PerryWinkles Kids Blog

The end of October marks a very busy few weeks for my family. My eldest daughter’s birthday is on October 26th. This alone would be enough to keep me busy for a whole week. Keira is a typical 4-year old (nearly 5-year old) little girl and takes her birthday very seriously - or at least wants everyone around her to. She wants a birthday party with her friends from school. I tried to plan a small get-together at home with just 5-6 little girls from school, but she wasn’t ready for that. She wants a party with 15 kids from her school (mostly girls this time - first year she has made this distinction). She wants a Barbie cake and a pinhata. I am probably not being a good parent in giving her all this, but I am happy that I can do this for her and I will. On top of all this, she is expecting a birthday present from her parents…so I will oblige.
But the celebrations do not stop here. We have a big family here in Toronto and Keira being the first grandchild gets a lot of attention from them. Grandparents, great-granny, aunts, uncles, cousins all want to celebrate Keira’s birthday with her. So, we’re having another party the day after the one with her classmates…just a very casual lunch at our home, but still a party.

This would all be OK if my daugther’s birthday was not so close to Halloween, which brings a whole other set of celebrations. While we plan her birthday party, we have to decorate our house for Halloween, make sure she has a costume (she is BatGirl this year), bring treats for her school’s Halloween party…and of course go trick-or-treating on the 31st. (What to do with the Halloween candy is a whole other topic!).
I’m so tired…and December, the real holiday season, is not even close!
Maria

PerryWinkles Kids - specializing in little girls’ smocked dresses

Following up from my post “Parenting advice from a Montessori Pro”, I wanted to add some ideas of activities that parents can encourage their young children to do. The more your little girl or boy is allowed to help around the house, the higher their sense of self-respect will be. All your everyday chores might take you a little longer with this exercise, but the end result should bring every parent much satisfaction, not only as your children learn to help with the house chores, but as their self-esteem flourishes.

Here are some ideas of activities for young children at home:

• setting and clearing the table
• folding napkins
• washing and drying the dishes
• bringing in the mail and newspapers
• caring for plants: watering, misting, removing dead leaves
• sorting and folding laundry
• collecting the linens and towels that need to be laundered
• putting away groceries
• filling the water glasses at the dinner table
• sorting the shoes in the hall closet
• preparing for bath time and tidying afterward
• gardening: planting bulbs, cutting flowers, raking leaves

Also, here are some ideas to do around your home to provide a friendlier environment for your little children:

• provide shelves for toys, books and games. Try to avoid toy boxes.
• have some area in the kitchen or family room with some low shelves or a cabinet where some of the child’s things may be stored. A child size table and chair is also a great idea.
• avoid having too many toys. If you have too many toys available for your kids, they will end up not spending much time with any of them. Rotate the toys to create new interest.
• provide low hooks for your child to hang his or her own clothes.
• provide a stepping stool for your child to reach the sink and toilet.

I have come to realize that I have to learn to give my two young daughters more credit as to what they are able to do. The more I encourage them to help around the house, the more it becomes natural and I know that in the long term, their self-esteem will greatly benefit.

Maria

PerryWinkles Kids - specializing in little girls’ smocked dresses

I love Quinoa. I eat it for lunch at least once a week and serve it to my family also at least once a week, as a rice or pasta replacement. I love Quinoa for its taste, but I think more importantly for all the nutrition it provides my family of 2 little girls and my husband and the ease of cooking it. A main food staple of the Inca civilization in Peru (where our little girls’ smocked dresses are made), quinoa has been cultivated for more than 5,000 years and has fed millions of people.

Quinoa is known as a wonder food, the “Mother Grain” or a “super crop” thanks to its great nutritional value. Quinoa contains more protein than any other grain (an average of 16.2%, compared with 7.5% for rice, 9.9% for millet and 14% for wheat). It’s also a good source of dietary fiber and is high in magnesium, potassium and iron and a good source of phosphorous, calcium, vitamin E and several B vitamins. Quinoa is also gluten-free and easy to digest and it contains an almost perfect balance of all eight essential amino acids needed for tissue development in humans. Quinoa has been a great addition to my family’s diet; my little girls have been eating it since they were infants starting to eat solids.
My favourite ways to cook quinoa are:

• Quinoa salad - mix the cooked quinoa with pretty much anything in your fridge. I love tomatoes, feta cheese, sundried tomatoes, toasted pine nuts, left over meat or firm tofu, corn, fresh herbs. Pour some freshly-made salad dressing and you have a great-tasting and filling lunch or dinner accompaniment.
• Quinoa as a side dish - Serve quinoa instead of pasta or rice with all your favourites meals like meatballs or oven-roasted salmon.
• Quinoa in salad - Make up your usual green salad and ad some cooked quinoa to make your salad more filling (and tasty and unique!).

One of the latest recipes I’ve tried for quinoa comes from 101 cookbooks. Definitely worth the try! Cook quinoa the same way you would cook rice and be sure to remember to rinse your quinoa before using it, as the saponin on the quinoa makes it taste bitter if not rinsed off. I truly believe this is a miracle food - extremely nutritional, tasty, and very easy to cook and integrate into your family’s diet.

Maria

PerryWinkles Kids - fine little girls’ smocked dresses

My 2 1/2- year old daughter, Sara, was supposed to have started Nursery School a couple of weeks ago. I say ’supposed to’ because we showed up the first day of school and realized that she had to be fully potty-trained - I had totally missed this important detail and Sara was not quite potty-trained (I showed up with a bag full of training diapers). So, Sara stayed at school that one day and we went back home to start the ‘boot camp’ of potty-training. I was convinced that she had it in her to be potty-trained in a few days and I was even more decided when she had a great day at school and wanted to go back the next day.

The method that worked for me was just going ‘cold turkey’. We got home that day from school and I talked to Sara and told her that there would be no more diapers (except for bedtime). That night, my husband and I put together a chart for Sara where she would get a sticker for every time she would go to the potty. We also got her a special present (yes, a Dora toy) that we put on top of our kitchen pantry for her to see and hopefully realize that she would be working towards that. Finally, we got her a little potty so that she could feel she could go to the bathroom in her own terms with a toilet her size.
The first few days of this exercise were extremely frustrating. It seemed to me that Sara had no clue what I was trying to teach her. Every single time she had to go to the bathroom, she went in her pants…with no diapers of course. It was an exhausting few days, both physically (from cleaning her accidents and asking her every hour if she needed to use the potty) and mentally (I was feeling guilty and defeated). But every day she had less accidents until one day she asked a few times when she had to go. Suddenly the successes were more numerous than the accidents. We are now in day 16 (yes, it took a little while!) and we haven’t had an accident in a few days. She is asking every time she has to go to the bathroom, be it at home or out of the house.

So, tomorrow we will try her first day of school again. I have all the confidence in the world that she will be fine. I also know that she will likely have accidents, especially since she will be so occupied in the first few days at a new school. But she is so proud of herself to have gotten here that I know she will do great.

Maria

PerryWinkles Kids - fine girls’ smocked dresses