Educating on Empathy

On Valentine's evening, we took the boys out to Shakey's when three of us got a free personal pizza from our school site. It did not cost us very much because we only spent the money for additional toppings and soft drinks. What a nice way to save our money and have fun on Valentine's on the same night!

However shortly after the pizzas were delivered, Ryan became a super BRAT! He kept saying unkind words to me and my husband, " I don't love you, I don't like you. I don't want you in my life" over and over. I got fed up with his negative attitude. We decided to go straight home without stopping by Barnes and Nobles which the boys loved.

When Ryan learned we had changed our plan, he suddenly wanted us to accept his apology. Too late! We told him it was too late and were head for home. He had his frowning face all the way home. By the time, we got home. We forced him to go straight to BED at 7:30 P.M.

We strongly believe in disciplining our kids at young age. This is essential imperative lesson to educate and develop respecting for others and feelings of empathy. It did not make him an excuse for getting away from this behavior due to his disability. We know he understands what was wrong and right. Therefore, we talked and explained to him why he was sent to bed.

The best two rules are:

• Talk to your child about respecting the feelings of other family members and of other people they know.

. Show respect for the property of other people and let your child know that you expect him/her to respect other people's property, too. Children learn best through the example you set.


We have a feeling that he will repeat one more time by testing us. We did repeat the same thing we did to him last night. From that point, he will learn the significant lesson at young age. It will make difference in him by respecting others way much better than the parents who don't take their devoting time by educating the child in manners.

Infection

On Sunday late afternoon, I discovered Ryan was limping his right feet. It considered me, so I checked his right foot. This turned out that Ryan's right big toe nail had a huge infection. Around his toenail, there was swollen red and thick blisters. Thus, David and I decided to take him to an urgent care instead of taking our risks by draining the blisters out.

The result was that he had Paronychia infection. It means that one of them was caused biting nails. Ryan does have a VERY BAD habit of biting his toe nails. Before the doctor from urgent care drained his infection out, he had his eyes wide opened and told the doctor in a scared voice, "Please don't pop my toe nail!" Poor Ryan was scared and wept for a short period of time. We then explained to him why he had an infection.

Lastly, I asked him if he would repeat his bad habits: biting his toe nails. He wouldn't. In meanwhile, he did not have any obligate on taking anti-botic medication because he knew this would heal him fast. We believe he had learned his hard lesson not to repeat his bad habit: biting his toe nails.

Birthday Boy

In this early A.M, Dylan decided to get up at 6:00 A.M because he was too excited to see what was ahead for his 8th birthday. He was not even too exhausted at this early dawn morning. The first thing I did was giving him a eight birthday kisses. This made him feel very special to start off the day.

By the time he got to school, lots of people wished him a nice birthday, especially his classmates and a teacher. I was there to support his birthday song and passing out the cookies to his classmates. He loved the idea of having me being there while I have a lunch break. The best part was handing him the letter about going out to see a movie, "Hotel for Dogs." Boy, he was jumping ups and downs when he read the part of his first present from us.

When we got to the movie right after school (4 P.M.), we saw many empty seats. In fact, we were the first family who joined the movie. Not too long after I took the picture of the boys, two other families came to watch the show. It was a nice feeling to see lots of empty seats especially David and I were able to relax our tiring feet up in a front of the theater seats. Without closed captioned for us, we were able to laugh a lot because there were tons of hilarious actions. The boys gave their thumbs up at the end of the show.

Just in time, we had a nearby dinner at Dylan's choice. He chose California Pizza that was across the street from the movie. That was not our choice, but it was his birthday. Also, it saved our trip from driving and finding another parking space to another place. Just before we left for home, I asked him if he wanted a small birthday ice cream or cake. He did not want either of them. The positive was that it saved our extra money for the food.

Finally just an hour and a half before they hit for sack, we gave Dylan another small surprise birthday gift. It was a gift certificate to keep his Club Penguins activity. This delighted him very much because it was one of the birthday wishes he had wanted. Dylan admitted to me that it was one of best birthdays. That made us feel very good that he felt so good about him especially on his eighth birthday.

Kids' Weekend Projects

While we had a three day weekend, we took our advantages to finish up the three different projects. It sure kept them busy especially we have had raining cats and dogs over the weekend. It was far cry better than sticking their eyes to the T.V.
all day long.

First, both of them signed their names for their classmates. Each of them had to sign at least 20 cards. They are excited to exchange the Valentine's cards. Dylan chose over the Sponge Bob with lollipops for his classmates. As for Ryan, we used many leftover Valentine Cars cards with a wash-out temporary tattoo. They wrote their names neatly.

Dylan has his own Valentine Secret Lunch project. He had to pick out one of his classmates' Valentine's lunch. Then he had to get everything this person wants for a lunch such as having a bologna sandwich with mayonnaise and mustard, lemonade, and two other things for her lunch. (I did get everything that were on the list.) He also worked on creating a Valentine lunch bag. He made her name in handwriting out of gold glue (yes, he knows how to cursive handwriting), and frog foams. In the back of my mind, I must admit that it left me wondering why did Dylan write on his lunch wish. This will make me wanting to stop by his lunch on Friday and find out what he has for his Valentine's lunch (We have the same lunch.) That is an advantage for me.

While Dylan was working on his own projects, his brother also had a completely different project. He was to make up "100 things" for his 100 Days project. His theme was "Fishing for One Hundred Words." First, I helped making colored copies of fish, cutting out and typing 100 First Grade words that he needed to know. (He knew all.) He and his brother, Dylan pasted all of 100 fishes and 100 first grade words. Personally, I thought it was pretty cool to use something different, but at he knew how to read and what the purpose of using this project.

Having them to do variety of projects were worth to keep their hands on task for an entire weekend. That included reading books and doing homework over the weekend.

Peculiar Weather

On a full day, we have had a peculiar weather in Southern California. First, it started off raining cats and dog on our three days of a weekend. What a perfect timing to stay home from work and school.

Few poor hummingbirds even had to stop by for their
food during this raining cats and dog.

A half hour later, the Grey clouds showed up in our back yarn.

An hour after we have had raining cats and dogs, the beautiful clouds
showed up in our front yard.

The beautiful clouds did not last long. The peculiar weather repeated the cycles for the day.

Hide N' Seek

While I was looking for Ryan to come downstairs and started on his homework before dinner, he was no where to be found. It took me a minute to figure it out until I saw something rattled.

When I opened our Linden Basket, I just laughed because I could not image that my six and a half year old son even fit in our linden basket. Also, I thought it was a good place to hide where my other clean clothes were next to the basket. Have you ever had experience hiding from your parents or your child (ren) hiding from you?