Tag Archive for Children
Children at Work & at Play!
I captured some shots of our children at work and at play yesterday. I used the flickr slide show again. I just wanted to try it this week to see how I liked them and how you all liked them. Might try something different next week. Not sure what yet.
The first photo is of one of our older daughters (the third oldest) playing with her horses. I snapped a shot because soon enough she won’t be playing with them any more. Sniff. Sniff. She’s growing up! The second one is of our youngest daughter with our reading lesson book, 100 Easy Lessons, which I have used with all six older children to teach them to read. Blondie is doing wonderful and I really believe that the foundation that ABCMouse.com gives the children has helped her supersede where she would have been otherwise. She is nearly sounding out the words silently and saying them fast – we are only on lesson 14! We are very pleased with ABCMouse.com. I don’t have to conj-ole or bribe the children to do their school work on ABCMouse. It’s that much fun. Ok, enough of my shameless, unpaid plug! 
Back to the photos…next comes the blocks that were scattered on the floor. And if I was participating in my old friend’s “The Children Were Here” posts this is one that I would post as we always seem to have these blocks scattered. Then I shot one of a couple of school books that were laying around.
The next photo after that is of our two older boys shoveling the driveway for their Dad. The thing is I didn’t send them out there to do it, they volunteered. Granted they have always loved to shovel snow for some reason, but still it does this mama’s heart good when they do things like this without asking and especially thinking of their Dad who had to drive home on messy roads!
My oldest daughter has taken a dislike of being caught on camera, she’d rather be behind the lense these days! So when she put her laptop up in front of her face today as I was snapping a picture I told her I was going to post it! So that’s why that one is there! She’s a hard worker that one and has some solid work ethics already. She won’t go to the barn if she has too much work to do, nor will she goof off until her work is done. We are proud of her.
The rest of the photos are of two of the younger children doing their best to help shovel a little bit, the snow plow (the boys wanted me to get one of all the snow flying over the truck but I kept missing it) and just of our time outside.
The last photo is of a masked man…not sure where he came from or what he was doing in my house but my daughter caught him red handed! Isn’t he positively evil looking? Ha!
A FREE Nativity Booklet
If you are observing the birth of Jesus this Christmas, you may want to check out this free Nativity booklet from Answers in Genesis:
Merry Christmas!
The Crazy Things Boys Do
As you all know, we have four little boys. (well, two of them are not so little anymore!) These boys bring a lot of joy to our lives, but they also cause a lot of pain – inflicted on themselves and others, like their siblings.
Our boys seem to enjoy doing things that are dangerous. They are always wrestling and one of them inevitability ends up getting hurt. It’s unfortunate they never stop their antics. They just keep going and going and going and….you get the picture.
Our sons are currently obsessed with super heroes since allowing them to watch the animated versions of Iron Man and Spider-Man. The two older boys are both tweens and have grown out of the Thomas the Tank and Sesame Street stage (just in time for my little boys to grow into it them!) and are constantly asking to watch super hero cartoons. If they aren’t playing Spider-Man, Thor, and Hulk then they are trying to find a way to re-enact their favorite cartoons. Those re-enactments usually involve using whatever dangerous stunt their favorite super hero pulled.
Our wild boys are open to jumping on conveyors, climbing tall of trees, climbing out their bedroom window, making bows and arrows and shooting them at one another, and my personal favorite – sharpening sticks and hitting/poking one another with them, while I am saying, “Don’t do that someone is going to get hurt!”
Thankfully with all the pharmacy automation it’s easy to purchase the products that we need to fix up our sons from one of their latest escapades. When they get hurt we handle them with much care, much like you would handle a material handling system.
You’d think they’d learn…..I swear they have nine lives instead of just one. We do try to stop them from pulling these stunts. But some days they just do stuff without my knowledge and I find out after the fact from another siblings or when they come running asking for a bandage. You know that old saying…..boys will be boys…..is very true!
Whew! Made it Through!
Business
It was a busy four days and I only ended up working 3 of those 4 days due to my compassionate husband working the holiday craft fair for me yesterday! It was in my favor that he knew our 15 month old was really missing me too.
There was a Chicago Bears game yesterday so let’s just say the fair was not as busy as Friday or Saturday. I had as relaxing a day as I could with five children under nine (insert rolling eyes here )
The business networking event and the weekend proved to be very beneficial and we met some interesting people. We are excited and grateful for the opportunities presented.
