Kindergarten Homework

I know that I should appreciate that my child’s teacher wants her to learn at home, but I am the worst at school projects right now. I think it is because I am swimming in my own graduate school work, but I should not let that be an excuse.

While the homework in Kindergarten has been overwhelming by any means, there have certainly been a few projects. This week we have been working on a project for Dr. Seuss to celebrate the Read Across America Day.

Celebrating Dr. Seuss in our house this week! Image from Clipart Panda.

My daughter has been assigned to make something that represents her favorite Dr. Seuss character and then she has to get up and speak on her art as well as the character in front of her class.

Maybe it is just me, but already working on public speaking presenting skills in Kindergarten is impressive! I know the homework is only going to get worse, so help prepare me by leaving some tips in the comments on how you manage homework.

Fashion Statement

My daughter certainly has an interesting style going these days. For the most part, she will still let me pick out her outfits, although, I feel like my days are numbered. That said, she is very particular and often wants to argue with me about what matches and what doesn’t. I didn’t realize that the arguments over clothes would come this soon!

I try my best to layout her outfits on Sunday so that we won’t have arguments during the week when she wakes up tired and grouchy because she is not a morning person. Despite my best efforts, she will typically still have a fit one morning of the week over an outfit.

She loves this coat and stole my hat for her outfit today!

Am I the only mom out there that wishes their kids had to wear school uniforms? I really do feel like that would solve the problem. At least my kid doesn’t argue with me about wearing a coat, but she might argue over which one.

If you can help me get an argument free morning, drop your advice in the comments.

Not Overscheduling Children

One item I have been struggling with lately is children’s activities. Do I have my kids in enough activities or too many? My daughter participates in two to three activities each year and normally a few camps each summer. I am really happy with this number, but I have other friends whose children are in an activity each day after school. I wonder if I am not doing enough for my daughter. My poor son isn’t really in any activities yet but given his age, I don’t feel as bad about that.

In doing some research on this topic, I came across a great post from Kristen Cherry on the Nashville Mom’s Blog. She had for great tips that really helped me realize that I need to do what is best for my children and not feel the social pressure to do more. Also, I really like her tip on making free time actually free. This is a concept that I have always done with my kids. No tablets, no video games, no TV for a period of time can really help with creative play.

For other mom’s in this same situation, what have you done to make sure your children are not overscheduled?

Birthday Party Planning

I plan special events for a living so you probably would assume my children must have lavish birthday parties but assuming that would mean you are dead wrong. I have been to countless birthday parties where my mom friends have gone way overboard. I just refuse to do that when it comes to my kids. In fact, my son is turning two next month. I wanted to do a small party at our home with just family and close friends but my husband didn’t like that idea and wanted to have a party at a local fun place and invite school friends. While I love celebrating his birthday, he will only be two and he will not remember this party.

My main method for surviving kid parties is to rely on Etsy, Facebook events, and the party store to help do the work for me. Instead of printing expensive invites and mailing, I bought an editable birthday invitation from Etsy and created a Facebook group to invite family and friends. I did print a few from my home printer for my son’s friends at school.

You won’t see me go wild on decorations either. I plan to reuse some tablecloths that I own, I bought plates and napkins at the Dollar Tree, I will get a few balloons from the party store, and Publix will provide the cupcakes. Of course, renting out the play place isn’t cheap, but I hope my savings in invites, food, and décor will make up for the cost.

The simple balloons I plan to use for the birthday party. Image from Party City.

It truly is about making memories, so I hope that at least my husband and I will take away some happy memories since my son won’t have a clue.

How do you handle your children’s birthday parties? Leave a comment and let me know.

Vacation with little kids

I am actively planning our next vacation to Disney World. I didn’t know how much planning was involved until our vacation to see Mickey last year. This year, I started even earlier with the help of a travel agent. One would think that planning a vacation to Disney shouldn’t be so hard but there are so many decisions to be made from dining reservations, hotel reservations to fast pass selections and of course the matching outfits. It can really be overwhelming.

One source that I found this year to help me out is a blog that Disney created for parents called the Disney Parks mom panel. These ladies know Disney inside and out and have a suggestion for everything! Not only does this save Disney a lot of time on the phone, email, and social media from answering questions, but it allows this group of moms an outlet to share what they love.

Have you used the Disney Parks mom panel before for questions to your Disney questions? If not, you are missing out.

