Reading Time

When my first three children were younger, I used to read to them in the evenings. It wasn’t always a regular occurrence, but over time I managed to finish entire books including the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis.

With Amanda, our reading time is usually at naptime. Not only is reading to her a valuable part of her development, but it’s also good quality time for just the two of us.

“I have never known any distress that an hour’s reading did not relieve.” ― Charles-Louis De Secondat Montesquieu

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.” – Einstein

"You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child." – Dr. Seuss

When do you read to your child?

Don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest where you can read more great quotes that I’ve pinned and other cool stuff.

I also recommend that you read my post Introducing Your Child to the World of Books.

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Baking and Counting

Amanda loves helping me in the kitchen, especially when I’m baking, because there are things that she can safely do. The other day we made pancakes together. (I know, technically it’s not baking, since we use a frying pan.) Her job was to add in the ingredients once I’d measured them and then to help me mix it all together.

The recipe that I used is from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. My mom brought the cook book with her from the States some years back and I’ve used it more than any of my other cook books. I usually like making the buttermilk pancakes, but when I don’t have buttermilk in the fridge then I just make the regular milk pancakes.

Since I have a big family, I tripled the recipe. Tripling the recipe meant that we got to add more of everything, which meant more fun for Amanda. I had her count the quantities as we added them to the bowl. When we got to the sugar, I used a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon, which meant that she would have to count that much higher.

I can tell that Amanda is getting more confident with her numbers and simple math. The other day she asked for two slices of avocado on toast. (We mash them up and add a bit of freshly squeezed lemon juice with salt and pepper to taste, but leave the pepper off for Amanda.) I didn’t think she’d finish two, so I tried to make one slice look like more by cutting it into four squares. I was unable to trick her. She said, “Mom, that’s not two slices. You cut one slice into four!”

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Mixing Up Words: The Funny Side of Life

I’m a morning person and I like to stay up late at night, but I have to take a nap every day. This morning I woke just after 5 am and stayed in bed for another 40 minutes just because it was too early even for me. When I did get up, it was so dark that the stars were still shining brightly. Since my husband isn’t a morning person and he also likes to stay up late, but doesn’t take a nap like me, I try not to wake him.

Amanda and Samantha

The other day, both Amanda and Samantha were already up after I had showered and wanted to get dressed, so I took my things to their room. A little bit later, Amanda came walking through to the office and thrust my pajama bottoms at me and said, “I found this on my bed!” She then told me to follow her to her room.

When we got there she said, “Look! Your dry hair is on my bed too and it’s making it so messy!” She meant my hairdryer and she isn’t normally so concerned about her bed. Later that day she mixed up another word. She called corn-on-the-cob "cob corn." This morning she gave me a new one, horse seals as in sea horses, too funny!

It’s hilarious when little kids get their words mixed up. By the time the evening of last night rolled around, I found the opposite to also be true. Both Amanda and Samantha were watching a cartoon. I asked them if it was the show where the kids turn into dinosaurs. Amanda felt that it was important that I know the proper name of the program and so she told me in her best teacher’s voice with great emphasis, “It’s Dino Squad.”

Well, I just burst out laughing. She could say Dino Squad perfectly, but not hairdryer. It just goes to show that some things are more important than other things in a 4-year-old’s life.

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Measuring Up – 2

I asked a question in my previous post “Does your child measure up?” Now, I would like to rephrase that question and ask, “Do you measure your child against other children and for what purpose?”

My son, Jeremiah, is my first child. He took his first unaided steps at 9 months of age, which is really young. This happened soon after watching his 3rd cousin, who was 6 months older, walking. (I searched on Google to find out exactly how they were related.) However, sometimes he would wet his bed up until around 6 years of age. He played hard all day and slept deeply at night, so deeply that he couldn’t wake himself up when he needed to urinate, not even when we took him ourselves. Was something wrong with him? No, and he eventually outgrew this problem. Some things just take time and don’t need medical attention or parental pressure.

The same morning that I pondered on this topic, I began to read the 1st book of a trilogy that my daughter, Samantha, borrowed from the library. The book is called, The Wind Singer, by William Nicholson and is the 1st of the Wind on Fire trilogy. I haven’t been able to put these books down. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that the theme in The Wind Singer is about the lie behind measuring people by using exams on certain subjects. The people in the story are living inside a large city and are tested every year to prove their intelligence and their worth from as early as 2 years of age. (By the way, these books are not for sensitive readers as the author doesn’t sugarcoat his storytelling, although I do recommend them.)

My thoughts on this subject are best expressed through an encounter I had with a near stranger. Earlier this year, we had a visitor whom we hardly knew. For some reason I was talking with our guest about the education system. I told him how school systems are only able to measure certain types of intelligences, like mathematics and language, but how there are many children sitting inside these schools who might be good in other areas. As an example, I suggested that a child who is good at gardening would not be recognized in his or her area of intelligence. Our guest then told me that his son struggled in school, but was now happy as an adult doing landscaping.

I hadn’t known this about his son before the conversation, but I don’t believe the example I gave was a coincidence. I believe the Holy Spirit was speaking through me even though I wasn’t aware of the significance of my words until he shared his own son’s experience. If you would like to read more about the Holy Spirit then you can start by reading my post in my blog, Happy Moms, Happy Homes called “Discovering Your Potential – Part 3 of 5.”

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