Taming the Goblin: 33 months

Showing posts with label 33 months. Show all posts

Friday, 10 August 2012

Curiosity in Space

This week saw something historic happen - The NASA Mars Rover aptly named Curiosity, landed on Mars and sent back the first pictures of the surface. I love that we continue to explore the depths of our universe and we will continue to grow in knowledge of it. Our kids will know so much more about what is out there than we will. So lets spark their curiosity for space while they are still young.

To help ignite that interest I have rounded up some space based posts from fellow bloggers. There is truly something for everyone with a wide range of activities and resources for all age groups.

Arts and craft

We have craft activities for toddlers and preschool with:

1. Boy Mama, Teacher Mama - Number Play and Rocket Painting
2. Red Ted Art - Hand print Aliens
3. Taming the Goblin - Hubble telescope inspired art

And activities for slightly older kids:

4. Red Ted Art - Space invader Hama Beads
5. Make and Takes - Rocket notebook
6. The Pleasantest Thing - Asterios belt art

We even have some mummy crafts:

7. One Perfect Day - Space cakes and party ideas (not that type of space cakes!)
8. Taming the Goblin - Rainbow Window Star

Modelling

I love solar system models and we have two to choose from:

9. At Home with Ali - Small paper mache solar system
10. Red Ted Art - Big paper mache solar system

And if rockets and spaceships are more your thing we have plenty of them too:

11. Momma's Fun World - Loo Roll Rocket
12. Nurture Store - Junk Rockets
13. FunFamilyCrafts (at Ganz world) - Flying saucer
14. JDaniel4's Mom - Cup rocket

Sensory play

For children who like hands-on touchy feely play, we have it all here:

15. Taming the Goblin - Space sensory tray
16. Nurture store - Water bead Space play
17. Growing a Jeweled Rose - Blacklight sensory Outer Space Bath
18. The Imagination Tree - Galaxy playdough

Books and resources

We have story books with a space theme and star charts to help identify the night sky:

19. The Imagination Tree - Space themed books
20. KcEdventures - Star Gazing Resources
21. The Wise Owl Factory - Space themed book based Worksheets

And one that would be absolutely brilliant for this weeks Mars news:
22. Royal Baloo - Writing a story based on the news

Science

There are some great experiments to try out at:

23. Science Sparks - Bottle Rocket
24. The Pleasantest Thing - Transit of Venus Activity
25. Science Sparks - Expanding Universe
26. Creekside Learning - 5 Astronomy experiments
27. Science Sparks - Making Craters
28. Kids Activities blog - Balloon Rocket

Imaginary play

Or if your child is like Goblin and enjoys imaginary play you will enjoy the post from:

29. Childhood Beckons - Small world playdough solar system
30. And Then All I Thought About was You - Imaginary Aliens in the Garden
31. Raising little Rhodies - Navigating a spaceship through an asteroid cloud
32. Sun Hats and Wellie Boots - Small world space station

If you aren't all spaced out by now here are some more Gallactic round ups with even more activities for you to check out

33. Red Ted Art - Space Crafts and Ideas to Inspire
34. Rainy Day Mum - 5-4-3-2-1 Blast off for World Space Week 2011
35. Living Montessori Now - Montessori Inspired Astronomy Activities

If like me you are more of a visual type you can shop for your activities by pictures at Rainy Day Mum's Space Pinterest board

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Thursday, 9 August 2012

Kids Co-op Link Up

Its time for Kids Co-op. Link up your favourite kid orientated posts and check out what everyone else is doing this week. Here is what I am linking up this week:

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Cardboard Cranes

(Goblin is 33 months)

I decided that it was time to teach Goblin the number symbols. He can recite numbers up to 14, and he can count objects up to 5 or 6 (most of the time), but we haven't really done anything to help him match a number word with a number symbol. But I didn't want to go down the full on educational route so I I decided to make a game.

A while ago I saw an awesome cardboard crane on At home with Ali. I decided to make one for Goblin so he could fish for magnetic numbers and sort them into numbered holes.

To make the crane you need

A rectangular box
two cardboard tubes from wrapping paper
lots of duct tape
string
a magnet

I cut a hole in the top of the box and slotted one tube in the hole. I cut a hole in the top of that tube and fed the other tube through - but the top broke off after sustained use so I just duct taped the second tube onto the first.
I cut off one of the long flaps on the box, bent it into a U and cut holes in either end. I chopped a length off the end of the second tube and slotted it through the holes. Then I duct taped the string to the 'winch' tube and fed it through the top tube and tied the magnet on.

Goblin was not very interested in the number sorting - in fact he found a much better use for the sorting box! But he did love the crane. He played with it all morning and when he came down after his nap he played with it some more. I'm really glad I added the winch. I wasn't going to, but it turned out to be his favourite bit - pulling various things up by turning the tube.

And now to the linky

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Tuesday, 7 August 2012

Parenting rant!

(Goblin is 33 months)

Goblin is being very testy at the moment. Prior to a few weeks ago the sum total of his tantrums would be lying silently on the floor for a while. I could totally live with that. I'd just sit down next to him and wait it out a bit and then offer him a cuddle and redirect his attention.
As he is nearly three I naively assumed we had missed the extremes of the "terrible twos" (Incidentally I hate that term anyway - labelling an entire year of a child's life as terrible). But unfortunately my smugness at having a reasonably untantrummy child has been put to rest. It was not that my child was more placid, it was simply that he had not yet reached that developmental milestone - Yes folks, when you are despairing that your child is flailing on the floor in the play area while those around him are playing delightfully, you can console yourself that it is probably just that your child has hit that particular milestone before them (not that parenting is a competition right!).