Appliance Woes Almost Fixed
We are still without an oven, at least for another week the repair man said, as he has to order the part. Hopefully it will arrive early and they can fit in an appointment earlier. How can I host a Cookie Exchange if I can’t bake cookies? I can’t, I know.
Christmas!
We are getting into the Christmas spirit around here and eager to decorate and get our tree! Just not sure how we are going to accomplish that since my mil’s car will not accommodate a tree. We took the children to cut down a live tree last year and it was such a memory making day that everyone is gung-ho to do it again this year. It was a neat family tree farm that offered fun activities for the children: candle making, wood carving, hot chocolate and more.
A Vehicle
A friend found a vehicle, we just have to decide if it is what we are looking for….beggars can’t be choosers but it is hard for us. Take on a car payment or not to take on a car payment? Buy an older car and have lots of repairs? Ugh….decisions like these are just not easy. Besides we have not even contacted our insurance to see what insurance will cost on the type of vehicle we are interested in getting. Everything costs money….
Home Life
Other than that same old same old. We cleaned the house today and did school. I worked. The girls and I are gearing up for a sewing spree hopefully starting on Friday. I have to wrap up some weekend stuff and have a couple of meetings this week before we can really get going on making some new skirts for the four girls.
Oh and if you are the praying kind, pray we find our camera. Odd request, I know but we think some little hands got a hold of it and left it in some obscure place in the house…hopefully still in tact. We need that for blogging and capturing every day moments of life so the children can look back in wonder and perhaps a little embarrassment too…..I can’t believe how many photos my oldest is embarrassed about when I was simply capturing a “moment”. Ah well, it was not my original intent to embarrass her, nor is it my intent with the rest either.
What Does a 3 Year Old Plus 2 Keys Equal?
You know you are a blogger when you grab your flip cam in a serious situation……
Never a dull moment in my house. So what does a 3 year old plus 2 keys equal? A burnt electrical outlet (I called it a light socket in the video below! Brain freeze!) and one melted key tip. Yep he put two keys into an electrical outlet in the boys room and one of them melted to the little screw that holds the outlet frame into the wall. Amazing. I was told that I could take the keys out with rubber handled pliers……don’t try it! Sparks still flew even though I didn’t get shocked! I had to shut down the electric in the house to take them out to prevent anymore sparks. I am just grateful we are all still here and the house is still standing! Could have been a lot worse to say the least.
I have to shake my head at the trouble children can find. My daughter and son were even in the same room hanging pictures on the wall while he did this!?
I didn’t have to scold him, his siblings pretty much did that because they freaked out and to tease him (yes!), I was a little surprised that Noah did it as it is Junior (our 15 month old baby) whose been the most fascinated with electrical outlets. In the video Noah looks like he’s about to cry but I think the whole experience scared him. Life is rough sometimes, even for little ones.
And no this was not staged and yes I was calm….I don’t know why I remained calm. Ya win some and ya lose some….ya know what I mean? Today I won in this instance.
Separation Anxiety And a Move!
We all know what separation anxiety is, it’s when a small child is fearful and full of anxiety when separated from his/her mother, right? Or is that all it is? What about moms, can we have separation anxiety? I believe we can and to be honest, I am suffering from it this week. Actually it just sort of happened overnight as our house takes on that hollow sound…..hollow sound, you ask…..
We are moving! This is a huge move for us, in more ways than one.
We have lived where we are for the past 16 years. Our current home has served us well, but we have really outgrown it. I think we have been at that point since child number six. We love our current town. It is a great little town. We love our neighborhood. It’s quiet. We have had the same neighbors around us for all of that time or over half of that time. We’ve had the same phone number…and all of that is about to change.
It is a mixed bag of feelings. Truly it is. I mean who would have thought that I would be sad to lose my phone number? Until we ran out of space, I really liked our house and will miss it. There are many memories here. We moved here as newlyweds. We became parents to eight children here. Our last three children were born in this house. It’s been my only home since moving to the U.S. 17 years ago.
The catch is, I have always dreamed of living in the country. I have longed for my children to enjoy the pleasures of country living and for the past three years we have been doing that by driving to the country during the summer. But it is getting tiring driving back and forth and being away from home so many days. Therefore, we decided to forgo our plans to farm at the farm incubator when we came across two homes each on 10 acres or more…..of course we looked at them!
By the time we decided on one and got back to the owners, it was no longer available. 
Disappointing to say the least. It was a lovely piece of property. So we decided we did not want to lose out on the other.
