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Kneebouncers?? Don't mind if I do!!

I am a big believer of early education. Starting young is important and will help your child build confidence within themselves and when they go to school, they are less likely to experience anxiety. Why you might ask? Well think of it like this, your about to start a new school, what was the first thing you were worried about? If your teacher was going to be mean and if you we're going to make friends. For children that's a lot to stress about. I remember thinking about this stuff constantly. Especially when I was in the 6th grade. Now let's keep in mind that things have changed and children are now concerned at a younger age about such things. For instance my 5 yr old son is always worried about people laughing at him. Now at 5yrs old he should not be thinking about this but he does. So can you imagine a 5 year old worried about getting the answer wrong because he doesn't have the confidence? Horrible right!! Exactly my point!!! This is why I encourage parents to begin teaching at a the age of 1. Sing songs about colors, numbers, alphabet, body parts etc. Read to them, sing nursery rhymes, dance and make up songs with your phone number, spelling of their name, etc. Anything to get those little minds going. Now when they are about 18 months (some may even say 12 months) introduce them to the computer. I for one allowed my daughter to touch the computer at 9 months but she just started learning from the computer. There is fisher prices website, knee bouncers which is one of my favorites ( my dd loves it) and abc mouse (haven't use this one but friend told me its awesome).

So parents are there any websites or methods you use for your toddlers and/or preschoolers? Are there any television shows that you let your little one.

SN: I allow my dd to watch educational shows like sesame street, super why, team umizoomi, Mickey mouse clubhouse, little Einsteins. She does not watch tv all day along. In fact I let her watch in segments. Like after breakfast, after lunch, nap time and than after dinner and bath. My oldest boys come home and they normally don't turn the tv on until 6 after snack, homework and recaps of the day have been done ;)

Can you teach me to tie my shoes, mommy?

I have to admit that I am the teacher in my household. I think things through and teach my children all that is needed to know to survive in life. But I will admit that there is one thing that I cannot do. Tie my kids how to tie shoes smh lol. I know it’s a simple task right. Well not for me know matter what way I show him I can’t get them to do it. I tried the tree and squirrel method, I have tried the two bunny ears and I have even tried the “x” and the cross method…but no success. It doesn’t help that my 5 year old is also talented enough to use both is left and right hands , which just throws me off cause I don’t know what hand to lead with lol. Well like the great mother I am I tried again to today and today I had it. I just couldn’t do it. SMH!! No matter how hard I tried to get him to do it I couldn’t get him to do the first step. So I turned to my lovely husband who was working of course and asked him if he could teach him. He gladly took him the next room and within 5 minutes my son came back and showed me the first step of tying his shoes. Now when I say 5 minutes I am actually given extra time. It was more like 2-3 minutes. My darling hubby taught him step 1, how to cross his laces and pulls one through the hole! Now I don’t know about you but I felt quite slow after seeing this. Is something wrong with me I taught lol. I mean I taught the boy write his name, read, spell, brush his teeth, wash his hair, eat, his phone number, address but I can’t teach him to tie his shoes. I guess sometimes even superwoman can’t do it all lol. Has this ever happen to anyone? How did you get through the tying shoe method? Did you let your spouse have at it? Or did you keep trying? I ask this because I didn’t teach my oldest how to tie his shoes either, my husband taught him too.

It’s only 50 cent……. When kids think they are entitled!!

I would like to think that I am raising mychildren to the best of my ability. There is no manual to teach kids and makingsure to love them but not spoil them is one of my top priorities. Especiallysince we have four kids and have considered having more. Deciding to spoil fourcan cause serious problems in my household and hinder them from growing as aperson.  I have to admit that over thepast year I have been hard my hubby who does the spoiling. He means well(giving the kids the love he missed when he was younger) but sometimes he goesoverboard.  This cause the kids to have asense of entitlement and let me tell you something….Kids should not think thatthey run, own, or pay for anything. This is not the way a household should be run.Let me give you an example of when things tried to get out of control and I hadto remind them who is the BOSS. Right before school started we were in themiddle of moving. We had just come back from my sis’s wedding so we were on a budgetso that we could make sure we were able to pay for all the things needed suchas shoes, uniforms, school supplies, moving truck, closing cost, and bills. Wewere in the store getting school supplies, mind you I went earlier but had toget some last minute stuff that teachers requested like dry erase markers,paper towels and hand sanitizer. The kids know not to ask for things but everynow and then they forget, which is normal because their “Kids”. We were in lineand I’m paying for stuff, when my oldest boys ask can they go look at the 50cent toy machines. Should I mention that I hate these machines because they area waste of money!!  Anyways, my oldestboys come up to my husband and I and say “Can we get some money, please for themachine?” Of course, I look and say “NO we don’t have money for that!”.Normally my kids would be like okay, but I think the sun was affecting theirbrains, because my oldest says “It’s only 50 cent!!!” My immediately reactionwas “EXCUSE ME.” Now in my opinion this was disrespectful for two reasons…

1.      What I say goes there is no talking back

2.      They don’t have money so they should not respondin such a manner

At this point I was upset, but I kept cool. I gave my kidsthe look and we all walked out the store. Now when we walked out to the car Iimmediately checked my kids. I let them know that they do not have jobs and 50cent is a lot to person with no money. I also let them know that I amdisappointed in their behavior and there will be punishment for that type ofbehavior. We went off to the car with me still rambling about the importance ofrespecting my word and not acting spoiled. Once in the car, I decided thepunishment.  “NO NEW BOOKBAGS!!!” Thismay seem extreme but I needed them to understand that disrespect and entitlementwill not be tolerated.  Now I know someof you’ll are thinking why didn’t I just ground them, but it’s important that Ikeep my kids grounded at all times. Grounded them would have done nothing,because it had nothing to do with money. I needed them to understand who hasthe money and who makes the decision on who is going to spend it.  Last thing I need is for them to think that Iowe them something and that I have buy them something. I always tell them thatthere are children who don’t get new things for school and have to get usedstuff or nothing at all. I want them to understand that we work for what wehave and all things that are given to them they have to work for unless it’stheir birthday of course, or family and friends want to give them something.They do chores daily and they earn money by helping me with big task and makinggood grades and good behavior in school. We buy nice things for them because welove them not because we have to.

Needless to say I believe they understand now. We have beento the store several times and they have never asked for anything. So my hubby(remember I told you he spoils them) bought them those tattoos the wanted. Hereis them showing off their tattoos.