Starting Over Is Not Easy ... Mother Baby Child Blog
I was over 35 when I gave birth to Baby Max. My middle son was 11 years old and my older son had just turned seventeen. It wasn't easy starting over again ... Mother Baby Child is a blog to share parenting experiences, as well as what marriage is like after being a single mom for so many years. Get info on having a baby, raising children, babies, tweens, teens, homeschooling, mom blogs, work at home mom. business marketing, Christian and celebrity moms blog posts.
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. ~ Philippians 4:13 (KJV)
Your Baby Can Read - Week 2 - 1/23/2012 to 1/29/2012
I am now reporting our son's second week using Your Baby Can Read. He just turned 13 months old and has been using this early reading system for 9 days as of 1/29/2012 (he only watched the video and used the sliding word cards for two days on the first week). I will post these reviews on Tuesdays, so that I can share the information during "Teach Me Tuesdays" when I have the time. If you missed my first blog post and video, you can read my last report / review on the Your Baby Can Read - Week 1 Review page. Here is the 2nd week report and video based on his using the sliding word cards and watching the video 5 days.
END OF WEEK 1 SUMMARY & WEEK 2 RESULTS
On Monday, January 23, 2012, I made a 1st Week Video of our baby's previous weeks results. He said "Hey Baby" and sang "Clean Up" while fidgeting, though did "clap" on demand by the end of the video. That was a summary of the 1st week's progress and started our second week with results to improve upon. WEEK 2 RESULTS- Your Baby Can Read has helped add "cat" and "dog" to his vocabulary. He also growls when he sees a picture of a tiger and perks up when he sees an elephant. Our baby will sometimes lifts his arms when I say "arms up" (which we have been teaching him since he was a few months old, but he would not do it until this week) and he has started clapping on demand a lot more now. He already knew how to say "hi" and "hello", but now he says "hi" whenever we come in the door or a room. He does not always wave when saying "hi", though sometimes when he wants our immediate attention.
WEEK 2 YOUR BABY CAN READ VIDEO OF OUR BABY
VIDEO NOTES: If you listed closely, he replies "a dog" to my first attempt and I totally missed it because I was trying to have him say "cat" in this video. He says "a dog" once when he had the yellow toy to his mouth (as if he thinks them in order" and then he repeats cat several times; one time saying "a cat" because when we ask "what is that" (when reading an animal book) the reply would be "that is A cat" opposed to "what does this word say" where the reply is "cat". I mistakenly called Caillou's cat "Rosie" instead of Gilbert. He still went to the TV to see, though typically will touch the TV screen when I ask "Where's Calious's cat Gilbert". Either way, "cat" is a word that he says all day long and gets excited to see in books or when we do the sliding word cards.
SLIDING WORD CARDS & COMPREHENSION
I have noticed that our baby REALLY enjoys the sliding word cards. He looks at the words as intently as he does the pictures. He sometimes laughs in anticipation of a picture being shown and / or gets really excited. In fact, he seems more excited to have us understand him on the few things he says more than anything. If he catches us look at him, he will say one of his new works and the say "clap" while clapping (as if to say YEAH!). It is really cute and encouraging; therefore, I am anxious to see what his vocabulary and enthusiasm for learning will be like in a few more weeks because even his focus while reading and playing on he mat, with me, has improved. For example, he sat and stacked rings on his own the other day. He never slowed down enough to do that before. He also opens and closes the animals on his Playskool Busy Basics: Busy Poppin' Pals. He was not doing this a week ago. * I am not saying that Your Baby Can Read definitely made these improvements in him; MAYBE it did help stimulate his understanding / comprehension (logic).
As I mentioned last week, our baby does better at watching the Your Baby Can Read video when he is sitting in his high chair and when I am not participating during that time. I did test this again one day. He started out well by watching the video while sitting on his boppy pillow. He eventually stood up and started walking around the room, though sat there for about 1/2 of the video. While walking around the room, he did turn to watch Your Baby Can Read at certain points in the video. He turned to watch the 2 songs and he watched the portion where Your Baby Can Read asks the baby to choice between two words to determine which is the correct word.
Want to try this program with your infant or toddler? Visit this Your Baby Can Read page to learn more!
Let's compare notes! Are you finding Your Baby Can read useful for your child? Do you have a blog post or video to share with us? Please feel free to add the link and let us know what you think of Your Baby Can Read!
Have you ever wondered why HER mom blog pictures show in Bing / Yahoo and Google Images, but YOUR Blogger images do not?
This Monday Marketing Tip will explain how to optimize your pictures, so that people can find them in Bing / Yahoo and Google images. They will also see a message you have written when they put their computer mouse over the pictures. This is called image SEO and is part of the organic search engine optimization (SEO) process. It doesn't matter whether you have a website or blog; Blogger, Typepad or Wordpress, the need for image SEO optimization is the same for everyone and it does make a difference in the great scheme of things in the Internet Marketing world. Please keep in mind that this is just one type of "image optimization" and is also called optimizing an image with search engine optimization and / or image seo.
How Pictures / Images Upload To Your Blog
When you upload a picture to your blog, it stores in a virtual space on your server (hosting account). You do not realize the complexity of it because your blog generates an image code for you.
