Pre-School

How do you deal with LO saying mean things?

honeybee111 — Sun, 19 May 2013 04:56:24 GMT

DD(3) has been in preschool since beginning of Jan. this year. She goes to Montessori, and is in the primary class, so she is one of the younger kids. The class is for 3-6 year olds. Lately, she's been saying mean things to DH and I when we're doing something she doesn't like. Her favorite phrases are, "I'm going to tell on you." and "I'm not talking to you." Both said with total attitude. She told me that some kids in her class told her these phrases. So far, we've been telling her those are not nice things to say to people. DH thinks we need to follow that with an action - like, if you want to say those things, you have to go to your room and say them by yourself, not in front of mommy and daddy. Or put her in time out or something. We haven't had to use time out in over half a year, so maybe we need to go back to it? Or try something new since she's older now?

good map games or activities for 4 yr old?

groovygrl — Sun, 19 May 2013 12:59:02 GMT

DS loves looking at maps, he holds the atlas in the car & just pages through it, etc... I thought maybe there might be some good games or activities w/ maps that are age appropriate for a 4 yr old...anyone know of any (besides puzzles).

ETA I did find a vtech USA game that tells the names of states etc. was hoping for something he could look at on a plane trip though. I haven't looked at apps but will check those out too...

Headphone recs for 4 yr old & other plane related recs?

groovygrl — Sat, 18 May 2013 13:03:20 GMT

Taking my 2 almost 4 yr olds on a plane for the first time this summer... I know it sounds super easy b/c they're old enough to be excited, etc but we have put it off all this time because DS tends to get a bit overwhelmed & freaky in enclosed spaces w/ strangers (freaked on the thomas the train ride at age 2 once we got inside the train, storytime in the library room took at least 4 tries to get him to stay in the room the whole time, etc). I am hoping that it'll go better than expected but expecting the worst nonetheless. Thankfully he loves ipad & TV so we will be bringing my ipad and the portable dvd player so they each have something to watch.

I need recs for headphones- do you do earbuds at this age or the foam over the head kind (I'd think those but not sure?).

Also recs for airport & plane travel in general other than snacks, bring some new toys/things to color, books, DVD/ipad... like what do you do if they're freaking out during takeoff & landing & you can't use electronics LOL!

I'm sure I"m overthinking & it'll go fine, we'll start hyping it up a couple weeks before we leave...I wish airports had older planes that don't fly anymore that you could pay to go explore & look at w/ kids before a trip so they know what to expect!

carseat q/prek dropoff

jpearce327 — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:32:11 GMT

Right now DS (3) has a grand total of 5 carseats. Yes, 5. All bought new for him. I believe the oldest is a little over 2 years old.

He will be starting Preschool next year, and it is only a half day program with no transportation provided after, so DH's grandma is going to pick him up most days, so we need an extra carseat. We may actually need 2, just in case his mom might have to pick him up.

So, here's the question. Do we buy nice carseats that we could use for future children rear facing? (I was thinking a foonf or radian?) That way DS could use it now (and have an excellent car seat), but when we have a new baby (thinking about TTC sept-oct of this year), they could use it for extended rear facing.

Or do we buy cheap carseats like cosco scenera? 2 out of our 5 carseats are sceneras. We like that they are lightweight, but clearly they aren't my favorites. We also have 2 nautilus' and an evenflo that I believe only forward faces. He was in the sceneras and a britax (now expired) when he was RF

Cute lunch check-in

brightning — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:51:02 GMT

Sick kids! End-of-year activities! Classroom helper! ACK! Busy week but the child still has to eat, sooo ...

Cherries! A halved ham & cheese sandwich, raspberries, baby carrots, a mini blueberry muffin, cherries in a super cute silicone and a few hidden peanut butter pretzels.

Beach! Not my best work, and I'll definitely be making another version of this when I find a better way to make flipflops! But for this day, we had blueberries with a few baby Goldfish, PB/honey sandwich and hand-cut flipflop fruit leather. The other side is really ugly, lol! "Palm tree" of snap peas and pretzels, some trail mix, Wheat Thins and a Babybel cheese with sun ring. Ugly!

