Wearing Mommy's Necklace and Scarf. Baby Girl Steal my Things

I had quite the learning moment today about being a mom and sharing things with my baby girl.

I remember when I was little and even into early adulthood, seeing my mom see me admire something of hers. And then she would offer it to me to wear tomorrow. And I remember thinking why should give this to meet when it's her favorite? I was shocked that she was sharing it with me.

You Know when you have something that you treasure show much best friend can't borrow it or it's your policy never to borrow it. Yeah those types of things that my mom would let me borrow and still I couldn't believe it. And then I felt a huge sense of responsibility to take care of it and make sure to return it to her in good condition, even though she reminded me to do the same thing as well.

See the scarf that she wanted to make for herself to "match mommies."

Today I had one of those moments. As we were getting ready to go pick up the boys from school my darling daughter asked me to borrow a scarf. She couldn't find any scarves in her drawer, and it's crisp cool fall weather here in Chicago in November. So she asked to borrow one of my scarves that are hanging up in the closet. And I just said sure, then I paused.

I do not borrow my scars to anyone. Some women have their shoes, others have their art, books, or their jewelry. I have mostly scarves. It's not quite out of control and any means, but I do treasure them.

And so without holding back an at all I let her borrow my wool scarf that I had gotten last year from my mom with cherry blossoms on it. It reminds me of Japan and the wonderful cold that my husband bought me but she knew about and then intern got me a scarf to match.

The scarf of course is made for an adult woman so on her it is rather long, which of course makes her three-year-old little body looks so cute in it. I to remind her that she needs to take care of it and It cannot touch the floor or get scratched or ripped. She said I know mommy I will take care of it. We got in the car she took her coat off, but the scarf state around her neck as she put her car seat. It was just too adorable.

There's few things that I don't allow her, when I find myself hoarding some of my Amber Pete's from a necklace that broke waiting for the day when I'll have time to fix it, or the turquoise bracelet that our cleaning lady also likes to beat attempt at fixing which broke again and I again am waiting for time to fix it. I find myself taking these little precious things that I do care about and making her a bracelet or a necklace from it. And seeing her enjoy it in mediately and we are things for days thereafter. It makes it all worth while seeing her smile and enjoy these little perks in life. I hope she's also learning what took me a long time to learn about quality. I don't buy costume jewelry and I don't buy polyester scarves. I do invest in quality pieces whether they are precious or semi precious. My scarves are all cotton linen or the luxurious silk. I even have a fake Ermas and a real Hermas complements of my husbands.


I want my daughter to know that you invest in these pieces because God for bid one day the world falls turns upside down hopefully they will get you through hard times in life. We're costume jewelry that's plastic, and meeting China. It is not crafted by a person but I am machine there for making it less valuable. Of course on trips and excursions I buy little bits and pieces of jewelry that were handcrafted by local artisans like my shell card turtle from Mexico. There is actually the name for artisans car things out of shell, insert here.

I want my daughter to understand what the finer things are in life, and the reason you might not necessarily be exactly 20 with the new necklaces because you're wearing one of real silver beads or real pearls or six strands of red coral. Those pieces are called classic never go out of style.

Today's money moment was not only one for me seeing my daughter enjoy beautiful things but I guess she's learning to love beautiful things to and hopefully will carry that with her for the rest of her life.

Original post: November, 2015

Make mistakes, breeze, reflect. And don't forget to laugh out loud.

Five Great Lessons for Montessori Elementary - An Introduction and Lesson Idea List to Supplement School Work

We love learning. We mostly love fun learning. Sometimes the kids come up with the idea of what we will explore, and other times mommy plans a lesson. I'm a huge advocate of supplementing school work. While I cannot replace the 7 hours of school work and experience that happens during the day, I can add value to what they are learning. 

And so I research approaches and ideas that work for our lifestyle.  School curriculum tends to give information in "bite size pieces." I don't feel the boys are immersed in learning, or getting in depth understanding of subjects, especially if the solar system lasts on e chapter. I also think that since there is so MUCH we can learn - that ongoing hunger for information keeps our discussions going. 

While I am not going to tackle homeschooling, for reasons listed in another post, I do love to supplement their learning at home. And that's where this type of research comes on.

I read a lot of science based texts. I read National Geographic monthly, I watch nova and nature on PBS, and when my husband is watching his marvel comics or new hero shows, I am in the other room not watching them. 

