Angry Birds and Pigs Have Taken Over My House—Margaret Hart

My son's interest in collecting began with Thomas the Tank Engine, when he was about two years old.  He wanted every engine.  We'd build tracks all around the house and run the engines until the batteries died.  We started with the wooden trains, but once he discovered the motorized ones, they took over my house.

We moved onto Hot Wheels cars somewhere around age three or four. Every trip to the grocery store we had to buy one or two, or sometimes three.  I could justify the expense because they were only a few dollars apiece.  But then one day I looked around and they had taken over my house. We had to purchase storage cases to get them off the floor, and storage shelves to get the storage cases off the floor. And of course we had to buy the racing mats on which to race the cars. 

From race cars, my son made a quantum leap to Monster Trucks. At age five, he knew the names of every truck and its driver. He wanted to go to Las Vegas for the World Finals.  And it wasn't enough to have the trucks, we had to have the world finals and freestyle competition videos. And the books. I was happy about the books because that meant reading even if I had to read them. We started with small trucks and moved onto big ones. This called for really big storage bins. And the trucks took over my house. 

About the same time, my son started showing a strong interest in Sponge Bob Square Pants. I wasn't keen on the idea. I wasn't sure about the language. So we started small. We bought some discounted videos and a few books. But his interest took off. I started to notice the square guy everywhere. Next came t-shirts and PJs, and at Thanksgiving, while visiting relatives, we noticed the cousins had a super-sized Sponge Bob pillow on their beds. Santa brought one to our house that Christmas, along with a plug-in video game. SpongeBob started to take over my house. 

When he was five turning six, he started to get interested in Mario and Luigi.  It was inevitable. Most of his friends had the Wii gaming system and my son was introduced to Super Mario Brothers at play dates. After a lot of "please, mommy," and "please, daddy," we decided to buy him the Wii system for a preschool graduation gift.  I am certain I never got a gift from my parents when I graduated from preschool, but we needed a reason, and the timing was right.  

Now Super Mario was taking over my house. Along with Wii sports and other games.  I had to buy a small basket to store  the games. Turns out buying the Wii was one of the best decisions we ever made. While intuitively he could master almost every game with little or no assistance, it was the motivation of wanting to learn the games that encouraged my son to stretch his reading skills to learn the challenging vocabulary on the screen. My husband and I are convinced that the games he played have helped propel his reading skills. As long as his reading continues to excel, I will gladly allow the Wii games to take over my house!

This month, as my son marked his seventh birthday, the talk has been all about Angry Birds. If you haven't at least heard of the game, then you've been living under a rock! It was released in 2009 and has since reportedly been downloaded over 42 million times. Make that 42 million and 1 when I got my new iPhone this past September. My son became a groupie. He plays the game on my phone while we wait for the bus to come in the mornings. And he plays every chance he gets. 

So for his birthday on December 2nd, he wanted an Angry Birds-themed cake. So my mom and I created Angry Birds cupcakes to bring to class, and my husband and I splurged and had a cake designer create an Angry Birds cake based on a drawing my son made, for his big party with all his friends. The cupcakes came out great and all the kids loved them. The birthday cake was a huge hit and the kids were amazed. The parents, too. I just thought I'd share.

Now the Angry Birds, and the pigs are taking over my house! He has at least six birds by last count, and an equal number of pigs, plus the gigantic "mighty eagle"—birthday gifts from friends and family. They are on his bed most of the time, and sometimes I have to dig underneath them to find a boy! His plush toys and stuffed animals are definitely taking over, but as long as he can still fit under the covers, I guess I'm okay with it.

Designer Cake

Angry Bird Cupcakes

Whose Homework is This Anyway? -- by Cara

I’m tired of my son’s elementary school. And he just started first grade. I’m still getting over being tired of it from last year, when my son was in Kindergarten. What am I so tired about? Homework. And not just the part of homework that my son has to complete, but the endless, detailed instructions that the PARENTS (read: Mothers) have to complete in order for their child to correctly complete their assignments.

Take, for instance the buldging workbook that came home yesterday along with three different assignments! Supposedly, from what I can gather after reading the instructions on one of the assignments a half dozen times, I am supposed to copy certain “sight words,” preferrably on colored paper, and hang them up all over my house, make “flash cards” of these “sight words,” and run around after my child, while he is home, holding up these cards or pointing to the words hung up in each room and “quiz” him on these particular words! I also have to glue a smaller set of these words in a “Word Wall Book” with the instructions,”Be CAREFUL! Don’t glue the pages together!” What? Am I now in first grade too?!