Butterfly container! I don't use this box often but it sure is easy to fill (it's from Melissa & Doug's Sunny Patch line). Pitted cherries, hummus and raisins along the top. Raspberries, snap peas and pita chips along the bottom. You've gotta get a cherry pitter!

Dinosaurs! As a special treat, I bought dinosaur nuggets and cooked them. When they were cool, I put them in the box on a layer of snap peas along with a piece of chocolate "coal," orange slices, a strawberry and adorable carved cucumber "tree." Carving cucumbers is so easy and satisfying, lol!

And finally, leftovers! Pizza cut to fit the container. The other layer has snap peas, blueberries (in my awesome new silicone pie slices with a pizza pick), cucumbers and more cherries.

Next week is the last week of school for us. I'll still make cute lunches in the summer, but they'll be on plates. PIP your cute lunches here and have a great weekend!

Birthday girl

Fluffycakes — Fri, 17 May 2013 06:20:53 GMT

DH and I have been invited to the birthday party of our friends' daughter turning 3. We don't see this family very often, so we don't know what she's in to.

We don't have any kids yet so, I am looking for some advice for a cool gift. Maybe Crayola? They seem to have some pretty neat, creative and inexpensive products lately.

Any suggestions? Thanks :-)

Screen time q (Ipad)

aelliott04 — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:41:03 GMT

So would you consider a 3 yr old playing educational games on an ipad some a few days a week the same as watching TV/videos/movies?

Back Tracking Academically over the summer

Mrs.RockyM — Fri, 17 May 2013 20:01:03 GMT

Just wondering if any of you are planning to do any sort of tutoring or classes or even working with your LO's over the summer so that they don't back track academically over the summer.

Sweatpants for toddler boys

Alex26 — Fri, 17 May 2013 02:29:15 GMT

DS only wants to wear sweatpants to pre-k. I think it's because they are easier to pull on and off when he goes to the potty. I haven't been able to find any in the stores. Anyone seen any at any particular store? I am able to get them during the fall/winter months, but I can't find any right now. Any information would be appreciated. Thanks

XP: Reggio Emilia

meaknigh — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:20:16 GMT

We're considering a preschool for our older son that enacts the Reggio Emilia Approach to learning. Besides the information the school provided and what I've researched on the web, I'm pretty unfamiliar. Wondering if anyone has any first hand experience in this type of school? Would you recommend it? How was your child's transition into a traditional learning environment?

(XP'd from school aged and parenting)

3 YR Birthday Party questions at the park

angiemom2be — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:25:21 GMT

My DD's 3 year old birthday party is in 1 week at a Park with a rented pavilion. For the first time, I have invited daycare school friends and dance class friends this year and as I am fairly new to throwing kid parities for classmates etc, some things have come up that I am not sure how to handle with the schedule/party.

My initial plan was as everyone was arriving, we would have a t ball set and have the kids take turns batting and getting the ball until everyone gets there. Then when I think everyone has arrived, we would eat party food, do birthday cake, and then open presents. And after all of this, we will go to the playground area and play. Right now, there will be about 11 children including my daughter and about 24 or so adults.

First question is what is your opinion on this schedule?
Should the order of things be eat party foods, cake, presents, play?
Should we open gifts there at the park? Or whisk these away to be opened at home?

My only other experience of a kids party of a school mate was at a gymnastics place, where they whisked away the presents to the car, the kids played, then they served cake and drinks to the kids, parents got no cake and only a drink if you went to their cooler and helped yourself.

I want to be a good hostess and make sure everyone has a nice time, especially and most importantly my DD.

I know there are so many ways people do things now days but don't know what is best for this many people in this situation.
What are your thoughts?