You can see this code in the HTML tab in your blog editor. It looks like this and is in the upper left hand corner of your Blogger editor page. I edit my images and blog code a lot because blogs puts a lot of junk around our image code (this is why your pictures are clickable to a larger picture) and show up in a certain style. I typically remove this extra code unless I want my pictures to align or link to a different page. This is why my code example (below) will look a little different that what you might see in your editor. The next section explains what to look for in your image code, so that you can optimize them.
Image Code Basics
The basic image code looks like this:
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinL8U8kIwE3aLUn4k4xS95t9j3uhN5BBQGgF7eRTcy7-YfnKQw8t_K7ZE5e7MFxOT0hRl7MlpOKo4RXGPwVEJTThUDf9VZ8cRUd1QIs2V6ugDB5c5yhbSZoAOTrTjDDBr7pC3hMGR7YFc/s1600/check-this-out.jpg" alt="Image Optimization - Monday Marketing Tip" style="border: none;" width="500" height="64" title="Learn how to optimize your Blogger images to get better website traffic and search engine rankings." />
The image code typically begins with the <img src= and has the link to the image in quotes ... some text editors (the area where you type posts in a blog) put the image HTML code out of order, therefore you have to look for the src="http://your-image.jpg" part even if it is not next to the <img
For example, the follow src=" is not next to the <img
<imgstyle="border: none;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinL8U8kIwE3aLUn4k4xS95t9j3uhN5BBQGgF7eRTcy7-YfnKQw8t_K7ZE5e7MFxOT0hRl7MlpOKo4RXGPwVEJTThUDf9VZ8cRUd1QIs2V6ugDB5c5yhbSZoAOTrTjDDBr7pC3hMGR7YFc/s1600/check-this-out.jpg" alt="Image Optimization - Monday Marketing Tip" width="500" height="64" title="Learn how to optimize your Blogger images to get better website traffic and search engine rankings." />
Both snippets of image code will still produce the same result. All that matters is that you can find the <img and src=" in your editor, so that you can seo your images.
Your image code will need both an ALT and TITLE attribute. The following is example is for the CHECK THIS OUT picture at the top of this blog post. I have highlighted the 2 sections of this image code as follows: title=" " is marked yellow highlight and alt=" " is marked purple
Optimizing Image Code by Using The ALT Attribute
img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinL8U8kIwE3aLUn4k4xS95t9j3uhN5BBQGgF7eRTcy7-YfnKQw8t_K7ZE5e7MFxOT0hRl7MlpOKo4RXGPwVEJTThUDf9VZ8cRUd1QIs2V6ugDB5c5yhbSZoAOTrTjDDBr7pC3hMGR7YFc/s1600/check-this-out.jpg" alt="Image Optimization - Monday Marketing Tip" width="500" height="64" title="Learn how to optimize your Blogger images to get better website traffic and search engine rankings.
ALT = " "
As you can see, my image has an alt=" " that says "Image Optimization - Monday Marketing Tip" this tells the search engine to read this ALT attribute as if it is text on my blog, though specific to this image. So, using this
alt="Image Optimization - Monday Marketing Tip" tell the search engine that my image is about or relative to the content of this blog post and, ideally, what the image is showing.
Notes on using the ALT=" "
It would be more appropriate for me to put alt="Check this out" if I wanted to the search engine to read this image as "Check this out" opposed to "Image Optimization - Monday Marketing Tips". Try to keep the alt=" " text relative to what the content of your page is about or specific to what the image is for sites that are about photography / photographs.
The key to using the alt=" " attribute is not to SPAM the search engine with what is called keyword stuffing (marked in red text to signify that stuffing images with keywords is a bad / horrible thing to do ~ Bing / Yahoo and Google can BAN your blog from showing in the search engines). Image stuffing is when you put a lot of text (keywords and sentences) in the alt=" " attribute. For example, alt="image optimization, picture optimization, best keywords, best image optimization, blog optimization, website optimization, image seo, picture seo, blog seo, website seo, wordpress seo, blogger seo, typepad seo, blogspot seo, blogger image seo, wordpress image seo, blogspot image seo, typepad image seo" and so on (some people stuff their images with even more "keywords" or a bunch of keyword rich sentences). DO NOT STUFF YOUR IMAGES!!! You should only put a few relative words (keywords) or a small keyword rich sentence in your images.
Optimizing Image Code by Using The TITLE Attribute
img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinL8U8kIwE3aLUn4k4xS95t9j3uhN5BBQGgF7eRTcy7-YfnKQw8t_K7ZE5e7MFxOT0hRl7MlpOKo4RXGPwVEJTThUDf9VZ8cRUd1QIs2V6ugDB5c5yhbSZoAOTrTjDDBr7pC3hMGR7YFc/s1600/check-this-out.jpg" alt="Image Optimization - Monday Marketing Tip" width="500" height="64" title="Learn how to optimize your Blogger images to get better website traffic and search engine rankings."
TITLE=" "
Additionally, my image code also has a title=" " attribute that says "Learn how to optimize your Blogger images to get better website traffic and search engine rankings." - this TITLE attribute is what your website visitors can see when they sit their computer mouse over the picture. *** GO TRY IT! Put your mouse on the Check this out! picture. ***
Notes on using the TITLE=" "
Similar to what is stated above in the Notes on using the ALT=" ", do not Keyword stuff your title=" " attribute because it can hurt your blog or website. Search engines can ban your blog from their results and this will most certainly happen if a human editor find that mess. You can get creative and write more personal messages in the title=" " area; just not too long. Your message should be short and sweet to guide the website user.