"I gather a stack of books at the library and

the kids pick which ones we take home. We

read thru them, discuss certain photos, and

I google their questions ... a lot."

I am the nerd at the party who cannot share her bug collecting amateur entomology, most find it gross. (But I will say many people who follow our insect collecting do find it interesting.) And so I share with my captive audience, my kids. Next is astrology because we got an AWESOME TELESCOPE.... that's for this summer 2016.

Behind the Tag Line How I Make Mistakes, Breathe, Reflect and LaughOut Loud

The Story behind the blog tag line ...

My original tag line was "The Days are Long, the Years are short," with a later added: "Enjoy every moment." All true. I witnessed how quickly my son grew, daily changes in him physically, and the pace at which he learned new things and built on those ideas blew me away. But then came my oh so many mommy mistakes. Make Mistakes I realized that I make a lot of mistakes, a lot. 

Make Mistakes

In our projects where I expected my then 2-year old to attach stickers "exactly" in the right place. In my "quick to anger"  behaviors. In how I handled situations "badly"... mistakes were everywhere. And even tho I did many things well (see other blog posts where we are having more fun than not) my personal irritation was my own mistakes. I felt bad. I felt I was a mommy failure. 

"I felt bad. I felt I was a mommy failure." 

It's a bad mix of being type A, and my Catholic upbringing. Thanks sister(s) Xavier, Vienia, and the like. But I knew I wouldn't want to stay at home if I kept feeling guilty. I think I offset my guilt with some of those crazy over the top projects. The kids scrapbooks with all our cool projects, especially "Project time with Magazine clippings" - my favorite. And perhaps that's why I always took young son everywhere, cool fun activities which he loved were perhaps subconsciously to help make up for all that yelling. (I'm rattling thru a reflection here, your living a moment of reflection in my head.) Everything's meant to be tho. You can't grow without failure to learn from. 

Reflect

I needed to yell, like I heard often in my childhood, so I COULD CHANGE. I needed to have Catholic Guilt so I COULD CHANGE and grow to not feel bad any more. And into my life came reflection. I can say it was life changing! I was introduced to "reflecting" by my husband. (It was a "new to me" and "new theory" being used by his Principal Preparation Certification Program. I started to reflect on my mommy mistakes, and I CHOSE to do things differently, from yelling at my kids, breaking the cycle in our family multi-generational get angry and yell at kids, changing how I talk (tone and words) to my kids, our approach to school, etc., etc., etc., Reflecting became a part of my mommy process. And its hard, sometimes I'd cry and my behavior earlier in the day. "How could I ...." 

I didn't always journal about it, but I did often discuss things with my hubby, my mom, some other close friends, and then  I'd often blog about those big moments. But mostly the work was for me, to acknowledge and commit to change. Yelling and criticizing is just not an option. Realizing, and then embracing, that my kids and others will do things differently and work at their own pace. And accept it!

"I discovered a better closing thought for me: I would definitely continue to Make Mistakes. Even tho I learn everyday ..."

Now, I reflect (often and on everything) and learn from those faux pas. And so, I discovered a better closing thought for me: I would definitely continue to Make Mistakes. Even tho I learn everyday, mistakes and accidents still happen, far less often, but they do happen on occasion.

Breathe 

My skill I had mastered to stop the anger was taking a deep breath, and Breathing in helped me let it go (and stop getting mad at everything). I also witnessed my younger son start overreacting to minor situations in a way older son hadn't. I knew more change needed to happen. Daniel Tiger had a great episode and song we'd sing, when you get mad, taking a deep breath & count to 5. It helped younger son and me. This step doesn't stop, and doesn't end. Anger is something deep inside of us. Sometimes warranted, and sometimes simply and overreaction, I still have some triggers, but I'm learning, and re-learning to transcend that anger, and transition it to better emotional responses instead. Frustration is okay, yelling is not. 

Laugh.Out.Loud 

I'm a crazy woman. I'm funny, I love to laugh, I love to play and have fun. I often will push "social" boundaries and live a little on the "safe" edge, to do what's write or get a laugh. Either way, I laugh at myself, often. I have to because my life can get a little,looney with my 3 monkeys. I love them passionately with all my soul! And I have to laugh to keep my sanity. The periods in between the words emphasize that's the end... The Laughter should be the final phase, to living, loving, and being with kids should often be days filled with lots and lots of laughter. I laugh out loud at myself, and with them. 

