The older kid thread

[taz157]

Jan 10, 2013 10:56:59 GMT -5 @beerwench said:

DD has declared she is going to be an Artist when she grows up, so I guess I should be saving it all for her museum.

At one point, I was going to be an Artist. Instead, I'm a CPA.

[Wisconsin Beth]

One of my nieces used to insist she was going to be a princess. She was 16-17 at the time. She's also going to Purdue for Engineering. ;D

[Deleted]

Does "her Highness" require a private dorm, too?

[Wisconsin Beth]

Jan 10, 2013 11:47:45 GMT -5 @beerwench said:

Does "her Highness" require a private dorm, too?

lol. She's really a practical down to earth kid, except for this. Always followed her own beat, which is leading her into being an Engineering. But no amount of peer pressure sways this kid.

[singlemomky]

Jan 10, 2013 10:33:15 GMT -5 saveinla said:

Beth,

Collect everything for the year and at the end of the year, make a small booklet of really great or weird things and throw everything else out - or do this as you go. My son's 3rd grade teacher did this for all her students. At the end of the year, she gave the parents a memory book. I did this for all his elementary school stuff.

I do something similar - I have a box that I set in a corner of my office/spare room at the beginning of each school year. My DS is in 3rd grade right now. I collect all the "possible" keepers throughout the year (and since I put them on the top of the box, they are pretty much in reverse chronological order) and then during the summer, we go through it and pick out a few things starting at the beginning of the year. It really shows the progress from the beginning of the year to the end and I only have to keep about a dozen or so pieces (whether art or writing or projects). I then place them in one container labeled with the school & calendar year.

[Chocolate Lover]

Jan 10, 2013 10:56:59 GMT -5 @beerwench said:

DD has declared she is going to be an Artist when she grows up, so I guess I should be saving it all for her museum.

My DD is going to be an artist or maybe a babysitter. I told her she needs to pick a job that will support her. I may have spent too much time at YM

[Wisconsin Beth]

lol.

We may take the kids to the Zoo tomorrow. Supposed to be in the 40s-50s. ;D

[sbcalimom]

I just posted this on the other parenting thread but since DD1 is 3.5 and in preschool I thought some of you all may have some advice too:
Advice Needed:
So DD1 has started getting in trouble at school. On Tuesday, she wasn't listening and was upset so she threw her shoes at her teacher. I made her apologize to her teacher and when she got home, DH and I had a long talk with her. She also didn't get her reward sticker for having a good day at school. Wed/Th she did well but today, she got in trouble again. She wasn't listening to her teacher at nap time and again threw her shoes at someone (relief teacher I think). She also refused to listen to her teacher or the asst. director so she got sent to the office to sit there so she wouldn't disturb the rest of her class. I made her apologize to her teacher and to the director. I also took her iPad away until Sunday and told her she had to earn the privilege to go to school on Monday by listening and being a good girl this weekend. She also had to sit in her room by herself for awhile once DH and I got done talking with her. The main issue seems to be starting from her desire to play with her toy that she brings from home during nap/rest time which isn't allowed. I told her that from now on, whatever little toy she brings has to stay in the car. Since she can't handle it during school, it will sit in her carseat until she gets done with school.

I'm not sure what else to do. She just started going 5x a week this last week so maybe that has something to do with it?? Do I just keep talking to her over the weekend and on everyday before school for awhile and hope things calm down again?

[moosmommy]

That's what I would do. How long is the car trip to and from preschool? Could she just leave the item at home?

[sbcalimom]

The ride is like 5 minutes, 10 tops. She doesn't need a toy for the ride, I just figured it might be a little easier to transition to not taking anything to school if she could have it in the car and then have it waiting when she was done. Ideally after a week or two, we'd just leave the item at home.

[973beachbum]

Jan 11, 2013 20:54:01 GMT -5 sbcalimom said:

The ride is like 5 minutes, 10 tops. She doesn't need a toy for the ride, I just figured it might be a little easier to transition to not taking anything to school if she could have it in the car and then have it waiting when she was done. Ideally after a week or two, we'd just leave the item at home.

I would skip the toys totallly also. I don' think she is mature enough yet to handle having it there but not being able to play with it, hence the tantrum. Three and a half is still really young so I wouldn't worry abou it but I would want to nip this in the bud before it becomes a habit.

We got 2 Kindle's this Christmas and I must say they are easy to become addicted to.

