High Maintenance Mom

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...

Today B and I went to the library to turn in our summer reading sheets. I had to run back into the house to grab my library card and somehow in the chaos of getting out the door, missed the reading logs. Luckily, our local library let me fill in new sheets and we all received our books...

I attended the GeoKids workshop last night on Language and Literacy. The workshop covered language development and writing; the beginning reading part was skipped because we ran out of time. I would summarize the language development piece with the statement that it's important to engage our children. For example, a child points saying, "nah nah nah" and we respond by labeling the things the child might be looking at, even if it's the fifth time that day. I would summarize the writing piece with a paraphrase of Stacey's Literacy Manifesto -- through many experiences in play and in living we need to convey to children that literacy is powerful. Once they realize the power, they will have a reason to learn to read and write...