I do it all for these 3. Always worth it. 

And so... Make mistakes. Breathe, Reflect, and Laugh.Out.Loud

Want kids to get interested? Leave books laying around

Ever since my older son was a baby we had books around. Not only baby books but wonderful and richly colored and pictured animal books. Books on people, places, building with Legos, and babies eating. Leaving my own resources around and accessible to the kids allows them to thumb thru things they might find interesting, pictures that catch their eye.

Here it seems baby girl has a thing for spiders! She loves them. I picked up 2 library books on trap door spiders and jumping spiders - he wants to read them every night. These books aren't her level, they have 2 pictures on the open pages and are copy heavy, but she loves hearing about how the spiders live, where try lay eggs, and what they eat.

She's learning about things beyond the book subject too:
-- like research, when mommy looks up a new bug to our collection,

--concentration and patience as she thumbs thru this 250 page reference books to find more spiders

-- she sees there's MORE in the book then just spiders, finding literally thousands of insects!

Kids are sponges, we just need to give them access.

Want kids to get interested? Leave books laying around, a photo by areyousureaboutthatblog on Flickr.

When School Homework is Frustrating... why do it at all?

What is homework for? Is it just there to torture us parents? And our kids. Homework - as my Principal husband reiterated with me every year - is about building study habits. As a secondary element, it's supposed to reinforce what was learned in class that day. I totally understand the idea of building a study habit, because the kids that go to really great high schools don't whine and complain about homework. They also have already built the habit of school books and working at home in elementary school, so when homework is reading in preparation for the next days lesson, kids have the habit of actually doing the reading. (Not like me in high school, winging it from in class notes and not doing the reading.) So I've asked myself is elementary school homework all preparation for High School and college?

I don't always agree with my highly trained hubby. He is brilliant in his work. And he advocates for the children All.The.Time! However, as I am living the parent side of the experience. And I am opinionated, we will often discuss things at home. Poor guy!

We discussed which school to send older son too when contemplating Kindergarten. Private catholic school, CPS, or a gift school? Even homeschooling?  Ultimately, regardless of our pick of which school to attend, our conclusion was:

1. We can't replace the 7 hours of the day at school and rehash the day's learning at home in the evening. Therefore, we need to pick a school with solid teaching during those 7 hours.

2. Schools cannot possibly teach EVERYTHING. Some topics are broad strokes, covering the "big picture." Some concepts will get a "drill down" for a deeper understanding on concepts. But No Matter What the learning during the day - broad or in depth - we will have to supplement at home. Period. 

3. A lot of time at school is "eaten up" by routines to just get to what we need to learn. Taking 25-30 kids to the bathroom takes 15-20 minutes (by the time they line up and settle back down in class). So should the actual 5 ish hours of learning be done at home? Homeschooling isn't the answer for us either. I cannot replace a veteran teachers knowledge, nor a new teachers enthusiasm. I'm clever, but I'm not a mathematician who's arguably taught these lessons many, many times, developing an expertise.  And for us we recognize the social needs being addressed too. You'll see next how kindergarteners learn to listen, follow instructions, and ultimately grow on in grades to be good citizens. School is necessary.... But I can supplement at home.

So no matter what school we chose, I have a job at home. . . And I can attest this is true for Private and Public school!


When School Homework Gets it Wrong, a photo by areyousureaboutthatblog on Flickr.

As Charlotte Mason fans will attest, conducting a "study" of subjects is truly in-depth learning. Sometimes I feel our education system just scratches the surface of ideas. So my job has become to build on school topics, making my kids understanding of things richer and deeper. Supplementing with art projects, redoing a science experiment, borrowing library books, and going to museums to SEE and touch the dinosaurs, taxidermy animals in their habit, getting actual size perspective, etc.

That's where Homework plays a critical role for me as a parent. I can see daily, what they study, and the work they bring home, which helps me build my bridge to supplementing. I also needed to learn through the years, in addition to WHAT their learning at school (where I think most of us parents stop school thinking at) to really grasping HOW the kids are learning!!! And regardless if you do more work at home, WHAT and HOW kids learn is imperative to their success. And it's a great conversation for helping your kids at Parent Teacher conferences!!! See my 2 questions to ask at Parent Teacher conferences for more school learning tips.

