This week when we were at the library, I picked up a list of "Books Every Toddler Should Know"
There are 55 books on the list.
So, today's Thursday Thirteen is going to be:
Thirteen (plus 42) Books That Every Toddler Should Know
1. Each Peach Pear Plum: An "I Spy" Story by Janet Ahlberg
2. Grandma by Debbie Bailey
3. Boats by Byron Barton
4. Moo Baa La La by Sandra Boynton
5. The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
6. Hand Rhymes by Marc Tolon Brown
7. Mr. Grumpy's Outing by john Burningham
8. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
9. Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear by Nancy White Carlstrom
10. Find the Duck by Stephen Cartwright
11. Five Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed by Eileen Christelow
12. Freight Train by Donald Crews
13. Ten in the Bed by Penny Dale
14. Jamberry by Bruce Degen
15. Tomie dePaola's Mother Goose by Tomie DePaola
16. What Bounces? by Kate Duke
17. Busy, Busy Toddlers by Phoebe Dunn
18. Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert
19. The Baby Sitter by Frank Endersby
20. In the Tall, Tall Grass by Denise Fleming
21. A Year in the Country by Douglas Florian
22. Babies by Gyo Fujikawa
23. ABC Bunny by Wanda Gag (how'd you like THAT last name. LOL)
24. Asleep, Asleep by Mirra Ginsburg
25. Jungle Sounds by Colin Hawkins
26. Look! Look! Look! by Tana Hoban
27. Animal Sounds for Baby by Cheryl WIllis Hudson
28. Giving by Shirley Hughes
29. Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins
30. The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
31. Whose Mouse Are You? by Robert Kraus
32. The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
33. Sam's Bath by Barbro Lindgren
34. Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin
35. Mommies at Work by Eve Merriam
36. Whose Hat? by Margarte Miller
37. The Jacket I Wear in the Snow by Shirley Neitzel
38. The Saucepan Game by Jan Ormerod
39. Family by Helen Oxenbury
40. Mother, Mother, I Want Another by Maria Polushkin
41. Read-Aloud Rhynes for the Very Young by Jack Prelutsky
42. Shake My Sillies Out by Raffi
43. We're Going On A Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
44. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
45. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss
46. Sheep In A Jeep by Nancy Shaw
47. What Do Toddlers Do? by Debby Slier
48. The Tenth Good Thing About Barney by Judith Viorst
49. Cookie's Week by Cindy Ward
50. How Do I Put It On? by Shigeo Watanabe
51. Father Fox's Pennyrhymes by Clyde Watson
52. I Went Walking by Sue Williams
53. The Napping House by Audrey Wood
54. Piggies by Don Wood
55. The Lullabye Songbook by Jane Yolen
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Thursday, March 1, 2007
It Takes A Village
Been thinking lately about discipline.
This may be a controversial blog for some of you to read, depending on your views of discipline, so I'll just put it out there that I spank my child and now it's up to you if you want to continue reading the rest of this blog. fair?
And now, I just have to decide how I actually want to start this blog. Hmmm.
ok, here goes...
Before Levi could talk verbally, I had taught him sign language. He was required to sign "please" and "thank you" at the appropriate times until he could learn how to speak them. At 8 months old, if Levi touched something that I had already told him once not to touch, I swatted his hand. He learned from this and wouldn't touch it again. I had no problems with him. I didn't have to childproof my house or worry about what he would get into because he KNEW what would happen. I had an obedient child. People didn't hesitate to invite us over or cringe when we showed up somewhere. It was expected that my child was going to behave, or he was going to be punished. period. the end.
I need to interject here and say that I've been raising Levi alone since he was 6 months old and my (now ex) husband left for Iraq.
that first year of raising him alone was.... well, not EASY... but easIER for me. I could do it alone because I (thought that I) knew that at the end of it all, I would have my partner to help and that it wouldn't always be just me. I never expected that one year of raising Levi alone would turn into now two and a half years going on however many years I'm intended to do this alone.
*sigh*
it's hard!
well, after the whole shock of the horrible homecoming I really got leniant (sp?) in my discipline with Levi. For one, I felt like he was having to deal with SO MUCH already with all of the confusion and dealing with me in my pregnant, hormonal, emotional state that it wasn't... i dunno... fair? And for two, I just had SO MUCH going on that discipline all of the sudden became not so important.
