Cantaloupe had a play date with friends from her new school on wednesday. I made few interesting observations:
My kid actually listened to what I said to her - there was a huge lawn in the complex and a fountain in the center. All kids love playing with sand and water ...thats a given. But this being a fountain put in for aesthetic purpose, all mommies didn't want their kids to play with it. While most moms struggled to contain their kids ... a simple "talk" was enough with my daughter.
She remembered to ASK : Once we went back to the host's apartment.... the kids attacked the cookies / sweets laid out on the table for them. Cantaloupe asked me if she could have one ... of course I said Yes ... but then she remembered the "No sweets after 6 on weekdays" made me really proud.
She was having a jolly good time when I reminded her that it was time to leave - she put in a small protest saying she wasn't done with her playing ... but gave in. There have been episodes in the past where she has negotiated about staying longer for more than 10 - 15mins. Not this time though :)
She Cleaned: Yes she did ... while other mommies just left with their kids. When I asked her to clean up, she pointed out that others had played but hadn't cleaned up. So I said, never mind what others do .. you do your part. She cleaned up some toys and I didn't insist on cleaning up everything. I had to be fair to her .. afterall I had seen her play with only a guitar and a truck most of the times. But nonetheless, she cleared some of the other toys as well.
She thanked the hostess, put on her shoes / socks and waved bye to her friends in the most dignified manner.
I couldn't possibly ask for a better behaviour :)
On a side note:
Mommy V commented that she is not used to wearing spaghetti tops but her son (5 yr old) may get curious when he sees others wearing it ... so in order to make it a norm, she was planning to start wearing them. - REALLY??
Mommy A1 said her 1.5 yr old son often twists / dislocated his hand bones (carpus ??) ... and she just twists it and brings it back to position. OUCH !
Mommy P said she goes to gym only to relax and re-energise herself. - WOW !
Mommy A2 said the kids bring out the inner devils in their moms - LOL !
Mommy C felt clean up after playing is part of play date and leaving the toys lying all over the place is not a good practice - THATS ME :))
Over all it was a nice time ... and I dont' mind doing this once in a while.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
Moderated Words
The other day I was lazing around with my laptop keeping an eye on Cantaloupe who was playing with her toys. Cantaloupe used the word 'F***' and I was startled ... thankfully I didn't react. Then I followed her more closely and understood what she was doing. She was pretending to be a magician and was apparently saying a magic code "Fallammboo ... Footuta ... Filliata ... F***"
She went ahead and pointed each of her doll to be representing each of the magic words.
I somehow felt uncomfortable with her usage of the word and asked her to not use the word. As expected she asked me why she couldn't use it ... I mumbled something on the lines of it being a meaningless word and there were other words famously used by magicians like "Abracadabra Allaka Zoo" and that she could use those. May be she was too involved in her game to question me further and continued with her game.
What do you guys do when you hear your child speaking words not meant for their age? Do you disapprove of the usage immediately or you don't make a big deal out of it and leave it there hoping they will forget the word.
She went ahead and pointed each of her doll to be representing each of the magic words.
I somehow felt uncomfortable with her usage of the word and asked her to not use the word. As expected she asked me why she couldn't use it ... I mumbled something on the lines of it being a meaningless word and there were other words famously used by magicians like "Abracadabra Allaka Zoo" and that she could use those. May be she was too involved in her game to question me further and continued with her game.
What do you guys do when you hear your child speaking words not meant for their age? Do you disapprove of the usage immediately or you don't make a big deal out of it and leave it there hoping they will forget the word.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Two kids - One game
How do you balance out the interest of 2 kids of different ages at home ? Thats becoming such a different challenge for me to handle these days.
Anything I start out with Junior is baby game or boring for Cantaloupe and Junior just has her own rules when I attempt playing anything with her sister. Like the other day, I wanted Cantaloupe to not be left out of family fun and introduced her to Carrom, (this was a popular game with us kids while I grew up ... none of us came close to becoming champions, but nonetheless we had so much fun) So I arranged the carrom pawns on the board and stepped out for about 5 secs to fetch the powder and what do I see when I come back ?? Junior in the middle of the board throwing the pawns in all possible direction and thus ended my grand plans of carrom with Cantaloupe.