Stressful Holidays

Holidays can be stressful on families with small children. Having to travel with kids and their gear in tow isn’t always easy. For us, we have to travel during the holidays to visit my husband’s side of the family. While it isn’t an 8-hour drive, it is still a significant time in the car for little kids. I pack tons of snacks, the iPad, and other toys for entertainment but sometimes that just doesn’t cut it.

Once we arrive at her house and unload all of the gear, we just need a break but we all know there is no break at the holidays. Also, our kids don’t sleep very good out of town so the next day, we are always zombies. I know there are other parents who travel for holidays with young kids. In looking for advice, I found his blog post. I am going to try incorporate some of these tips next holiday season. If you have advice on how to make the holidays less stressful traveling with children, please leave a comment.

Grandparents

I would not know what to do without my parents and my mother in law. They are so helpful when it comes to watching our kids and loving on them. Seriously, I am so blessed to that my kids have three very loving grandparents. That said, I do struggle sometimes with them not following my directions. After all, they all raised kids and we survived, right? Throw the bedtime out the window, give them all the chocolate, and cut their hair without my permission. You see the hair cutting is where I lost my mind. This past fall, I was sick in bed when my dad came home with my son. As soon as I saw him I instantly knew he had cut his hair. Instead of losing my mind right then, I waited until he left only to find out later he cut the hair with kitchen scissors.

As you can see from the picture, it was rather awful and required a trip to the barber shop. What made me so mad was that I had been telling my dad I planned to take him to get his haircut soon but he took matters into his own hands. I felt he crossed the line but my dad doesn’t feel he did anything wrong. Now that my anger has settled, I am able to joke about it with him but he better never cut it again.

How do you discuss disagreements with your children’s grandparents? I am sure this won’t be the last so please add your advice in the comments.

Hot mess mom

Along with feeling like a failure as a parent, sometimes I feel like a hot mess mom. You know, that mom that can’t get it together. I am guilty of that on occasion. I try my best to be as organized as possible, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen. Balancing the kids, work, and school is challenging at best, and I end up being a hot mess mom for a day or two.

I love watching parenting videos from Cat & Nat on YouTube. No matter how bad of a parenting day I am having, these two always seem to pull me out of it. Cat & Nat’s video on hot mess mom’s is a favorite of mine. Maybe some of my hot mess moments are teaching my children to be more independent. After all, I can’t do everything for them all the time. Watch the video and let me know your favorite hot mess mom moment!

Be prepared for the unexpected

As a parent, I try to always be prepared for the unexpected including toddler meltdowns, Kindergarten girl drama, fitting siblings, and so much more but I am not sure anything could have prepared me for our neighborhood drama this week.

When it was warm last week, I saw many of the neighborhood kids out playing. Normally, we would have been outside, too, but we had an event we had to go to that night.

As we left, there was a Maryville City police officer outside speaking with two of our neighbors. Of course, this is not an everyday occurrence in our neighborhood. I went on about my business until one of my neighbors saw me the next day.

She proceeded to explain that the neighbor that lives next me to called the cops on her kids because a ball went in to her yard. Say what I said? Who in the world calls the cops after a ball gets in their yard. It is certain to say, I wasn’t prepared for this unexpected occurrence. My neighbor went on to say that the lady has also been taking pictures of our kids while they are playing outside.

Why didn’t she call the police when we were celebrating 4th of July with real fireworks?

So, now I am an angry mom. I am trying to not lose it on my neighbor who called the police and is taking pictures of my children without my permission! Any advice on how to “play nice” with my neighbor is welcome.

Why is parenting so hard?

When I was pregnant with my first child, I thought that I had enough babysitting to know what to expect. My sister is 12 years younger than me so I practically helped raise her. I thought I was fully prepared, but I soon found out I was way wrong!

No one can quite prepare you for the adventures or hardships of parenting. It truly is a rollercoaster. Most days I can handle the stress and chaos but others I just feel like a parent failure. For example, my daughter asked me the other day why I had not been to any of her school parties. I felt so bad, but I am honestly having a hard time juggling being a great parent, employee, and student.

Luckily, when I am feeling down and out as a parent, I have other parents to turn to. A blog post from Scary Mommy helped me turn the parenting corner today by making me remember that I am not alone in this journey.

So, if you are having a bad parenting day, turn to one of your other parenting friends or groups because you are not alone!