And I guess I let that go on for too long and now I'm finding myself trying to play catch up. Now, I've got this totally rambunctious two year old. and yes, I know two year olds are rambunctious... but golly he's SO whiney sometimes and before I would not have put up with that. But now he's learned that he can get away with crap like dramatically falling to the floor if he doesn't get his way. and it's driving me nuts.
anyway...
this weekend my best friends brother was in town and while he was here Levi did his dramatic fall to the floor and whine routine. John, knows that I'm a spanker. We've had conversations before about how not enough people these days still spank their kids. Well, Levi did his attention getting act and I tried to ignore it when John says to me "oh no. I'd spank that bottom." And at first it really threw me off that he said that and I said to him "are you trying to tell me how to parent my child?" and he said "uh yeah. Just then I was." (which also threw me!) THEN... to top it off he goes "I'll do it for ya!" and I at this point started thinking THE NERVE!
BUT....
The more I thought about it the more it didn't bother me that he had said that. No, I didn't let him spank Levi. But I got to thinking that sometimes it really DOES take a village to raise a child. And, I appreciate it when people jump in and help.
A couple of weeks ago I went to lunch with Amy and after lunch Levi started to run out into the parking lot and she said something to him in a foreful tone of voice and then caught herself and apologized to me. But... it didn't bother me. A stranger off of the street trying to boss my kid, yeah, that would bother me. But not people that I know and love. I appreciate their support in trying to help me raise a good boy.
*shrug*
I watched a comedy routine recently by Sinbad and in part of it he was talking about back in the day when if you did something wrong, you'd get whooped by all the neighbors on the way home so that by the time you actually got home you already couldn't sit. People were comfortable letting their friends and family help in the disciplining of their children.
where is all of this going?
well... this week in the book I'm reading for my study (Captivating), we were forced to think about how our own upbringings have shaped us into who we are today. We looked at what kind of parents we had as kids and we looked at what kind of parent we, ourselves, were being.
There is a sentence in the book that reads "when my sons were young and got hurt, their dad would say something encouraging like, "cool wound." I would hold them close and tend their injuries."
This is something that I struggle with daily. Being BOTH mom AND dad is extremely difficult and I don't know that I've gotten a comfortable grasp on it yet. On the one hand, I don't want to raise a sissy boy, so when he falls and gets a little scrape part of me says "shake it off, you're tough." and not make a big deal of it, but my insides... my motherly instincts are yearning at the same time to run to him and coo over him and kiss his boo boo and love on him and make everything ok.
where is the happy medium?!?
In the class we are being required to ask ourselves the question "am I lovely?"
*deep breath in*
I honestly can say that I don't ever think that I've felt lovely.
I grew up a tom boy. I had an older brother and did things like shoot bb guns, and fish, and I even owned a bow and arrows. I rode the four wheelers and I went swimmin in the nastiest places and jumped off of bluffs into dangerous waters.
In high school I was 25 pounds lighter than I am now and I vividly remember my mom saying to me once "you could be a model if you would just lose some weight." that stuck with me! It gave me a bad self image.
then I got married to a guy who I thought adored me and thought I was lovely. turns out he had a pretty major addiction to pornography and any woman knows that's the last thing she needs to feel lovely... a husband who gets satisfaction looking at perfect big chested women. Didn't help that he ended up having an affair in the long run either.
and now...
now I'm supposed to be the mom... the lady of the house. I'm supposed to dress my little girl in pinks and treat her like a princess, but at the same time I'm having to act like I think the frog that Levi found out front is SOOOO cool.
lovely?
not so much
*deep breath out*
(I feel like I had more to say in this blog but after stopping to re-read what i've written so far a million times, I'm emotionally exhausted and need to just sign out for the day.)
P.S. -- some of my blogs are forcing myself to look deeper into who I am than I have in the past and it's a big deal for me to "put it out there" so if you read these blogs please at least sign your name. thanks
This may be a controversial blog for some of you to read, depending on your views of discipline, so I'll just put it out there that I spank my child and now it's up to you if you want to continue reading the rest of this blog. fair?
And now, I just have to decide how I actually want to start this blog. Hmmm.
ok, here goes...
Before Levi could talk verbally, I had taught him sign language. He was required to sign "please" and "thank you" at the appropriate times until he could learn how to speak them. At 8 months old, if Levi touched something that I had already told him once not to touch, I swatted his hand. He learned from this and wouldn't touch it again. I had no problems with him. I didn't have to childproof my house or worry about what he would get into because he KNEW what would happen. I had an obedient child. People didn't hesitate to invite us over or cringe when we showed up somewhere. It was expected that my child was going to behave, or he was going to be punished. period. the end.