This is what your image code should look like with both the TITLE and ALT Attributes
img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinL8U8kIwE3aLUn4k4xS95t9j3uhN5BBQGgF7eRTcy7-YfnKQw8t_K7ZE5e7MFxOT0hRl7MlpOKo4RXGPwVEJTThUDf9VZ8cRUd1QIs2V6ugDB5c5yhbSZoAOTrTjDDBr7pC3hMGR7YFc/s1600/check-this-out.jpg" alt="Image Optimization - Monday Marketing Tip" width="500" height="64" title="Learn how to optimize your Blogger images to get better website traffic and search engine rankings."
That's it ... Now, you know how to optimize your images by adding the ALT and TITLE attributes. Other details like width, height, border and alignment are other useful image code details. You can see the width="" and height="" attributes in this example. Adding a border is as simple as border="1" (you can make this number larger if you want a thicker border) and the align="" property is written as align="left", align="center" and align="right". There is a more advance way to do all of this through additional programming called CSS, but this standard HTML code examples work, too.
I hope this was understandable and will help you get more website traffic from your images. There is a lot more to image optimization, but these 2 basic changes can make a huge difference for your marketing.
ONE MORE THING ... Don't forget to take the link code from around your images if you are not planning to link it to a page or blog post. There is nothing more annoying, to a person visiting your site, than to click an image and it goes to nothing but your original picture (well unless it opens to your Google image viewer). People will just steal your images this way, so remove the link code OR link it to a relative page. Learn how to make your image HYPERLINK TO A NEW POST or page that will add value to your blog!
Need help with your website, blog or marketing online? Does this feel like Chinese to you? Feel like you could use some help with design, content or marketing? Visit Mom Business & Blog Marketing page!
(This Barred Owl visits all of the time and lets us get close to photograph. You can get a closer look by clicking the picture. He really is quite beautiful!)
I cannot believe that it's already Friday! This week went so quickly and I am STILL getting caught up on website design work. I better get cracking, but first I want to say hello and wish you a wonderful weekend. Welcome to friends and new blog hoppers, too :) Under the pictures and video of the Florida birds is list of social sites where we can connect and a link to my Blog Hops page. Enjoy :)
I'd like to share that this has been one of the most beautiful weeks here in Florida. It rained this morning, but all of the other days were warm and sunny; just a really nice winter in Florida thus far. We spent most of Christmas outside these past two years. Now that we are towards the end of January, the animals and birds are becoming more active. This week's "best" was when all of the robins arrived from the northern states. It was kind of freaky at first (made me think of Hitchcock's movie, THE BIRDS ), yet it was an incredible experience to see all of the robins arriving at once (mostly females). I tried to take a lot of pictures and videos, but only these few came out well enough to post:
Video of the female robin birds flying over the water and in the trees in our back yards. They fly so quickly that I could barely get a good shot, but you can hear how it sounds like an aviary - too cool.
On the first day, there were so many robins chirping that we ran out to see what was going on. They were in our yards and a bunch of them sat in the field across from my house (about 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart). The picture below are JUST of one section of that field. It is at least as long as a football field. They landed there after flying all over the neighborhood and you cannot imagine how fascinating it was to see a flock of robin birds walking across the street all day ... they looked like little ducks. Now, it sounds like an Aviary every morning. The sky is filled with their chirping and the waters have families of ducks, cranes, etc. One interesting fact about the robins is that they hang with the barred owls. This summer, a robin couple came to visit each day with one of the barred owls (I guess our yard was part of their daily rounds) ... Of course, the squirrels have been going crazy. They are jumping from tree to tree and run along the yards almost as quickly as the robins. WOW! I haven't spotted any manatee lately, but I am sure they'll be here soon! There have been a few adult woodpeckers.
(I know it's hard to see in this picture, but there were 100s of female robins flying, walking down the street and sitting in the field the other day - Click the picture to get a better look)
Welcome to those who are visiting from your favorite Friday Blog Hop. I look forward to reading your comment and visiting your blog :) Please make sure to SUBSCRIBE to my blog before hopping on. I would love to have you join me at these websites (I do follow back):
I have listed some of the Friday Blog Hops I follow on this Blog Hops page (make sure to scroll down to Friday to see the list). Please make sure to let them know that Lea @ Mother Baby Child sent you and feel free to add your blog hop to the Linky at the top of that page.
Maybe I should start calling these "Wordy Wednesday" blog posts :)
BEAUTIFUL BABY BOY POEM by Lea Hunt
Baby runs laps in the living room; every pillow and blanket ends up spread around. White teeth while smiling and laughing, "Hi Mama", "Hi Dada", "Hi Ra Ra" (brother) ... mornings are filled with beautiful baby sounds.
Baby playing with his favorite toys; scattered on the floor with such finesse. Cars, Percy and Thomas the Tank Engine; chewed cardboard books, 123s and ABCs ... afternoons are such a beautiful baby mess.
Lots of hugs and kisses, climbing mom like a little monkey, taking walks on sunny days, cheerios and cracker snacks, yoga with Nina, dancing with DJ Lance and Angelina ... late afternoons and evenings of beautiful baby play.
