advice please

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Robin Liberman on December 12, 2009 at 11:02am

Congratulations on your second child! I would imagine you are ready to give birth, which will add to the frustration. Many times, "no" perpetuates the situation. I would love to offer you some pearls of wisdom. The best thing I can offer is these daily emails I get. They help me keep my wits. Just google "Scott Noelle Daily Groove" Happy Parenting to you!

Permalink Reply by Darcel on December 12, 2009 at 2:16pm

I love those daily groove emails! They really help me see things from a child perspective.
Also, maybe you can look for more ways to say yes. Instead of saying no and that's the end of it, if you say no try to replace it with something he can have or do.
I have found that kids love to play in water and other items. You could fill up the sink and let him play in there with his toys or some measuring cups. Or maybe put him in the tub in the middle of the day and just let him splash around.

My kids are 5 and 2.5
We don't have a sand box, so we use rice. They love that. I put out a blanket and they play with rice, flour, corn meal, beans. Those are great sensory activities, and they use cups, spoons, bowls. I don't usually have them playing with all of those items at once though.

We play hide -n- seek, they jump on the bed, or off of the bed or couch into a big pile of pillows and blankets. They love playing with blocks and legos. Running around outside is always fun and a great way for them to burn energy.
We go for nature walks, picking up acorns, leaves, sticks, rocks and anything else they find interesting along the way.

We color, do crafts. Right now we're working on Christmas crafts. Here is a great website I found for all sorts of crafts for kids of all ages.
I'm not a member of the site though. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/christmas/

The Crafty Crow is another great resource for year round crafts for kids of all ages.

http://belladia.typepad.com/crafty_crow/

They also love to help me cook. It doesn't matter what the meal is, they help crack eggs for breakfast, help make hamburger patties. They help me bake cakes, make rice krispi treats.
They help with laundry, they help wipe tables down, sweeping. You name it and my kids are glad to help.
We aren't joined at the hip every waking moment of the day, every single day, but I do include them in the day to day running of the house.
They see me doing something and want to join in, or I'll ask them.

Playgroups are great too. You can connect with other moms while the kids play.
Check Yahoo Groups for AP groups in your area, Meetup.com is another site for playgroups.

Here are some links on discipline. http://www.attachmentparenting.org/parentingtopics/effectivediscipl...

API groups listed by state
http://www.attachmentparenting.org/groups/groups.php

Natural Child Project is also a great site
http://www.naturalchild.org/


I hope these links help you :)

Permalink Reply by Cherylyn on December 12, 2009 at 3:21pm

Thank you Darcel, I needed this! My 4 year-old has been driving me nuts and I've been struggling to figure out how to channel his energy into positive outlets. I haven't been such a fun mom lately as I've been adjusting to 5 kids, and I really needed these reminders.

Permalink Reply by Darcel on December 13, 2009 at 9:56am

No problem! Don't be so hard on yourself though, like you said, your adjusting to have 5 kids!
I'm wondering how I'm going to handle having 3.

Permalink Reply by Xochilt Ruiz on December 15, 2009 at 12:06am

thank you, I Iove the craft ideas on crafty crow..it def gives some ideas on how to interact with him..and keep him busy, which is nice cause i cant usually think of somthing crafty on my own haha. thanks

Permalink Reply by Darcel on December 15, 2009 at 10:20am

I love the Crafty Crow as well. She does crafts I would never think of.