I need to interject here and say that I've been raising Levi alone since he was 6 months old and my (now ex) husband left for Iraq.
that first year of raising him alone was.... well, not EASY... but easIER for me. I could do it alone because I (thought that I) knew that at the end of it all, I would have my partner to help and that it wouldn't always be just me. I never expected that one year of raising Levi alone would turn into now two and a half years going on however many years I'm intended to do this alone.
*sigh*
it's hard!
well, after the whole shock of the horrible homecoming I really got leniant (sp?) in my discipline with Levi. For one, I felt like he was having to deal with SO MUCH already with all of the confusion and dealing with me in my pregnant, hormonal, emotional state that it wasn't... i dunno... fair? And for two, I just had SO MUCH going on that discipline all of the sudden became not so important.
And I guess I let that go on for too long and now I'm finding myself trying to play catch up. Now, I've got this totally rambunctious two year old. and yes, I know two year olds are rambunctious... but golly he's SO whiney sometimes and before I would not have put up with that. But now he's learned that he can get away with crap like dramatically falling to the floor if he doesn't get his way. and it's driving me nuts.
anyway...
this weekend my best friends brother was in town and while he was here Levi did his dramatic fall to the floor and whine routine. John, knows that I'm a spanker. We've had conversations before about how not enough people these days still spank their kids. Well, Levi did his attention getting act and I tried to ignore it when John says to me "oh no. I'd spank that bottom." And at first it really threw me off that he said that and I said to him "are you trying to tell me how to parent my child?" and he said "uh yeah. Just then I was." (which also threw me!) THEN... to top it off he goes "I'll do it for ya!" and I at this point started thinking THE NERVE!
BUT....
The more I thought about it the more it didn't bother me that he had said that. No, I didn't let him spank Levi. But I got to thinking that sometimes it really DOES take a village to raise a child. And, I appreciate it when people jump in and help.
A couple of weeks ago I went to lunch with Amy and after lunch Levi started to run out into the parking lot and she said something to him in a foreful tone of voice and then caught herself and apologized to me. But... it didn't bother me. A stranger off of the street trying to boss my kid, yeah, that would bother me. But not people that I know and love. I appreciate their support in trying to help me raise a good boy.
*shrug*
I watched a comedy routine recently by Sinbad and in part of it he was talking about back in the day when if you did something wrong, you'd get whooped by all the neighbors on the way home so that by the time you actually got home you already couldn't sit. People were comfortable letting their friends and family help in the disciplining of their children.
where is all of this going?
well... this week in the book I'm reading for my study (Captivating), we were forced to think about how our own upbringings have shaped us into who we are today. We looked at what kind of parents we had as kids and we looked at what kind of parent we, ourselves, were being.
There is a sentence in the book that reads "when my sons were young and got hurt, their dad would say something encouraging like, "cool wound." I would hold them close and tend their injuries."
This is something that I struggle with daily. Being BOTH mom AND dad is extremely difficult and I don't know that I've gotten a comfortable grasp on it yet. On the one hand, I don't want to raise a sissy boy, so when he falls and gets a little scrape part of me says "shake it off, you're tough." and not make a big deal of it, but my insides... my motherly instincts are yearning at the same time to run to him and coo over him and kiss his boo boo and love on him and make everything ok.
where is the happy medium?!?
In the class we are being required to ask ourselves the question "am I lovely?"
*deep breath in*
I honestly can say that I don't ever think that I've felt lovely.
I grew up a tom boy. I had an older brother and did things like shoot bb guns, and fish, and I even owned a bow and arrows. I rode the four wheelers and I went swimmin in the nastiest places and jumped off of bluffs into dangerous waters.
In high school I was 25 pounds lighter than I am now and I vividly remember my mom saying to me once "you could be a model if you would just lose some weight." that stuck with me! It gave me a bad self image.
then I got married to a guy who I thought adored me and thought I was lovely. turns out he had a pretty major addiction to pornography and any woman knows that's the last thing she needs to feel lovely... a husband who gets satisfaction looking at perfect big chested women. Didn't help that he ended up having an affair in the long run either.
and now...
now I'm supposed to be the mom... the lady of the house. I'm supposed to dress my little girl in pinks and treat her like a princess, but at the same time I'm having to act like I think the frog that Levi found out front is SOOOO cool.
lovely?
not so much
*deep breath out*
(I feel like I had more to say in this blog but after stopping to re-read what i've written so far a million times, I'm emotionally exhausted and need to just sign out for the day.)
P.S. -- some of my blogs are forcing myself to look deeper into who I am than I have in the past and it's a big deal for me to "put it out there" so if you read these blogs please at least sign your name. thanks
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