Tag: playgroup

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Family

Did you tell the baby you were going to playgroup?

Do you take your baby to a playgroup? Does your baby love it?

I have attempted to take our baby boy to the playgroup that is at the twin’s school. I thought that this would be ideal. I am already at the school after dropping off the girls and while there it would be perfect for the baby to play, and it might mean I can get a drink by myself. Well I can hope can’t I.

This playgroup at the kid’s school is lovely, the organisers have toys all laid out and so many things for all different age groups to play with.

I have on several occasions we have gone and I have put the baby down so he can explore. There are so many things that would allow him to have fun and have new experiences. Although he did not enjoy his time and just was a hysterical mess; crying, screaming and grabbing for me. He just wanted mummy and cuddles. Don’t put the baby down was the message.

Baby upset. Not sure why. Could be the fact it is a new environment at playgroup.
Baby upset. Not sure why. Could be the fact it is a new environment at playgroup.

There were a few moments where he looked like he was okay. I then told him that I was just getting my coffee and will be back soon. He must have thought I was leaving him and he sped crawled to me and tried to climb up my legs to get into my arms. Oh the poor little boy.

I explained all this to my husband and he asked, “Did you tell him what you were doing and where you were going?”

I responded with, “I told the baby that I was just getting a coffee but I did not tell the baby we were going to playgroup? Do you think he is upset due to not being told where we were going?”

Hubby laughed at me. I thought he was asking whether I explained to the baby exactly where we were going and what we were doing. I did not, although I did tell the baby I was just getting my drink.

This got me thinking… Do you tell your baby where you are going? I try to and although I didn’t that day, I did tell the baby that I was just getting my coffee and would be straight back, although he freaked out about this as well.

Yes, I know that the baby does not know what I am saying. He cannot talk and panics when he thinks it looks like I am leaving, although I was coming back.

  • Maybe it was his teeth?
  • Maybe it was the fact he was not feeling well?
  • Could it be the fact that he is not feeling comfortable in the space and was scared?

I ended up leaving due to the fact that Alexander was shaking, crying and just really upset. Small steps I think is best if your baby is not liking something or finding things hard. Also if they are upset best to leave and make them feel secure, calm and comfortable.

So what I thought hubby was saying was if I just told the baby, “We are going to playgroup today” then he would have been happier? I don’t know. I don’t think so. I have been back to the same group and I think our little boy is not feeling comfortable in the space. It could be the size of the room, too many people or something that I will never be able to answer.

It could just take time for him to get used to certain situations. Have you been to places where your baby is not happy or 100% and other places they are super happy? What do you think the issue is? Have you figured it out?

Categories
3 years and beyond

The Toddler View

The “Enjoying Your Toddler” class was very interesting. The two main points for me were:

  1. How you talk to your child – Language is very important. If you as a parent say, “Stop doing that!” The child thinks, “What is that?”, or the parent might say, “Stop touching that!”, and again, what is that to the child. So the tip here is to say, “Stop touching the DVD Player/Computer”, make sure that what you are referring to is named.  This way there is no confusion on what it is the child should stop doing.This I do, however the girls seem to keep on going back and doing it anyway. I was asked what I do to try and stop this behaviour. I end up having to remove the child from what I don’t want them to do, and this happens repeatedly. Hope to get other ideas on how to deal with determined children and this behaviour.
  2. We did one exercise where one of us stood on a chair and held the hand of the other who was kneeling to pretend that they were the toddler/child. This was to mimic the way we treat kids when we have to quickly get to the shops and other outings. Only after 2mins or less my arm was hurting and I can imagine that it is a scary view of your parent if they are angry. It was brought to my attention very quickly that trying to be at their level is very important. I do this quite often and try and make sure that I knell down to explain things and to have chats and just be with each of my girls. However this cannot happen when you are out and about, holding hands when crossing the road or on the footpath, trying to hold your hand bag and other items.

Although I felt that I do the things mentioned, it is good to remember to always try to be at the child’s level, and to put things in a context that a child can understand.   Kids are not adults and as mentioned today, it is like they are from a different planet learning our ways as new members of our society.

Do you find that you seem to do everything right, and still you don’t get the outcome that you had hoped?  I am keen to see what next week will bring, as it deals with discipline.  What are your techniques to explain things to a child or tell them not to do something?

Just an example, last Christmas my mother told Julia that she had a nice sun dress. She looked puzzled and said “This is not a sun dress! It does not have a sun on it!” Yes she was right it did not have a sun on the dress. My girls and I suppose others kids take things so literally. We might call it a sun dress but it might be called something else entirely by the child.   This example shows how what you say to a child can be misunderstood or just lost. Choosing how you explain things and what you say can help fix some issues. I am keen to see how it will help in our household.

Categories
3 years and beyond

Enjoying your toddler?

Tomorrow I start the course called, “Enjoying Your Toddler”. Not sure if this course is aptly named, I have thought of alternatives. “Surviving Your Toddler”, “How to get your toddler to listen to you”, or “How to discipline your toddler”. These alternates titles is what every parent would rather call the course, although I do agree I would like to enjoy my children more, so maybe this title is the better one.

I am not sure what to expect from this course and I am keen to learn some new techniques to help deal with two wilful, stubborn, very active three year olds. Who knows. If I get one or two tips from this course it might help out and be the answer to some issues we have been facing currently.  The girls seem to be running amok and all over the place. I really think it is down to their age and the fact that they are exploring new things at school and through friends, testing boundaries at home is getting exhausting.

I will make sure to bring a notepad and a pen to take notes on any tactic that will help me out. If I do get a great tip I will let you all know, you never know it might help others as well.  Have you done any parenting courses? Have they helped? Or were they a waste of time?  If these courses were winners with you, what was the major thing that you got out of it?

