When iOS started identifying and tagging people in photos, it auto selected a photo of one of my girls red faced and straining to be her profile pic. I laughed heartily and then changed that immediately.
A thread about parenting
- Thread starter hanser
- Start date
The individual kindergarten class celebration (graduation-ish) was pretty cool. Lotta people packed into that classroom!
Mine didn't do a kindergarten graduation but they had one at their (private) preschool graduation. Honestly thats fine with me. Kindergarten was a big change and I was pretty well wiped by the end of it
Tough night tonight. Real tough night. It's gonna be a long one.
You get so used to having your sleep back (well, having it back more than it was at the beginning), and then a night like this comes along and really hits you for six. We're 5 hours into what is normally an 11-12 hour sleep, and so far it's been <<1 hour of actual Little Miss Cognac sleeping. Which means we're well and truly eating into Mum and Dad usual sleep time as well.
No end in sight.
Send snacks.
You get so used to having your sleep back (well, having it back more than it was at the beginning), and then a night like this comes along and really hits you for six. We're 5 hours into what is normally an 11-12 hour sleep, and so far it's been <<1 hour of actual Little Miss Cognac sleeping. Which means we're well and truly eating into Mum and Dad usual sleep time as well.
No end in sight.
Send snacks.
So a question for those of you who have been through this all and are proud/pleased of how things worked out: what are any school-based "as the years go by" tips you think are somewhat overlooked that turned out really well for you.
example: I got a video of my kid answering a set of questions before the school year started, and i'll do the same when it ends this week (WTH, that went quick!), and I plan on doing the same each year. I don't know if that will be a meaningful/good thing or not.
But I assume some of you did things or have certain keepsakes that you're really glad you did. All ears to learn.
example: I got a video of my kid answering a set of questions before the school year started, and i'll do the same when it ends this week (WTH, that went quick!), and I plan on doing the same each year. I don't know if that will be a meaningful/good thing or not.
But I assume some of you did things or have certain keepsakes that you're really glad you did. All ears to learn.
Need tips?
We've had some sleep regression as well as other causes for worse sleep recently. For us, it was teething (a paracetamol suppository helped there) as well as the mobility sleep regression (baby kept moving around the crib), for which letting them sleep on their belly helped. We also stopped breastfeeding at night to get that expectation out of them. Altogether that got us to a good post-regression sleeping pattern again.
Took about a week to get there. Strap in, and snacks are coming.
Just a rant. I think this is just a one-off due to teething + sickness. Thanks though.
This autumn/winter so far has been absolutely diabolical, and while she's past the bulk of the sniffles there's a lingering cough that just. Won't. Go. Away. Unfortunately it keeps waking her up from her I'm-almost-but-not-quite-completely-asleep state. We're considering getting a wholesale supplier for paracetamol and cough medicine.
Outside of isolated events like this though she is a great little sleeper overall since almost the beginning of the year. We have been incredibly fortunate. I think that's part of why nights like tonight are so rough.
We ended up in the realm of 4 hours of sleep last night. Time to snack up and greet the day, along with whatever it has in store for us.
And we're off to the races. For breakfast she has eaten her usual bowl of overnight oats with fruit and yoghurt (berries, some slices of pear and apple), and then also consumed a rather large muffin (we sneak a lot of vegetables and other things that aren't really muffin-worthy into her muffins because hey, she doesn't know any better!), a whole banana, and has now started on some of the steamed veggies we had prepared for lunch...
Something tells me there's a growth spurt happening which may have contributed to last night's discomfort...
Something tells me there's a growth spurt happening which may have contributed to last night's discomfort...
I have a friend who makes her kids wear the same outfit on the first and last day of school (at least for the pictures). The physical growth is quite noticeable.
I take a picture on the first day of school in the same place in front of our house every year. That should be fun if I ever look at them together.
As far as things to keep, we let the kids choose an item each week (when they were younger and those take home folders were always chock full of stuff). Then once a month or two we'd have them revisit the folder and pick their favorite one or two things to go into a keep file and they'd get rid of the rest. Trained them to be ok with getting rid of things they liked but didn't need to keep but to also not lose sentimentality entirely. (We kept veto power over the stuff we wanted to keep instead of tossing).
Whelp, Kindergarten is done here too. First one. Had a great moment with reading yesterday but let me give you some context (read: spin a slightly more dramatic story for you) first.
