Hippiemommy

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  • Is it really a “deeper look” at heart issues?

    So, I’m still plugging through Turansky and Miller’s Say Goodbye to Whining… and I am growing a bit more disappointed with each chapter. Its such a bummer.  This is a book that I wanted to love.  It is on the mainstream Christian radar, and I would love for a GBDish book to be out there that didn’t even have to address spanking.  After all, spanking is not the issue.
    So I love the way that they say to get to the heart of issues.  I couldn’t agree more.

    If you discipline your child to change behavior but a bad attitude remains, then discipline is incomplete…  Step back and ask yourself, “Why is this child struggling with a bad attitude?”  This will help you focus your discipline.  One mom recognized that her five-year-old son needed more sleep…

    and so on and so forth.  You get the idea.  They are trying to get to the heart of the issue and not leave their children with a seething anger.  Fabulous!  I agree!

    And then, out of nowhere…

    “Mary, I’d like you to go and clean up the toys in your room.”

    “But Moommmm!” Mary says yet again, rolling her eyes and huffing off to her room.

    “Mary, come here, please.  I can tell you’re having a bad attitude by your tone of voice.  If you can’t obey with a good attitude, then I’m going to give you another job when you’re done with this one.  Now I’d like to hear a different response.”

    Hunh?  That really sounds like dealing with the heart of the issue.  They seem to contradict themselves over and over!  So far, I’d still say this book has more good than bad, but it may be more of a “gateway drug” than a full leap to a grace based life.  It sort of bridges the gap, but is not firmly in either camp.

    Oh well, I’ll keep you up to date on my readings  😉

  • Even economists think Gary Ezzo is crazy

    Isn’t it nice when you’re reading a book that has nothing to do with parenting or Christianity and then you stumble upon a little jewel?

    …Ann Hulbert documented how parenting experts contradict one another and even themselves. Their banter might be hilarious were it not so confounding and, often, scary. Gary Ezzo, who in the Babywise book series endorses an “infant-management strategy” for moms and dads trying to “achieve excellence in parenting,” stresses how important it is to train a baby, early on, to sleep alone through the night. Otherwise, Ezzo warns, sleep deprivation might “negatively impact an infant’s developing central nervous system” and lead to learning disabilities….

    …An expert must be bold if he hopes to alchemize his homespun theory into conventional wisdom. His best chance of doing so is to engage the public’s emotions, for emotion is the enemy of rational argument. And as emotions go, one of them–fear–is more potent than the rest.– Freakonomics p. 148

    Ahh, I appreciate that the authors of Freakonomics agree that Gary Ezzo is scary. That upped my opinion of them significantly 😉 I was also happy to see that they have six children under the age of five, so they have some idea of what they’re talking about. 🙂
    Oh, and shortly after that quote, they said this

    …conventionally speaking, spanking is considered an unelightened practice. We might therefore assume that parents who spank are unenlightened in other ways — Freakonomics p. 171

    Bwahaha. 😛

  • FOXNews.com – Global Sex Survey: Marrieds Do It More Than Teens – Health News

    FOXNews.com – Global Sex Survey: Marrieds Do It More Than Teens – Health News | Current Health News | Medical News

    LONDON — In the first comprehensive global study of sexual behavior, British researchers found that people aren’t losing their virginity at ever younger ages, married people have the most sex, and there is no firm link between promiscuity and sexually transmitted diseases.

    I’m not exactly sure why it is surprising that married people have sex more often than teens. Lets think about this – pretty much every married person has someone to have sex with… the same is not true for teens.

    Its interesting to see the myths that were proved false in this study. Contrary to popular belief, sexual activity is not starting earlier, women tend to lose their virginity earlier than men, people in more developed countries (not Africa or other countries with high STD rates) are more likely to have multiple partners, and married women are more at risk for STDs, because they are less likely to have safe sex.

    Interesting.

