Pedigreed Housewife World

I have recently realized that whenever the kids don’t want to eat something they say, “It’s too spicy.”   They don’t yet have the vocabulary to describe what about the flavor they don’t like, other than spicy.   While I much prefer, “It’s too spicy.” to last year’s version of verbalizing dislike, “It’s yucky!” with the food thrown on the floor (they were 1 and 2 then), I think we’ll work on new descriptors this week.   It comes at a good time because Briana just finished her last week at Young Chef’s Academy’s toddler cooking camp and she’s very excited about cooking. I start by telling the kids that they have 5 senses.   The senses are ways that we can learn about the world around us.   I point to my eyes and say, “We have eyes to see.”   I point to my ears and say, “We have ears to hear.”   I point to my nose and say, “We have noses to smell”.   I point to my fingers and say, “We have fingers to feel and touch”.   I ask the kids what they think the 5 th sense is.   Abby says, “W

Briana has started to show some interest in the clock and what time it is.  While I think that she’s a little young for telling time due to the bigger numbers when dealing with minutes (30-60), she can already recognize most of the numbers 1-12 so I want to give the numbers context for her.  I figure that for Abby it will be good practice on recognizing her numbers. While we drive home from the gym, I tell the girls that there are two types of clocks: digital and analog.  Digital clocks show the numbers, like this clock in the car.  Analog clocks have hands on them that point to the numbers, like the clocks in your rooms. When we get into the garage, I point to the clock and ask the kids what numbers are on the digital clock so that we can see what time it is now.  Briana thinks it’s funny that the clock keeps changing while I describe it.   You try to say “It’s 11:20 because 1-1 is how you write eleven, and 2-0 is how you write twenty” while pointing out all of the numbers and letti

So I know that I usually work on teaching the kids technical things like reading, math, and science, but in my quest to make happy, healthy, and well-rounded kids, one aspect of learning can’t be ignored – the sense of humor.   I believe that being able to laugh at yourself and just laugh and have fun with others is equally as important as getting good grades to being happy and successful in life.   Briana somehow has decided that she’s really funny.   Her big joke goes like this, “Mommy, do you want me to tell you a funny joke?   Ok.   Cock-a-doodle-doo-doo will there be enough room.”   Followed by a fit of giggles and and echo of the exact same joke told by Abigail.   All day long.   Anytime I don’t laugh Briana will ask me, “Mommy why didn’t you laugh?   That joke is funny.”   The joke is a play on words from a book she loves called Chicka Chicka Boom Boom which says, “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.   Will there be enough room?”   The first time she deliberately switched the words to

Finally the sun is out and we can do our sunblock experiments!   Let me back up for a second.   The family was watching ‘Sid the Science Kid’ on PBS a few weeks ago and on the show they did an experiment with sunblock.   The kids were intrigued and wanted to do it themselves so we got the materials together and waited for a sunny day that we were free in the afternoon to do our experiment.   That was 3 weeks ago.    The anticipation of our sunblock experiment day is so high at this point that I hope the kids have as much fun as they are expecting. On ‘Sid’ the teacher had the kids fingerpaint a colored piece of paper with sunblock and leave it out in the sun to see how the sunblocked part of the paper doesn’t fade like the rest of the paper in the sun.   I think that there should have been a control – a paper left inside to see the color change that the sun caused.   I also think that there was a great opportunity to talk about SPF and explain how sunblock works that was totally mi