Ways to Stealth Teach Your Kids

Any parent that leaves education to schools is doing a massive disservice to their kids. Children learn all the time and it makes good sense to make use of the time spent with your kids to teach them new skills or ways of thinking or even just how to relate what is around them.

With that in mind, here are a few ways to sneak in some education from this month's Parent & Child:
1. Hangman - teaches alphabet and spelling.
2. Destination Game - Choose a place and add words that sound like it. "I went to California and saw cows, cranes, coasters and castles."
3. What's the Total? - Have your kids guess the total of restaurant checks and grocery bills.
4. Tongue Twisters - Strengthens articulation and speech skills.
5. Dominoes - Numbers and problem solving.

There are actually six ways but I kind of think the sixth way in the magazine is semi-bogus (give your child a digital recorder and have them narrate their day). I guess I'll add my own sixth way to stealth teach your kids.

6. Ask your kid to tell you about his artwork and listen (i.e. don't interrupt) to his response.

There are other ways that I try to get my kids to think when we are spending time together. Like making up songs, trying to figure out why something is the way it is (why do trees grow upwards?) or making up stories together.

Something I heard a while ago that still sticks with me has to do with reading to your kids. Did you know that what you read is much less important than the fact that you do "read"? In fact, a study showed that illiterate parents who made up a story while looking at pictures in a book with their kids were able to impart the same educational value as reading the actual story. It is the interaction, the concentration and the time together that delivers the value. Read together even if you can't read this. Crazy.

10 Ways to Be a Better Dad

I went to a meeting tonight given by a local father's group to try and help out dad's in being a part of their kid's lives. It was interesting because we discussed how different things are from when we were kids and fathers were, to a large extent, pretty hands off in the child rearing department. The reason is being is that fathers were, traditionally, busy working all the time and most of the kid duties fell to the mother to deal with.

Not so much anymore, at least not in my house. I like to be a major factor in my children's lives, I like playing with them, I like talking to them, I like asking them questions and watching them think things through before responding, I like watching them explore, expand and learn.

One of the handouts I got at the meeting was from the National Fatherhood Initiative, a pamphlet titled 10 Ways to Be a Better Dad. And here they are, in short form (you can read the longer form at the link above).
1. Respect your children's mother - When children see their parents respecting each other, they are more likely to feel that they are also accepted and respected.
2. Spend time with your children - Kids grow up so quickly. Missed opportunities are lost forever.
3. Earn the right to be heard - Take time to listen to their ideas and problems.
4. Discipline with love - Fathers who discipline in a calm and fair manner show love for their children.
5. Be a role model - Fathers can teach sons what is important in life by demonstrating honesty, humility and responsibility.
6. Be a teacher - Involved fathers use everyday examples to help their children learn the basic lessons of life.
7. Eat together as a family - It is also a good time for fathers to listen and give advice.
8. Read to your children - Instilling your children with a love for reading is one of the best ways to ensure they will have a lifetime of personal and career growth.
9. Show affection - Showing affection every day is the best way to let your children know that you love them.
10 Realize that a father's job is never done - Fathers continue to play an essential part in the lives of their children as they grow and, perhaps marry and build their own families.

There now, that doesn't seem so hard, does it?

Some Parenting Tips

After letting my brother in law know a couple of my tricks and tips for making life with kids and their toys more bearable, I thought it made sense to repost some of the advice here for great consumption.

First off, I want it noted that I think toy manufacturers should be required to include mute and/or off switches. The fact that I've got toys that can't be turned off and are loud is just stupid. Actually, we either modify or get rid of overloud toys.

Which brings me to my first tip.
1. For a kid's toy that is just crazy loud/annoying and there's no volume control, you can put tape over the speaker and it'll mute it substantially. In worst case scenarios, I've even used silicon goo to fill the holes or slats in on the speaker.

2. Did you know that you can use regular food coloring drops in the bathtub? Add ten drops of blue and watch how jazzed up your toddler will get. Unless you've already been using those tablets and then the parents will be jazzed up when they realize they're not dropping $3 on each of those little cans of fizzing color tabs. One note, the drops of color will stain while suspended in foamy bubbles. But it also looks really neat too.

3. Changing diapers is not fun but it must be done. A really good idea is to use the clean diaper as a diaper pad under the kid. That way, if he takes, as we like to say, makes some mud during a change, you're covered. That is, you're not covered in baby mud, the second diaper is there is protect you.

4. Pizza cutters (the wheel with a handle kind) are your friends. They are really useful for safely slicing up lots and lots of stuff in the kitchen and not having to worry (so much) about your toddler getting a hold of it and causing himself damage.

I'm sure I've got more that I don't even think of as tips but I'll start working on the next installment.