Teaching Him to Write: PenAgain

      First let me start by saying, my hat goes off to all the wonderful pre-school, kindergarten and elementary school teacher around the world. Teaching a small child to do something as simple as holding a writing utensil has to be the most difficult, nerve wrecking task of all time.

     Recently, my son's wonderful pre-school teachers have been making a great effort to help the kids at his school learn the alphabet, spelling and recognize simple words, and write their first and last names. So to kind of keep up with his development, mom and I take a little time out of our day here and there to do fun creative exercises to try and assist with the development of these skills. But the issue we were having was getting him to hold the pencil, pen, marker, etc. between his fingers in oppose to griping it in his palm.
      A few weeks ago, Pranava, one of my fellow classmates was writing down some information for an assignment and I notice a strange looking writing utensil in her hand, so I curiously ask, "what it was and what was it's purpose?” She told me it was called, "PenAgain", and explained how much easier and less strenuous it was on her hand and risk, she also told me how great it was in helping her daughter with her writing technique. So, I went home and did a little research and found that it was exactly as she explained. The PenAgain was originally designed to reduce the amount of stress to the risk and fingers while writing, by eliminating the need to grip the pen and push the tip into the paper. Its Y-shaped design, allow for the index finger to guides the tip of the pen, removing stress traditionally placed on the thumb and forefinger while writing. For more information on PenAgain please visit, www.penagain.net/
      I must say, so far so good. My son has become attached to the unique and creative design of the PenAgain. Thanks to Pranava, this has definitely made my job and hopefully his teacher's job easier. I would highly recommend and encourage anyone with small children to purchase one immediately. They can be found at most local retail store Walgreens, Safeway, etc. or purchased over the internet on sites such as, Amazon or EBay.

Jack and the Giant Slayer

     This past weekend I took a bunch of kids to the North Gate Movie Theater to see the newly released Jack and the Giant Slayer. I must say, compared to the recent modern day fairy tale films this one was as my son put it, “Awesome”. But, was it written for children and if so what age group was the movie intended to target?

      My son, a very active and adventurous little boy, is very much into the fairy tales that were written ages ago, most of which we all were/have read and came to love during our childhood days. But for some kids, the ones that I brought along and others there at lease, the movie seemed a little inappropriate for the children it was made to target, in my perspective. Throughout the movie my son, who I must say seem be courageous and brave for his age when it comes to things of that sort, had a few jumpy moments but nothing that cause nightmares. But I notice some of the other kids in the theater seem to be very frightened. The movie also had an extreme amount of gory and blood but for the most part it fit in to the plot of the story.

     Have you see the movie? If so, what's your opinion on the amount of gory in the film and who do you feel was the audience it was initially made to target?   

Potty Training/Bed Wetting Relapse

            When my son was about 2 or 2 1/2 his mom and I began potty training him on a very strict and meticulous schedule. We first purchased a super encouraging training potty that clapped and cheered after he sat down and successfully used the potty correctly. We also encouraged him by using a method suggested to us by his Physician, which was to allow him to get use to the feeling of not having a diaper and wearing underwear while he ventured around the house and by doing so, this would give him the confidence that we not only trust him enough to take the diaper off, but we also are giving him the opportune to get to the bathroom like,” a boy”. We also limited him to only 3 to 4 small glasses of water or juice per day and made sure to have him use the potty at least once every hour or 2. His last glass of juice or water was giving at diner and immediately following we would have his wash up and use the potty, then right before bedtime 2 or 3 hours later, he would have his last potty time. All these methods proved to be very affective for his development and potty training as he had very few accidents over the past 2 years.

