He’s happily sitting on the couch watching Clifford, and I can’t bear to hear him scream “Mama, ‘ifford, play, mama, *kissing noises*, wuv!!” if I put him in bed. Nevermind that he is tired and should have been in bed an hour ago. He’s happy and I’m happy, and some days that’s all that matters. *goes off to cuddle with him in bed and let him sleep on my chest*
Music education begins at birth. If children are immersed in quality music, they will develop a musical ear that will allow them to learn to read & appreciate music as they grow.
- Listen to high quality music every day, from various genres (variety is excellent for training the ear).
- Develop rhythm with various activities. Using body parts (feet, hands, arms, etc), encourage tapping, clapping, flapping, etc – along with music and alone. Using various tools – toys, drumsticks, etc – to tap along will add interest and help this development as well. Without a sense of rhythm, there is no ability to create music.
- Give them opportunities to create music. If you have a keyboard/piano, sit them down, teach them how to play the keys gently (do not allow them to bang, respect for music is important even at this age), and allow them to explore. Any other instruments that are sturdy enough for toddlers can also be used.
- Encourage them to express how different types of music make them feel. This sounds advanced for toddlers, but this can be as simple as having them dance around happily or slowly weave around. When they are a bit older, have them color a picture or shape play-doh to express their feelings about the music. The important thing is for them to realize that music can convey ideas, emotions, and feelings.
- Make it fun. Sing along with a silly song and encourage them to do the same, dance around to some techno music, relax with some classical or New Age music. Make it a part of daily life, something to be enjoyed and embraced, nothing formal or forced.
If you give him eggs and grits, he will smear them all over the house, then eat dried pasta and lint.
If you give him pasta with veggies and chicken, he will use them to decorate the kitchen cabinets, then eat several sticks of sidewalk chalk.
If you give him veggie crackers and cheese, he will leave them all over the living room carpet, coffee table, and couch, while he proceeds to find anything chocolate-based and eat it, then drool it out of his mouth and smear it all over unwashable items.
Not just because I really don’t care for them – they are squishy and odd-tasting on their own, though not bad in smoothies – but now because of the little one. If you read my last post about bananas, you would see how much he LOVES them – seeing them, that is.
However, apparently bananas are not for eating. No, for what fun would that be, to actually put
them in your mouth. You have to inspect them, squish them between your fingers, and then shred them apart with your fat little fingers. Then you take your little toddler feet and mash those little bits of squishy banana into the carpet. After dismembering the peel, all the fun is over, you may continue with your everyday activities.
So now, the evil banana has taken up residence in my carpet, waiting to resist my efforts to scrub it out. This is why I need a maid, and a few less bananas. That ought to teach me to actually BUY bananas at the store when he asks for them – never again, for sure!
What would normally be just another trip to the grocery store is now a great adventure! You see, there are big cars with letters on them as you walk into the store, all of which need to be inspected closely. Then there are carts to be felt, a cover to put on the cart, and then a high perch in the cart allows you to see everything. Not to mention that there are balloons everywhere – all colors and sizes, even one of Tigger.
A banana is not just a piece of fruit, it is a thing to be celebrated (yelling BA-NA-NA at the top of your lungs over and over should do it), then to be used as a giant nose to make your mommy laugh, then to be tasted and poked and prodded and thrown out of the cart, just to see what will happen. Ah, the wonders of the grocery store, a new adventure every time I visit!
I got this idea from cdnmummy. I thought it was neat. Go to wikipedia and enter in your birthdate, minus the year. List 3 events, 2 births, 1 death. What fun!
Events:
? 1502 – Christopher Columbus leaves for his fourth and final voyage to the West Indies.
? 1927 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is founded.
? 2000 – Last performance of the musical Cats in London’s West End.
Births:
? 1888 – Irving Berlin, American composer (d. 1989)
? 1952 – Renaud Séchan, French composer
Death:
? 1778 – William Pitt, the Elder, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1708)
Now go on, you know you want to do it too!
(and other ways to constantly question your success as a mommy)
It is always something. It starts before they are born, with people asking you, “Should you be drinking that coffee?? The baby will never sleep!”. Once they are born, it only gets worse…. “You are going to give him some formula, right? He needs to eat!”….. “You gave him formula?? Do you know how awful that is??”… endless hours of dizzy lack of sleep, vague thoughts of scheduling, hopeless abandon and just being glad to get the diaper changed, even though he is still short an outfit.
Now, after endless streams of these things, it is the nap. My child does not sleep, in fact, he has taken particular delight in remaining awake for 24 hours in a row (as a newborn, no less), of refusing to nap since birth, and generally just not needing as much sleep as I do. I came to a hopeless acceptance of this fact after 4 months of trying everything, going crazy trying to get him to sleep. I just let him sleep when he will, I never counted on him sleeping, and we all lived a resigned but low-stress life.
Toddlers, however, are odd creatures. They somehow DO need naps, regardless of their previous performance in the “breaking all records for lack of sleep” category. Yet they refuse to admit this fact, and in fact, just get more and more wound up, and even naughtier if that is possible, as their need for sleep grows.
Now if I had a giant crib, I could perhaps put him in there and leave him to fall asleep. However, he has mastered all escape routes, so the crib is no more, leaving me with nothing but a mattress on the floor, a room stripped of all furniture, and a prayer for the integrity of my walls after being bashed by all toys in the room. Sounds of toddler rage echo to my downstairs neighbors (who probably think we house elephants up here) and make me fear what damage he will wreak upon my walls while protesting the nap.
So, I try a whole routine. Something that has never worked, something that I have never been able to carry out, being an unscheduled person myself. The rocking, the books, the dim lighting, the cuddling, a set time each day. The child taunts these efforts, as they only serve to give him warning of the impending doom and rile him up further.
My solution? Wait until he seems tired, then sneak his precious animals into his room, shut the blinds, and otherwise prepare. As he toddles past his room in search of new destruction, I grab him and lay him down, and quickly run out of the room. If I catch him just right, this results in only a small span of baby rage, and then relative calm. This is my success of the day.
