High Maintenance Mom

I am a huge fan of good manners. I am not talking militant manners but the basic good manners many kids and even adults lack. My 4 year old loves to write so with the Make Your Own Thank You Notes she got for her birthday we have been writing thank you notes for some time now. My 2 year old son likes to add his drawings. Here is how I engage my kids in writing thank you cards...

I did a lot of searching before I settled on my daughter's school. Now that she is in full pre school mode, I am eager to see the monthly calendar that outlines their learning for the month. While free and structured play are very important, I think many people underestimate how much a 3 year old can learn (and have fun at the same time). This month, my daughter's classroom went "traveling around the world" with "passports" they made with their picture and stamps from the countries they visited, India, Ireland & Iran.

We just found a great new show on PBS called Sid The Science Kid. It's smart with some very catchy songs in it. Sid is a want to know it all preschooler with very hip parents (like me!). He goes to school each day wondering about a new thing (science related). His parents, friends and teacher help him find answers to his questions.

During pregnancy, moms are accustomed to a variety of screening tests for conditions such as Down syndrome and diabetes. The rationale for these tests is not to make moms anxious about their pregnancy but to identify potential pregnancy problems to allow for timely intervention.

What is kick counting?
Kick counting, a daily systematic record of moms’ perception of their baby’s movement during the third trimester, is a reliable, harmless, simple and effective screening for the baby’s well-being. Kick counting can document changes in the fetal movement pattern and can help moms-to-be alert their healthcare provider of potential problems. A timely evaluation can allow intervention and prevention of potential problems, including stillbirth.

Looking for bilingual resources for the Kindergirl, I came across this really excellent online library of children's books from around the world: International Children's Digital Library They have a straightforward mechanism for paging through the books, easy enough for a five year old, and a very nice search facility (though I have yet to crack the code behind the book cover colors): Simple Search

I have to admit that I am very interested in the whole going green trend and hope that it isn't a trend for long but turns into something we all do. In that light, I have begun researching and doing some things to make my family's lives more eco-friendly. Going green isn't cheap so I am starting small with food items as I learn what foods are best organic (soft skin fruits for example) and moving my way up to home items like sheets.

B's class at school has a calendar up on the wall to mark all their important activities. Days are marked for the days when friends are moving or have vacations planned, pajama day, share day, farm day, and the end of the year party. It looked like a great idea so I thought I would put up a calendar at home too. I bought the write-on-wipe-off $1.00 one at Target and started to fill in August. I had filled in one through 14 before B started to cry. He wanted to fill in his birthday month. Then he got even more upset when I started to fill in his birthday month and didn't start with the one in the far left corner...

I received email from a friend about all the baby pandas that have been born in the past year in China. Below is the news story she sent along with a few more pictures. The pandas are really cute. If you search on baby panda Sichuan Wolong you will find the latest news...

If you are looking for fun stamps, the U.S. Postal Service currently has animal stamps honoring eight cherished characters from children's literature. These are great for sending letters to other kids or to your own kids; I occasionally send the kids postcards. The stamps include the following animals (taken from the USPS site where you can order the stamps with links to the books on Amazon)...

The other night we had a GeoKids room meeting that was one of the best meetings I've attended. It started with a simple request, write down some of your favorite childhood play memories. Take a minute and think about yours. You don't have to write them down, but think about the things you did as a child. My memories involved building forts, jumping in leaves, climbing on anything we could find, and exploring. I found myself remembering more as others' mentioned their favorites activities. Memories of a next-door-neighbor we moved away from when I was six and memories of my new next-door-neighbor, who happens to be due with her first as I write this...