I'm amazed at kiddo reading. She's not that great, I think pretty close to 50% mark. She's 6 and I have a friend that allegedly started reading at 3. So this isn't out of the ordinary. But none the less the fact that they're doing it in kindergarten instead of 1st grade now that we have all day kindergarten and the fact that she would never let me try to teach her things (she does well with instruction in a school setting with peers and a not-parent teacher, but I cannot be the one to teach her) and just her personality - it kind of blows my mind a little. I'm amazed.
But it's not all sunshine and rainbows. We try to read regularly because we should, and also there's often some reward going on from the school or the local library etc. I'd think that'd motivate her but we can never find a good time. Right away when she gets home, or after diner or anytime on the weekends, literally any time that's not just before bed, and she steadfastly refuses to read because she wants to do other things. You'd think she hates reading. You'd be wrong. Just before bed? She must read. She gets angry if she doesn't get a chance. Sometimes she wants us to read to her, but probably more often than not she wants to read a book herself. The problem? As much as I'm amazed by her reading she's still only at the 50% mark for the first year of readers. In other words she's hella slow. And that is a problem because then we're getting to bed late as it takes her 25 minutes to read a book when we budgeted 5-10 minutes for reading at bed time.
So that's the struggle. The proud dad moment? She said she read at daycare yesterday. She goes to an in-home daycare with her younger sister and almost exclusively younger kids during the summer. I went to verify with the daycare mom as if she really did read she would get to mark off a day on her library reward chart and she gets back to me confirming that not only did she read, she read two books, and she did it for all the younger kids, and apparently at a pace that didn't have them so bored the just walked away. She even sent a picture.
I was floored and I'm very very proud (and I made sure she knew).
I'm amazed at kiddo reading. She's not that great, I think pretty close to 50% mark. She's 6 and I have a friend that allegedly started reading at 3. So this isn't out of the ordinary. But none the less the fact that they're doing it in kindergarten instead of 1st grade now that we have all day kindergarten and the fact that she would never let me try to teach her things (she does well with instruction in a school setting with peers and a not-parent teacher, but I cannot be the one to teach her) and just her personality - it kind of blows my mind a little. I'm amazed.
But it's not all sunshine and rainbows. We try to read regularly because we should, and also there's often some reward going on from the school or the local library etc. I'd think that'd motivate her but we can never find a good time. Right away when she gets home, or after diner or anytime on the weekends, literally any time that's not just before bed, and she steadfastly refuses to read because she wants to do other things. You'd think she hates reading. You'd be wrong. Just before bed? She must read. She gets angry if she doesn't get a chance. Sometimes she wants us to read to her, but probably more often than not she wants to read a book herself. The problem? As much as I'm amazed by her reading she's still only at the 50% mark for the first year of readers. In other words she's hella slow. And that is a problem because then we're getting to bed late as it takes her 25 minutes to read a book when we budgeted 5-10 minutes for reading at bed time.
So that's the struggle. The proud dad moment? She said she read at daycare yesterday. She goes to an in-home daycare with her younger sister and almost exclusively younger kids during the summer. I went to verify with the daycare mom as if she really did read she would get to mark off a day on her library reward chart and she gets back to me confirming that not only did she read, she read two books, and she did it for all the younger kids, and apparently at a pace that didn't have them so bored the just walked away. She even sent a picture.
I was floored and I'm very very proud (and I made sure she knew).
Nice! My new kinder grad is surprisingly reading excellently in English even though the school only teaches Spanish. Kind of mind boggling. Also, a few days ago I saw the teacher speak incredibly rapidly to him in Spanish, and he apparently just understood everything. Every now and again I catch him speaking Spanish pretty fluently, too. I'm going to be in trouble once the younger one also picks up Spanish. (They're in a Spanish immersion school, but everyone speaks English too so it's not quite thrown-in-the-deep-end.)
Aside from that, has anyone done anything from Hand In Hand Parenting Network? I'm considering signing up with them and wanted thoughts if there are any.
Aside from that, has anyone done anything from Hand In Hand Parenting Network? I'm considering signing up with them and wanted thoughts if there are any.
My babies finished first grade today!
Now for an entire summer of surprise pokemon facts while I'm trying to have a Zoom meeting. Everyone on the call is going to know that Nidorino needs a Moon Stone to evolve.
Now for an entire summer of surprise pokemon facts while I'm trying to have a Zoom meeting. Everyone on the call is going to know that Nidorino needs a Moon Stone to evolve.
