noticed and she must have touch her hair while having a worm in her hand and it just stayed there.
One thing I don’t like is when they come inside after playing and wet the floor or forget to rub the sand away from their legs and feet. This is something I have to start imposing once they start playing outside for good.
For those wanting to spend some time outside, in the nature, in the backyard in the woods the booki love dirt! is the right book for you to buy. It shows activities we can do outside no matter if we live in the city or in the country.
Quoting:
I Love Dirt! is a call to parents, educators, and caregivers to help children recover one of the great joys of childhood. Through fifty-two activities, readers will find a wealth of creative ways to actively engage children, ages four to nine, in nature. Each project is meant to promote exploration, stimulate imagination, and heighten a sense of wonder.
Organized by season, and appropriate for both urban and country settings, each activity is accompanied by a fun fact to help further a child’s understanding of the natural world and open up a conversation.
We must be aware that in outdoor activities we must protect the children’s body: appropriate clothes for the weather temperature and a sun protector. Be careful with sunburns.
First he started calling me to the office 4-6 times a day, although I advised him not to he continued doing so with the excuse that he had important things to tell me or that he just wanted t say Hi.
Almost 4 weeks ago the cell phone had a malfunction and had to go to Nokia to be fixed, quiet and peace returned as well as not so good grades. I now think the cell phone and all the fuss around it caused my son to get distracted and losing his concentration on his school work.
I’m very sad and I regret I did not follow him more closely in school.
Who follows this blog for some time knows that I am a full time worker, I leave home at 8.30am and arrive at 7pm or 8.15pm when my son has soccer classes. He attends a daycare after school where he does all his homeworks so that at night he doesn’t have to do them when he is supposed to be in bed, resting. Usually I don’t worry because I know all the homework is done in daycare and daycare also provides extra works for them to practice what they have learned.
He’s having his 4th teacher this year (3rd grade) due to some factors like teacher retirement, another teacher maternity leave, another teacher medical leave, etc etc. This year was like a roller coaster of teachers and that also affected the students one more than the others. He also started soccer classes in the end of February, another distracting situation maybe.
My son is very active, distracted and talks a lot in class. I’m sure the cell phone contributed to the lack of attention, not only in class but generally. Daycare director told me he’s much calmer since he hasn’t the cell phone.
Today I bought a test book with all the subjects he has in class for him to do some work at home. He’s having his final tests for this year in 2 or 3 weeks and I told him I want him to improve his grades. Daycare director told me not to worry, that this is just a phase, that he is an intelligent boy and he’s going to improve the grades.
One thing I’m sure, he will not get the cell phone back till the end of the school year, and when school starts in September I won’t let him use the cell phone.
I’m having a little trouble in controlling my son’s cell phone money. When he has money to spend he sends messages to his friends especially to his girlfriend. Even being both at school, (of course they don’t date, they’re 9 and 10 years old) and they even barely talk so they send SMS messages. Can you believe this? Of course this is a curious situation once they are so young but it’s getting annoying to me.
Another unpleasant situation is that he calls me 2, 3 or 4 times a day while I’m working. I usually cancel the call and call him from the office phone but sometimes I’m so busy and the bosses are next to me that I’m caught in a difficult situation. I already explained this to my son, he understands but he just wants to say Hi or make a silly question.
My big problem right now is the real use of the cell phone: emergency situations or really important ones, once he gets out of balance too quickly he’s not able to call me if something happens. We’ve had several conversations about this, he says he understands but he keeps sending SMS and calls his friends. He was grounded 4 days without cell phone but he keeps using the cell phone and spending money.
I’ve read some articles regarding teaching our children how to use money but although I know he’ll get there it’s complicated. I’ve been having a hard time with this situation.
He’s not doing anything we request, I told him to get dressed before she arrived and there he is playing on his pajama. Today dad asked him to put some toys in a box and he kept postponing it, dad, instead of insisting, he just put the toys away and said he will discipline him in a different way. It’s this situation that I complete disagree with dad. We have to take action right away not someday.
Catherine is now here next to me, while they are playing upstairs. A picnic inside the house today was promised to my daughter to end the dispute. Let’s see how it’s going to be the rest of the afternoon.
I’ve been postponing to write about diaper’s issue because I did once and things didn’t worked out.
I can tell now that for 3 weeks, Catherine is not using night diaper. I tried last year but it didn’t work out because she continued to wet the diaper at least 2 or 3 times a week. I didn’t worry at all. Dani wore night diaper until the age of 4 so I was just waiting for her timing (she’ll be 4 this month).
Three weeks ago, due the suspicion of a urinary infection that fortunately was false alarm, I decided to give it a try and no more night diapers.
During the first week, at about 1am, I used to take her to the bathroom to pee but than I stopped doing that and in three weeks, I can say, we had no wet bed.
I guess this is it…no more diapers in the house, well…only baby dolls are allowed to wear them.
I must confess…lately I’ve been lazy when it comes to tell bedtime stories.
Some weeks ago I wrote about 