            Just recently, for the past month or so, he's been having some night time accidents. I haven't enforced any type of disciplinary actions or showed any frustration toward the incidents, because I want him to understand that it’s only an accident and accident do happen, but as you could imagine its beginning to get a little annoying having to wash the sheets and scrub the bed. Instead of blaming him I have tried to figure out the reason for its occurrence. I must admit, lately we've loosened up on the amount of water or juice he drinks during the day, we’ve also shorten the period between diner and bedtime that we allow him to have water, in an attempt to show him that we trust him, but he is a growing four year old boy now and not the same baby as before. I personally, think the reason for having more accidents recently, has more to do with the fact that we have stopped using the night time pull-ups and started allowing him to wear, as he calls them, his big boy underwear. But whatever the cause he's going through what some call, “The potty or/and bed wetting relapse”.

Do you have a small child or young sibling whom has undergone a relapse in potty training or bed wetting? How did you handle the situation? What suggestion do you have that could help with my 4yr. old?

The Pride of a Samurai

        My son Dayton has grown this great like or love well to be honest obsession with the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure characters. So much so that every day when he comes home from school, comes from the store, get out the bath, basically every time he not doing something that doesn’t allow him to not have it on, the first thing he does is head straight for his toy room and jump in to his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume, Raphael. If you don't already know, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT), are comic book characters from the 1980's. The TMNT main characters are four turtles that came in to contact with a slimy green colored chemical called, "The Ooze", which transformed them from basically normal household pets to human size, walking, talking turtles. Their father figure, Sensei, is a large human like rat, Master Splinter, that also came in contact with Ooze just prior to the turtles encounter. He apparently was an actual pet of a Samurai that was killed by another character of the comic book, Shredder, whom I'm sure you'll hear about in later blogs. The rat, who also walks and talks, teaches the teenage like turtles the elite fundamental skills of being a Samurai, which they use to protect the city against evil. Raphael, is one of the four TMNT characters, he is distinguished from the other turtles by his choose of weaponry, Sais, and his red head hand and red karate belt. The others also have a distinctive choose of weaponry and headband and belt color. Raphael, the physically and mentally stronger of the four and second in charge, has a rebellious like demeanor and has become my son's favorite turtle of the four. Which is obviously the reason for purchasing this particular character and since purchasing the costume this past Halloween, he has probably worn it more than he's wet the bed. The costume and character has come become so important to my son and such a significant part of his life that it's been use, at times, as leverage in certain 4 year old moments in my day to day life. With that been said, hopefully you better understand the importance of his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle image and his dedication and devotion to becoming the greatest crime fighting ninja turtle every.

            So the other day my cousin who's about the same age as me come over to visit, "me", so he says, and as usual my son dressed in his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume, did his usually routine when visitors arrive to the house and came flying off the forth stair directly into his ninja turtle fighting stands. My cousin, very much into comic books and the virtual gaming world did as he usually does when he comes by and began role playing some character my son assigned him to be. They play for about an hour or so before my son, acting out a scene from the actually movie, throws his, very soft and kid appropriate, weapon, the Sais at my cousin. My cousin, trying to teach him what’s the right and wrong way to play, tells my son that throwing things at people isn't okay no matter what. My son, very understanding and sensible, agrees to not do and they continue playing for a little while longer before he forgets and throws it again. This time my cousin says, "I told you that, that's not okay", and holds the Sais to sort of discipline my son and help him better understand right from wrong and the consequence for not obeying the roles. My son does what he always does when he doesn't agree with someone or something comes to tell his 6'3" 240lb father. Trying to get him to understand that what he did was not acceptable, I reasserted what my cousin had already explained and told him that if he went over and apologized that might return the Sais to him. After saying that I added, "If Raphael made a mistake, he would apologize", just as apologized rolled off my tongue, I realize I had made a mistake and this was not the best time to try and use the TMNT as leverage. My son, dressed in his Raphael, TMNT costume from head to toe, looked directly into my eye's, got I his TMNT fighting stands and said, "Sensei", that's the rat, "I'm a great warrior and I must not show weakness". Wanting to enforce what my cousin and I were initially trying to teach my son, we couldn't help but to fall out laughing. I eventually got him to step outside his self, his ninja turtle self, and apologized after about a half an hour or so.