Also another day, Cantaloupe wanted to play -pretend doctor / patient with me. So I was the patient and she was my doctor. She had her stethoscope and pretended to check me and prescribed me some pills. She was bought to give me a shot / injection when she found the same in Junior's mouth. Apparently it tasted better than a lollipop to Junior who made such a hue and cry before giving up the syringe.
Board games are out of question ... there is no way the pawns will remain on the board ... triominos, snake and ladder - all gone for a toss.
We manage to play pretend games sometimes ... Cantaloupe is irritated when Junior disrupts her game plans, but I try to convince her that Junior is her assistant in the task and is only helping out. But then why would anyone call the idea of pulling out ones' hair helping when she is pretending to be a hair dresser.
I am running out of ideas on how to handle both kids together ... they manage just fine when they play with each other (well . most of the times ... ok sometimes they manage). So far dancing with music in the background or hide and seek have been working fairly well with both kids ... but then there are only so many spots in the house where one can hide :)
Ideas please ....
Anything I start out with Junior is baby game or boring for Cantaloupe and Junior just has her own rules when I attempt playing anything with her sister. Like the other day, I wanted Cantaloupe to not be left out of family fun and introduced her to Carrom, (this was a popular game with us kids while I grew up ... none of us came close to becoming champions, but nonetheless we had so much fun) So I arranged the carrom pawns on the board and stepped out for about 5 secs to fetch the powder and what do I see when I come back ?? Junior in the middle of the board throwing the pawns in all possible direction and thus ended my grand plans of carrom with Cantaloupe.
Also another day, Cantaloupe wanted to play -pretend doctor / patient with me. So I was the patient and she was my doctor. She had her stethoscope and pretended to check me and prescribed me some pills. She was bought to give me a shot / injection when she found the same in Junior's mouth. Apparently it tasted better than a lollipop to Junior who made such a hue and cry before giving up the syringe.
Board games are out of question ... there is no way the pawns will remain on the board ... triominos, snake and ladder - all gone for a toss.
We manage to play pretend games sometimes ... Cantaloupe is irritated when Junior disrupts her game plans, but I try to convince her that Junior is her assistant in the task and is only helping out. But then why would anyone call the idea of pulling out ones' hair helping when she is pretending to be a hair dresser.
I am running out of ideas on how to handle both kids together ... they manage just fine when they play with each other (well . most of the times ... ok sometimes they manage). So far dancing with music in the background or hide and seek have been working fairly well with both kids ... but then there are only so many spots in the house where one can hide :)
Ideas please ....
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Television time
Was watching House Hunters last night with Cantaloupe. I was amazed with the kind of observations she made ...
* There wasn't a refrigerator in the house ... we will not buy this house.
* Why do they keep rushing with "Lets move on to the next room" , why don't they allow us to see the rooms.
* Isnt' the paint too pale
* Lets keep looking for the house in our neighborhood and see if we can afford it
ps: These were the exact observations I made :)
* There wasn't a refrigerator in the house ... we will not buy this house.
* Why do they keep rushing with "Lets move on to the next room" , why don't they allow us to see the rooms.
* Isnt' the paint too pale
* Lets keep looking for the house in our neighborhood and see if we can afford it
ps: These were the exact observations I made :)
Friday, August 21, 2009
The School choice ....
Cantaloupe started school this week and suddenly she is all grown in my eyes ! (* wipes tears of pride*)
It has been difficult on Cantaloupe to get adjusted to different schools we have put her in. There were several reasons for continued school / day care changes.
Initially we lived in a different town and after much enquiries found a home day care which we thought suited our requirements at that time. Cantaloupe was about 6 months ... the place was very close to our house and about 5 mins drive from BP's office. Within 2 weeks of her stay there, we realised it didn't work for us. The main reason being, we dropped her as early as 7:00am and picked her by 10:00 am and the day care provider would have just woken up around the time. So we moved Cantaloupe to a private day care institution. It was a Jewish center and teachers were very friendly and my dear daughter had got well adjusted to the place. We simply loved it. We bought a house and had to move cities.
