Mommin' It Up since 2004!
I am so un-hip that I don’t know the words to even the most popular songs made recently. And by recently, I mean since 1998. So, when I heard Sam singing his new favorite song, I thought he was saying “On a subway with my wife…”
Kate, who is much hipper and also much better at understanding three-year-old-ese, informed me that my interpretation was wrong. Pretty sure there was some eye-rolling going on.
Can you tell what he’s saying?
Can I just tell you how much I love my iPad? It’s pretty awesome. And super-convenient to tote around. And it can do SO many things. But what I honestly love about it the most are the portable, fun, and never-ending learning opportunities that it’s apps provide for my kids.
The photo above is from an awesome app called Faces iMake. (I made it myself! Aren’t I creative!?) It’s only $1.99 and is well worth that and more for the creativity and fun it will bring into your home. With this app, you make silly faces out of everyday things – choose face parts from the toy, music, tools, food, and candy categories. Easily change the size of objects with two fingers, rotate them, add “layers”, color – the possibilities are endless! And, this app can be adapted for therapy easily as well. Learning what group or category objects went was something Sophie and I worked hard on and this app would be a great exercise for learning that skill and a great reward to play when the hard work is done!v But it’s also just a really fun way to play with your kids or to keep them occupied with something that is good for their brain!
This next app was one of the very first I discovered and it is dear to my heart. I think it’s a must for any parent of young kids who has an iPhone or an iPad. It’s called “I Like Books” from Grasshopper Apps and it is 37, yes THIRTY-SEVEN beautiful picture books in one app. And it’s only 99 cents! The books range from “I love Mom” to “I like colors”. The pictures are gorgeous real photos and the narration is bright and cheerful. You can turn the narration off if you want to read the books yourself, or you can even record your own narration in your own voice and change the text if you want to. These books are so awesome for vocabulary and so much more. Sophie loves reading them by herself even though we’ve had them for months. There are so many of them they never get old. A GREAT value!
Finally, I had to mention this great freebie app – Easy Bake Cupcakes. Hasbro cleverly designed this to sell their Easy Bake Ultimate Oven, but it is a GREAT app. My kids l-o-v-e it, it’s very creative, and if you want to use it for speech therapy, super for following multi-step directions. With this app you choose what kind of cupcake you want to make, mix the batter, fill your pan, bake the cupcakes, remove them from the oven, then choose from lots of frostings, toppings, and decorations. THEN of course you get to eat them – and start over for more fun. I highly recommend it!
Those are some of my current favorite apps for kids. The value far outweighs the cost on these! What are some of your favorites? Let’s share!
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I received a code to try Faces iMake for free. But look people, I cannot be bought for $1.99. So the opinions are all my own, and it is a great app! 🙂
This is my daughter.
She’s smart, she’s kind, she’s funny, she’s spirited, she’s strong. She’s loved.
She’s also confident. As she got ready for her school program in December, she looked in the mirror and said “I think I’m going to be the prettiest polar bear on stage.” My husband cringed at the lack of humility; I silently thanked God for her self-assurance. And I prayed that confidence would remain in her always.
Last week, a little girl – younger than Kate, I’d guess around six – stopped Kate in the hallway and said, “Kate, have you gotten fatter?”
I don’t know what Kate’s response was at the time, but I do know that when I got home that evening, she met me at the door and told me what had happened. She was brokenhearted.
“I don’t think I’m fat,” she said. “But the other girls on my basketball team have skinnier legs than I do.”
Then she demonstrated to me how the circumference of her legs increased when she sat down on a chair.
She cried. I wanted to cry and/or bang some six-year-old heads together.
I assured her she wasn’t fat (and even if she was, so effing what?), that she was perfect and that her body was strong and functional and did all the things she wanted it to do. She can run and jump and swim and dance.
Eventually she calmed down, and while she hasn’t brought it up again, I worry that a seed of doubt was planted in her mind, that a piece of the confidence I admire so much was chipped away.
We, as parents, have the responsibility not only to know how to respond to our children when harsh words are thrown their way, but also to make sure that they’re not the ones making comments on the appearance or abilities of others.
How do we do that?
Beats me.
But I’m going to try to figure it out, so that I’m better prepared when (because really, it’s not an if) it happens again.
If you’re interested in this topic and free today at noon, join me in a chat at TheMotherhood.com, to learn about empowering girls. I’ll be back to tell you what I learned – and then maybe we’ll all have a better way to deal than to bang six-year-old heads together.