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I don’t know what came first – trying to be technology-savvy because I needed these skills to promote my budding small business in this age of social networking or because I want to make sure I can speak in the same language as my children in a few years.  Whatever the reason, sometimes I look back in awe at how much I have learned about technology in the past couple of years since I launched my business of little girls’ smocked dresses, PerryWinkles Kids.  Today, I am a regular in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, , Skype, eBay and I consider myself somewhat of a novice expert in SEO (search-engine optimization). Oh yes, and I have a BlackBerry (something I never thought I’d own if you asked me about 6 months ago).

I have no background in technology and I am not an expert by any means (I have no clue what programming entails, for example), but I can now confidently post pictures and articles onto Facebook and Twitter, update my website and talk in the SEO-lingo some of the time, make a phone call and chat on Skype, and of course buy and sell on eBay.  I know that I will still be light years behind what my children will know about computers in a couple of years (my daughters are 5 and 3), but at least I feel I will be able to somewhat communicate with them regarding computer topics and ways to communicate in this day and age.  I will probably never be cool enough for my kids, but hey, at least I will know something about the means they are using to communicate with their friends.

Now, video games are a whole other story.  My 5-yeard old daughter is starting to ask me when I will let her get a Wii.  I personally think she is way too young to start getting into video games, but she has friends who have older siblings and has therefore been exposed to them.  I will try to delay that one as long as I can, but I already have visions of myself boxing or playing tennis on my daughters’ Wii.

Maria

PerryWinkles Kids – specializing in girls smocked dresses

I’m not bragging….I am just truly amazed at my 5-year old little girl…and I’m sure most 5-year olds are showing the same ability.  She is learning to read.  5 seems young, just because she still seems like a tiny person and I guess I can’t remember when I learned to read, but I always pictured this to be later in life.

My eldest daughter is in Senior Kindergarten (at an amazing little school in Toronto) and I am just truly amazed at the progress she has made from September to here.  She is a late October baby so she is the youngest in her class (literally this year actually).  Back in September, all she could recognize from the alphabet was pretty much the letter ‘K’ (the first letter in her name, Keira), M for mom, D for dad and S for Sara (her little sister).  Only 4 months later, she is able to recognize pretty much every letter in the alphabet – she can read them and write them.  And she can read basic children’s books – even though these only have one sentence per page and the words are pretty basic, they are books.  But the best part I think is that she’s starting to recognize words on the street, on the newspaper and on food items that we have at home.  She is amazed herself that she can do this I think and it’s changing her surroundings.

Learning to read – it seems like such a trivial thing as an adult, as we just take it for granted, but seeing the process in a child makes me realize how a truly amazing feat it is…but more importantly, how amazing and sponge-like little kids are.

Maria

PerryWinkles Kids – fine smocked dresses for little girls

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

Last night I attended a lecture called “Freedom of Choice & Development of the Will” at my daugther’s Montessori school in Toronto.  The speaker was Sandra Girlato, who is the director of training at The Foundation for Montessori Education in Toronto, Canada. Sandra proved to be a very entertaining speaker who inspired me to want to be a better parent.  Her parenting tips, for children between 1 and 6 years old, based largely on the Montessori thought, were just amazing.

The main theme of the lecture was the idea that children, even as young as 1 year old, need to be given the opportunity to make choices.  We as parents cannot do everything for them.  These choices that we can provide our children with come in the form of whether she will wear pants or a skirt today, to what colour socks he/she will wear, to what they want on the dinner plate from the choices you offer….just small choices, or choices about things that might seem trivial to an adult.  The younger the child, the simpler the choices you give them of course.  But by putting your child in a position where she or he will have to make such choices in their every day lives, you are promoting their ability to think and will eventually lead them to be confident, intelligent adults – with a strong will in them.

There were a few things that really brought the point home to me.  She said, for example, that most of our homes are not built for little kids, which is pretty obvious.  But she said if you want your children to be a little more independent and, for example, help themselves to (healthy) snacks, set up your pantry so that these choices are accessible to your kids.  She also mentioned that small children do not deal well with too much choice – she said that, for example, having too many toys at home creates bored children because it presents them with too many choices and they are almost unable to make a decision as to what to play with.