Splashing in the bathtub, pajama wrestling, reading and rocking the night away, mama singing your favorite lullaby, sighing, deep breathing and slight snores ... beautiful baby sleeps sound after another busy day.
Lennon comes to mind and heart as I pick up crumbs, blankets, pillows and toys, I would not wish it to be any other way; especially as the grateful mother of three sons ... this is my last beautiful baby boy!
Watch 1st Week Video Towards The Middle Of This Blog Post
I am embarrassed to say that I am addicted to infomercials and do watch the commercials between shows. I'm not as bad as my mother who buys from the TV, but I have been more than grateful for the Swivel Sweeper, Chopper and other great As Seen On TV products that she has bought me over the years :) My personal favorites are the Baby Bullet, Wen, Bare Minerals and Your Baby Can Read commercials. The funny thing is that our baby watches commercials on Sprout, too. He will "stop short" to watch the ones he likes and ignores me until they are done. Here I was thinking that the companies were advertising the Baby Bullet and the lunch packs to me, but my little guy likes them, too.
I supposed this is a case of Like mother, Like son ... LOL.
Anyways, I have been addicted to the Your Baby Can Read infomercial for years - YES YEARS!!! It started way before I met my husband and had our baby. I was amazed when I first watched the infomercial one 2:00 a.m. and the excitement has followed me all the way up to when I made my husband watch the infomercial when I was pregnant, and to this day. I began stalking their website when I was about 6 months pregnant. My husband did not get hooked on the Your Baby Can Read commercials until after our baby was born. He has been rather adamant about our buying it for months now. I have not agreed about buying it until now.
I have finally given into my curiosity and bought the Your Baby Can Read system. I feel as though we have a need for it.
I've had reservations about buying Your Baby Can Read until now. I was worried about wasting money. I also worried about rushing our baby into learning "sight words" too soon. He is just learning his ABCs ... Now that our baby has turned 1 year old and gets excited over counting, singing the ABCs, reading books, as well as watching certain educational shows like Super Why, Moose & Zee, Zoboomafoo etc., I decided that it was time to get started with Your Baby Can Read for these reasons:
1) Our one year old baby is starting to talk and he says more than the standard "Mama", "Dada", "Hi". Our 1 year old baby says "Clap", "Hey Baby", "Duck" "Quack", "All Done", "That", "This", "1, 2, 3" and sings "Clean Up, Clean Up" if I stop singing the Barney "Clean Up" song while picking up his toys. He might say more words, but this is all that we have understood and our baby has validated with excitement if we repeat him correctly.
2) Our baby is starting to get frustrated that we do not always understand him. He screamed "Mama Eat" the other day after he had been saying it and I did not understand. It was an extremely loud "EEEEEEEEEEE-AAAAAA-T" that finally got my attention and then his laughing hysterically and running to his gate, so that I could pick him up, that confirmed that he wanted to eat ... WOW was it dramatic and I felt so sorry for not understanding him!
3) He sits to watch his favorite shows. As a new walker, our baby runs laps most of the day, but he does sit down on the mat when certain shows catch his attention or I have just turned the TV on for him. I am in hopes that skills learned from Your Baby Can Read will help him understand more of what he is watching.
4) Our baby talks to himself all day long. It is SO CUTE, but I obviously only undertsand a few words he is saying.
5) He gets excited when I count for him; he sits so that I can set up the alphabet blocks and then goes over them 3 times before wanting to play; he loves to learn and is trying to say his numbers and letters.
The only thing that our baby does consistently is come to me for a diaper change when he poops. He does this on demand every time. I find it hard to believe that he can say all of these words / 2 word phrases and dislikes a poopy diaper so much that he understands to get his diaper changed, though he has stopped doing the other things I ask on demand. I know that he understand what I ask because he has said or done these things when I have asked at other times ... For this reason, I swear that my baby has been ignoring me and have turned to Your Baby Can Read thinking that it can help!
Here are a few examples of how I know our baby is ignoring us: 1) he used to clap on demand, now he claps at random times that he feels like it, 2) he used to touch his ear whenever I said ear and now he just looks at me like I am crazy 3) he used to lift his arms when I asked him to, so that I can put the high chair try on. He stopped lifting his arms on demand, too. He is starting to ignore when we call his name or when I ask him to pick something up. THE BIGGIE is that he has started having temper tantrums when he wants something and no one in our family understands what he is saying. He is also starting to have temper tantrums when we say "NO" ... (Can you believe this? He is already getting mad when we say no?). I decided to buy Your Baby Can Read and get it started now, so that I can add the Signing Times program along with it.
I am going to post weekly videos and / or notes on how the Your Baby Can Read system works for our baby Max.
YOUR BABY CAN READ - WEEK #1 - BABY IS 1 YEAR 3 WEEKS OLD
Purchase Day & Notes - I bought the Your Baby Can Read Volume 1 on Friday, January 20, 2012. Volume 1 came with came with the 1st Multi-Sensory DVD, 6 Sliding Word Cards, 1 Wipe-Clean Word Car and 1 Erasable, Non-Toxic Pen.
