If It Works, Why Not?

     I have been teaching preschool for a few years now and it astounds me how many children enroll in my class lacking so many basic skills that many would assume come naturally. I have had parents ask me what they can do to give their child a good boost in the right direction for success in school. I am proud to say that my students who have moved on to kindergarten each year, start school with a noticeable head start compared to their classmates not only academically but socially and majority start already blending letters, working on sight words and word families as well as starting basic addition and subtraction. Here are a few things that I feel, for the love of all things holy and for the sake of your child, that you should do as your child is a toddler and moves into preschool age. 1. Say "No" every once in a while. Set some limits and stick to them and let your child learn that they cannot just whine until they get their way. Life is full of disappointme...

I love reading. Everything from articles from science journals, fantasy, romance, comedies, thrillers, mysteries, sci-fi, blogs, magazine articles, poetry, whole series of books... EVERYTHING pretty much. I love the written word. Lately though, I have noticed amongst the blogs and articles side of the literature world a war going on. The moms of society have been in an on going battle since the dawn of feminism and seem to be at constant odds of who has it harder or who does more or which is better- Stay at home moms versus working moms. Moms are categorized into these two groups so much that society has even created acronyms for each group. SAHM- Stay At Home Mom and WOHM- Working Out of the Home Mom/WM- Working Mom...  Well, I want to add into these discussions the undervalued side of the moms who stay at home but also work full time. Part of playing an active role in the community to help with networking for my business, I am a member of multiple local "mommy" groups. Mo...

   Summer time in Arizona can lead to kids becoming couch potato, video game playing zombies. So to encourage some creativity and get my kids to work on their writing skills, I suggested that my kids write their own story books and we could send them in to one of the companies online that will print them out into an actual book like they get from the library.     My daughter was on board with the idea but my son wasn't so thrilled. Since he is a huge fan of Pokemon, I suggested he wrote a story about him being a Pokemon Trainer.  "No, we'll get sued for copyright infringement" chimed my husband.... "You could call it 'Mikey-mon'" I suggested to my son. "No, too close. We'd still get sued for the likeness" my husband chimed again... "Alright then. What about Mikey-ball" I suggested as I know they call the things Poke-balls in the show that the little creatures are kept in. That was my mistake.... The next few minutes following ...

    Potty training sucks. Plain and simple. It is one of the hardest milestones for both parent and child. Rolling over on their own, pulling themselves up to sit on their own, standing on their own and walking on their own - do you hear the "on their own" in all of those? Well going potty "on their own" is a big fat lie! Eventually it is true but in the beginning it's nothing but a deceitful twist of the truth....especially if you have a child who acts like they plan to graduate college still wearing their diaper. "On their own" doesn't start until the accidents completely stop and even then you still have to remind them to wipe, aim, flush, wash their hands, etc... Between the constant reminders and questioning of "do you need to go potty" every 15 minutes until your questioning is added to the rest of other parental questions and instructions that become nothing more than white noise as it enters your child's ear canal, you find y...

   Summer vacation..... A time that children insist to wake up earlier than they have to during the school year, that all my plants die because I forget to water them for one day, the electric bill and grocery bills increase from the extra people home during the day, the "I'm bored" whines begin and cabin fever sets in because it's too hot to play outside as temps reach 90+ degrees at 7 a.m. The glorious summer time!    During the summer, I change my curriculum around with work as I have to accommodate both preschool and school aged children. The problem with this is that my children have already done a lot of the projects as it's not their first summer with me and I like to use them as guinea pigs before I try a project with the other children to make sure it actually works and is doable. This means that my kids often opt out of participating when we do things.  Already my kids have started the "I'm bored" whining.... What to do? What to do? I t...

So I want to talk about something we hear about A LOT now a days.  Self image.... I don't want to argue about men sexualizing women or visa versa.... I am talking about personal self image.  Being happy with your own shape and size. Everything to weight, fat, height, curves, no curves, scars, hair type, stretch marks, etc... And especially from a female's point of view and especially after having kids.  Growing up I was a stickly skinny petite 94 lbs teen. I lacked curves and was always extremely self conscious about shopping for tops and bathing suits as I barely qualified for a 32AA and extra smalls were often too big... I don't wanna hear the bitching of boohoo's because I had friends just as tiny dealing with DD's+ and I know how many issues they had but in the other direction of things being too small and back aches.  My legs make up over half my height and before they had "long" options, trying to find pants that didn't fall off my ass or look l...

   It's been over a year since I last posted- wow! I am really slacking! Let's get caught up.... A year in review.... I have had martial ups and downs and I was ready to seriously call it quits but I'm glad I didn't.  Things are definitely in the positive now and my husband has been continuously proving himself. It's like we're back to how we were in the beginning. I am definitely loved!      My oldest 2 children have completed another whole school year and I'm proud to say with flying colors. My oldest daughter will be starting 3rd grade and I plan to have her tested for the gifted program at her teacher's insistence. My son lost his Autism diagnosis!  He had his redetermination evaluation and no longer qualifies for the Autism diagnosis or has a need for therapy anymore. Now it's just ADHD and ODD as well as finding out he is a gifted child with what they call "very superior intelligence" with a 142 IQ score... My youngest has blossom...