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?