This all happened within a short period of time in June-July. It still seems a bit unreal since we are still in between homes. If pinching didn’t hurt, I’d be asking folks to pinch me to be sure it was all real and not a dream.
We are moving to a more rural area, but still within the Chicago suburbs. We will have access to land, a larger house with LOTS of storage AND 3 potties. We are very excited!
Cartoon by yours truly (inspired by June Cleaver Nirvana) because I did not want to pay to use a comic strip! Please note: The order of children is not typical. Our younger children usually get first dibs on bathroom rights due to obvious reasons! Also note, my oldest does not find the humor in this silly drawing.
This week has not only been filled with physically moving but moving electronically. It was frustrating to find out our current phone/internet provider does not service our new home for internet, which led to more phone calls. But I think we are all set to go.
Now we just need to get everything moved to the new house. Let’s just say that being between two homes is not ideal! We are grateful to a new acquaintance/fellow farmer for their generous offer to help us by providing their 3/4 ton truck and trailer to get us all moved this weekend. We are amazed who the Lord uses sometimes, truly amazing. We have not even met this couple, I inquired about their farm as they farm using horses, something I have always been intrigued about and they live within minutes of our new home. A few emails later their offer came. The generosity of strangers, plus they are open to us coming to their farm to learn about what they are doing. No, I am not saying we’ll be farming with horses, but it is a compelling idea. My husband prefers machines, there’s something more macho and manly about tractors than horses….I think.
Here’s to separation anxiety, it will pass and a the start of a new chapter in our lives….
Putting Fun into Parenting – Today’s Monday Motivation
I forgot I was sharing Erin’s parenting articles and thought that I would switch them to Monday’s Motivation for a while. This week let’s be motivated to putting fun into parenting and be sure to let me know how you plan to do that! Last week I played soccer, went swimming, went to the park and walking with the children (well, most of them biked). We had a lot of fun doing those things. It’s hard to remember to be fun when life gets busy. I know since I have been working from home, I have to make the effort to be fun or else I am bogged down with work and that makes for a very dull mommy!
By David Stoepker, Psy.D., with Erin Brown Conroy, M.A.
Putting Fun into Parenting
Do you remember Dennis the Menace cartoons? Robert Ketchum, the cartoon’s author,often struck a familiar chord with parents through his humorous and honest comic strip. Like the one where Dennis and his pal Joey are playing in the foreground, while Dennis’mother stands in a doorway some distance in the background, red-faced and obviously shouting at the top of her lungs for Dennis. Dennis says to Joey, “I don’t have to go in yet. That’s not her real angry voice.”
Parenting can be very stressful and even seem impossible at times – especially when children are oppositional. From mild resistance to downright defiance, children oftenchallenge us, stretching our parenting skills and patience. And the odds of our child’s resistance often seem to increase directly in proportion to how much of a hurry we’re in! It’s at these times that few moms and dads describe parenting as “fun.” Yet fun may be the key to breaking the parent-child stand off.
The Benefits of Fun, Humor, and Play
Fun, humor, and play are important in raising children for several reasons:
1. Research shows that laughter is healthy. There are actual changes that take place physically, within us, when we laugh. After laughter, chemicals that suppress the immune system drop, infection-fighting agents rise, blood pressure drops, and pain tolerance increases.
2. For children, play is a major form of communicating and learning about life. Play helps to “speak” to a child in the language that they understand best: play.
3. Humor relieves stress. By creating emotional distance from the stressful event,there is a cathartic release of emotion, breaking the negative cycle in which thechild and parent are spinning.
4. Laughing with our child enhances the bonding process. Bonding through laughter can especially be seen in infants ages three to four months, who connect with parents through smiles and laughter long before they’re able to talk. Some research even demonstrates that mothers who laugh more have babies who laugh more. People in general experience a sense of “connectedness” when sharing a good laugh together.
How to Bring Laughter, Play, and Humor into your Parenting
If you let your imagination go, you can come up with several ways to incorporate laughter, play, and humor into your parenting. Brainstorm ideas with a group of parents,and your list can be endless. Here are some suggestions to get you started on your way to putting fun into parenting.
• Set aside a time each day (such as after a meal or at bedtime) when each family member shares a joke, riddle, humorous event, or some other funny experience that happened that particular day.
• Occasionally – and unexpectedly – walk in on a child who’s busy, smile mischievously, and ask, “Do you want to hear a joke?” (This is much better than always catching a child doing something wrong and administering a punishment)
• Have a family bulletin board especially for cartoons and jokes.