  • Our book diet – Day 4

    It is amazing to see my children’s attention spans already lengthening after only a week of consistantly cutting back tv and increasing their book intake 🙂 They are begging for more books, and we are now taking daily (rather than weekly or bi-weekly) trips to the library. My daughter (2 1/2) likes to re-read her favorites, but my son (4 1/2) loves the adventure of a new book. He has started checking out non-fiction books about dinosaurs, boats, and airplanes, and now that’s his new favorite category. They are both back to reading books while we drive around town, which was a habit they had started to lose.
    Not only can they pay attention longer, but their imaginative play is increasing by leaps and bounds. They seem to be making up for lost time! My kids didn’t even watch that much, and yet still we are seeing a dramatic improvement. May I also mention that they are much less frustrated and getting out a whole lot more energy. Something about reading for half an hour really calms them down. Watching TV for the same amount of time leaves them all revved up.
    My quote for the day, as I reflect back on the amount of Dora and The Backyardigans my kids were watching , from The Read-Aloud Handbook:

    The vocabulary of television is lower than nearly all forms of print, from comic books to children’s books and newspapers and magazines. A study of the scripts from eight programs favored by teenagers showed a sentence averaged only seven words (versus eighteen words in my local newspaper). Since TV is a picture medium, a fair comparison would be with children’s picture books:

    • 72 percent of the TV scripts consisted of simple sentences or fragments/
    • In Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey, only 33 percent of the text is simple sentences.
    • In The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, only 21 percent of the text is simple sentences. (p. 203-204)

    Thus one can say even good children’s picture books contain language that is at least twice the complexity of television’s. Imagine how much more complex the novels are.

    Its only a little past noon, and here’s what we’ve read so far:

  • Yoga today 🙂

    Interestingly enough, I found YogaToday and it was recommended to me by a new friend at almost the exact same time  :)  I like that it comes through my iTunes.  That’s very nice.

    I just did the ashtanga workout from yesterday, and it was pretty true-to-form for the primary series.  She took a few liberties, but I didn’t mind at all.  I think I’ll probably do another yogatoday workout tomorrow!

  • Book Diet – Day 3 (Weekend)

    Here’s my weekend edition of our book diet 🙂 We’ve read more books than this, but this gives you a good idea. Here’s my thought for the day, courtesy of The Read-Aloud Handbook

    NAEP studies reported the more printed materials found in a child’s home, the higher the student’s writing, reading, and math skills. (NAEP 1992 Trends in Academic Progress)

  • My stand-in for Inhale

    Well, I am still awaiting a reply from the Oxygen network, so I’m trying to move on and find another yoga practice until my beloved Inhale returns.

    I’m on a mission to find a replacement workout that is portable.  Naturally, I decided to turn to apple (iTunes specifically), as there are few problems that apple cannot solve for me  :P  I found quite a few podcasts and decided to give one a go tonight.

    My butt is kicked.   My legs are jelly.  It feels great!  Here was today’s workout: Yoga to the People  It is a flow class, which I like.  If you don’t know posture names, its going to get a little hairy for you, but if you’ve been practicing a while, then I think its definitely worth a shot  :)  I like that it is aimed at a higher difficulty level.  I get bored with those yoga 101 classes  ;)  If you were practicing Inhale, then a lot of the postures will be very familiar to you (lots of flow connections (up dog, down dog) and sticking a leg up in the air).
    I might try a different podcast tomorrow or I may try this one again.  Either way, I’ll let you know  :D  and I’m happy to have something for the interim.

  • Book Diet – Day 2

    Its a snowy day, so we’re having lots of time to read! I’ll update it later once we’ve done all of our reading for the day. Here’s our list so far:

  • Our Book Diet – Day 1 (10/25)

    As many of you know, I am working through Trelease’s The Read-Aloud Handbook. It has really inspired me to make sure that I am not just reading to my kids at bedtime, but rather making read-aloud time a big part of our day. I have decided to focus from now until Thanksgiving on making sure that my kids are getting a healthy “diet” of great books. We’ve slacked a lot due to our impending move, and this is something that I don’t want to see fall by the wayside.

    Feel free to join me! I’m going to try to post at least 10 books a day that we’ve read. That’s my minimum. My kids would probably read 100, but 10 is a good goal for me, as it is a reasonable amount of my day to spend on reading to them without it being too overwhelming for us right now. 🙂

    Yesterday was almost all chapter books (Winnie the Pooh especially), so today is lighter fare 🙂

    Today’s picks: (2 of these were read to me by my 4yo…)

  • MetroWestDailyNews.com – Police say Myspace tiff led to biting

    MetroWestDailyNews.com – Local / Regional News: Police say Myspace tiff led to biting

    A Framingham man angry that his ex-girlfriend removed him as a friend from her Myspace.com Web page, repeatedly bit, punched and then choked her on the weekend, police said. 

    Hmmm, I can’t imagine why she would possible remove him from her friends list.  He seems like such a great guy  :/

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