A Few Minutes of Sanity or Getting Dinner Made : JitterBug Music

Today was a victory for me (I hope!!) After a week of tricking and forcing Lucy to eat solids, she finally started realizing that she could open her mouth and eat food! Why am I forcing my daughter to eat solids? Well, she is irritable, cranky, and wants to eat every one to two hours or so, day and night. However, she does not want to eat food. She would be content to just nurse all day, but well, I am not. So, in go the solids. She screws up her little face and tries very hard to not get any more in her mouth. The first day or two, we would get her to laugh and then we would sneak it in. Then she learned what was going on, and would clench her mouth closed and just give you a cute toothless granny grin, with her mouth clenched shut. Finally finally today, she started to open her mouth and actually eat the food!! Hooray! Maybe it was the clapping when she put food in her mouth. Probably it was the prayer, either way, I am excited to (hopefully) not be wrestling my 7 1/2 month old to get her to eat solids a few times a day.

The recent newsletter from Cool Mom Picks mentioned jitterbug tv, kind of like a muscial youtube for toddlers. All toddler music videos. It won't buy you a lot of time, but it is music for kids. And a few back to back can break the chaos for a few minutes of cooking dinner. Anyway, its kind of fun. Not to promote plugging kids into electronics (of course, they don't have to watch the video) but its a cute way to spend a few minutes.

Preschool: Music

I have my own 24/7 preschool! The trick is how much we actually learn. . . But a friend asked if we wanted to do a homeschool preschool coop recently, and I am so glad she did! A wonderful kick to get me going. I have wanted to, but have been a little nervous about trying it with all three. Last time we tried, Joe was still napping in the morning, and it was just Emily. Now it would be Joe and Emily, and hopefully Lucy napping. But I am hoping to start next week, and I will post my basic "lesson plans" for anyone interested. I think the goal will be one group project/week, and daily reading, art, music, sensory, and free play time. Mostly, I hope to just be intentional about how we spend our time and what activities are available.
I had hoped to get a lot more done this weekend, but oh well. Weekends have this amazing ability to run away. I did download a few songs from iTunes, though. Music is an important part of child development. Even better when you can get other good things in with it, such as Bible verses, abc's, counting, colors, or just getting wiggles out. Here's a few of my favorites for a place to start. (Please keep in mind, my tolerance level for preschool music is pretty high.)

• Seeds of Courage by Seeds Family Worship: very practical verses put to catchy tunes. I don't mind having these stuck in my head. :) In fact, when I'm up with a croupy baby, these are wonderful to have running through my head.
• Imagination Movers: They have some of the songs on their site! Some of my favorites are 7 Days a Week, Shakable You, Mover Music, and Can You Do It-great for getting wiggles out!
• Barney: I hate to say it, but he has some great children's preschool songs.
• Sesame Street or Disney have a lot of options as well. :)
  
• Local Libraries are a wonderful resource!