We bought a house in the city where schools were considered "Good". We paid a hefty amount to just get ourselves 2 bed / 2 bath duplex .. reason being good school district. Anyways, we again changed Cantaloupe's day care. She was about a year now. But this time, we were more relaxed about her day care since my cousin provided home day care and she stayed in the same city as ours. Within a day or two Cantaloupe had gotten adjusted to my cousin. There were some older kids already coming there and she made great friends with them.
A year passed and my cousin was scheduled to make her bi-yearly India trip. She'd be gone for 3 months which meant, we had to find alternate day care options. Satisfied with our thorough research, we put Cantaloupe in a homely yet private day care center. Clearly Cantaloupe was not happy here ... she cried her lungs out when we dropped her... would be seated quietly in a corner and we went to pick her up, would hug us just start crying. It was as if she demanded to know why she was being sent to this place. Those tears broke my heart like nothing before and I was hell bent on changing her day care.... though BP thought it was initial periods of adjustment.
I stuck to my inner feelings and moved Cantaloupe to another place ... this time it was slightly further away from our house, but it seemed like a very caring place. There was visibly a large difference in Cantaloupes' moods within the first 2 days of her shifting to this new place. BP and I were greatly relieved ... Cantaloupe now spoke about her friends, her teachers and longed to go to her day care. She was two + now and was communicating very well. The teachers were so friendly, I couldn't have asked for anything more. It worked beautifully for us for the following year ....
And then we debated hard and long and finally decided to move her to one of the best pre-schools in town. Call it first time parents over enthusiasm ... but we did. The first week in this new school was not the best of her days. I had blogged about it here,
In a month's time, Cantaloupe just seem to be having a blast in the school. What was interesting was there were minor complaints about her occasionally about missing her afternoon naps or talking with her friends during circle / story time. But she seem to be one of teacher's favourites :) (The teacher took a break after the academic year ... but didn't miss taking a picture of Cantaloupe before we went) She moved from Pre school to Pre K in the same school.
We started talking to other parents about the advantages / disadvantages of Private / Public school. While it was clear Public schools were not too academic until 5th grade ... private schools which were a lot more like Indian schools with little focus on overall development. (read school I studied meaning "Academic focus") While I was not sure which one I wanted ( my reasoning being school focuses on academics, parents should focus on other activities including sports , music, arts whatever the child be interested in) ... BP was certain in his choice. He wanted "Overall child development" and not necessarily academic progress alone. His view was further validated by kids we saw who went to private and public schools. Of course private schools were a lot more expensive than public schools. (no fees as such, but donating school supplies and raising funds etc does cost) Another important point that BP had was the very reason we had moved to this area that being good schooling district ... so there was no point compromising on real estate and sending kids to Private schools.
So after much debate / discussion, we chose to enroll Cantaloupe in Public school. The public school "assigned" to us happens to be a decent school and is just 2 crosses away from our house. So Cantaloupe has been cycling to school :) (one of my dreams was to have my kids bicycle to school ... thats the way I grew up )
The first 2 days have been good ... the teacher seems efficient and knowledgeable and looks patient enough to deal with kindergartners. Only time will tell if our choice is wise ... till such time wishing Cantaloupe the very best in her new school :)
It has been difficult on Cantaloupe to get adjusted to different schools we have put her in. There were several reasons for continued school / day care changes.
Initially we lived in a different town and after much enquiries found a home day care which we thought suited our requirements at that time. Cantaloupe was about 6 months ... the place was very close to our house and about 5 mins drive from BP's office. Within 2 weeks of her stay there, we realised it didn't work for us. The main reason being, we dropped her as early as 7:00am and picked her by 10:00 am and the day care provider would have just woken up around the time. So we moved Cantaloupe to a private day care institution. It was a Jewish center and teachers were very friendly and my dear daughter had got well adjusted to the place. We simply loved it. We bought a house and had to move cities.