• Leave notes with a smiling face or with an affirming comment for your child to find.
• Play charades together as a family dramatizing cartoons or humorous events.
• Have a “family basket” decorated with smiles that every member can put especially funny cartoons, jokes, or riddles. Draw out one or more to read when you and your child need some “laughter medicine” in your life.
Humor to Relieve Stress
When children have difficulty complying with a parent because of frustration, tiredness,or stress, it may help to break the cycle with some quick humor. Here are some practical suggestions for taking a U-turn when things are relationally going south and need a turn around through a speedy dose of humor.
• A parent can call “time out for a joke” and read a quick quip from the “familybasket” described above.
• If the children are complaining about the food at mealtime, say, “The next one to complain has to have chicken for supper!” Then bring out a rubber chicken and hang it on the chair of the complainer.
• If your child is slow to brush his or her teeth, wind up a set of plastic chattering teeth and challenge your child to finish brushing before the teeth stop chattering.
• When homework gets frustrating, bring out a rubber pencil or giant-sized pencilto help with those “big problems.” Giant erasers are also for sale in novelty and gift shops for “big mistakes.” Recently, I found ink pens that light up to “shed alittle light on the problem.”
• Reading the parent a joke from a favorite joke book can be a reward, once your child has (finally) complied with your expectation or desire.
Play and that Challenging (and all-too-familiar) Oppositional Stage of Development
Play can be especially helpful when children are going through the oppositional stage of development. The use of playful competition can be an almost miraculous strategy to usefor results with a smile. Here are some suggestions:
• If your child tends to resist washing hands before meals, playfully say, “I’ll finish washing my hands before you do!” If said and done in a clearly light-hearted,playful way, positive competition can work well to help your child along with asmile. This method works great for not just hand-washing, but for any behavior,such as coming to the table for a meal, getting in the car, clicking on a seatbelt, o rbrushing teeth.
• Simply frame a situation in terms that imply that your child is in control. If your tired child is slow to pick up toys at bedtime, say to your child, “You can’t make me pick up a toy.” Then let your child know that the game works in this way: Every time your child picks up a toy, the parent has to pick up a toy as well. Once the child is “into” the game, make it especially fun by begging your child to notpick up any more toys so that you, as a parent, don’t have to pick up any more toys. You can even begin to complain, “Not again! No, please! No more!” Kid soften get a charge out of “making the parent do something.” If said and done with playfulness, the toys (or other task) will be completed in no time at all. Approaching oppositional children with humor and play (as in these examples) as amatter of routine can remove much stress from the task of parenting – and save a lot oftime and energy, compared to methods of yelling and punishing.
A Caution
One caution in using humor: Humor must be done in a playful, uplifting way. Avoid sarcasm and hostile humor, which will actually make the situation worse and be emotionally hurtful to your child.
A Final Word
As a parent, humor is absolutely necessary for your mental health. Keeping a perspectiveof humor goes a long way for feeling good and acting in a healthy way toward your child.Here are some final suggestions for ways that you, the parent, can maintain a perspectiveof healthy humor.• When you’re in a stressful situation, pretend you’re on a television, taping an “ILove Lucy” show, “America’s Funniest Videos,” or “Candid Camera.”
• Smile spontaneously to a stranger and watch their reaction.
• Draw a picture of a stressful event with your non-dominant hand.
• Set up a minimum number of mistakes to make in a day. Humorously keep count.
• Put a note on your keys that says, “If you have these, I don’t.”
• Finally, if you’re in a hurry, play some appropriate fast-paced background music such as the William Tell Overture. (Editor’s Note: Look up The Mom Song on YouTube!) Laugh, play, and have fun with your children. It can make a vast difference in your relationship together.
About Authors
Erin Brown Conroy, MA, is a writer specializing in books on relationship connections, curriculum, and web marketing. She is a freelance writer/consultant, the DL Professor of writing courses for Patrick Henry College, and a Master Teacher for the PHC Prep Academy Online. Erin is also the mom of 13 children by birth, marriage, and adoption and has been homeschooling for 27 years. She lives in Ohio with her husband, five children still at home, and three amazingly-smart (and cuddly) Australian Labradoodles. You can read more of Erin’s articles on parenting at www.erinbrownconroy.com.
David Stoepker, Psy.D., is a clinical psychologist at Pine Rest Christian Mental HealthServices in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he’s worked with children and families for 20years. For information on his availability for workshops on Putting the Fun into Parenting, email Dr. Stoepker at www.PineRest.org.
Used with Permission.