Sandra’s insight, and delivery in a very engaging and entertaining manner, provided me with amazing practical suggestions to improve my parenting.  All in all I took away the fact that children have a lot more ability than what we accredit them with…and slowing down can do wonders for little children and their families.  Let them butter their toast (even if they butter it on both sides), let them choose their clothes (even if the clothes don’t match)…it might make for a slower morning at the beginning, but it should be well worth it down the road.

Maria

PerryWinkles Kids – fine girls’ smocked dresses

I knew it would happen.  Every baby goes through it and I knew the day would inevitably arrive when our baby became aware of how powerful dropping a toy on the floor from the height of her high chair could be.  The first act happens innocently enough – “let’s see what happens when I place my hand in the air and open it!”  Down goes the toy to the floor and makes a noise.  And down goes the baby’s mommy to pick up the toy that fell on the floor…or so she naively thought!  Then they perfect the throwing-toy-on-the-floor technique through trial and error.  There’s the sweeping of the arm across the tray, then the picking a toy with their little fingers and dangling it in the air before releasing, and the grabbing with their whole hand and projecting in the desired direction.  And they all have the same desired effect of mommy or daddy bending down and picking it up for them only to wait two seconds before the toy finds its way back on the floor. 

I admit that I find this little game charming and amazing.  It’s cute to see a bit of personality coming through in a baby and, also, it’s incredible to witness learning and skill development happening in front of your eyes.  First there’s object permanence, which teaches them that objects still exist when they’re not in their view anymore; then there’s the dexterity developed in their fingers through all those Cheerios and little bits of fruit they pick up from their plate; there’s finally being coordinated enough to grab an object and move their arms in the direction they want them to end up.  And I’m sure there’s tons more at play!  I don’t consider this little game in itself a form of manipulation because babies (we suspect) find this fun.  So why not indulge them.

What did concern me (in a humorous way only) was when I realized that Clara, now over 8-months-old, had incorporated this little game into her feeding routine to get me to get her toys for her when she wanted.  The game goes something like this: we start happily feeding, mouth is popping open, food is going in easily.  Then Clara starts fussing a bit so I give her a spoon or bowl to distract her, and we continue happily feeding.  A few minutes later off goes the arm in the air dangling the bowl, looking back at me before releasing her little fingers, then excitedly looking over the side of her chair to see where the bowl landed.  Nice throw!  It’s what followed that shocked me when I realized I was being manipulated by my sneaky baby: Clara sits back on her chair looking at me who should obviously know to pick the toy back up.  When I try to feed her at that moment she softly closes her eyes and looks sideways.  I initially thought she was just full and done eating so didnt’ think much of it.  Except after I finally handed her the bowl she immediately popped her mouth back open, I filled it with food and she threw the bowl on the floor again! 

Upon realizing this was going on, of course I first persevered and tried to get her to eat without giving in to her game.  I don’t know how long this fascination with toys on the floor will last and my back is stiff enough as it is! Soon enough, however, I just wanted her to finish her meal and I knew the only way was to play along.  So I did and had a great laugh at my baby’s cheekiness!

PerryWinkles Kids – Fine Children’s Smocked Clothing

In the past month, my daughter Clara, now 7 months, has graduated from her original choice of baby toys. She no longer lingers on the grabbing toys but is fascinated by balls and anything that rolls, as well as stacking blocks.   Also on her favourites list are stuffed animals that make noise.

Having gained more control of her movements she can now pick up balls the size of her palm, as well as get her hands into beachballs. She is still at that fascinating stage where she can’t not reach for something if you put it in front of her, which makes distracting her from getting into dangerous things easier.  But the wonderful thing is she’s also learning cause and effect so you can almost see her brain light up when she shakes a toy and hears a noise coming from inside it.  Then she figures if she shakes the toy really quickly more noise will come from it…and if she bangs it against another toy!…soon we’ve got a concert going on!

Clara’s current collection of favourites includes:

1. A beachball that is not fully inflated so she can grab easily with a couple of fingers. ($2 at Gymboree)

2. A colourful ball that makes noise and she can grab with both hands.

3. Small, animated balls that fit easily into her hand.

4. Mandarins that she can push around and quickly grab and get her teeth into. (She needs to be supervised during this activity, lest she actually eat the citrus fruit that her stomach is not ready for yet!)