Day #1 - I sat our baby in his high chair and turned on the DVD. He remained engaged with the program through the whole lesson and was positive about doing the Sliding Word Cards with me; we did them twice, he smiled, though did not repeat anything with me (not even the clapping which is one of his favorite games to play with me).
Day #2 - I sat our baby on my lap to watch Your Baby Can Read. I started interacting with it as the video said to say or do things. This kind of irritated our baby, so I will not interact with it from now on. Additionally, our baby did fidget a lot today and wanted to walk around a bit. I will not hold him while watching Your Baby Can Read. I will put him in the high chair from now on. I did watch our baby touching his nose at that portion of the video. He did it one time and very quickly ... This HUGE because I have been trying to get him to do this for over a week. He liked doing the flash cards.
Week #1 facts & opinion(s) of Your Baby Can Read:
Your Baby Can Read is not as animated as I expected. It is rather cut and dry words, animals and clips of children providing examples in comparison to what my baby is used to from watching Super Why or Sesame Street. I can see this being a problem for older babies that are used to more animated and technological learning (like V-Tech). My baby was OK with watching Your Baby Can Read and doing the Sliding Word & Picture Cards so long as he was sitting away from me and in a containing chair (high chair). For these reasons, I would RECOMMEND preparing a child to sit and watch these DVDs before they become mobile (the Volume 1 box says as early as 3 months). You can do this by sitting your baby on your lap to watch Sprout for about an hour each day or buy Your Baby Can Read and get started at 3 months. If I had to do again, I would have started our baby around 6 months opposed to a year old.
WEEK 1 RESULTS WERE POSITIVE
- Our baby touched his nose on the second day / 2nd time watching the DVD.
- He started clapping on demand again.
- He pays attention to the video; especially the animals and "which word"portion.
- He sit for and enjoys the sliding word card more than I expected.
if you want to try this program with your infant or toddler? Visit this Your Baby Can Read page to learn more!
It's your turn to share! Did you find this blog post useful? Are my notes similar to yours? Have you tried Your Baby Can Read? Let us know!
"What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish." Matthew 18:12-14 (NIV)
His face was serious, but there was a little smirk as if he was trying to hide his excitement ... No matter what his age, a mother knows these faces on her son :)
Ripping the paper so quickly it's a blur ...
A quick peak, but can't see the shoes through the tissue paper ...
Pure excitement that mom got the right shoes ...
Happy because they are the right size 14 shoes ...
This is my 18 year old son that started college yesterday (thankful to his Grandma for helping with this). He is 17 years older than our baby ... He is 5 1/2 years older than my middle son ... As the oldest child of a single mother and a boy that never got over his Grandfather's death, he has had a lot of pressure on those feet over the years and some teen issues, too ... Yet, he woke up earlier than usual and ready to go to class; he felt liberated, excited and proud.
HE FELT FREE ...
I feel so proud and grateful that he is coming around to his old self.
I can only pray that his little brothers can live up to those size 14 shoes :)
My son's craft table ... He says "that's not mess", so I agree it is not :)
This has been "one of those" weeks ... It was not a bad week; we accomplished a lot, though my husband and I were quite busy with so many family, business and household details. This included the kitchen sink breaking again. Our baby was in a walker splashing in 2 inches of water the last time it happened to us. Fortunately, my hubby got the sink fixed quickly this time and with just a few wet towels to haunt me. All of the "things to do" made me feel like we were a "tag team" ... Hum, saying that must mean that my single mom mindset is finally shifting to a married mindset ... working together being the newer concept here :) Regardless, I'm glad to finally have a moment to write a "real" blog post - opposed to just a few quick lines - to keep in touch with everyone.
OK! NOW IS A GREAT TIME TO GET A DRINK AND USE THE BATHROOM ... THIS IS A LONG BLOG POST THAT I WOULD LIKE YOU TO GET THROUGH ALL AT ONCE :)
TALENT & THE TALENTED HAVE BEEN HEAVY ON MY MIND THIS WEEK
Towards the middle of the week, my 12 year old son started getting frustrated with his school work. This is not abnormal for him and is part of the reason why we home school. On the other hand, he is an extremely bright and articulate boy. It is only that the ADHD ... ASD ... ODD gets in the way of progress when he gets in "THAT" mood. He is still doing all right with his grades, though does not have the same enthusiasm for learning as he has had up until now. I feel like he's been worn down by the years of dredging through a traditional educational system. All was well until he went to middle school. I actually moved him from a private school to a middle class public school system because they worked with children that have needs that are similar to his. Unfortunately, we moved to the south and the "rules" changed by Middle School. There were no more small classes, no more personalized lesson plans and classroom aids to assist the teachers, no more caring teachers, more emphasis on passing FCATS then the students learning well, etc.). I decided to home school my son a few years ago, and this is much better for him because our public educational system has no consideration of individuals. The requirements are cut and dry instead of how wonderful school would be if they incorporated better use of technology and the arts for children that are more tactile learners. Not a Waldorf educational system, but with a similar concept. I think THAT would be perfect for kids with ADHD. It upsets me that we have little choice in the matter :(
I am not angry because of what he struggles with daily: focusing, restlessness, hyperactivity and a lot of impulsive Tourette's-Like arguments throughout the day. He is getting better with age despite the teen hormones setting in. What upsets me is that he is capable of doing the school work, though gets caught up in all of his creative projects. I want him to pursue those interests, though not lose sight of the value of education that contributes to the artistic strengths.