HOW kids learn & What they learn by Grade - An Outline

Taking the information I've learned from my Principal husband, and my own obsessive reading of education publications, articles reviewing education studies, and witnessing education in action with my own kids, I've observed various school objectives. In the primary grades K-2, kids are "learning to learn," and I've blogged about that concept before. In Kindergarten kids are learning to pay attention to the teacher, following instructions. Classroom expectations (timeliness, tardiness, quiet time versus a louder interaction) and behaviour is learned as is handling differences with students. Then there's starting the basics of learning to write (recognizing letters, matching upper and lower case, understanding words are made up of letters, then letter formation, and so on), holding crayons, coloring with "lots if color and lots of detail," and coloring in the whole circle all the way to the line. Letters, and writing are the steps to "Learning to Read." Phonics and letter sounds start here, identifying pictures and the words that relate to them, and sight words starts here and continue through 3rd grade.

These coloring to the line builds to a concept of writing in 1st and 2nd grade, to write letters on dotted line starter sheets, that all touch the ground, and the uppercase "L" touches the SKY, and the lowercase "n" touches the fence. These years there also "learning to learn" math. That your not just reciting numbers, but Math is always counting something. Counting on fingers, number lines, marbles, blocks, and other support tools. Later in the year kids group blocks to SHOW 2 blocks + 2 blocks = 4 blocks.

By 3rd grade the basic Addition Math Facts should be nearly memorized 1 through 10. 1+0, 1+1, 1+2, 1+3,...2+0, 2+1, 2+2, 2+3,...all the way through 10+0, 10+1, 10+2, 10+3,...to 10+10. And there strategies for learning starting with "rules" like anything +0 is always the other number itself, for example 1+0=1, and 1,435+0 =1,435. I always wrote down the numbers in addition to reinforce verbally talking about it. Kids need to SEE and HEAR what the rules are. Then we learn doubles, an memorize them: 0+0=0, 1+1=2, 2+2=4, 3+3=6, etc. Once my son memorized the first group to get them right 7 or 8 out of 10 times asked, we moved on to the next set of 3 or 4 doubles mixing in the first group. This took about 3 months of work.

By 3rd grade kids are "Reading to Learn." But we cannot arrive at reading books to learn concepts with out the first two learning levels: learning How To learn, learning How To read. If you knew these concepts before today - your are an awesome parent. If you didn't, now you do, we parents are learning to learn to! Along with our kids - were learning HOW and WHAT they learn to help them along the way.

Homework, What's It For?

However, study's show that homework habits truly don't start until just before the middle school years. And to adopt progressive education and accept what studies have found this year the CPS Elementary School Alexander Hamilton has done away with homework for Kindergarten through 3rd grade, with plans to expand through 5th grade next year. I applaud this Principal for taking action. And we will see how this test case works out... time will tell the benefit of this behaviour. [In our home we would still read 15 minutes every day. Craft and play outside. No homework WOULD NOT be replaced by T.V. and iPads!]

Where does that leave me? If homework holds little value for my now 4th grader older son, yet carries weight on his grade, what to do?

-- First, we use it as "our time". He can add in details of his sharing his day, which the homework triggers memories from earlier in school day.

-- It IS habit building. So I add it to "it's YOUR Responsibility list" of his things to do at home. He has to do it, or his grade will suffer. And in life, I tell the kids, sometimes you don't have a choice of WHAT you can do, but you CAN choose your attitude, and if you do it well.

-- I also use it to build his self worth and pride. If the worksheets "wrong" he has the choice of erasing and doing it again, or getting the "F" - yes really, he makes that choice. I can't force my kid to love school, but we can teach them to be passionate about their QUALITY of work.

-- I can see if he learned that days topic at school and if he "gets" the subject being learned. If yes, we reinforce it a little. If he's struggling, like in multiplication in 3rd grade, we supplemented with math board games, online games like IExcel websites, dice games, etc. Then I'd "enrich his learning" by showing real life math examples - always - when he's just learning / struggling / or mastered a subject. I have $1.00, how many $0.39 cent apples can I buy to bake our apple pie this weekend? I need 4 pears for poached pear dessert, and there $1.00 each. How much are they (multiplication)? I have $5.00, when I pay for the pears, Not including tax, what is my change (subtraction)? (Math becomes Sociology / Economics conversation follows with "Mom, what's tax?" ... Supplementing continues in conversation and throughout our experiences together.)

