Monthly Goals: October 2015

I'm not going to lie, I didn't do so well with my September Goal of Getting More Sleep. In fact, I probably should just continue it into this month. But, I knew this would be a hard habit to break. So, I'm going to try and keep it going this coming month.

However, with our new school year routines this month, it's become pretty clear there's another monthly goal I need to tackle: make our school mornings less stressful.

My husband leaves pretty early, well before the kiddos get up, so that gives me the task of getting myself and two kiddos out the door before 7:15 am. With two schools to drop off at, and a third one I'm rushing to myself, just getting out the door isn't even really the end of the mad dash. 

Kindergarten Count Down Chain

It's hard to believe, but a week from today I will have a kindergartner in my house. I shared a little about how I'm feeling about it earlier this month in my Monthly Goals post.

But even though I may be feeling sentimental, Big Brother is a bundle of excitement, anticipation, and a few nerves. He's been asking daily for count of how many days are left until school begins. So, with one week to go I put together this Kindergarten Count Down Chain to help keep track of the days.

We do something similar for the winter holidays, so Big Brother knows a little bit about how the chain works already. It's a little like an advent calendar, there is one link for each day. Each day he removes one link. The last link is taken off the day kindergarten starts.  

Toddler Airplane Activity Binder

A friend of mine starts an amazing adventure this weekend as she and her husband travel internationally to adopt the child they've been waiting for for almost three years. It's been eye opening and inspiring to watch them as they spent the last few years working and waiting through the paperwork process. And now their moment is here. Among hundreds of questions and concerns, my friend mentioned the long airplane ride back to the United States with their little toddler and what she was going to do for activities. Although many of her questions and concerns were ones I could only listen to with empathy, this was one that got my brain churning. Before they left our family gift to them was a Toddler Airplane Activity Binder.

Toddler Airplane Activity Binder

Although I won't know for several weeks if the binder was successful, I'm hoping it is helpful on the long plane ride. I can also see it being used in other settings where toddlers need some purposeful activities, such as waiting at a doctor's office or in a restaurant. 

5 Books for Helping Kids Learn About Anger

Since the beginning of the summer, and shortly after turning four, Big Brother has been experiencing some spells of bigger emotional outbursts. While it is worrisome as a parent to see him get so upset and struggle with how to express these emotions, the research I've been doing leads me to believe that most of what he is experiencing is a developmental phase not uncommon to some four year olds.

One of our jobs as his parents are to help him to understand that it's normal and okay, to have these big emotions (anger, sadness, frustration) but that when we have them we need to express them in a way which is safe and controlled. 

5 Books for Helping Kids Learn About Anger

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Although we've been helping him work through these spells using a variety of techniques, one of our go to strategies is to read books during non-upset times. These are 5 books we've been using over the last several months to help Big Brother start thinking about how to express his anger without hurtful words or actions. Most of them give concrete strategies or the words to express the emotions.

"Party Blower Pick-Up" Clean Up Trick

Recently I discovered this quick little tip and couldn't resist sharing. It's made some of our bigger clean up jobs a lot of fun!

Big Brother has a tendency to sprawl out when he plays, and by sprawl, I mean from room to room. Little Brother has some days where he empties several bins all at once. So some days it feels like there are toys everywhere! Although Big Brother has in the past been really helpful with cleaning up, lately it's been a little harder, and the novelty of the old "clean up song" has passed.

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon this silly little trick, and it's made cleaning up lots of fun! We had a few party blowers laying around and Big Brother kept blowing them. I'll admit, it was driving me crazy, as I was trying to get dinner finished. Finally I told him he could only blow it when he put away a toy. He instantly got to work, happily cleaning up toys while tooting on the party blower. Pretty soon almost everything was put away!