[Wisconsin Beth]

They are. I love mine. And the kids love it too.

Keep an eye on the free app of the day - there was a game aimed at younger kids there yesterday.

[telephus44]

I agree with leaving the toy in the car. It's a little out of sight out of mind, too.

So since the holidays I've really been thinking about quitting my job. Thought about it enough to mention it to DH. He's ok with the idea, although not thrilled. I'm not sure yet if it's just me being stressed out or actually a good idea, so I wanted to bounce my reasoning by you all and get some feedback.

Firstly - work has been crappy lately. For my department, I'm more knowledgable than most of my co-workers, so I've always tended to not follow the rules. For example, instead of asking my manager for guidance on what type of paper to quote on, I'll contact purchasing directly and talk it over with them. Or instead of asking for a rush shipment in the morning production meeting I'll just call my shipping department directly and tell them what needs to go out. In the past, management has always been ok with this - to the point where it was brought up as a positive in my last review. I've been rewarded with additional responsbilities and priviledges. But a few months ago they decided there were too many "internal conversations" and they didn't want us to work that way. It's really put a cramp in my style. I've also been assigned to handle a new rep that works very differently from me. I've lost my biggest account to handle a lot of smaller duties, and in some way I feel like I've gone backwards. I spend a lot of my time quoting jobs that we never land.

I'm not sure if this is a phase that will pass, or not. I also have to say that DH's car died on New Years Day, so having to trade off with one car SUCKS. I'm stuck at work all day and get picked up late. It's making scheduling a living hell. Owen has ABA apppointments 5 days out of 7, and right now we're going through a med adjustment and IEP stuff, so I pretty much feel like I just barely get to work when I have to turn around and handle some personal crap.

The big tipping point when I got serious enough to mention it to DH was this Friday. I had a doctor's appointment at 10am for Owen, and I took the whole day off from work, I was planning on taking the afternoon off. Take a nap, read a book, maybe get a pedicure. Instead, I spent the entire day shuffling my family around. We didn't get home until 7:45pm and then I had to make dinner. At this point, I'm like F this, why do I bother working when there's this much crap that needs to be done!? and DH is unemployed now, it will be worse on the homefront when he gets a job.

So - am I crazy? Last week was also that time of month, so I'm not ruling out hormonal frustrations.

If I did quit, I'd try and keeping my purchasing functions and work from home part time. There's someone else in our department who does this, so I have precedent. I also would look to do this by the end of the year, not like next month.

Budgetwise I can make it work. We'd have to scale back some savings and some spending.

So - reality check?

[dakota4600]

I've been on a technology break, but have a question about allowances. DS is 4.5 and really starting to ask for things, so we are contemplating an allowance so he can start early about making trade offs (ie spend $3 dollars this week or have $6 next week.) Does anyone give allowances if so how much (we are thinking of $5, $1 to save, $1 to give and $3 for spending).

Telephus- I personally would take your time with this decision. See what develops over the next few months and polish up your resume and see what else is out there. If DH isn't working are you carrying all the health insurance, could you afford to cover everyone without a job?

Kids art-  I keep a bin with all his work for the school year and then when I get a deal on a Shutterfly book, I scan or take pictures and make a book of his artwork.  then I can throw away all the stuff.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Ok, the board ate my post about the toothfairy coming. 

Let me try again. 

Keira lost her 1st tooth at school yesterday, during lunch.  They stuck it in a cute little tooth shaped container and tied a string on it.  We looped it over her bedpost.  The toothfairy brought her $2.  Yeah, we cheaped out. 

[whoisjohngalt]

I've been on a technology break, but have a question about allowances.
DS is 4.5 and really starting to ask for things, so we are contemplating
an allowance so he can start early about making trade offs (ie spend $3
dollars this week or have $6 next week.) Does anyone give allowances
if so how much (we are thinking of $5, $1 to save, $1 to give and $3 for
spending).

I don't know if this will be helpful as I don't like the idea of allowance at all, but here is what been happening with my kid, he is 4.5 also.

My mom has given him random amounts of money, usually $5 at a time.  We have been spending  A LOT of time in stores, while he is trying to figure out what he wants to buy, etc.  He also (his idea) put some money in the donation box we have at home, but it was much smaller than the amount he spend on candy bars.  I didn't really care about the amount as much as I appreciated that he is getting an idea about giving.

As far as savings - I don't know if we are there yet.  But here is an example of what happened a few weeks ago.