5. Stacking blocks are fun to hold with all its textures, sounds and colours but even more fun is stacking them and letting Clara hit them and watch them tumble.  We can do this activity over and over again without her tiring of it!  ($15 at Manhattan Toys)

 I can’t wait to see what the next stage will bring!

PerryWinkles Kids – Fine Children’s Clothing

I’ve been humoured by the blob quality of newborn babies.  They just get moved around and plopped down, picked up, changed, bathed, fed.  Everything happens to them, they can’t actually consciously move.  This is why I was so impressed with the milestone that Clara reached two weeks ago when she rolled over on her tummy.  It took her a number of tries and a lot of kicking and screaming and persistence but she finally achieved it.  This felt like a huge milestone because it was probably her first conscious act.  Her first step to being mobile and to independence. 

I quickly also found what this milestone means for my free time.   While Clara is having a ball rolling on her tummy any chance she gets, she doens’t actually like staying on her tummy (in spite of the daily tummy time workouts!).  This means that as soon as she has turned over she will cry and scream for someone to turn her back on her back. 

I was surprised initially that babies would learn to go back-to-tummy first and then get stuck there for a few weeks when they learn the reverse motion, until I learned that babies’ heads make up a quarter of the proportion of their bodies!  Now I have to laugh every time I look at a baby because I am so conscious of the huge melons they have to lug around all day.  Imagine how different we would look if we kept those proportions as grown-ups.  No wonder the poor things are so exhausted at the end of every day, from all the effort it takes just to hold their heads in place!

PerryWinkles Kids

As we decide how to spend our time with our new infants we are bombarded with toys to choose from. The choice is yours to make as to which one will get your baby’s attention and hold it for more than ten seconds, which one will make her smarter, which one will develop her eye coordination, or work on her grasp, will this one make her dumber?!, could this one be toxic?! We know that novelty is good for a baby’s development but what is too much? You wouldn’t want to spoil your baby!

As a first time mom you pay so much attention to your baby’s every tiny reaction and expression with a new toy trying to figure out if this one passes the test. (I imagine the second or third time around you either know it instinctively or realize that none of this really matters!)  Below are some of my favorite toys from our collection, mainly based on how engaged Clara seems with them and how long that lasts.

1. Haba Wooden Frog. Haba is a German company that makes beautiful wooden toys of non-toxic materials as well as some soft toys. They make clutching toys for infants that are perfect for when they are learning to grasp. The frog has dangly arms with pieces of wood at the ends that make it easy to grab on to and inevitably end in the baby’s mouth. These toys aren’t exactly in the ‘bargain’ category but are worth the money. (Note on Safety: while their wooden toys and parts are made in Germany, their soft toys are made in China. These, however, are made under German supervision to comply with German safety standards.)

2. Sophie la Giraffe.   Made by Vulli, a French toy company, Sophie has been around for 40 years.  This sweet-looking giraffe toy is made of natural rubber and food paint, and is easy to grab, as well as, apparently, fascinating to chew on!  Clara does seem to enjoy mowing down on Sophie’s head, legs and neck!

3. Kathe Kruse Organic Gugguli Girl Doll.  This was a gift from friends in Germany and I’m so glad they introduced us to this toy company.  Kathe Kruse is a 100-year old German toy company that hand-makes these cuddly dolls that are safe for children.  I don’t know about the educational benefits of this doll but it is the most adorable, soft little thing and it keeps Clara company in her crib; plus it makes for great photo opps!

4. Mr. Lion.  It’s hard to escape Lamaze toys when you have a baby.  And after seeing how my baby loves grabbing, punching and chewing on her Lamaze Lion I now understand why.  You can almost see their brains exploding with sensory stimulation from the colours, textures and sounds in these soft toys.  

5. Fuzzy Bee and Friends.  Priddy Books makes wonderful cloth books for infants.  Clara can’t get enough of the sounds and feels of her new friends as we turn the pages.  A great way to introduce them to books and reading.

6. Running water.  Sometimes instead of relying on toys and songs for entertainment we walk around the house exploring new textures.  One of her favourite things is the feeling of warm water running down her feet and hands.  This one ranks high in the budget category!  Don’t forget to explore every-day items around your house.  We take them for granted but for the newly-arrived everything is a novelty! 

PerryWinkles Kids