The problem is that the ADHD makes it hard to remain focused on academics especially when he is being taught in a way that does not utilize the natural talents. IF TAUGHT THE WAY THEY LEARN (process information), one might think a child w/ ADHD had no problem focusing at all.
So, when he gets in an educational slump or "too frustrated", as he says, I try to motivate him through different activities. They are unscheduled and not in the home school curriculum, so he gets REALLY excited to hang out with mom this way :) It just so happened that talent and the talented were the motivation this time. It is a subject that is always of interest to him, but has been everywhere that I have been online this week. I can't help but wonder if God is trying to speak to me about it. I know that I need to lift this in prayer, but I am kind of scared to know what it has been about.
Have you ever felt that way? Where you want clarity, though are not sure what "knowing better" will entail? This is where I am at right now ...
Regardless, the point of this blog post is teaching children with ADHD to focus on their education as well as their interests and talents (this applies to kids with related disorders / disabilities, too). In fact, all people need the combination of both in order to see, believe, conceive and achieve their greatness in life. For some reason, my son acts like he does not see that his school work contributes to being the best at his talents / interests, so I am always trying to reach him about it. It is not that huge of an issue at this point because I know that he is being rebellious, but I do not want it to become more of a problem as we are approaching the teen years and school becomes harder ... right now, his viewpoint is similar to his not seeing the importance of cleaning his room. None-the-less, education is obviously important in life.
I turned to YOUTUBE for help with this issue. I do this often with him because YouTube is a site that most pre-teens love to browse. It is filled with talented people that can motivate a youth, though parents still need to supervise at this age because there is a lot of undesirable entertainment there, too. We always come across "raw talent" buried among the millions of videos. We've watched videos that explain his math the way he needs to learn it, as well as children that have taught themselves instruments, clay animation, parkour. There are just tons of tutorials for what he is interested in and this makes education fun for my son with ADHD. I chose what we watched this week, though other times it works out that he takes the lead and shows me his favorites.
We watched this video of a 2 1/2 year old toddler showing that he understood the concepts of physics and chemistry:
We were both impressed and amazed by this toddler's comprehension. This goes above and beyond children who have benefited from Your Baby Can Read and Signing Times; the father obviously works in this field and is training this child to follow in his foot steps. It makes one wonder whether we all have this scientific capability if exposed so young in life.
We also watched the following Jackie Evancho YouTube videos:
Video #1 - Summarizes the first part of her competition.
Video #2 - My favorite of her performances and shares a little about her life.
Video #3 - She returns to sing on America's Got Talent a year after traveling and developing her talent.
Jackie Evancho was the 2010 America's Got Talent 2nd Semi-finals at 10 years old and the top selling classical artist in 2011 at 11 years old. Her Dream With Me album was produced by David Foster and features duets with Barbara Streisand and Susan Boyle. It is beautiful!
What did my son get from watching Jackie Evancho?
The obvious is that she has such a gorgeous voice for such a young girl, but she is also from his hometown. That was cool.
What did I point out?
Well I learned and pointed out a lot by watching this talented child's adventure into stardom, but here are some of the main pointers:
In video #1 she confesses that she practiced a lot for the semi finalists, but in video 2, she explains that she regularly only practices once a day for one hour. This was HUGE for my son. That you can accomplish your goals by just practicing once a day, but I had to explain to him that the reality is that, although she sang for once an hour a day, she had to invest much more time and energy than one hour a day. She had to understand the music she read and sang; she had to learn languages or at least how to pronounce the lyrics correctly in each song; Jackie Evancho also had to learn obedience (to bite her tongue, listen well, follow instructions) and humbleness in order to get that far and accomplish so much towards living her dream. Her home training and academic education was important to her accomplishing her goals.
It is not easy to keep going - be in the spot light - perform on demand, though all of these were necessary for what she wanted to accomplish. I told my son that he has / will have the same requirements in life whether he choose it or not. His education will contribute to more than just the basics (certain subjects permit him to communicate, work and function in life), as well as how to be the best at whatever he does.
Lastly, In explained to my child with ADHD that if he wants to be the best video game player - or - the best skateboarder - or - the best costume designer - or the best props artist - or the best architect OR WHATEVER (these examples are towards my son's interests, but plug anything for your child) ... He better learn to be the best at educating himself in order to accomplish what makes him the best at his interests.
This is much easier said than done ...
It is not as if our educational system teaches our children according to their interests and talents. If they did, more kids would become less bored and detached from their educational process. This is why I like homeschooling so much. It is challenging at times, but there is flexibility even if you use a program that develops the curriculum for you. I think that "the key" for teaching children with ADHD how to focus on their education is to provide them time to focus on their interests and incorporate them into thier individual education plans. Not only does this strengthen their academics, but fosters all developmental areas.
Now, if I could just get the next few years of my son's school subjects into musical composition and the types of video games he likes, I think that would stop the grey hairs from those Tourette's-Like arguments :)
UPDATE - January 16, 2012 - ironically, 60 Minutes featured 13 year old Math prodigy, Jake Barnett, last night. I don't catch this show often, so I was delighted and again, this is another situation of being blatantly exposed to talent as I mentioned above. I am pointing this out because this young man will graduate college by age 14 and enter graduate school thereafter ... he attributes his intellectual talents to autism and is proud to be autistic.
