Friday, August 26, 2011

Inspired To Survive: "PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS"

Just after writing a big old blog yesterday on Inspired to Survive about why I need to have 3 different blogs to organize my writing better, I find myself today using the BlogThis to migrate "Plays Well With Others" from Inspired to Kid in my Heart. It was the line, "we don't need any more Hitlers or Stalins" that did it for me. I thought, if that's not a FRCD/family relations & child development concept, I don't know what would be. So, here it is.

Inspired To Survive: "PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS":

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Thursday, August 25, 2011

Instagram Your Photos Without an iPhone | PCWorld

Check this out. Don't have an iPhone? Or like me, paid for 2 of them for kids - but don't have one for yourself? Evidently, the iPhone has access to the Instagram photo editing program that's a lot of fun. Alas, I choose to be a Blackberry user, which I pretty much love. This slide show talks about free photo filters that duplicate some of the types of filters available on Instagram.


Instagram Your Photos Without an iPhone | PCWorld:

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Monday, August 22, 2011

Banning Children From Restaurants?

Tonight on Oklahoma City's Channel 4 TV, newscaster Kevin Ogle's The Rant, was about a trend of some restaurants banning children under age 6. I can see both sides of this story. Although I can understand why kids get on other people's nerves, we will be handicapping a whole generation of children from not understanding how to behave and become "more civilized" if we exclude them from certain experiences.  I am also reminded of a family I observed many times that ate out often at the same times we did. They had several children, who were not only extremely loud, but who also left behind some of the messiest table and floor areas I've ever seen eating out. Remember when John Belushi's character yelled "food fight"? This family left a similar environment. Except these children had been sitting with their oblivious parents. I think the restaurant would have been within their rights to ask them not to come back, but probably worried about the repercussions of such an action.  

Through the years, I have observed many children unprepared and ill equipped for being out in public. When you take a child into the store after their bedtime, you cannot expect good behaviour. Children need routines. Children need limits. 

Many times when I was working in Child Welfare, people told me they were afraid to discipline their children and make them mind. I always told them that Child Welfare was not saying they could not discipline their children, that all children need discipline, but their children shouldn't need medical treatment after the discipline. A lot of parents are using being afraid to discipline as a cop-out, instead of setting limits at a time when it is important in their child's development. Some parents fail to discipline because they are not disciplined themselves. It is difficult to do something you aren't doing for yourself. 

The first time I took my grandchildren to the movies, I knew it would be a challenge. They were quite young. Their parents tried to tell me they were too young to go. But, I knew if I taught them limits that it would get easier, and it has. I knew the pleasure of the movie experience was going to be worth the effort it would take. I have now taken them to a number of movies, and we have a movie routine. We have now even progressed to the level that they are able to delay having a special treat until after the movie when we go to Sonic. Before we go to the movie, we discuss our choices: will we get something to snack on at the movie or will we wait and have something special afterwards? I did this on purpose to help them begin to learn delayed pleasure and because children need to learn how to make choices. 

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Is Violence Our New Trend In Children's Movies?

My grandchildren and I have a little movie ritual. Whenever the newest top kid movies come out, I try to have them come spend the night and we go to the movies. We always go to The Liberty theater at Carnegie, OK, which is the longest running movie theatre in Oklahoma. Would you believe it only recently went up to $4, from $3.50? The boys don't like the "Show Dog" hot dogs,so I can't use that as a supper menu that night.

This summer, we've been to see at least two: Cars 2 and the new Smurf's movie. While sitting in both movies, I remember thinking, "I can't believe this has so much violence for young children." On the way home from Cars 2, in an effort to pull some positive things out of the movie, I asked the boys what were some things we learned from the movie? Immediately, one of the boys said, "To not kill?" Granted we were talking about cars, but to children, those cars were personified as people. I moved the conversation to talking about being faithful to our true friends and being true to ourselves. But, I was troubled over the direction of the movie.

Then, just a couple of weeks ago, we went to see the Smurfs. On the whole, it was a very cute movie and much more loveable than the cartoon of the 80's. I think perhaps because the computer animation has a depth not possible in regular cartoons. I loved the little village where the Smurfs lived and their little mushroom houses. I thought to myself, this will probably explode into numerous toys for sale this Christmas. I would have loved a little village like that to play with as a little girl. However, since of the scenes involving Gargamel, were over the top violent, it did reinforce the lesson that evil does not pay. But, I'm thinking Gargamel involved violence when my own kids were little and none of them turned out to be violent offenders, so maybe we're going to be ok. There was a positive message about being true to yourself, so the movie did have some positive points. 

While I was writing this, I decided to go on-line and see what the regular movie reviewers thought. Cars 2 came out pretty bad in the reviews, which surprised me. We thought it was way better than the original Cars. Only a couple of parent reviews mentioned the violence for either movie. Maybe I'm getting too old for this stuff, I don't know. I just think when we take violence for granted it doesn't lead to good things in the long run. But, I am a little reminded of many years ago during the first run of the Smurfs when one woman told me she didn't let her children watch the Smurfs because there was witchcraft in it. I told her, "yes, but the man that practices witchcraft never wins (Gargamel), so the children learn a lesson that witchcraft doesn't pay". I think it will probably "all come out in the wash", as they used to say when I was growing up.

C is for CRAFT!: DIY Shrinky Dink (from plastic container!) [TUTORIAL]

Here is a wonderful idea from C is for CRAFT on repurposing other plastics for Shrinky Dinks. Start looking for those number 6 level of plastics, which is what you need to do this. C is for CRAFT!: DIY Shrinky Dink (from plastic container!) [TUTORIAL]

Monday, August 15, 2011

Apostrophy Designs: The Tie-Dye Twist {Tutorial}

I wish I had discovered this post sooner for this easy take off on tie dye shirts for kids to make. However, there's always Saturdays with the grand-kids. Apostrophy Designs: The Tie-Dye Twist {Tutorial}  It uses Tumble Dye Tie Dye from any craft store. Check this blog out, it looks easy to do. 

Monday, August 8, 2011

OKDHS - Practice and Policy Lecture Series

I have located the information for this upcoming lecture series. I think all of the listed lectures sound interesting. As of this date, you can only sign up for the August 17th lecture, Why Early Childhood Matters: Brain Development Birth to Five, presenter Dr. Lisa Klein. Oct. 12th topic will be Early Childhood Issues; Nov. 8th, Respecting Diversity: Stories from the Holocaust; and Dec. 13th, A Generation at Risk: Impact of Divorce on Children. OKDHS - Practice and Policy Lecture Series It appears all lectures will be presented at the Oklahoma History Center in the Chesapeake Room. The August 17th and Oct. 12th sessions will be on Wed., the Nov. and Dec. sessions will be on Tuesdays. All lectures are free and open to the public.

The Developing Storm: Autism Spectrum Disorders | Practice and Policy Lecture Series

I stumbled across the OKDHS lecture series on my way to something else and thought I would share this very good audio of a lecture done back in 2009. If you are at all interested in the subject of autism, please give this a listen. The Developing Storm: Autism Spectrum Disorders | Practice and Policy Lecture Series