What are you teaching your children?

We teach our children all kinds of things, from the abc's to lessons on how to deal with life.
But what is sinking in, and how do you really know? 

I'm a firm believer that our children learn by example.  They learn what to do and how to do it, from the actions that we, as parents, take.  In a bad situation, which you hope upon no one - we want our children to make the right decisions.

Sunday - we had one of those situations.  And my children made me so proud.

The twins were playing down the road with their cousin who is only a year younger than them.  Running and playing in the snow as all boys do.  They were in the back yard where a narrow creek runs the property line.  Apparently all the boys were jumping back and forth across a narrow part of the creek.  Then my nephew said, and I quote
"Watch the Master," as he jumped across a wider part of the creek. 
He missed the other side, and was in water up to his neck.  He didn't know what to do and was treading water to stay up.
T1 and T2 jumped into action.  T1 went running back to the house as fast as he could while, T2 stayed calm and stayed with my nephew.  T2 told him how to swim with his arms to reach a level where he could get out of the water.  And my nephew followed directions. 

Because they didn't freak out, fight over who was going to do what. Because they thought fast, my nephew didn't drown, or get hypothermia.  Help immediately arrived, and he was safe.

I am so proud of our boys!  And the new rule in our house,
No one is allowed to say "hey ya'll watch this" or on their level "watch the master."

What do you hope your kids have learned?

It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself. ~Joyce Maynard

Dear Coach who is an %&&, these kids are only seven

Dear Coach who is an %&&,

Our children have been playing sports since they were wrestling in the womb.  They love sports and have unreal desire to play each and every game there is.  Even though they did not get their awesome athletic ability from me, I am going to support them in everything they do.

When I take them to practice or games, we go in expectation of having fun.  It is about enjoying exercise, learning something new, having fun with friends.  If we happen to win, great, if we don't, that is ok too.  I've taught my children that for every "winner" there must be a "loser" and that good sportsmanship is as important as actually winning the game.  They know they are not going to win every game and they know it is ok to lose.  At least they tried. 

During our last game, I was appalled at how you yelled at your players.  Your tone was one of a dictator instead of a coach and you never ever told them good job for something they did right.  Yes, your team is fairly good - they've been playing together since they were 4.  No, our team has not been playing together for longer than 2 months.  Most of our players haven't even played soccer before, but I didn't think that should matter. Apparently it does matter.  Apparently it means that your team should beat our team each and every time.

I know we amazed you when your team was only able to score on us once in the last game.  Does that mean you should get pissed off?  Does that mean you should yell that your team should have scored more?  Does that mean you should be mad at your team?  They tried really hard to score more often.  It just so happened that our goalie had learned a lot throughout the season and was on his A game that night.  Ever think to tell him good job?  After all they are only 7-8 year olds.

And our goalie - he thinks you're nuts.  He's glad you're not his coach (there went your dreams of recruiting an awesome goalie).  He loves that he was able to make a mean coach mad.

Sincerely,
Mom of the goalie who pissed you off

Baby Einstein doesn't make my child smart???

I've been away for a few days - had to take a break from blogosphere.  I have some other posts I've been working on and lots of blogs to read, but I'm still on break.

Except I read this article today and about fell out of my chair.   Apparently Disney is offering a refund on Baby Einstein DVD's after they recieve a letter threatening lawsuit from some public health lawyers.  (want the details- read the article)

The point is - the lawyers believe there was false advertisement and that parents believe these DVD's were making their children smart, when in fact we were just plopping them down in front of another TV show.  Before you all start shouting, I understand they were learning stuff, specifically the stuff you wanted them to learn.  Of course other shows teach them too, my 2 yr old has learned to ask "Where'd he go?"  everytime Nemo disappears.

We all know hours of television/movies/video games is bad.  We all know it makes for shorter attention spans, couch potatoes, etc.   So we  limit the amount of television they watch and force encourage them to go outside.

At least I thought we all knew this, and did this.  But apparently not.

I Made a Decision

NO TURTLES: That is my final answer, thank you Regis. And thank you to all that helped me decide (you had no idea how much control my readers have over me did you?)

• Speaking from the Crib is right I need my sanity, and more pets = less sanity.
• Jingle gets that tanks in the house are kind of scary.
• Simply Mel has plenty of pets and doesn't think I need a zoo too!
• Carrie and Pippa taught me that turtles live forever, which could be a good thing, but then my boys would graduate, move away and I'd still have the darned turtles.

Plus my "Big Brother" and he only says that because he is literally taller than I am, reminded me of the deadly things the twins fed the fish (batteries, etc). So I've decided no turtles and if I keep my mouth shut maybe all my boys will just forget about it and move on to something else.

Helene and Aunt Becky - I love you guys but you've been out voted.