60 Minutes Aired Coverage On Jake Barnett
Behing The Scenes Coverage on Jake Barnett
I suggest that parents of children with Asperger's and ADHD - although different disorders from a similar spectrum - to watch this additional video - ABOVE 2nd VIDEO - and realize that their child's mind is driven by the limbic system which includes memory in cases (yes, even children with ADHD can have this capability, by 2nd son always got As in spelling, so long as he was given the words orally); starts with teaching them how to focus on their education and talents.
"Now you wouldn't believe me if I told you, but I could run like the wind blows. From that day on, if I was going somewhere, I was running!" ~ Forrest Gump
Spreading his wings and keeping balance. Our baby is no longer an infant, but a toddler boy and establishing his independence. He loves the world; family, nature, family, toys, milk bottles and snuggling with mama, daddy and brother. This was his first long walk outside. He walked a bit and then ran ... He did a total of about 1/4 of a mile on 1-10-2012; this was his first long walk outside. This was also the first time that he kept shoes on for ANY length of time :)
Our baby was supposed to walk with his brother, but he turned and started running the way he wanted to go instead of forward :) He is an individual!
We visited this mailbox like 10 times ... he must like blue or that red flag.
Baby walking towards the trees. They consumed his interest for quite a while.
Checking out this really cool tree ... it had a florescent green and lacey appeal.
Baby walking with his big brother so long as he bounced the basketball :)
Baby walking forward as brother walks backwards - long walk ahead :)
Baby running outside for the first time. He ran so hard that I had to catch him to stop (I will post the video) and he just cried from exhaustion. It hurt me to see him so frustrated, but I also felt proud ... maybe he will run track?
Our baby walking video: Age 1 year old (Jnauary 2012)
Congrats to Jay-Z and Beyonce on healthy baby girl ... We are waiting for the official announcement ... what's her name?
I guess that I have to use the dad's age as an excuse to post Beyonce's baby announcement on this 35 & over blog ... LOL ... HE IS over 40 after all :) On the other hand, the diva mom has had her 1st baby at the ripe age of 30 ... God Bless and HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Beyonce and JayZ (Shawn Carter) on the birth of their baby girl, Ivy Blue Carter ... Well, there has been confusion as to whether the baby's name is Blue Ivy or Ivy Blue; USMagazine.com says that Beyonce confirmed that it is Blue Ivy and the rest of the Internet says Ivy Blue. Good old MTV is protecting themselves either way by launching their blog post as Ivy Blue, though Blog title says Blue Ivy (post tags say Ivy Blue). The unusual name is confusing us Bey and Jay! Can you help the world get it right? WAIT, it looks like Gwyneth Paltrow got it right for us :)
Regardless ... it is just a name and the important fact is that Beyonce's baby girl has been born healthy and she is ok, too ... right? Yet, there has not yet been an official announcement from their PR (at the time of this blog post) and we want to see that the baby and mommy are doing well.
The funny thing is that no one has announced the time of birth, length and height of Beyonce's baby, but there have been plenty of sources to share the good news online. The Internet is flooded with articles, social network and blog posts about the presumed blessed event. Twitter went crazy and is now trending "Congrats To Beyonce And Jay-Z" after celebrities like Russel Simmons, Rihana, etc. posted their congrats on Beyonce's baby. Google News is plentiful releases and news about Beyonce's baby girl.According to nydailynews.com, globalgrind.com and the ABCnews.com video above, Beyonce gave birth late Saturday night (1/7/2012) by scheduled C-Section the Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. The kicker is that JayZ paid a whopping $1.3 million to rent out the entire 4th floor of the Lenox Hill Hospital as the their baby's birth suite. The security was so tight that even doctors did not have their phones to check on patients (WOW) and parents were unable to get in and see their children as a result of this ... there has been much controversy over that situation, but I say the hospital should have been better prepared or said "no" to such arrangements.
Regardless, this is an exciting time for Jay-Z and Beyonce as new parents!
Congrats and ENJOY your sweet baby girl because she will grow up too quickly. As I sit here writing this blog post, I am watching my 1 year old walking and playing with his toys as cutely as my 18 year old did 17 years ago ... the time goes fast!
In fact, seems like it was just yesterday that Beyonce announced her pregnancy on the MTV video music awards and now the baby's here.
C'est la via!
UPDATE 1/10/2012 - Beyonce's posted a statement that clarified that the baby's name is BLUE IVY CARTER and that she delivered naturally (although all of the articles say C-Section?). Proud daddy - Jay-Z - immediately released GLORY - new rap song with baby Blue's voice in it ... Listen to it HERE at Beyonce's website.
UPDATE 2/10/2012 - Jay-Z and Beyonce post pictures of baby Blue Ivy on Tumblr and their websites w/ a note that thanks everyone for respecting their privacy. Jay-Z and beyonce DID NOT get paid for their baby's 1st pictures, but plan to (TM) their baby's name for potential product line.
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as Jesus did, This sinful world as it is, Not as I would have it, Trusting that You will make all things right, If I surrender to Your will, So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.
This prayer fills my mind and heart as I sit here this morning.
