Cooking With Your Kids Helps Develop Motor Skills for Preschoolers

Did you know that cooking with your kids is a natural way for them to develop motor skills? If you've never looked at cooking that way before, think again. There's a reason why kids have a universal love for cooking - just like for stacking blocks and banging!

Cooking is especially good for preschoolers and here's how:

1.  Two year olds are developing large muscles in their arms:  They will enjoy stirring and stirring and stirring :-).  My two year old is always asking to stir; and her subconscious knows why! At 2 years old, a child naturally imitates circular strokes as part of their normal physical development. So, let them stir at every opportunity.

Here are some ways to encourage arm muscle development through cooking:

• stirring: flour, eggs, pancake batter, gelatin making, etc. 
• scrubbing potatoes and vegetables 
• cleaning the cutting board:  Give them a washcloth and some lukewarm water with the cutting board in the sink. They'll have a blast rubbing the wet washcloth up and down the cutting board to clean it. 
• pouring from large measuring cups into a bowl 

2.  Two year olds are developing the ability to turn pages:  Another motor skill developed during the preschool age is the ability to turn pages. So - just pondering here...is it the story they love so much or just turning the pages of the book? Well, actually both. They need the motor development of turning the pages; and the pictures and vocabulary improve their intellectual development.

3.  Two year olds love "patting" and "pressing":  From being fascinated with "patty-cake" chants at an early age, preschooler's still love to pat and press. I'm sure you'll recognize your preschooler doing this at the park:  scooping up rocks or sand, piling them up, and patting the top into different shapes.

Well, here's some suggestions to bring the "patting" inside:

• packing down brown sugar in the measuring cup 
• gently pressing a fork on top of peanut butter cookie dough on the cookie sheet 
• patting to level off the top of a cup of sugar 
• patting and pressing on pizza dough 
• pressing down with a cookie cutter on rolled sugar cookie dough 

4.  Two year olds love to dip - and this develops arm muscles skills too!:  it takes a lot of coordination to dip! Getting the food in the dip, then moving the arm and somehow getting it into your mouth.  If it wasn't difficult, they wouldn't get food all over their face! :-)

So, unless your 2 year old always has a clean face when he or she is done eating, here's some dipping opportunities:

• carrots in salad dressing 
• french fries in catsup 
• dipping a spoon in the emptied batter bowl to clean out the goodies :-) 
• dipping fruit in a fruit dip or chocolate (like frozen bananas or strawberries) 
• dipping chicken or fish in a batter for you to cook 
• dipping the bread in French toast mix 

So, instead of "shooing" your preschoolers and 2 year olds out of the kitchen, let them dive in with these simple tasks that not only give them great pleasure, but help them develop their age appropriate motor skills.

article by Laura Bankston

Nap Time Cues & Solving Bedtime Fights

This advice actually saved us a lot of headaches when our daughter was younger. In fact, following just this piece of advice got her sleeping two hours each morning and afternoon, plus twelve full hours every night at just five months old. Now almost four, she has no trouble saying that she's tired and needs a nap. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, there are three very common mistakes parents make:

1. They assume more naps will make it harder for the child to fall asleep at night. This is flat out, 100% UNTRUE. In fact, most bedtime fights occur because the child is overtired. Even when they do manage to fall asleep, they can't get that deep restful sleep they need. Think about it: when you're overtired, how often do you crash hard, only to find yourself wide awake at 2 a.m.? It's no different for the little ones.

2. They assume that babies need to be fed every two hours, regardless of any other schedules. This is also generally untrue. Granted, for very new babies this is a precaution that should be taken into consideration, and breastfeeding moms will need some relief as well. But our family doctor made a very good point: if a baby is sound asleep, it means they're not being woken up by nagging hunger...so stop waking them up to feed them! With my own daughter, once she learned that she wasn't going to be fed every couple of hours she opted to just stay asleep and eat a bigger breakfast.

Remember, this was when she was just five months old. It took only three days to train her this way, and to this day she sleeps well right through the night.

