Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in san francisco, CA

Reading Before Bedtime

by Michael Rohde

June 29, 2009

Books seem to be such an easy, no-brainer, go-to item when it’s time to settle down and go to bed. But sometimes the simplest things are the easiest to forget. Take my family for example…

We easily fell into a routine of picking the kids up from school, letting them play while we made dinner, eat dinner, watch a DVD for 45 minutes, take a bath, read a book for 5 minutes, then put them to bed. That worked for awhile and the bedtime slowly crept from 7pm to 7:30 to 8. Then the routine fell apart and the kids stopped easily going to bed. There was much screaming and yelling. We didn’t know what to do. This went on for weeks and gradually the situation got worse and worse. There was a time we could go back into their room when the crying started, tell them to lay down, rub their back, and they would go right back to sleep. At the height of our problem, they wouldn’t even lay down anymore, especially our daughter. She would look at us with tears streaking down her cheeks, her face would scrunch up, and she would cling to us like the boogey-man himself was standing behind our shoulder. It was awful.

We had to do something about it. My family firmly believes in routine, so that’s the first thing we examined: what worked before, what are we doing different, and what does not seem to work any longer. The first thing we did was eliminate the 45 minutes of watching DVDs after dinner. Now, we get down on the floor and either play ball, build Legos with Little People, or we color. Next, we announce it is bath time and that’s exactly what we do. After the jammies are on, it’s book time.

We read three or four books every night. There’s a book about a bus with wheels that go round and round, there’s a book about a group of animals that like to balance apples on their heads, there’s another about a bird who’s lost his Mom, and yet another about a baby dolphin and his Mom who teaches him several facets of dolphin life. I could go on and on but I think you get the point: we read lots of books on lots of subjects. We even have a book about twins living in San Francisco that covers all the touristy spots they visited; but that was put away, we are not sure exactly where, but it’s got to be around here somewhere…

The routine of reading before bedtime is helping us as parents to teach our kids new words, it provides a nice cool-down period, and it’s also an opportunity for us to give our kids encouragement and praise for saying words, which doesn’t happen very often from watching TV. And an excellent side benefit is that it seems to help them go to sleep a little easier. All-in-all, reading before bedtime is a win-win situation.

Spring Cleaning the Crib

by Michael Rohde

April 27, 2009

Yes, you read the title correctly, today I am going to write about Spring Cleaning my children's cribs. You see, we have a hoarder. My little darling likes to put anything and everything into her crib because she absolutely needs it for her nap time and bed time. At first it was kind of cute. Then it became a problem.

Julia didn't become a hoarder overnight. She slowly worked her way up from a casual hoarder, to a hardcore hoarder, and then she recruited her brother into her Hoarder Gang. It started with her lamb, and then her two lambs, and then her two babies, and then she needed a book, and then she needed two books, after some time, she worked up to having a full library in her crib; along with her doodle pad, her tea set, a couple of toy cars, shoes, art work from school, and the list really could go on and on. After she was satisfied she had enough stuff in her crib, she started throwing stuff into her brother's crib, which was mostly stuff he really didn't want. And yes, she had to throw this stuff into the crib. The bars on the crib are too close together for most of the stuff to fit through, and she's still too short to pass items over the top rail, so she just kinda chucks stuff over the top. She's really quite good and I don't think she's ever needed a second try to get something up, over, and in. She also uses this same skill to put her dirty dishes in the kitchen sink, so it's not a completely wasted talent.

It was amazing she found room to sleep with all the stuff in her crib, but she managed. That was, when she did sleep. She's now reached the point where she does not take her afternoon naps. And she gets bored. Even with all the toys she has, it simply isn't enough to entertain her. So, what does she do? She throws all of it out of the crib and onto the floor: much to her brother's delight and he subsequently joins in. It makes such a racket and noise you'd think someone was smashing plates. We had to quickly put an end to this.

We adopted the same technique we perfected with ending the use of the bottle and the pacifiers: the kids went cold turkey. I know, I know. I've heard from many parents they don't like the idea of going cold turkey. Somehow they think it's cruel to the kid or something. The thing is, breaking in a new habit slowly takes a very long time and it's easy to fall back into the bad habits. That's why it's cold turkey all the way. It's always rough the first few days, but you know what, babies and kids have a remarkable ability to adjust to new things. Children thrive on a solid routine: whether it be feeding time, bed time, bath time, or play time; and this includes habits and behavior, which is all the more reason to go cold turkey. You see, if you break in new habits and patterns over time, you do not really establish a new routine right away and it takes that much longer for the child to realize that a new routine is in place. Going cold turkey puts the new routine in action right away, and the kids recognize and adapt to it very quickly.

My kid's cribs are now clutter free. They have one lamb and one blanket each. That's it. That's all you need to sleep. We've stopped the hoarding and the throwing, now to get her to take that nap… But that's a whole other story.

New Year's Resolutions for Toddlers

by Graham Charles

January 01, 2009

My mother is a clinical psychologist who, among many career successes, did great work with families with hyperactive children. One of her greatest tools -- one she not only used with me but also passed on to me -- was the "rewards chart." I put that in quotation marks because it's not always a classic "chart" -- with some families, she used a currency of some sort, like tickets or tokens. But  Read more...

Longer Nights Mean it's Time for a Night Hike with Your Kids

by Graham Charles

September 12, 2008

With the days shortening, it's getting easier to take our nearly-three year old out for a night hike before bedtime. About once a week, Fern, her mom and I bundle up and head out around our block or up a trail for a chilly adventure. Here are some tips for a successful nighttime walk with your children: Listen a lot . Every few minutes, especially if we're on a trail rather than  Read more...