Send a Smile

Over the Christmas holidays our almost 3 year old has repeated a phrase that has got me thinking.

After he has been told off for some sort of inappropriate behaviour he has got into the habit of saying ‘be happy’ to us. After I noticed this was a sentence that repeated several times throughout our day I decided to ask him what could be done so that mummy would ‘be happy’. To be honest I was aiming for ‘being a good boy’ or ‘not doing that again’ to be the response but to my surprise he said ‘smile mummy’. So I smiled and said ‘now I’m happy I was just unhappy with what you did’. 

Then I started to think …. When I smile does he seem happier, does it work when I smile at the baby, what about when I smile at my husband? 

YES. 

Every time I smile, I get a smile back and they seem a little happier.

So, I sat down and discussed it with my husband. ‘When I smile at you, do you feel happy?’ Well you can guess the answer…. Yes, of course.

For 2015 we have decided new years resolutions are out and the send a smile movement is born. We are encouraging the boys to smile at people when they talk to them and we are going to smile more at people in public and even more in our family.

We may never change the world but we may make it a slightly happier place to be. 

Because who can resist those cute toothy smiles of a toddler and infectious giggles of a 3 year old?

Happy new year

Why we use reins

The choice to use reins is a controversial issue which comes up repeatedly with people I talk to. Here I explain why we chose to use reins and how they aid us in teaching our children about road and crowd safety.

We live in a village where there are roads without paths. This makes it hard to go for walks with the boys as I am constantly fearing a car will zoom round the corner and not see them. This has to be the main reason we began to use reins with our oldest son. We thought carefully about this decision and decided that it was a better option than him having to hold our hands all the time (although he does have to hold hands to cross the road-always). If you imagine having to walk with your hand up in the air even for 2 or 3 minutes it starts to feel uncomfortable. The blood drains down and you are not free to touch interesting things around you. This is how it is for a small person who must hold their parents hand for any length of time. The reins gave our boy the freedom to walk alone and be in contact with what he discovers on his wanderings, and we feel he is safe.

That´s not to say we put the reins on and forget the import lessons of road safety. When we are on a stretch of road with a path we take the reins off and walk close to him teaching him how to be safe on the path and cross the road holding our hands and looking out for traffic. He knows when there is no path he must put on his reins and he does this happily.

One aspect that has aided this smooth transition has been our choice of reins. We allowed him to choose which animal he would like and he carries his ´treasures´ that he finds in the small pocket at the back. He knows we must hold the ´tail´ and if it drops or is not attached he makes sure we´re aware of it!

Now he is almost 3 and venturing out on his bike. With the baby still in the pushchair we go off for walks along the roads without the reins and he knows to stop at the edge and is learning how to stay close to the curb when there are no paths. His brother has started walking and we will be using the reins with him in the same way so they can both enjoy walks and bike rides in a safe and learning manner.

A note on stranger danger here too. Without scaring our son we have started to try to teach him about strangers and crowds. The reins have been helpful with this too giving a restricted distance from him and us in very crowded places. We have taught him that he must always be able to see one of us and that if we shout stop he must stop immediately because he may not be safe. When we are in public spaces with few people and easy visibility we leave the reins off and instruct him on the distance he can go from us. This way he is learning how to play alone but in a way we all feel safe.

Of course our situation is perhaps unique and there are of course plenty of cons to using reins. I do however feel, that used with well thought through strategies, they can be an important tool to help you to feel safe as a parent while you are teaching your child to independently use roads and paths and become a safe citizen.

Nursery holidays on a budget - Florianópolis

SESC-Cacupé

SESC-Cacupé

We are back to school this week after a fantastic two week break. Just like many other families, we are always on the look out for affordable activities for our boys. 

Coqueiros

Centro

We have had two weeks full of activities including days out and managed to spend around R$50

There are many local parks which are a great free way to burn off some energy and get some fresh air. We went to a different park each time totally 8 over the two weeks.

We visited the turtle sancury - TAMAR and spent a couple of hours looking at turtles, watching the informative movie, playing in the eggs and boat and colouring in turtles. As the boys are still young they don´t pay to enter so just R$10 got us all in for the whole day.

Our big treat trip was to the zoo in  Balneario Camboriu Both boys love animals so it was a fantastic day out. They even fed the goats and enjoyed the museum and playing in the boat at the entrance. Its a big space and plenty of safe places for them to run around and lots of different things to do. Again because of their age they got in free and adult tickets are R$10 so another fantastic low cost day out.

Safety - the stop/go game

This morning we were out for a stroll in the park. We had a very bouncy ball with us and were enjoying throwing it about in the basketball court when it went under the fence. Neither me nor my husband had noticed there was a hole in the fence which led to a busy road and before we knew it our boy was through it after his ball. Absolute panic flooded my body and my instinct made me shout ´STOP´. And, he stopped. Both of us ran and got to him because he stopped. If he hadn´t, we may be having a very different afternoon.

We praised him but tried not to make too big a deal of it so as not to scare him.

And why did he stop? Because we practice this all the time. Whenever we leave the house we play some version of the stop/go game. Its fun, we laugh and he has unknowingly learnt a life saving skill.