We bought a house in the city where schools were considered "Good". We paid a hefty amount to just get ourselves 2 bed / 2 bath duplex .. reason being good school district. Anyways, we again changed Cantaloupe's day care. She was about a year now. But this time, we were more relaxed about her day care since my cousin provided home day care and she stayed in the same city as ours. Within a day or two Cantaloupe had gotten adjusted to my cousin. There were some older kids already coming there and she made great friends with them.
A year passed and my cousin was scheduled to make her bi-yearly India trip. She'd be gone for 3 months which meant, we had to find alternate day care options. Satisfied with our thorough research, we put Cantaloupe in a homely yet private day care center. Clearly Cantaloupe was not happy here ... she cried her lungs out when we dropped her... would be seated quietly in a corner and we went to pick her up, would hug us just start crying. It was as if she demanded to know why she was being sent to this place. Those tears broke my heart like nothing before and I was hell bent on changing her day care.... though BP thought it was initial periods of adjustment.
I stuck to my inner feelings and moved Cantaloupe to another place ... this time it was slightly further away from our house, but it seemed like a very caring place. There was visibly a large difference in Cantaloupes' moods within the first 2 days of her shifting to this new place. BP and I were greatly relieved ... Cantaloupe now spoke about her friends, her teachers and longed to go to her day care. She was two + now and was communicating very well. The teachers were so friendly, I couldn't have asked for anything more. It worked beautifully for us for the following year ....
And then we debated hard and long and finally decided to move her to one of the best pre-schools in town. Call it first time parents over enthusiasm ... but we did. The first week in this new school was not the best of her days. I had blogged about it here,
In a month's time, Cantaloupe just seem to be having a blast in the school. What was interesting was there were minor complaints about her occasionally about missing her afternoon naps or talking with her friends during circle / story time. But she seem to be one of teacher's favourites :) (The teacher took a break after the academic year ... but didn't miss taking a picture of Cantaloupe before we went) She moved from Pre school to Pre K in the same school.
We started talking to other parents about the advantages / disadvantages of Private / Public school. While it was clear Public schools were not too academic until 5th grade ... private schools which were a lot more like Indian schools with little focus on overall development. (read school I studied meaning "Academic focus") While I was not sure which one I wanted ( my reasoning being school focuses on academics, parents should focus on other activities including sports , music, arts whatever the child be interested in) ... BP was certain in his choice. He wanted "Overall child development" and not necessarily academic progress alone. His view was further validated by kids we saw who went to private and public schools. Of course private schools were a lot more expensive than public schools. (no fees as such, but donating school supplies and raising funds etc does cost) Another important point that BP had was the very reason we had moved to this area that being good schooling district ... so there was no point compromising on real estate and sending kids to Private schools.
So after much debate / discussion, we chose to enroll Cantaloupe in Public school. The public school "assigned" to us happens to be a decent school and is just 2 crosses away from our house. So Cantaloupe has been cycling to school :) (one of my dreams was to have my kids bicycle to school ... thats the way I grew up )
The first 2 days have been good ... the teacher seems efficient and knowledgeable and looks patient enough to deal with kindergartners. Only time will tell if our choice is wise ... till such time wishing Cantaloupe the very best in her new school :)
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Big Day for Me
Cantaloupe started school today ... Big Girl's school ... Kindergarten ... WOW !
I better start accepting her as a Big girl !
I better start accepting her as a Big girl !
Monday, August 17, 2009
How can this be happening?
Junior announces (in fact runs from any corner of the house to find us) and announces "Poo Poo" and then does the act !!
Potty training was never in my mind ... why does this girl remind me of things I am not ready for ?
ps: I thought the first time was a coincidence ... it has happened consistently for the past week ... hmm ... really how can this be happening???
Potty training was never in my mind ... why does this girl remind me of things I am not ready for ?
ps: I thought the first time was a coincidence ... it has happened consistently for the past week ... hmm ... really how can this be happening???
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