Feelings - The Mommy Teacher

Not Your Average Children’s Book Review (#2)

Here is my second book review in a three part review because there was absolutely no way for me to clump three amazing books together in one post. Each book truly deserved it’s own lane.

Next up on my review parade is “The Sneaky Parents,” which is also written by Rebecca Ventre. This author is funny, endearing, and so engaging. You feel the nostalgia of a child-like perspective when you read her books, and it is really captivating so get wrapped up in. The author’s family was the inspiration behind the characters and even the art pictured here on the cover is a sketch of actual artwork of the author’s children.

This book has some of us thinking that if we “judge a book by it’s cover” then we might make some lofty assumptions of what actually goes on in this book! But, this story is in fact kid-friendly, and worth finding out what is so sneaky about these parents.

“The Sneaky Parents” is written from a child’s perspective about what takes place after bedtime. As parents, I think we can all agree that bedtime can be a BEAR, but this is actually the perfect bedtime read because it revolves around the realities and necessity of bedtime. I like that this book is the perfect length because I don’t know about you, but a long bedtime story is hard for me to get through.

My Teaching Moments: When I read this book to my kids I like to ask them “What would you do if you could stay up all night?” I encourage them to go to sleep thinking about those things because if they do, they will probably dream about them. And, if so, it will be just like staying up all night doing those things without being too tired the next day. I also like to tell my kiddos about the things I do like cleaning, laundry, and getting ready for the next day because it helps them to understand that mommy needs bedtime to go smoothly so I can be ready for the day ahead.

This book is so cute. I love a good bedtime story, and this one is one of those books that if my kids want me to read it “again” I actually want to read it again.

September 29, 2019 by Jessica | 0 comments

Not Your Average Children’s Book Review (#1)

I have been thinking so much lately about how ready I am to get back into the swing of things and start sharing again. What better way to start than with a children’s book review?

I am writing a review about “The Grouchy Mom” by Rebecca Ventre first because who can’t relate to being a grouchy mom? Especially if you are reading this at 4:00 in the afternoon because if that isn’t the hardest time of the day then I don’t know what is. Well, maybe if you are reading this at 4 AM in which case… I am sending thoughts and prayers for all the grouchy mommas who just dream about a good night’s sleep.

“The Grouchy Mom” is relatable, clever, and really easy to embody the voice of the main character. The story is shared from the child’s perspective. The child just can’t fathom why her mom could be the grouchy one when SHE is the one who is getting the short end of the stick ALL DAY LONG. At the end of the day, the little girl develops some empathy for her mom, but doesn’t necessarily see her part in contributing to her mom’s grouchiness. It has humor, sentiment, and room for making teachable moments which is always my favorite thing about a book.

My teaching moments: I love this children’s book because with each page, I like to ask my kids “Why do you think the mom is grouchy?” And my kids can understand the reasons that maybe they couldn’t see before introducing this book. I also like to ask my kids “Is there a way the little girl can talk to her mom in a way that helps her mom? Maybe use a calm voice? Maybe she could something to do while she waits for her mom to finish cooking? Maybe she could help tidy up?” And I like to hear their ideas about it even more!

This book is A MUST for all mommas, and my kids request it as a bedtime read quite often.

September 29, 2019 by Jessica | 0 comments

My Kids Watch TV – Mommy Teacher Spotlight

For the last couple years I always sat back amazed at my sister Becca who would dissolve problems between our oldest children who are not even two days apart in age.

When our kids would fight over a toy she would start singing “You can take a turn, and then I’ll give it back” and they would almost immediately jump in singing and taking turns became a game.

When they got mad she would start singing “If you’re feeling mad and you want to roar… take a deep breath and count to four – 1 -2 -3- 4.” And they calmed down and started counting.

When we were about to leave the park she would sing, “It’s almost time to go, so choose one more thing to do. That was fun and now we’re through.”

I learned techniques similar to this in my under-grad and my teaching experience so I always sat back amazed that she would handle guidance in such an age-approriate way!

After about six months of enjoying her little songs, we finally discovered “Daniel Tiger” (The PBS TV show) I finally made the connection, calling my sister on the phone saying, “BECCA! Hahah I am just now figuring it out! I love it! You stole (“borrowed”) those guidance techniques from the show – you are so smart!”

It’s funny because experts help write kid-friendly series to make them educational and some people treat TV like it is the devil. Or, you feel like you are a bad parent if your kids watch TV – NOT TRUE! There are plenty of shows (especially on PBS kids) that are beneficial for kids – especially when you watch them, pause them, discuss them, dialogue with your kids about them, and even use some of the same tips in your parenting.

I tell Sean Patrick all the time not to take things out of someone else’s hands because he doesn’t want to be a swiper (Dora).

Swiper No Swiping

Or if he wants all the toys to himself I tell him to share like Jake not to be greedy like Captain Hook (Jake and the Neverland Pirates)

Don't be Greedy

Here is a guidance song that I didn’t know as well, but it is something we experience every day with our little ones:

And here is another on feelings:

Are there any quotes/songs from TV shows your kids watch that have helped your parenting?

March 14, 2014 by Jessica | 0 comments

Showing Your Children How They Communicate

Recently, in my “Parenting is Heart Work” group, we talked about how some children have a VERY hard time taking “no” for an answer.

