Other parenting podcasts that help me during my commute are The Manic Mommies, The Mommy Cast, The Daddy Cast, and Kids Wife Work Life.  While I don’t always agree with them, I certainly understand where they are coming from as parents.  I love their guests, and hearing their perspectives on parenting. 

If you have a long commute and want some fresh ideas and “friends” to make the trip with you, check out these great podcasters.

They have grown three inches since fall, no wonder they are looking bigger! 

We went to their first IMAX movie in 3D.  It was fun to watch them take the glasses on and off depending on the “scariness” of what was on the screen.  I had to chuckle when DD tried to reach out an touch one of the animals on the screen.

Overall it was a great success and we are now preparing for summer sports activity, soccer and baseball.

It was their birthday, why is that I’m the one feeling older?

why-im-homeschooling-my-kid-in-science-next-year

It is also why it is unlikely our children will ever be educated in a traditional school environment.  Our DD would do great at filling out her notebook perfectly and doing great in  the course work as well.  However, our DS would never complete the notebook for top grade.  He detests busy work.  All work must mean something and add to the educational experience.  He is a visual/spatial learner.  He understands the big picture first and then seeks to understand the parts, which is anathema to traditional classroom pedagogy.

So we will continue to home-school until there is a school like the Watershed School in Boulder, CO.

And then I began to wonder…
Does Santa take Lipitor?
In order to be good role model for children, should Santa be forced to go on a diet? (Will he need gastric bypass surgery to maintain a healthy weight?)
Should we set out carrot sticks instead of cookies?
Will a skinny Santa ruin Christmas?
Is the arctic ice cap melting because Santa has to produce more toys each year for the growing population of earth’s children? 

Hmmmmmm…

So from now until Thanksgiving, we’re going to have them write down on slips of paper, one thing each day they are thankful for.  We’ll put the slips of paper in a jar, and then after our Thanksgiving meal, we will take turns pulling a slip of paper out of the jar and read it aloud.

Do you have ideas that you have used to make holidays more meaningful for your kids?

A little about how we went about it.  The twins learned the alphabet pretty much on their own using alphabet blocks, educational videos, and just natural inquisitiveness.  We have read to them all along, but never asked them to read back to us or spent any time teaching them words. 

Then they were reaching kindergarten age and we wanted to assess their abilities.  So we started teaching them simple two and three letter words.  They loved this “game” so we looked for a way to incorporate these words into actual reading.  We found a series of books that systematically starts with this concept and builds on it.  They are the BOB BOOKS.  The illustrations are simple and non-distracting, putting the emphasis on the reading.  We started with the Level 1 box and kept going through Level 3 (there are 5 levels), having them repeat each book until they could go all the way through each one without assistance.  By then they were reading not only the BOB BOOKS, but everything they could get their hands on.

We quickly had to move on to more advanced language and vocabulary building lessons and exercises, but the BOB BOOKS were a great foundation.

How many other descriptors is there for this time of year? 

We are struggling with the question of what are the appropriate gifts this year.  The twins want several toys that can also double for educational uses with their home school studies, so those seem okay, not too much guilt there.  But which ones for Christmas and which ones do we save for birthday which is in February?  Which ones do they actually need?

Purchased gifts…easy.  Homemade gifts…more time needed but more meaningful. 

There’s only 7 weeks left, how much can I get done?  What to do?

The bad part is that one has a nut allergy and the other has a corn allergy.  Tell me what candy doesn’t have either a nut or corn product in it? So most of the night’s take will go with me to work to share with coworkers, and we will need to have something fun to replace the candy we’ll need to take away.

Thankfully we don’t have to go to too many houses, because they told us they would like to hurry home and give candy to others and see costumes that others are wearing. 

Hmmm…maybe we ARE doing something right.

The list also incorporates Kolberg’s stages of moral development, to show that different developmental researchers have developed similar stages but with different emphases.

What is fascinating to me is that “It is also not possible to ‘jump’ forward stages; each stage provides a new yet necessary perspective, and is more comprehensive, differentiated, and integrated than its predecessors.”  Each stage “transcends and includes” the prior stages.

Upon reading the EPAs fact sheet on lead and children’s health, I notice there is a marked absence of any mention of toys as a leading cause of lead poisoning among children.  Rather, the primary environmental means of lead poisoning in children mentioned are paint dust from deteriorating paint in homes and schools older than 1978, paint dust during remodeling of houses and schools of the same age, contaminated soil, and drinking water distributed to houses via lead pipes.  Even under the rare causes, toys are not mentioned.

I found another EPA booklet addressing lead in the home.  This booklet does mention toys, but only if put in the mouth.  The booklet specifically says that lead is not absorbed through the skin.  So is it safe to conclude that an older child that no longer puts toys and fingers in their mouth and practices standard hand washing hygiene should experience no danger from toys painted with lead paint?  Or am I missing something?