3. They assume a later bedtime will create a later wake-up time. This is also completely untrue. Children are creatures of nature and instinct, and they will tend to wake up at the same time every morning. Yet surprisingly, parents extend their kids' bedtimes as late as possible to try and get them to sleep in a little later. What this does is it actually forces the kid to become overtired, resulting in more and more bedtime arguments and restless sleep. The kid gets up throughout the night, and they still wake up early. It becomes a cycle. The way out of this is to go for an earlier bedtime, and be consistent with it. That consistency will pay off.

Oh, and admit to yourself that 6 a.m. actually isn't a terrible time to get up. You can go to sleep before midnight too, you know.

A new baby needs a lot of sleep and when they’re not sleeping, they can be hungry or need a diaper change. It’s a little hard to know in the beginning what’s making your baby cry or if they're tired. But as you both begin to settle into your routines, you’ll begin to notice the cues that your baby needs to nap. You want to make sure they get in good naps during the day and at appropriate times so that you won’t have as much trouble getting them to sleep at night.

Even a very small baby will rub their eyes when they get tired. They'll yawn; perhaps get fussy. As children get a little older, their activity levels may pick up as they get tired and try to avoid sleep.

Try to keep to regular nap times during the day. If you’re baby is napping 3 times a day, then a mid-morning, early afternoon and late-afternoon nap is appropriate for a baby with a 7:30 or 8 PM bedtime.

Often babies get tired towards dinner time, and then parents are faced with a dilemma. Do you let the baby sleep and risk not getting to sleep at bedtime? Or you do you try to keep them awake through dinner and perhaps put them to bed a little bit earlier?

Most parents will opt for trying to keep the baby awake a little longer in favour of keeping to a regular bedtime. But if it's been a busy day for the little one, let them have a very short nap and then wake them up gently for dinner or a feeding and some light play before putting them to bed for the night.

Remember to make rituals for naps as well as bed time so your baby gets used to sleeping at regular times.

101 Uses for Dirty Diapers

As the father of a toddler, I am an expert on dirty diapers. I know exactly what to do with them: throw them out!

But along comes a New York waste company and a town in California who want me to do something else with my dirty diapers. Like cover my roof with them. Or walk on them. Or build a doghouse with them, perhaps.

Does this sound nuts? Well, it's not. In fact, this project won the world's top happiness award: the 2003 Happy Guy Award (www.The HappyGuy.com).

If you have never had children, you may not realize how much a little child can dispose of.  In olden days, a couple would have a dozen kids, give or take a few. In these modern times of disposable diapers that just is not possible – the diapers from the first child take up more place on this planet than several dozen siblings would.

So along comes the town of Santa Clarita and Knowaste Inc. proposing to recycle dirty diapers. They've figured out how to extract the plastics from the diapers in a way that actually reclaims over 90% of the source material. Sure, you think, just mix them all together, throw in a bit of water, steam them clean and slap them back on baby. Ironically, the only product that does not seem to be on the list of end uses is diapers. Roofing shingles, sure. Shoe insoles, yes. But not diapers. As I pondered how the world might look if the massive force of dirty diapers was unleashed, it became clear that there could be several big markets. Imagine the pitches...

From Milan and Paris:  "Next we have Oo-La-La Picotte strutting her stuff in a lovely ensemble of pure recycled diapers.  Notice the fashionable fuchsia on the upper tilt of the collar. This line will be all the rage in parlors and bars this spring."

From Detroit and Tokyo:  "Feel the energy and invigoration. That's the power of 100% pure recycled diapers under the hood.  Go ahead.  Kick the tires.  Pick your color.  And drive away safe in the knowledge that you are being protected by 2000 pound of pure recycled baby poop!"

From Los Angeles: "It's a smash hit. Dirty Diapers II: The Recycled Story opened in theatres across the country yesterday and immediately claimed the number one spot. What a movie!"

From New York and Toronto: "This just in.  Citizens are being asked NOT to hoard dirty diapers. I repeat, do NOT hoard dirty diapers. The shortage has already slowed the economy by three percent and housing starts have ground to a halt. Please take all your dirty diapers immediately to a drop-off depot.  This has been a public service announcement."

So what will YOU be doing with your dirty diapers?