We were at AC Moore and he wanted a basket.  He wanted to get a basket for himself and one for his brother.  He had $11 and baskets were $5 each.  So, I told him, he can go ahead and get it, but he won't have any money left.  He decided not to get them and get two cheap candy bars instead.   So, I guess he "saved" for the future?  Or just made a choice of not spending all of it?  I don't know....  Right now, I don't care that much.  But it's been a great way for him to practice his addition and subtraction skills. 

Oh and  I don't confuse him with change yet.  So, if candy bar is 1.09, I just put in .09 - without the whole explanation of 100cents to a dollar thing.

So, basically, I like the idea of him having money, but I don't like the allowance idea.

[Deleted]

"They" say that allowances shouldn't be tied to chores so that kids learn that they need to pitch in at home because they are a part of the family, not as a reward. 

[moosmommy]

Needed to vent a little. My DS had a rough day today. He had a major meltdown. He went out to play in the snow and started beating on the porch and the door. I swear I thought someone would call the law thinking he had been locked out. He was screaming bloody murder. He calmed down after about an hour but it so drained me for the rest of the day.

[Wisconsin Beth]

DD started throwing up at 315am. Joy, oh joy. Woke DH up to deal with her while I dealt with her bed/bedding. Please God, no one else will start throwing up in our house. Please.

Cabe had a meltdown in the grocery store. I more or less let him. Apologized to the people around us (who all nicely said don't worry about it) and did heave him out of the way so carts could go though the aisle.

[Wisconsin Beth]

I took Keira to the Museum yesterday.  She wanted to spend time on the 3rd floor in the Central and South America areas.  Worked for me.  I love the Museum and my theory on taking kids to it is that you have to do it at their speed.  If you do, they will either have fond memories or it or they're learn to enjoy it. 

We ran into 2 of her classmates in the butterfly play area.  They played for a few minutes.  One dad needed to leave for the Imax/planetarium and the other was running out of parking time.   

[Wisconsin Beth]

We did Tiny Tot swim on Sat.  Kids loved it.  It's the first organized swim class we've had.  They've had some pool time on vacations but that's about it.  So it was big deal for them. 

We did the Zoo on Sunday morning.  Kids loved that too.  They didn't want to leave even though Cabe was exhausted.  He took a 2 hour nap once we got home! 

So now Cabe's added "swim" to his list of stuff he wants to do - Zoo, Museum and swim.    And he finally said "Keira" yesterday.  He was just copying what she said during bedtime prayers though.  He knows it's her name but he has always called her Sister. 

[grits]

Some people are just basically mean from the day they enter the earth.   If not stopped, they get worse.  Now, give me your candy, and nobody gets hurt.   

[Deleted]

My DD already took it. 

[Wisconsin Beth]

Why is my 3 year old so stubborn?  Why? 

[raeoflyte]

If you figure it out beth let me know.

I try to remember that there are a lot of good adult qualities to being stubborn and focus on manners to soften the stubbornness.

[Wisconsin Beth]

We went to the Domes on Sunday and then Target.  Cabe fell asleep in the car about 2 minutes from home so I ended up sitting in the car with him for about 45 minutes while he slept.  He needed the nap. 

[telephus44]

Oh, the magic of naps in the car.

Owen lost his first tooth last night.  He was socute about it.  "Does the tooth fairy come through the window or the door?"  "does the tooth fairy have a birthday?" "I think she takes all the teeth and makes dentures and gives them to the dentist"

We gave him $5 - which I thought was pretty good - but he was a little disappointed because he was expecting a present, like at Christmas.  I did offer to take him to Target or Toys R Us but he said that he would save it.

[Wisconsin Beth]

That's cute. 

We cheaped out and gave DD $2 when her 1st tooth came out. 

[Wisconsin Beth]

I took yesterday off to be with Cabe.  My parents, who usually watch him on Tuesdays, are in Florida.  We went to the Museum and then out to lunch with DH.  We went to a Mexican place and Cabe claimed the chips when they showed up.  Didn't want to share with DH or me and was upset when we did snag a chip.  Then he started breaking off tiny fragments (smaller than a pinkynail) and giving us those.  It was really funny.  Last time we'd taken the kids to this restaurant we'd ordered food for them, which they didn't eat in order to focus on the chips.    So we didn't bother this time.  He totally pigged out on chips. 

[raeoflyte]

Talk to me about 4 year old behavior. We're 5 weeks in and I'm scared...