Book Recommendation

Reclaiming Childhood
Letting Children Be Children in Our Achievement-Oriented Society
By William Crain

This is one of the many books I am currently reading and I highly recommend it even though I'm only about 1/4 of the way through. Having taught in the public school system for eight years, I became very aware of the lack of time and resources for teachers to be creative. There is so much pressure to have kids perform on standardized tests(some of it is good, but much of it isn't) that teachers are just trying to do the best they can to fly through all the material they are expected to cover in the limited time they have.

The pressure to perform and to prepare kids for adulthood doesn't start when kids go off to school. When I was pregnant, I was amazed by all the so-called "brain boosting" products available for purchase and use during pregnancy. Some of the items I remember seeing were head phones that you could put on your belly to pipe in classical music and foreign languages to complete courses, in what I'm not sure, to play for your child. Then when the baby gets here, you can use flash cards, videos, and yes, even sign language to give your child an IQ boost.

I love this book because it shows that children are natural explorers, dramatists, artists, poets and linguists. All we need to do is follow their lead and let them be children. How often do you see kids in your neighborhood playing outside today? I have several friends who teach elementary school who say that watching the kids on the playground is downright sad because the kids don't know how to play with each other. It is summer vacation and it's not uncommon for me to not see any kids out playing on a given day. They're so used to sitting in front of the TV and playing video games that going outside is not a joy, it's a chore. Add to that the fear that many parents have today of their children being abducted and you get a generation of children who are missing out on all the fun and opportunities for creativity that being outdoors affords.

If you have had a nagging feeling that babies and kids don't need all the commercialized products out there to boost their IQ's, that their brains can be challenged by being given safe opportunities to explore and create, check out this book and pass it along to a friend!

10 Months!

Wow! It's hard to believe Max will be 10 months old tomorrow. I swear time is flying even faster in the last few months than it was before. It's a bit risky for me to post an update on him at this moment because he barely slept last night for some unknown reason, which means I am not the most well-rested or happiest camper on the block today!

Max continues to be on the move every waking minute, which is a great workout for me. He loves to climb steps and can make it up two flights in no time at all. He has no idea how to get back down yet, but we're working on it. He is babbling a lot, but so far he isn't saying any words consistently. Last week I pointed to a light and said, "Can you say 'light'?" and he showed me the word using sign language AND actually said "ight!" I nearly fell over! However, he has yet to repeat that word since then. He makes a lot of "mmmmmammmmaammmma" sounds but I don't know if he is saying "mama" or not. Usually he is trying to show me he wants to nurse when he does that rather than get my attention for other things.

I thought maybe he was starting to wean himself from nursing a couple weeks ago, but now he must be going through a growth spurt. Whenever I hold him or carry him, he starts climbing up my side and trying to get in the nursing position.

He is eating pretty much anything I eat, but I try to make sure he doesn't eat junk food. He eats "super porridge" in the morning for breakfast - a mix of frozen food cubes. It usually consists of kale, brown rice, a vitamin A food cube (usually sweet potato), avocado, and a legume (kidney beans this week) into that I mix powdered kelp, flax oil and his daily vitamins. Yummmmmmm! It's actually not that bad. I feel like if he eats that for breakfast he's gotten most of his nutrients for the day so I can relax a bit. He eats things like cheese and fruit for snack and plain yogurt mixed with fruit or breakfast leftovers for lunch and then more yogurt for dinner, or bite sized versions of what we're eating such as chicken and veggies. I should eat as healthy as he does!!

I am still trying to find the time to baby proof. He gets into everything and eats everything he finds on the ground, be it food, dirt, paper, etc. Speaking of paper - this child has probably consumed and entire tree worth of paper. I try to make sure to keep it away from him, but he's drawn to it with some kind of strange magnetism. Maybe I'm not giving him enough fiber??

He loves people and it's fun taking him out to restaurants right now because he enjoys watching all the action going on as well as the looking at the decorations and light fixtures.

He has started dancing when he hears music sometimes, which is super cute. He also loves it when we get on the floor and chase him, then catch him and tickle him.

He's not walking yet, but he can cruise all over the place and he's stood unassisted for several seconds at a time. It won't be long now, so I'd better make time to get the gates up and the drawer latches in place.

He loves books and will sit in my lap while I read 5-6 books to him. He gets a bit annoyed when I won't let him eat the pages though! One of his books has a picture of a panda in it and that seems to be his favorite animal at the moment. It must have something to do with the black/white contrast. He LOVES pandas!

So everything is humming right along here in Max-land. It's hard to believe just two months from now we'll be blowing out the candles on his first birthday cake!

If you'd like to see more pictures, click on the title to this post. Have a happy Sunday everyone.

P.S. Check out his adorable new jammies!!