So in the last few weeks Goblin has developed the art of going from 'lovable, cute, beautiful, funny boy' to 'savage ball of fury' in less than ten seconds. And his new outbursts appear to be triggered by pretty much everything that is an interaction between parent and child.
"Goblin would you like a yogurt?"
*Screaming outrage, hitting, biting, lots of no no no*.
"Goblin what is the matter"
"no mummy no"
*pushing me away while simultaneously trying to gouge out my eyes*.
If I manage to keep my cool, which is getting increasingly difficult, I might attempt
"or there is toast".
And suddenly a bright beaming smile appears and there is my lovely little man again.
I am left sitting there thinking what the hell was that and what else might I accidentally say today that will trigger a 'rabid tasmanian devil' type response.

Some of you may know that we are trying to practice positive parenting, using redirection, guidance, talking calmly etc. Well let me tell you I haven't been feeling very 'positive' these last few weeks. And I have lost my temper and yelled and screamed a fair amount. And what does that teach Goblin, that when you are frustrated you should yell and scream - good one Monko!
I found myself wondering whether positive parenting is just hippy crap that will lead to a feral child who doesn't respect us. I'm guessing it doesn't matter what discipline method you use, when things start going wrong and your methods don't seem so effective, for what ever reason, you will always question what methods you have chosen. So in the last few weeks I have been seriously considering trying "the naughty step", something we had previously ruled out as not for us. Aha Parenting has a good explanation of why I find it a troubling discipline method.
Its difficult to stick to your (un-tried and tested) guns when all around you are touting an alternative, supposedly tried and tested method. The naughty step seems to be the magic solution to all parenting woahs. You talk to nearly anyone, especially those without kids, and they will say "what about the naughty step". But it really doesn't sit with the learning style of disciple we want for Goblin.

So for a while now I have been full of insecurity about whether we are using the right parenting and discipline methods. I guess some of my insecurity stems from the fact that Goblin is a bit of a hyper child. He can't really sit still and as such he is never going to win any awards for being "well behaved". Not because he isn't well behaved, but because most people who don't know a child judge a child as "well behaved" if they are unusually compliant and sedate. (broken in spirit?)
I can get that result by using valium on Goblin but nobody is telling me that is a good idea are they?

So I just keep reminding myself that parenting isn't just about the hear and now, its about helping to develop a child to be an impressive and happy adult.
When you think of the impressive adults you know, are the first qualities you get to their ability to sit quiet and still, to say please and thank you and to eat up all their greens?
If I keep that goal in mind maybe I can retain the conviction that we have chosen the right path for parenting our Goblin.

Ironically we won't find out until its too late anyway!

For anyone else having a parenting/discipline wobble here are a couple of great ideas for alternatives to the naughty step/time outs:
Carrots are Orange - 5 Alternatives to Time out
Positive Parenting: Toddlers and beyond - Calm Down Corner
Positive Parenting Connection - 11 Alternatives to Time Outs

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Monday, 6 August 2012

Surviving a long train trip

Last week we travelled to Scotland for my good friends wedding. Our epic journey took ten hours to get there and at the end of the week another ten hours to get back. The longest bit was a 5 hour train journey in the middle which coincided with Goblin's usual nap time. As you can imagine I was not relishing the trip.

Despite Goblin refusing to even try to nap for the entire journey, it really wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. We took a few of Goblin's favourite books, and read them several times during the journey.

I also packed a busy bag that I'd made a while a go. It had been sitting around unused in a cupboard.

Inside there was:

Stamps and a pad
A cube puzzle
A plastic soap dish with suckers and pompoms
And threading beads and a lace

Goblin wasn't interested in most of the contents. He did the activities once but they weren't going to keep him going for the whole trip. But then he discovered the lacing beads (I used square ones so they didn't roll away). First he sorted them by colour - something I have never seen him do.

Then he laced them, which is also something he shows no interest in doing while at home.
Once the beads were laced he played imaginary fishing off the edge of the chair. A couple of times he accidentally dropped his bead fish and it fell off the string, so he'd lace it back on and start again. Its amazing how kids dream up there own games and play them for ages.

Another great save for us was Hublet's iPad. We had loads of Dora the Explorer and Fireman Sam for Goblin to watch. And he enjoyed playing ZooTrain which is an app where you build trains with carriages full of animals. This keeps Goblin amused for ages - look at the concentration on his face!

We also played eye spy. If like Goblin your child is too young for eye spy with letters you can try with colours. Unfortunately most of the Scottish countryside is green so it didn't really narrow down Goblin's search.
When all other methods of keeping Goblin at the table were exhausted we let him run a few laps up and down the carriage. I'm sure the other passengers thought we were not "controlling our child properly". But this experience made me realise that when you see other people's kids are 'acting out', you don't know the full story. Goblin running up and down the carriage wasn't him misbehaving, it was him releasing energy that he had managed to bottle for a considerably long time for a small boy with a tendency to be hyper. And anyway, we are celebrating the Olympics, we should be embracing running races even if they are in a train carriage!

If you have a big journey coming up this summer a busy bag is a great idea. Mine was a bit thrown together but The Good Long Road and Second Story Window have some great ideas for more thought through busy bags. And Crayon Freckles has a lovely twist on the eye spy with colours game.

Bon Voyage!

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