Notwithstanding the excessive proudness even I feel at the rest of your story, I'm picking this one out to ask: why is there only 5-10 minutes budgeted? IME, letting kids play out their activity gives a lot less hassle. Or, whenever I go out with the kids to do something and there is a time limit, I'll prepare them and make sure they know ahead of time that it's nearly time to go/stop/etc. It's worked wonders so far. Kids know exactly what they're in for, there's no complaining and dragging their feet at the end, etc.
As for the specific bedtime reading thing: we found that big sometimes wants to do more than we do/have time for, and they're super good at getting rest, so we've installed a light-on-a-timer at the bed. They can push a button and a light comes on for 15 minutes (and they can manually turn it off as well). So if they want to do a bit more 'reading' (3.5yo, so it's mostly just looking at pictures), they can. If they fall asleep, the light goes out by itself. When we're in a rush or dealing with the toddler, this is a good compromise if they don't want to sleep yet.
Wtb: advice on coparenting when divorced and living 4 timezones away from your < 10yo kids.
Zoom gets old quick for my little ones, and relying on the mother’s phone availability isn’t ideal…
I was thinking surprise care packages and letters / pictures?
I’m visiting every month and hopefully will spend 6 weeks with them at their mothers’ during summer.
Zoom gets old quick for my little ones, and relying on the mother’s phone availability isn’t ideal…
I was thinking surprise care packages and letters / pictures?
I’m visiting every month and hopefully will spend 6 weeks with them at their mothers’ during summer.
This is brilliant, definitely stealing this idea! (Perhaps even for my own bedside light)
Another alternative; the Hue lights in the kids room turn themselves off every hour on the hour. They can cycle the switch (off then on again) to turn the light back on if they are still awake.
Amusing:
Last night the wife came and got me - "do you know where Little is?"
Long story short, Little is not a large creature, and was wrapped head to toe in a blanket with only a portion of their face and one foot sticking out in such a way that a tired wife did not recognize as a child.
Last night the wife came and got me - "do you know where Little is?"
Long story short, Little is not a large creature, and was wrapped head to toe in a blanket with only a portion of their face and one foot sticking out in such a way that a tired wife did not recognize as a child.
Summer plans:
My husband stays at home so we have no need for the rota of summer camps, but we've enrolled them in one week of dance camp because the studio owner is my children's bonus grandmother and this is her chance to have a bunch of time with them. We have one week for a beach trip in August.
Beyond that, it's kids at home with dad. CHAOS.
We've come up with a daily schedule that includes one academic worksheet (I am less worried about their academic skill loss over the summer and more worried about their ability to sit down and do the god damn worksheet), some tablet time (their walled garden contains PBSKids Games, Khan Academy Kids, Scratch Jr, and Osmo. No microtransactions, no ads), some chores, and then the afternoons are a rotation of "kids on your own time" and excursions to the library, pool, museums, or other fun things.
Last year I asked ChatGPT to come up with a list of fun activities for a summer schedule and it did a fairly decent job. It wasn't perfect but it had a lot of good ideas and with some editing we got a nice pool of science experiments, games, and excursions to fill the summer.
My husband stays at home so we have no need for the rota of summer camps, but we've enrolled them in one week of dance camp because the studio owner is my children's bonus grandmother and this is her chance to have a bunch of time with them. We have one week for a beach trip in August.
Beyond that, it's kids at home with dad. CHAOS.
We've come up with a daily schedule that includes one academic worksheet (I am less worried about their academic skill loss over the summer and more worried about their ability to sit down and do the god damn worksheet), some tablet time (their walled garden contains PBSKids Games, Khan Academy Kids, Scratch Jr, and Osmo. No microtransactions, no ads), some chores, and then the afternoons are a rotation of "kids on your own time" and excursions to the library, pool, museums, or other fun things.
Last year I asked ChatGPT to come up with a list of fun activities for a summer schedule and it did a fairly decent job. It wasn't perfect but it had a lot of good ideas and with some editing we got a nice pool of science experiments, games, and excursions to fill the summer.
I think I'm going to take my kids to LEGO Discovery Center DC on Sunday. Might be a good (albeit somewhat expensive) day trip for your kidlings, @KT421 and @Scotttheking.
Only so much time in the day and these kids can take 20 minutes to put jammies on and 10 minutes to brush their teeth. We push bedtime out any more and I'm going to have to start serving dinner at 3:30! (No, not really, but you get my point)
I was similarly looking at maybe taking the kids to the Lego store at the Mall of America given that the water park is probably out due to both weather and little having molluscum contagiosum (God damnit that stuff takes a while to clear up, I'm hoping we get to go to the water park before the end of July, but it's a relatively benign skin condition that the docs don't want us to use a public pool while it's still hanging on). Though I'm not sure. Kids might still be a bit too little to appreciate it, my wallet certainly won't, and I gotta find new space for Legos at this point.
