All the teachers no matter what grade were very focused on reading skills. The first grade teacher handed out laminated bookmarks that had tips for selecting the right books and how to read the books with your kids and the higher-grade level teachers discussed their strategies to boost comprehension.

I enjoy reading books to the kids, we do at least three stories most night, and sometimes I throw in a fourth story if they have been exceptionally good.

Now the older girls are reading longer books on their own, which while exciting and very cool is also a little sad because soon they won‘t want to do story time with me.

Plus, I always worry-are we giving them too much leeway letting them select their own books. Their school encourages them to select a just right book. To do this they open a book read the page and if they don’t know five words on the page, the book isn’t right for them.

Sometimes they tell me that they finished the book, in what I think is a very short amount of time…so are they really reading the book? And if they are reading it do they comprehend it?

My son who is two years younger then the girls wants to be “cool” like his sisters so he selects chapter books to “read” also…hmmmm should I let him do this or make him stick with picture books?

Do you face this same problem with your older children? How do you know if your kids are really reading the book?

Part of me wants to quiz the kids about the book, but that seems a little too much like school and might take the fun out of it for them.

Let me know what you have done in this situation.

Who hasn’t experienced a little kid all nicely dressed for the party bursting into tears, or worse the child who throws a huge temper tantrum right before the party-refusing to get dressed for the party and causing everyone to get all riled up.

With the twins, my husband and I were very very adamant that we maintained a bedtime. No matter who was visiting or whom we were visiting, we put the kids down at roughly the same time (I say roughly because with kids you are never on schedule).

For their first Christmas, my parents were visiting. It was a very low-key visit, just talking and admiring the babies. The grandparents were enjoying the kids, but it was bedtime.

So we bundled the girls off to bed, but the just did not want to go to sleep. After trying numerous things, rocking, bottles etc. We brought them out in the living room and put them in the playpen and they watched and listened for a while and then finally drifted off without a fuss. They just wanted to be part of the conversation.

Yes, a lot of times the kids aren’t ready for bed and end up sneaking peeks or fooling around instead of sleeping, but other times no matter how crazy the kids were acting, no matter how much they insisted they weren’t tired they fell right asleep after we put them down.

So do you do or are you planning to do anything different to keep your kids on an even keel during the holidays? Or do you throw the schedule out for the holidays?

When our kids were small, we lived a day’s drive away from all our family members. Of course, I realize we were lucky that it was just a drive away instead of a plane ride, but still each visit was exhausting nonetheless.

It was not just the trip itself, but also all the visiting.

We never got a chance to see everyone when we came to town, so someone always felt left out-I’ll tell you a little secret, sometimes we snuck into town and just saw select people. I know it seems terrible but it was the only way to save our sanity and keep the kids from going on visit overload. Share your secret for successful holiday visits!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/valentinap/ / CC BY 2.0

Having your baby sleep with you instead of a crib is a very hot topic in the parenting community. Some families swear by it, claiming it fosters deeper bonds and actually allows everyone to get more rest. Other parents are horrified by the thought-so how do you feel about co sleeping?

Sonya with MilwaukeeMoms.com co-slept in some form or another with her children and she feels it can be done safely.

We didn’t officially co sleep. That is our children had their own cribs and used them more often then not, but at times we would bring them into bed with us.

At those times, only one of us slept in the bed with the baby (the other guy had to relocate) and we cleared all the pillows off the bed, didn’t cover the children and I would say we dozed more then we slept.

I like the idea of having the baby close, perhaps in their own crib in the parents’ room. I don’t know that I would have officially co slept, but I also think that if parents take the proper precautions there is nothing wrong with co sleeping. If you co-sleep I would love to hear from you-how do you make sure it is safe? In addition, do you feel that you actually sleep better with the baby close by?

“about the proliferation of princess stuff out there right now. Not just all the night gowns (these give me the heebies-all that synthetic!) but in the movies, etc. I was born in 1972 and it was all Holly Hobby, Free to Be, You and Me, back then and I refused to wear dresses (overalls only) after the age of 4-until I was 12. Seriously. My b-day parties were all about Snoopy, and I wanted to be Tatum O’Neil from the Bad News Bears. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for dress up, princess dress up too, but I just realized how much more pink and sparkle there is out there right now then when I was growing up”

I agree I never really played princess when I was growing up. I am still not a girly girl. Sure, I like sparkles and dresses, but I spend a minimum amount of time on hair and make up.

Somehow, I ended up with one little girl who is more like me-unfancy and one little girl who cannot resist a shiny object and loves to dress “fancy”. This little girl was a princess two Halloweens in a row. Finally, we convinced her to be something other then a princess and so we had a cowgirl (pink and sparkly) and a kitty (sparkly collar)

So is it dangerous to let our little girls be princess like the one the Wall Street Journalsuggests? Do you find the entire princess phenomena cute or distasteful?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/beigephotos/ / CC BY 2.0

The Daily Beast reports that Disney recently stopped marketing its Baby Einstein series as “educational”. I admit our kids watched those videos, not because we actually thought they would make the kids smarter but because when they did watch TV I didn’t want them watching Scooby Doo or Hannah Montana. I know little kids shouldn’t even be watching television, but sometimes I cracked and let them watch.

The first daycare the girls attended believed that the Baby Einstein videos were helpful; the babies watched a short video each day after lunch, to relax before nap. This didn’t bother me because the rest of the time was very active/interactive with each other and the teachers.