I feel like some things are right, though know that there has been a lingering "there's something wrong" for quite some time ... there has been uncertainty and hurt ... there has been understanding and joy. On another note, I always strive for change for the better / improvement, but maybe too much? It is extremely difficult to have that serenity when it feels like something is not right ... that it may not be God's will, but you do not know for sure. I am praying for wisdom because I do trust that God will make all right. I hope that will be "it" when that time comes. If you are reading this, please keep me in your prayers.
I know the manager of the following Limo Service, therefore it is my privilege to help start their 2012 New Year off right by "spreading the word" about this awesome limousine rental giveaway. In my experience, they are a hard working team of professionals that have been in the limousine business for over twenty years ... WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW ... They have been riding The Real Housewives of Orange County since Season #2 ... a great company indeed :)
This is the first of the many contests that my friend's Limo Company will have this year and they do welcome partnering requests from other Southern California companies that want to make a giveaway package in the 2nd quarter of the year (details below). You can contact me directly for details about that!
HOW TO REGISTER FOR THIS LIMOUSINE SERVICE GIVEAWAY CONTEST ... PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO SHARE THIS CONTEST WITH FRIENDS IN SOUTHERN CA ...
All contest entries are to win a 3 to 4 hour limo service that you can use towards a night out or dinner transfer in Los Angeles Metro or Orange County areas. They are giving away one limo rental in a 10 passenger Lincoln Town Car. The winner can chose whether she wants a white or black black limo. Enter the contest by signing in with your Facebook account OR click the Your Name / Your Email link to get started! There are both one time entries and daily entries ... The full description of this contest are accessible once you're login. Good luck!
PARTNER REQUESTS ... Do you have a Southern California restaurant, art gallery, night club, ticket or other "entertainment" type service that would like to partner up with this company for a package giveaway in the 2nd quarter of this year. Contact me to connect and plan this event.
It's Wordless Wednesday and moms worldwide are posting pictures of their children from the holidays. I am always a little wordy on Wednesdays ... LOL :) Here are my 3 sons posing their best at the photo studio. The woman photographer was impatient with my 12 year old and EVEN MADE HIM CRY, so I could not share all of the images. I would have left the studio, but we were on a tight schedule because my older son was to catch a flight AND the pictures were a gift for my mother. This added insult to injury for sure as we did not have time to leave and go to another studio. I will write a detailed blog post about this horrible situation and link it to this Wordless Wednesday post. For now, I am happy to share their cute faces and the gratitude I have for each one of them.
Happy New Year | 2012 New Year Message & No Resolutions List
"For eleven months and maybe about twenty days each year, we concentrate upon the shortcomings of others, but for a few days at the turn of New Year we look at our own. It is a good habit." ~ Arthur H. Sulzberger
2012 New Year is here and I am already tired. Just kidding! I have been chasing my little 1 year old all over the house. It is quite fun, though much more exercise than my old bones expected ... I thought that I would be taking it easy this month because, as I explained in my previous post, 2011 was a fast paced year. I had our baby on 12/27/ 2010 and went full force with all that goes with the baby's 1st year of development, plus 1) moved to a new home, 2) homeschooled my tween, 3) continued to work from home and 4) write this Mother Baby Child Blog in my free time. That was quite a lot in the 2011 year, therefore I am grateful to move at my own professional pace this January 2012 while playing with our 1 year old as much as I can, but I am not taking it easy as expected and this is the point of my New Year Message. Sometimes, things just do not go as we plan, therefore you have to embrace the plans that God has for you.
"Let go, and let God!"
As I sat here wondering what my New Year's Resolutions should be ... should it be another year of EVERYTHING as wrote on the last New Years Resolution list ... LOL, I know better this year. It will be a piece of cake to keep up with 2012 resolutions because I have no list ... AH HA HA HA !!! What I have is a routine that works for me - one developed prior to getting pregnant with our baby - that I have adjusted for the baby's developmental needs. How about you? Do you feel the need to make a new list of goals or are you carrying out the one's you've had?
Keeping to the "Resolution List" does seem to be the delimma this time of year ... Doesn't it? I guess I am resolving to not having that list this year!
As the New Year quote above states, it is a "good habit" to turn our forcus on ourselves at the beginning of the new year. The challenge that most have is in keeping that focus as the 2012 year progresses. I have always been a goal oriented person, though I am getting older (almost 40) and the 2011 year has shown me that I REALLY have minimal control over what God has in store for me. Yes, I wake with the goals / tasks that need accomplished for the day, week, month and "handle my business each day", but I have LEARNED that my focus will not collapse if I stop to have unscheduled "mat time" with my baby when I thought that I should be blogging, programming or networking. The same for listening to music with my teen or homeschool an hour later in the morning. All works out just fine in either case. This is not how I planned it to be nor a goal on any past year's resolution list, yet all got done and life changing goals were accomplished.
"The best laid plans of mice and men ..."
We all should have short term and long term goals in life ... just make sure that you're being realistic! Don't add anything new if you can't handle it and, as the old saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Tune in to what God has in store for you this 2012 year opposed to what you think should be the plan. You'll be surprised what you learn and accomplish in a years time.
Happy 2012 New Year to all of my friends and family; social network and blog followers. I am REALLY looking forward to connecting more with you this year. Hugs & Blessings :)