What's my problem?

la79al — Sat, 11 May 2013 02:40:52 GMT

I haven't registered DD for kindergarten yet. Registration for our public school was due 2 months ago. I haven't done any research about schools. I think our public school is good. I looked at one charter school about 20 minutes away but I don't like their website and the fact that they call teachers by their first names. Randomly looking around, I found a Montessori charter school about 20 minutes away. I don't have any information about it other than what is on their website. I sort of want to call and get more info/set up a tour but then I wonder why I should bother if our public school is okay and much, much closer. So instead, I do nothing. Grrr. I don't think I'm in denial exactly, I'm just thinking that this is one of those big decisions that I have to make that really matter.

pre-school graduation - party afterward? what?

KathrynMD — Thu, 09 May 2013 20:56:17 GMT

DD is graduating from preschool next month. I know its a dumb, but its also cute. Its mid-day on a Wednesday and DH and I will be there, plus both set of grandparents. Should we do something afterward? I'm not sure if the school is going to have a reception or something. I'd love to just hang out and let her play w/ her buddies, but I feel like we need to do something afterward. All go out for ice cream? Or just tell everyone to go home and DH and I take DD out or go to the playground w/ her friends? I know my dad and FIL will be antsy after the ceremony so I either want to tell them to go or let them know what we are going to do afterward.

Car Seat Question

sschwege — Wed, 15 May 2013 20:20:48 GMT

Another few months and DS will have outgrown his infant car seat. So DH and I are trying to figure out what to do next. Currently DD is in a convertible car seat. She's still RFing though she's getting close to exceeding the height limit so it's only a matter of time until we will have to turn her FFing. Anyway, I am wondering if we should get a five point booster for her or just buy another convertible car seat for DS. Are the convertibles safer than the five point boosters? TIA

Paying for preschool and daycare

MrsFoof — Wed, 15 May 2013 23:33:02 GMT

Currently DD goes to a home daycare 3 full days. Starting in September, she will be going to preschool 3 days for 4 hours. 2 out of those 3 days will be on daycare days. She will be at preschool from 9 - 1 and then DH will bring her to daycare from 1:15ish until I pick her up around 4:45. Therefore, she will be at daycare 3 1/2 hours on those 2 days.

The daycare lady told us that she would still charge us the full day price on those 2 days. Does this sound unreasonable? To me it just doesn't financially make sense to pay $45 for 3 1/2 hours (plus the hassle of my husband bringing her/dropping her off at daycare on those 2 days) when I can pay a nanny for that amount $ to pick her up and bring her home to our house.

Ideally, I would like to keep her at the daycare and pay the half day price on those 2 days. DD2 is still young, she will remain at the daycare.

Thoughts?

MIL has cancer

Mrs.RockyM — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:40:47 GMT

We've just recently found out that MIL has cancer. It's non-hodchkins lymphoma, stage 4. she's going to have to start chemo and radiation sometime in the next week or two, but that's all we know so far. I think she has an appointment with the oncologist next week, so hopefully we'll know more then.

At this point I have no clue how to handle things with DD1. I think she's aware that something is going on with DH - he's been very quiet and moody, somewhat withdrawn. We're going to visit MIL and FIL this weekend, and I just know everyone is going to be very emotional. So it's going to be even more obvious to her.

Do I just say Grandma isn't feeling well, and leave it at that? I don't want her to overhear anything , but I also don't want to scare her.

Any advice? I really have no clue what to say or do.

Gift ideas: 9 yo girl?

NicoleWI — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:32:23 GMT

My niece/goddaughter just turned 9. We still need to get her a gift. Any ideas??? She LOVES American Girl but she has SOOOO much of that that I thought I'd skip it this time. She's in some activities (lacrosse, swimming, some dance) but nothing else that she's hugely into.

Reaction to bad behavior?

KathrynMD — Sun, 05 May 2013 14:55:57 GMT

DD is 4.5. She's been having some typical struggles with behavior at school. Each day all the kids on the class are on green yellow or red for their behavior. She's on green most of the time, yellow occasionally and red a handful of times.

We've been rewarding her for green with a bike ride after school and we high five and make a really big deal about it, call her "Green Girl", we are kinds neutral for yellow, we say we're disappointed and talk about it, and red is no TV and we talk a lot about how disappointed we are a lot and don't really play with DD. this seems to be working BUT my question is on the red days should we be focusing on encouraging her to do better the next day or talking about being disappointed more.