I am not sure how Disney would have proved it made your baby smarter anyway. Just because Disney is no longer marketing Baby Einstein as educational doesn’t mean there aren’t other “systems” out there. Just last night I saw one for some complete “system” that claim to make your kid a super genius.

So, are you worried about “making you baby smarter”?

I am not my kids are what they are, if they are gifted we will do everything we can to make sure they are challenged and if they some help academically we will do all we can to ensure they get it.

Reading to them is the only thing that I truly believe helps to boost their brainpower. We read stories almost every single night and now that they can read on their own, if everyone is acting crazy (or complaining of nothing to do) I make them sit and read. How about you do you read to your kids every day?

I smile at the commercials that encourage parents to talk to their children all the time about everything. I know I talked to my kids a lot-how about you? Doesn‘t every mom? You might think it wont come naturally but it does! Now it is even more fun as they talk back and ask very intelligent questions.

“We’ve entered what I call the Mofo 3’s in full force. We were *that* family with the loud kid Sunday. I hate being *that* family. I’m glad it doesn’t happen all that often. I’m also glad he settled once the breadsticks came so we didn’t have to get our food to go. Aaron was being cranky because he wanted food. At least we were in a good place to fix that. Then during our meal, I had to explain to Zach about not scratching our butt and not blowing our nose at the table. It’s so much fun having boys sometimes.”

Now I have two girls and a boy and I can honestly say they all act up.

Yet, sometimes I shake my head at my son. He seems instinctively drawn to all things boy. If there is a sword, car or tool anywhere within reach (even hidden under a bunch of other toys) he will root it out and play with it.

He is obsessed with sports-any sport-even stuff like Lacrosse and pole vaulting, and on more then one occasion I had to tell him that boys are not necessarily smarter/stronger then girls.

Now, my girls play with cars, build stuff, burp, and fart with the best of them but spend a majority of their time in creative play or doing art. On the other hand, my son plays with cars and “builds” stuff almost exclusively.

Although there are times when he will join his sisters in imaginative play.

Sometimes I think his love of sports and “boy” things is how he differentiates himself from his sisters; it is probably pretty overwhelming to be a boy with twin sisters.

He also was the one most fascinated with spooky and “bloody” stuff at Halloween. He can’t be the only boy to be in a stage where he loves to say “gross” things to get attention-can he?

Other moms to boys that I know feel that boys are just so much more work then girls. So if you are a mom to boys, do you agree? How about you parents of a mixed group, do you think your boys are any different in behavior then your girls.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/ / CC BY 2.0

Julie at the Mom Slant is trying to parent without raising her voice or at least without raising her voice for more then two sentences. She tries and fails more often then she succeeds.

As she says

“I have vowed countless times that I won’t yell. That I’ll take a couple deep breaths and count to ten before I say anything. That I’ll speak my two sentences only loudly enough to be heard. That I’ll leave it at that and move on.

But then the irritations pile up. Taken individually, they’re minor. In combination, however, they push me farther and farther, so that it only takes a small transgression to nudge me over the edge completely”

I know this feeling well! Too often, I find myself yelling; sometimes I really have to, to be heard above the din. Other times, well, other times it feels good to let off a little steam by yelling. Usually, I can function much better after I have said my piece (loudly). How about you-do you try not to yell? Do you succeed?

Now I know this sounds weird considering everyone is heading towards winter, but here’s the thing if you have a great fall day with the sun shining warmly why not pack up a picnic basket and go out and enjoy it. Take things that are quick and easy to eat-or depending where you live can possibly be eaten with gloves on, go out, and enjoy the sun.

If you haven’t seen, sunshine in your area in a long time (as we haven’t) Do something totally unexpected and have a picnic in your house.

The kids will love it. They can be in charge of getting the blanket spread out on the floor and they can select what items to “pack” for the picnic.

Having a picnic in the living room, family room, porch or even the bedroom can really nip a bad mood in the bud.

Of course, if that seems a little too messy you could do something unexpected at mealtime. Have the kids’ help you make dinner for breakfast or breakfast for dinner. Involve them in planning a meal built all around one color.

At the next meal, you could do something so crazy they won’t be expecting it at all-have dessert first!

The point is throwing a little unexpected fun into your day! I liked to hear about what you do for unexpected fun!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindyfunk/ / CC BY 2.0

As Mindy Roberts from the Mommy Blog said, “it’s the little things that renew my mommy batteries“.

I so agree! Moms are used to being many things to many people. Along with being moms they are great business owners or employees, they are supportive spouses and for the kids they are everything from the enforcer (rules, homework) to chief boo-boo kisser.

It’s no surprise that moms can feel overworked and underappreciated.

We would love to get a compliment but not the kind you think. Sure, it would be nice if someone noticed our new haircut or said we looked fantastic the best way for us to get a recharge is to know that our kids heard us. That we did/said something that really stuck with them.

Here is a perfect example from Mindy one of her children told her:

“Mom, everyone tried to tell me what a flu shot would be like, and you were the only one who got it right. You said it would sting and that it would be in my arm for a long time, so they could pump it all in slowly, and that it probably wouldn’t hurt much after. Everyone else said it would be over in a second and hurt like heck for a while and swell up”

It is gratifying when your child tells you that you were right about something that they learned from you. Let me know what your kids have said or did that really recharged your batteries!