I certainly would never put this to the test but today he proved that this method does work and even if he had started running again, that pause was enough for us to get to him.

Tecnologia como ferramenta de educação

A tecnologia é muito presente na vida de nossos filhos, e é um desafio escolher quais os recursos que são mais adequados a eles. Fico preocupada pois meus filhos são muito jovens e gostaria que eles curtissem a vida "real". A tecnologia, entretanto, também é parte da vida deles, por isso é muito importante que eles tenham contato. Então, qual é o ponto de equilíbrio? As seguintes formas de usar tecnologia estão presente dentro de nossa casa.

Assistimos desenhos e programas infantis com os meninos pela internet, ao invés da TV. Dessa forma, mantemos certo controle do que assistir e diminuimos o risco de expô-los à propagandas que podem influenciar negativamente nossos filhos. 

A leitura também faz parte da rotina, e usamos, além dos livros tradicionais, as publicações digitais. Encontra-se online muitos livros interessantes e adequados as diversas idades. Como exemplo, há uma série do Usborne Reading Programme, especialmente para auxiliar na alfabetização das crianças. A alfabetização não é o caso do meu filho mais velho, de apenas dois anos, mas os livros são simples de entender e com ótimas e cativantes gravuras (ele adora especialmente aquelas de animais ou dinossauros)! 

Essa semana me peguei usando o YouTube de uma forma interessante, mais pedagógica: meu filho tem um livro sobre veículos, e nessa publicação (tradicional) há a imagem de um foguete. Ao ver a gravura, ele comentou "- avião, avião". Expliquei que é parecido com um avião, mas que o foguete vai ao espaço, vai a Lua. Ele gostou muito da ideia e acabamos confeccionando um fogete usando papel e papelão. Depois eu perguntei se gostaria de ver um foguete indo para a lua. Ele ficou muito empolgado e assistimos o video no YouTube!

Na minha opinião, é muito importante controlar a informação digital recebida por nossos filhos, e de forma supervisionada e sem excessos, a tecnologia pode ser uma ferramenta super interessante para apoiar sua educação. A tecnologia avança muito mais rapidamente do que imaginávamos há poucos anos atrás, e nossos filhos estão expostos de forma substancial a esses avanços. Percebo que tenho o dever de ajudar meus filhos a usar a tecnologia de forma responsável para que possam se beneficiar ao máximo das oportunidades que ela proporciona. Ao mesmo tempo, quero ajudá-los (e tenho a esperança que aproveitem muito!) a experimentar todos os outros aspectos da vida!

Technology as a teaching tool?

So much technology is present in our children´s lives that it can be a full time job just verifying which is positive or negative for your child. I am always wary of letting my boys use technology as they are still so young and I want them to experience life naturally. This said, technology is part of life these days and I want them to be familiar with it. So how do we manage this balance?

We watch a bit of tv or cartoons online. This is great as I have full control of what they watch and no nasty advertising companies can brainwash my kids!

We read e-books (as well as traditional books). There are some really interesting books out there and my toddler has got into the osborne first readers (obviously he doesn´t read yet but the books are short enough for him to enjoy and are very well illustrated). 

Today we used youtube.com. The boys have a picture book about vehicles and in it there is a picture of a rocket. My toddler came to me saying ´plane, plane´, so I explained it was a rocket. We then made a rocket out of a cardboard and enjoyed playing in the garden zooming it to the moon. Later, I asked him if he would like to see a rocket and found this great video of a shuttle launch. He was captivated! 

It´s important to be careful about the content of what children see and how they use technology but if it is well supervised and not overused, the use of technology can be an amazing asset to teaching your children. The modern world is advancing faster than most of us could imagine and our children are right in the centre of it. I feel I have to help my children to responsibly use technology to their benefit and hope they enjoy all the other aspects of life too!

My toddler won´t wear....(insert item)

Having worked for many years in the early years setting, i´m used to children turning up in clothing that is inappropriate for the climate or incorporates some form of super hero! Toddlers love to assert their opinions and choosing their own clothes is one way they achieve this. But what about plain refusal to wear something?

We have had an ongoing battle with our oldest son about wearing a hat. Perhaps this seems like no big deal but if he has to be in the 40 + degree sun for even a minute or two, I feel much better if his head is covered. Now winter is approaching and hes had several colds already (the joy of shared germs at nursery), i´m keen for him to use a hat, especially on those windy days when ear infections are almost guaranteed.

So how do I get him to wear one? I searched the net for a fun hat design and made him a personalised hat! He´s quite into dinosaurs lately and I was fortunate to stumble across a simple pattern. I got some fleece material and a couple hours later his hat was ready! So far hes tried it on a few times and has worn it for around 20 minutes at a time so here´s hoping i´m on the right track. Making or buying an item that is linked to your toddlers latest craze usually has a positive impact on the amount of use it gets. I made sure my boy had a look at the designs I had found and got him involved in the making process so he was sure to know it was a hat especially for him. 

And doesn´t he look great?  

Find more fun templates here and create your own cool hat