Integrated preschool

JulesFo — Wed, 15 May 2013 19:20:31 GMT

Hi ladies,

Curious is anyone has any experience with their child going to an integrated preschool as a mentor? My daughter was accepted as a peer model for the upcoming school year. She was in a traditional preschool this past year in a 3s program.

4 yrs old- do you let your kids play in the yard if you can't always see them?

groovygrl — Thu, 09 May 2013 11:56:15 GMT

I'm just curious... we have neighborhood friends who regularly allow kids around 4 yrs old (a couple even younger) to play out in the yard/driveway alone and go up & down the sidewalk on scooters or trikes, etc (usually in pairs/twins or if an older sibling is around though the older sibling is not always super close by & often wanders off elsewhere w/ friends) and I have always been uncomfortable with that & didn't think that I would be able to let my kids do that before they're school aged...then w/ all the cleveland stuff I was looking at some links about talking to kids more about strangers/'tricky' people and one tip was like- never let your younger kids out of your sight even for a second...

my kids are now at a point where i trust them not to randomly bolt into the street, they will often play in the mulch beds w/ a digger or with a truck in the driveway for quite some time, etc... I am generally out there but w/ almost 4 yr old twins, if one needs me to get something from the garage or a water from the kitchen or has to run into the bathroom & needs slight assistance, it just is impossible to drag both or the other one along.... but at the same time, just the other day DS needed to go in & I thought DD was following us &I turned around and she wasn't there & I ran to the front yard and didn't see her and started yelling for her and it was probably all of 20 seconds or so and finally she yells (all annoyed) WHAT?! and was in the mulch and I just didn't see her...

Anyway, we all know what a terrible feeling that is since most ppl have lost sight of a child at some point but I am trying to figure out how to balance going nuts keeping 2 kids in my sight all the time and being smart/safe.

What do you do when near the house/yard or a place that your child knows well?

Has anyone done a My Little Pony Bday

lilles — Thu, 16 May 2013 00:37:50 GMT

I need ideas. I know a lot of people use a rainbow theme for the food for My Little Pony parties and end up serving a lot of candy. While this looks super cute a lot of the people who are coming have strict dietary restrictions so I don't want to serve any candy. The only "junk food" will be the cake. There will only be a four kids as guests and they are all four or younger. I will be buying the My Little Pony paper plates, etc. I am just trying to figure out out what else to decorate with to make it pretty and fun as well as what food to serve.

Travel Bed

Nazir — Mon, 13 May 2013 18:21:49 GMT

We are going to be traveling in Ecuador for 3 weeks and DS needs a travel bed. Any recommendations? We'll be traveling to different cities. DS will be turning 4 on our trip. He's only 33 lbs and 40 inches. TIA

thick toenails??

uconnhuskie007 — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:57:10 GMT

So my DD was born 5 years ago with really thick toenails (kinda gross, actually) i asked her pedi then who said "she's fine" every well check i show him and he insists its ok. she says they dont hurt but they look brittle (when i clip them they break into pieces) and a couple of them have a black streak. He insists shes ok but i feel that it's weird and unusual and i hope it's not a sign of some health issue. Anyone know what this might be, or have experienced the same?

Preschool Reports

CatDawn7470 — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:19:22 GMT

Do you receive any written reports from preschool? Any formal meetings to discuss progress? My son is 2.5 and attends preschool two mornings a week. I don't get anything formal just a brief exchange at pickup. My sister used to get a weekly report and a teacher conference twice a year. Not sure what's normal. Thanks!!!

How big is your pre-k class?

kpips20 — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:35:10 GMT

DSs preschool just sent home a notice that said their pre-k class is completely full for next year (we had already enrolled him for 3 days). Out of curiosity I asked the director how many students were going to be in the class and she said 20. This seems like a whole lot of 4-5 year olds to me, even with 2 teachers. This is a preschool, not a daycare, in case that makes a difference.