I don’t get it. I am more than happy to assist my son with writing words, helping him read simple books, and suggest illustrations to complement what he wrote. But all of this copying, taping, pasting...who realistically has time for this in today’s world? And I have just one child! What do parents do who have several children, all of who’s teachers are requesting what will probably amount to an hour’s worth of time copying, cutting, taping and pasting too?! And to top it all off, we were reprimanded! Although it was not stated anywhere in the detailed instructions that all of this had to be handed in the next day, we were sent home a note reminding us that we were supposed to return the pasted,“Word Wall Book” AND the three other lengthy assignments the next day! Tisk, tisk on us! We also didn’t get to hang up “sight words” or make flash cards either! Oh, for shame!!

Last year, at the beginning of school, the Kindergarten teacher asked us to buy a two pocket folder. The PARENTS were given 2 weeks to cover the entire folder, front and back with photos that our children would use in order to create “stories” which would be presented back to us at the end of the year. This little project took me, all totalled, two HOURS to complete! Since our home color copier was not working very well, I had to upload some 20 to 25 photos to an internet photo website where copies were printed and mailed back. I even had to upgrade the cost of shipping to Second Day Priority, so that I would have time to do the SECOND part of this exciting project! Once I received the photos, I then had to group similar photos together, then cut and paste them all over both sides of this “Creativity Folder!” I spent so much time on this thing I took photos of it! And guess what? My son did not use one photo grouping to write his “stories!” I personally spent two hours over two weeks preparing this rediculous folder only to find that my son didn’t want to write about the photos! He had his own creative agenda. Can you say, TOTAL waste of time, money and energy?!

So guess what I am NOT going to do this year? I am NOT going to make colored “site word” cards and place them all over my house. I am NOT going to be making any flash cards and chase my son around, asking him what each card says. And I am NOT playing “Memory Game” every single night to help foster “sight word” recognition, as my child’s teacher puts it, “in a snap!” No, I am not going to do any of that. Unless my son’s teacher would like to come to my home each evening and make my family’s dinner, do the dishes, get lunches ready, put in a load of laundry and also feed and walk my dogs. Well, then it is just not going to get done. Sorry, Ms. First Grade teacher. It is just NOT going to happen in this house!

Keeping Up with the Mother Joneses

I've never considered myself a competitive person. An achiever....yes. Driven.....yes. Perfectionist at times....sure (not that I've succeeded at that, or should want to). Control freak. I do like things a certain way, I admit.

Well, that and more, needs to be abandoned when it comes to parenting, I'm quickly learning.

And, the other thing that I'm learning is not to compare myself or my child to others.

No book comes with parenting, though plenty are written on the subject. When Seth was little, I used to peruse some of them. These days I have little time for that and would sooner reach out to a parenting expert or seasoned mom friend who has been there, done that.

I did both recently after a chat with a mom friend that left me thinking...a lot.

She was speaking about a series of well-regarded books a friend had recommended as learning tools to teach your child when they are very young. And, she applauded how a couple of moms, in particular, who she knows, have used them with their children to teach them to read at a young age, etc.

I wondered what Seth is supposed to be capable of at this time. I spoke with his teacher who said he is progressing as he should in terms of knowing/writing letters, names, numbers, etc. But, I thought, is this enough? Should I be doing more? As a parent, we want our children to succeed. We have high aspirations for them and want to know that we're doing/have done our best.

No doubt there are varying schools of thought on this subject. But, there is something to be said for letting a child be a child. Sure academics are important, and school does seem WAY demanding these days, but quality play time is essential too. And, according to a parenting expert I well respect and have consulted with, at the age of 5, allowing your child's imagination to soar through creative play is something to strive for.

We can expose them to new experiences, and endeavor to share what we think is cool about the world. And, that is important. But, ultimately, they are their own person with interests, strengths, challenges, etc. that we can do our best to support and nuture...and they may not coincide with ours. But, that's ok.

One day our kids will fly on their own, and their childhood should be just that. A time of fun, games, love...and certainly learning...but it shouldn't be about "keeping up with the mother jones." And, I'm not saying that this mom friend or others I know view parenting as a contest. I'm just speaking for myself in that I need to...and want to... focus on Seth and his uniqueness...and let his natural abilities soar. Comparing him will surely not do either of us any good.