TAKING CONTROL OF THE FAMILY SCHEDULE or WHAT SPIDER'S HAVE TO TEACH US ABOUT ORGANIZATION!!!

School has started. Homework is being assigned. Spelling words are being memorized. Lunches are being packed. The schedule is getting filled to the brim. The vacations we took this summer feel like a dream. Did they really happen? Bummer -- It's only September!

Often, the worst part of the start of school for moms, dads and caregivers is the loss of control. Evenings and weekends are no longer leisurely and relaxed. The are crammed with helping with word problems, correcting punctuation, folding laundry, calming a frazzled child's nerves and making sure everyone gets into bed at a semi-decent hour. It's a feeling of being caught in a web of someone else's making.



In the Pacific Northwest, fall is spider time. Each morning brings a new artistry of spider web magic in corners of porches, alcoves of doors, across walking paths and hidden in bushes. The most beautiful webs are the ones that have survived a slight morning mist or rainstorm and are covered with little diamond shaped water drops illuminated by the morning sun.




To a spider, the web is a beautiful work of order and precision. It goes between two to four points. Then weaves marvelously around in little squares or rectangles until a bigger web is completed that will catch some nourishment, some delicious protein for dinner. If you're the spider's dinner == if you're caught in the web -- it's yucky. We all know the feeling. It's sticky. It's claustrophobic. We try to pull our legs out as fast as we can.

Imagine, for a moment, the power of weaving your own web. You have a family you love. You want the best for them. Schooling -- sports -- good dinners. You also want family time. Quiet moments together just laughing. Unscheduled times where the games come out. Gentle times where you color together or finish a couple of pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. So -- weave a web for your family. Mark off a couple of squares in your calendar for totally free time. It doesn't have to be long. 15 minutes is one little spider web square. It's enough time for one game of King's in the Corner. Yet, taking that 15 minutes makes you the Web Weaver for your family.

Get out the Play dough and practice making letters with your toddler. It's one of the activities in "What Your Children Need to Learn to Read" by Michelle Vallene. Your child will have fun and you will feel more relaxed when it's over. Just for fun, get out a box of Raisin Bran and see if you and your child can actually count how many raisins are in the box. It doesn't matter if you get the correct number. It matters that you weave the web of some fun, silly, unscheduled time with your family.

Be a web weaver today. Make it a beautiful web for your family. Go heavy on the special web squares of laughter, hugs and tickling. These are the things that make every family web really strong! Happy weaving!!

HOW TO CHALLENGE TODDLERS & PUPPIES!!!

We added a puppy to our family this spring, Bailey. As with all puppies, kittens and babies, he is energetic, inquisitive and curious. He runs when he could walk. He bounces everywhere, starting first thing in the morning, jumping out of bed, excited to see what new adventures will come his way.





We showered him with puppy toys. Squeaky toys, red and orange balls, toys that hide food, stuffed animals just for puppies. One morning, while I was working on my computer, Bailey walked past all his toys and started trying to pull one of my daughter's toys off the windowsill. It was really hard for him to reach. He had to stand up on his two hind legs. He would push it with his nose to get it closer to the edge of the windowsill. Then, he would rest on all fours for a few minutes and stand back up on his back legs. He repeated this for several times before he was able to grab my daughter's toy with his teeth from the windowsill. He proudly carried it over to his blanket and laid down and started chewing on it. I took it away from him.

He walked past all his toys again. Went over to the windowsill and repeated the whole exercise again. Up on hind legs. Reach for toy. Rest a little. Back up on hind legs. Stretch a little more to try and reach toy. Rest. Stand up. Finally reach toy. Carry it proudly over to blanket. Sit down and start chewing on it. Have it taken away. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

After a few days of this, I realized that Bailey really didn't care what he got in his mouth. He cared about the CHALLENGE. He wanted something more demanding that just a pile of toys on the floor. So, he went for the ones that were harder to get -- out of reach -- slightly beyond his two front paws.

Our children need challenges also. They need toys, games, activities which are just enough out of reach that they have to stretch for them -- stand on their tippy toes -- try something they haven't tried before to figure it out. Creating challenges for our children is as simple as putting blocks in a tupperware container with the lid on and letting our children figure out how to get the lid off. If our children aren't ready for writing, we can encourage them to make letter shapes with mismatched socks from the laundry. Using one of the activities from Michelle Vallene's, "What Children Need to Learn", they can write letter and number shapes in shaving cream on the kitchen table while we make dinner. Our children, like Bailey, will create their own challenges. We can help direct them by providing windowsills with different skills and activities and challenges. See "What Children Need to Learn to Read".

If you would like some more ideas, visit our website, Learnerslane.com or feel free to e-mail me at klittle@learnerslane.com