Sometimes schools aren't 100% spot on, and in life what is 100% accurate? I'm Type A, and extremely detailed admittedly at about 93%. We work with what we have, and do our best to turn learnings, homework and the pain of it all, into lessons and life skills.

Much more on my switch to enrichment and Charlotte Mason like supplementing through Nature Study, Art Study and more in depth learning to follow over the next few months.

Make mistakes. Breathe, reflect, and Laugh.Out.Loud.

How to Help with Homework, School Strategies, What a Mom to Do?

The early elementary school years are about "learning how to learn." Strategies on how to read or count, because yes there is more then one way. As a new parent I didn't know what's job was when my older son started bringing school work home. I is find myself getting frustrated when he didn't complete worksheets correctly, or if he didn't understand a concept quickly or "get it." I am embarrassed because I feel I should've known better. But how? Or why would I know? No one taught me. So I am also "learning to learn how to help my kids" with their school work an what's expected.

What is Homework?

My husband and I discussed early on what our "job is as parents is" when it comes to school work. Just because he is a Principal doesn't always mean we have thought through our parenting role. Or that we agree on our roles... so we discuss, plan, reflect and readjust as needed.

Homework, in our home, in these early years means we are learning how to work hard at our school work. Mom included. Homework is not about being easy, or hard, it is about the time it takes to complete the work. About the steps involved in completing homework (sharpening your pencil, not wanting to do it when you have to, using an I-pad or book for research, etc.). Homework is "hard work" sometimes and that's okay, he is learning perseverance in times of, well... laziness.

My son brought home his reading test with a love note for his teacher. "This is not a full answer." However to my frustration she didn't review with him what a FULL ANSWER IS. So in turn, that's my job, the parents job is to reinforce ideas the child is and is not learning. And while I feel that a "complete answer" should be reviewed in class, I am happy to do it as best I can at home. Not perfect, but the best I can do.

So when we finished homework assignments that night, I had one more assignment for my son to do.

1. Read the instructions (or in this case the message from the teacher): I read to my son what the teacher had written.

2. Check for Understanding: Then I asked him did he understand what the teacher meant? "Can you tell me what a full answer is?" He said no.

3. Explain the Idea (explain what needs to be learned as best you can, simply...) I explained, again, with out being upset or frustrated because THIS IS MY PARENTING JOB what a full answer is. "A Complete or Full Answer is when you write down on the paper everything in your brain about the questions. How does the teacher know what's in your brain if your don't write it down?" We reviewed that he should write 2 - 3 sentences about the question, and suddenly he remembered learning how to write a "short answer" in class.

4. Do the work! Even though my son didn't want to, when he saw me drawing with a ruler the lines on the back of his page, "Mom, what are you doing?"
I said "I would like you to write the answer correctly."
"But mom I don't have to, we don't have to correct our test, it doesn't count."
Ha! He is still learning how "moms way" works. I said you need to "learn from his mistake. Making mistakes is important, that's how our brains learn. But we need to correct our mistakes when we can so our brain re-learns the correct way. Start Writing."

How to Help with Homework, School Strategies, a photo by areyousureaboutthatblog on Flickr.

In this photo you can see I drew three lines WITH A RULER (my son hates - or is lazy - about using his tools) so he can rewrite at home the proper answer that's "in his head." The next time he drew the lines, I cannot do this "work" for him.

The story the class read for the test was fresh in his mind. Even if we would have done this activity 1 or 2 days after the test, he would have been able to complete it. My son did have three ideas about the story he read. And he wrote three sentences (which he remembered was the maximum, "two is the minimum, mom"). If my son would not have remembered the story, I probably would've read him a short story and made up a question for him to answer. He still needed to DO the work.

5. Review The Work. We reviewed what he wrote. I asked him if he liked his new answer.

5a: Ask about their emotional state (this helps kids build confidence and make them feel good about learning and relearning from mistakes!). How did it make him feel? "Like I am smart." I said I felt "like you CAN show your teacher what is in your brain."

6. Review the old and new work. Compare them.  I read him his old answer and the new answer, and I asked him which one he liked best. He preferred the three sentences.

Learning from our mistakes IS one way to learn. As a parent I feel we just need to review school work and try to reinforce the ideas when papers come home with 100% or less. Homework is about doing the work not just about the grade.

No, my son did not have to turn in our correction - the purpose of this lesson was to learn how to do things correctly, not about the credit.