Everything is a fight. Almost literally everything.OK we definitely have easier, much quicker kids
Edit: To be slightly more clear, it's not usually a time budget in reality, it's a book budget. Both kids get one book each, ideally. Sometimes it's a few pages from Shell Silverstein and we even made it through a chapter book with them one chapter at a time, but there is a huge increase in the needed time if big is reading on her own.
In general absolutely yes. In this specific case, I believe we have Father's Day plans already lined up
I can't even. School ends on Thursday then we start with softball again(my daughter got picked to be on the counties U11 all star team) that goes through July. Two 2 hour practices a week with a game on the weekend. Then my son is doing a cyber security bootcamp before he starts his time share program in the fall. Plus basketball camp in early August, band camp in the middle of August and a week of drawing lessons in middle of July sometime.
With all that they have their usual weekly instrument lessons. My wife is thinking of taking them on a 5-6 day road trip in a rental RV to visit a couple of theme parks. Other than that we just don't have time this summer to do anything.
So we're back from the mini vacation, baby retrieved from mom (60's) and grandparents (80's). And they said this is the most fun they've had in a very long time... I realized after... This is probably the first time they've had a six month old in the house full time since they had kids like 60 years ago, since no one really goes away that early. Just made me quite happy that they enjoyed it so much.
Also really sinks in the difference in growing up in cultures that still maintain multi-generational homes / everyone in the family lives on the same street. No good or bad or judgement but... A taste of the differences in quality of life, good and bad, for all involved.
Also really sinks in the difference in growing up in cultures that still maintain multi-generational homes / everyone in the family lives on the same street. No good or bad or judgement but... A taste of the differences in quality of life, good and bad, for all involved.
My Dad(88) still talks about growing up in his hometown and how everyone was just all together. You had your cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, all within practically shouting distance. He still laments that the big family Sunday dinner is gone.
Honestly, my in-laws are about to retire and if we had young kids I'd probably offer to combine living up here and have them stay with us. But there is no reason for that now with one 2 years from college and the other just a few years away from HS.
I'll wave from afar at any of you Lego folks on fathers day. We'll also be in DC, but the NoVA Tee Ball org has Nats tickets lined up for then. So, we'll be heading to kiddo's first baseball game.
I never have enjoyed baseball, myself, but if it keeps him happy and away from football, we're happy to keep him engaged.
I never have enjoyed baseball, myself, but if it keeps him happy and away from football, we're happy to keep him engaged.
What light do you all use for this? Sounds like a nice idea.
You can get little timers for power sockets and light sockets at HD for pretty cheap. I would personally go with either a Hue light as @KT421 suggested, if you're already in that ecosystem, or any number of smart power sockets and use whatever light you already have. They aren't much more than the dumb timers at HD. With something you can control on your phone, it's easy enough to script and you can monitor if it's on, force it off, etc.
Yeah I know about outlet timers and such, I was looking for more of a "one button" solution that a kid can just push on their nightstand to turn their light on for 15 minutes and then it turns off.
Made it myself from a mains switch button, this timer switch board and a mains LED strip. Wiring and board is enclosed in a 3D printed box far away from where they can reach. I couldn't find a commercial product that did everything I wanted:
- No batteries
- Light goes on and off with a button
- Light always turns off after a set time even with the button in 'on' position
- We don't need to babysit it, it just works without us having to go in to an app
- Child can operate it without training and can't fuck anything up
- Child can't break anything that can cause harm
- Useful amount of light
- Doesn't break the bank
Most commercial child-focused timer lights are either super-weak, somewhat obtuse to operate, require batteries, or all of the above. Plenty of domotics-y stuff, but that requires an app or has borked automation (e.g. the hue that turns off automatically on the hour every hour, sure it works but no, that's not what we want). Outlet timers don't usually have this functionality, they either have a clock operation or don't have a way to be turned on and off manually while keeping the delay function intact. Also, outlet timers can be messed with and I have a kid that looooves to push buttons.
We are also Hue, so a Hue Tap is a great option.
or a bedside lamp.
or a bedside lamp.
since i have home assistant, the one button can be any compatible battery button and use it as a trigger which turns on and starts a timer.
I would back your kickstarter @demultiplexer…