Hopefully by the end of the course I will come out enjoying the kids more and have more skills to deal with issues. Thanks to Jeanette the coordinator of playgroup for bringing this course to my attention.

Categories
3 years and beyond Katoomba and Weather Potty Training Pre-School

Too Easy

The girls successfully have completed their first week at pre-school. They both had a great time, however Julia took a bit of work to get organised in the mornings to get out the door. Julia decided that she did not like her shirt, shoes, did not want her hair brushed and dealt with this by falling down in the hallway screaming and crying. Once out the door and at school she was fine. I am thinking it is due to the new schedule and the change from childcare to pre-school. I could be wrong, she was doing this before, and so it could just be a stage.

Today was the first day not at school this week so we all went to playgroup. It was a wonderful change in the weather to have blue skies and sunshine and currently still do. Crossing fingers it lasts more than a day. Due to the good weather, I have done about 3 loads of washing, clothes are on the line and we all walked to playgroup. Well, mummy walked the girls were in the pram. Although the girls are big enough to walk, it is easier to take the pram. The girls end up getting tired and I cannot carry everything with me. When we go, I bring their potties as there is only one toilet, what to do if someone is in it and one of the girls or both need to go? So I take our own. Better to be organised.

The other mums were asking me, and the girls how they went at pre-school this week. Anna asked Julia and Lillian, and then Lillian said, “It is too easy”.  I thought that was very funny coming from them as this is the first week at the new school, however on Wednesday the teachers were giving them tasks to learn about the colours or at least see if they know them. Both girls know all their colours so it was no big thing for them. They were also asked to put a pink block tower back together once the teacher took it apart.  They had water play, painting and collage. So at this stage it is possibly easy. Not sure what else is in store for them this term, but I am sure there will be other things that they have never done, that won’t be “too easy”. Or maybe it is for them, who knows, we will see.

Yesterday Julia wanted to put her seat belt on in the car all by herself, and gets annoyed when it does not happen. She ends up twisting the straps so it makes it impossible to get it clicked in place no matter who long she struggles with it. She gets in such a mood that I cannot show her how to sort the straps out. She does not want me to touch it as that is considered mummy fixing it and she wants to do it. She yells, screams and cries, “I want to do it, me, let me!!!”, however you cannot just stand there for hours waiting for a seat belt to be done up. Lillian the other day has figured it out.  It does not help that she says proudly “I did it”.

The new pre-school fosters independence which is good, but as Julia had this breakdown with the seat belt 3 times yesterday I was so over independence. Just let me do it, so that we can get going. It is a pity that the mood she gets in she will not listen to what I am saying, I am happy that she tries to do it, however I need to show her how and then I am happy to watch her do it, but not when it is all wrong and never going to work.

Both girls are now able to get in and out of the pram themselves. They can put their seat belts on and Lillian can take her’s off as well. Julia can put it on but has some trouble getting it off, this will change in time. It is nice that you can tell the girls to go into the pram and get their seat belts on and they do. Very relaxing indeed.

Let’s hope that school is “too easy” for the girls, and they do well. This might change when they move to big school in 2014, or at least to harder concepts at the pre-school.

Does your child want to do things by themselves? Is it easy for them or do they struggle? Are they doing some things better than others? How do you manage with the child/children trying to do things themselves when you need to be out the door for an appointment? I usually take over if I need to be somewhere and deal with the tantrums and screams.

Categories
3 years and beyond

Tired and a lot to do

Julia and Lillian have had a great day so far, they seem tired but will never admitt it. If I say they are tired, they say, “NO I am not tired!!!!” So they are not tired.  We have all been off to see everyone at playgroup and as the girls start pre-school next week this will be the last Tuesday at playgroup for a while.

After playgroup we went off to the airfield to visit Enid and Rod. Enid said that she was off home tomorrow so wanted to say goodbye until we see her next time. The girls ran around and Onyx the cat came out from hiding to let the girls cuddle, kiss and to pat him.  Very brave of the cat.

Now we are home and watching the recorded play school that was on this morning. Oh the joy and happiness as it was discovered it was Jay and Abi on this show. Abi is Lillian’s favourite and Jay is Julia’s favourite. I make sure to keep the girls favourites as it seems that Abi is not on the new play school any more, just the re runs.

Did not tidy up the whole kitchen as I did yesterday before I left so need to tidy it up a little bit but not like yesterday, so should be o.k. The girls are drinking some milk and after the show will go to their room for a nap well I will hope for, but most likely some loud playing with giggles. Maybe some quiet time if I am lucky.

I will use that quick hour or so to clean and tidy a bit and to sort out what we will have for dinner, plus need to get organised to start the pants project for the girls. If you don’t know I have purchased some material to make some new pants for the girls. Isn’t it always the way it is hard to start a project but once you have started it is easier than you first thought.  Just need to start it.

However after all this activity I am very tired and think I need to rest as well. Maybe a sleep might be in order. I feel terrible having a nap as the things that needed to get done still does not get done and it just gets later to do them.

One thing that James and I need to find is our camera battery charger, for some strange reason it has disappeared. Very annoying as I want to charge the batteries so that I can take first day of school photos of the girls. Pictures on my camera phone don’t seem to do the image any justice. Maybe we just need to get a new charger, however doing that will make the lost one appear.  At least that is a solution, however I need to find it before the 13th of Feb. We have looked everywhere and still have no idea where it has gone.

It is overcast and very wet here again and seems like autumn might be on its way early. I hope not but as we have really not had a summer it may as well.