Anyone? Anyone else experience this with their child?

I’m wondering if there are parents who don’t relate to this?!?

Well, children don’t recognize that when they don’t say “Yes ma’am” or “Yes Sir” to our rules and expectations that they appear to “disrespect” our authority. They simply can’t comprehend why we would deprive them of joy…. ever. Kids are like “Wait you are my parent… you are supposed to meet all my wants and needs in my timing at all times” haha they are adorably mistaken.

But, we have a little of that in us as adults as well; so, instant gratification is not a foreign concept for us either.

Either way, we have a big responsibility to ensure that our children become civilized little beings who can communicate in healthy ways… and unfortunately sometimes we don’t exactly model healthy responses. As parents we can often be more reactive than anything else.

When Sean Patrick crosses his arms, throws himself on the floor, or loses his control, he doesn’t know that not only are his words destructive but his voice level and his body language also need to be replaced with appropriate responses.

So, I created a visual to show him how he communicates with me.

I talked to him about all the different ways we can communicate about something and I made up stories about the children in a few of the pictures. I strategically “make up” stories that are past examples of Sean Patrick’s impulsive responses.

For the picture of the demanding child crossing his arms I might say “This is Johnny. Johnny’s mommy said that he couldn’t have a gummy snack until after dinner, and Johnny said ‘NO! I want it NOW!’ Can you see what Johnny’s face and arms are doing? Do you think he is ready to listen and say “Okay mommy!” Or do you think he is going to make his problem worse? (Sean Patrick said he is not listening to his mom and he needs to get in control) . The way Johnny is speaking to his mom with a mean face and crossed arms shows his mommy that he is demanding she listen to him instead of using his words to talk about the problem. Can you tell Johnny that he can have a happy heart and wait until after dinner to get his fruit snack?”

We talk about the pictures and we also practice coping and fixing our problems AFTER we have a problem and he cools down I might say, “Sean Patrick what went wrong when we had that problem earlier? Did you try hard to calm down and talk about the problem or were you out of control?” (He usually is very honest about his emotions. After we talk about that then we practice our coping strategies: breathing, counting, walking out of the room for a minute, etc.

I hope this helps you too!

If you want this printable you can get it HERE

November 11, 2013 by Jessica | 0 comments

Make My Pumpkin

In the spirit of Halloween, I wanted to do an art project with my 4-year-old while my 6-year-old was at school. My middle child loves and cherishes this one-on-one time with Mommy. Jess’ post on Monday inspired us to make our own Jack-O-Lanterns, but I had a different objective in mind.

I was also inspired by a “find the differences” book I was reading with Leyson that has two near-identical pictures side by side, but with subtle differences. Each page asks you to “find (x-amount of) differences” which may be as simple as the omission of an object in the picture or a change of color, shape, size or placement of an object.

The objective of our activity was for my son to be able to both point out and fix the differences between my picture and his picture to make them the same, and also to recreate the picture I created… in this case, a pumpkin.

Materials needed: construction paper, scissors, maybe some glue after the activity 🙂

Mommy Prep: Using orange construction paper, I cut out two large pumpkin shapes, and lots of different sized rectangles*, triangles, circles, squares and other various shapes with brown, yellow and black paper.

*I cut out 4 different types of rectangle stems to bring in some vocabulary to our activity: short, long, thick, thin

IMG_20131021_085735_081 Leyson first had to close his eyes (or cover his face with a blanket because I learned that I can’t trust him to keep his eyes closed) and count to twenty while I arranged the different shapes to make a face on my pumpkin. Apparently, counting to twenty now means omitting numbers 14 and 19, so we will be working on that again soon.

I started off with a simple face. Two circles for eyes, a circle for a nose, a fat, brown rectangle and a U-shape for a smiley mouth.

When he got to 20, he pulled the blanket off of his face, he had to use the remaining shapes to make his pumpkin look just like my pumpkin.

To make the project more challenging in other rounds, I layered some of the shapes such as using smaller circles on top of larger circles for the eyes.

The most difficult part of the activity was when I used only triangles to make a face and he had to figure out which direction the triangles were facing. It’s harder than it looks!

We experimented with all the different things we could learn from making pumpkins:

Feelings/Emotions: We made happy pumpkins, and sad pumpkins, and angry pumpkins, and scared pumpkins… and talked about why each pumpkin was feeling the way they were feeling.

Counting/More or Less: Sometimes Mommy’s pumpkin had 4 teeth, sometimes it had more or less.

Compare and Contrast: “What is different about the nose on your pumpkin and the nose on my pumpkin?” “Do our pumpkins have the same shaped mouth?”

Vocabulary: Colors, shapes, sizes, parts of the face

Spacial Awareness: “Are the eyes close together or far apart?” “If you put the eyes in the middle of the pumpkin, can we fit a nose and a mouth too?”

Phonemic Awareness & Writing: We segmented the sounds in pumpkin /p/ /u/ /m/ /p/ /k/ /i/ /n/… which is pretty hard to do when your child pronounces it like “po’kin” but we wrote the real word on the back of our project.

When you are finished the activity, grab some glue so you can add some Halloween decor to your house!

Who needs to buy decorations from the store, when with a little glue and tape you can make your house ready for any holiday?!

October 23, 2013 by Casey | 0 comments

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