Make Mistakes. Breath, Reflect. and Laugh.Out.Loud

Early Math Addition Game with Dice: Math Facts Addition and Penmanship Practice all-in-one

My older 3rd grade son needs to continue learning his math facts (adding through answers to total 20). And flash cards are just so boring, but a necessary evil right?

Not so much. There's lots of ways to practice math facts without worksheets and flash cards. We got a nice dice game idea for my sons teacher. Roll the dice, shout the answer. We played a few times this way, my son loves the "pressure" to tell the answer out.

Now we have added a penmanship element. We have to write the addition problem from the dice and then write the answer. The first person to complete the math problem rolls again. If the other players still writing the previous math problem he might not even see the next roll, and that's okay, it's part of scoring. Whoever has the most problems written at the end of the game wins. We set the kitchen timer for 1 or 2 minutes, and off we go.

areyousureaboutthatblog Math Facts and Dice Game

The first game was a test... To "get the hang of it." But round two was fun. My son really caught on. He lost by one math problem less then I. In the test round he lost by 8. 

For round 3 my pre school younger son wants to roll the die too, so I had to wait to write the math problem until my son rolled his color die and said the color. It helped slow mom down for the 3rd grader to get a fair(er) shot at winning.

This adds penmanship practice, and math all in a fun game!

Make mistakes. Breath, reflect. And Laugh.Out.Loud

Spontaneous Teachable Moment

Have you heard of teachable moments. It's when you literally are doing something with your kids, shopping,... eating dinner,... going for a walk,... driving home from school,... and there's a moment where you see your child doing something, and its a spontaneous moment, nothing planned, where you realize that moment connects to something you can teach them. Maybe they make a comment about their friends behavior at school and it reminds you, the parent, of an incident with your child's behavior. In this "teachable moment" your child's in a self directed mindset on this topic and you can briefly use this time to highlight a quick lesson on "remember when you acted like your friend, see how it makes you feel. Can you understand how when you acted that way it made mommy sad too." Your child's in the moment, living the feelings you had before, what better way for him to understand what you were trying to convey at that time.

We've had several moments this summer like learning about what we thought was a hornet, but is actually a Cicada Killer Wasp. We would run away when we saw this late summer bug frequently flying around. But after a picture of the insect came up In my Facebook newsfeed From the Field Museum page I "like," we learned that we are in little danger from the Cicada Killer. 

Toilet Paper and Teachable Moments... Really! Get your science on

So today, as I was blogging about our summer Birthday Gift Treasure Hunt, my young son got a spontaneous bloody nose. "Mommy my nose is dripping blood." So I quickly went to him and moved him over to the grass and told him to "pinch your nose" while I ran in for a napkin.

Well we use cloth napkins at home. So I quickly grabbed a roll of toilet paper. Back outside son doing good, and I give him a clump of TP to plug his nose, "keep pinching it" I said. I sat him down next to me and instantly wanted to help him understand what's happening. 

I was calm, him too, and I said "are you okay? You know sometimes we get a bloody nose when it's dry like the air is today. And our nose gets dry inside, but our nose likes to be wet. Did you stick your finger in your nose?" He said no.

"Inside our nose," I continued, " we have little blood vessels. See my veins here in my hand, they carry blood inside our body. We have teeny-tiny veins in our nose called capillaries, and if these teeny tiny tubes get dry, they can crack and what happens?" He stared at me, "my nose drips blood?" Yes that correct!!

I get the water hose and rinse off the blood drops on our sidewalk and stroller. No photos here folks. I realize he needs to know "if your friend, at school, or your neighbor, every gets a bloody nose or a cut where blood Comes out, don't ever touch the blood. Just go and get their parent or another adult like your teacher

For help." Why mommy? "Because blood carries sickness and disease sometimes, so we don't want that sickness touching you body. So you shouldn't touch the blood. Okay. Is that a deal?" 

"Just my bloods okay [to touch] right?" he said. "Right," I replied.

Meanwhile I'm taking his tissue away and his nose has stopped bleeding. I show him it's a "little blood drop." Then I twist the tissue to get into his nose to wipe away the blood. "This will tickle while I clean up the blood that's stuck in your nose." I showed him the tissue when I was done, "see how it was just a few drops of blood, and even less on this side."

"Okay mommy, can I go play now." And that was the end of our Teachable

Moment.

Make mistakes, breath, reflect, and Laugh.Out.Loud

The days are long, but the years are short. So live each (Teachable) Moment NOW.