OH…the head aches of shopping!

Then add kids to the mix and it can be a nightmare!!!

Thankfully, I have found a solution that works for me. It takes a little extra time but for me is well worth the effort.

I make (or have my kid make) a shopping list. For the kids who don’t know how to read a pictures list is perfect. Then while we are at the store, my children and I have the same agenda and, therefore, it is much smoother sailing through the isles (with the exception of the problem shopping cart).

In and out is good for me!!!

Having your first child is just FUN! One thing I did with my daughter is that while I fed her I sang “Ten Little Indians” to her while holding up my fingers giving her something visual to relate the numbers with. It wasn’t long and she could count. (She was an early talker as well.) I suppose that’s because I spoke to her all the time.

I then started singing the alphabet song while signing the letters. She was only 18 months and she could recite the whole alphabet clearly and count to 10. It was cute. Everyone wanted to hear her. They would even call and have me put her on the phone so that she could recite the alphabet to their friends or family.

I didn’t stop there. Just for fun, during bath time we had these foam alphabet letters. I’d set them up in alphabetical order around the tub. Then while pointing to the letters I’d sing the alphabet song in German. She once again learned something that EVERYBODY thought was so cute. They again told all their friends and family about my genius daughter and would call me up or make a special trip just to see her perform.

It wasn’t hard to teach her, it was fun. I think that’s the key-IT WAS FUN! I’m sure if she didn’t enjoy it she wouldn’t have learned it.

I have wondered many times what the point of homework is for my kids. My children bring home loads of homework to do each day and I have wondered why. With the increased demands placed on our children, and the work load from school, it seems that there is less time for our children to be kids. With just the amount of homework alone there’s not much time left for kids to be kids. Then try squeezing in soccer practice, music lessons, karate, dance, and chores in there with homework, reading, dinner and bedtime. How are we supposed to have our own time to spend with our kids and develop a trusting relationship with them?.

What happened to the days when kids could spend an hour or two after school playing hide and seek? Or, the times that they could just be with the family and play games? I believe the most important part of childhood is being a child. I feel it is wrong to load on the homework and expect children to do multiple sheets of homework each day only to have them miss the enjoyment and necessary exercise of being outside. I think that if you want your kids to succeed in school, they need to make school fun so that the children will enjoy being there.

I have noticed that on the days that my children have “extra” homework, the life seems to be sucked out of them. They have already spent 6-7 hours at school and now they have to spend the rest of the evening doing more school work. I for one have almost had enough. I have done my children’s homework for them on occasion just so my kids could play for an hour before bedtime.

What is the point of it all? Maybe if the kids need a little extra help with a concept or just need to finish off the work that was started in the classroom, then the kids should have homework. Many times the homework that my kids get is repeat stuff they already know. This is not effective or productive homework. It is just busy work–a total waste of time.

I often think, “For being educators, they sure are not very smart!” I think their methods are counter productive and totally ineffective. Make school fun, not drudgery! Bring excitement back into the classroom; don’t punish the whole class when it is only a couple kids causing the trouble. It seems this is a sure-fire way to kill off the pleasure of being at school. Most of all, let the kids be kids! They need to play, want to play and should play a bit longer than what the “wise old geezers” of the school boards suggest they should. It must be that they have forgotten what it is like to want to run and play. The school board “pros” are all use to sitting on their hind-ends for 8+ hours each day, so obviously the kids should too.

We as parents and caring adults should step up our involvement and require, no demand, that our children have more time for family and themselves—to be kids. I think that more often than not, our children complain about how much they don’t like school. I would like to see my children come home from school and say, “Today was the greatest day of school! We learned ________ and ___________ and did _________ and _______….”. Instead we hear “The teacher made us stay in from recess again because so and so was noisy.” This burns me up and it’s just plain wrong.

Children need to play and have fun. I guess the teachers are gluttons for punishment when they keep the kids in. Obviously the kids need to get out and run and spend some energy playing so they will have more of an ability to concentrate on the lessons that they have afterward. If the teachers could see what they are missing by not allowing children some time to relieve their stresses, they would be more willing to accomplish something in the classroom and therefore decrease the amount of homework that needs to be sent home. It is not the kids fault that they have homework; I am placing blame on the teachers inability to productively teach. Maybe our educators need to go back to school so they can learn really how to do it.

Ken