Bonding Through Books

    Today was rough. I woke up late, spilled coffee all over my brand new shirt, and stumbled upon one of my favorite shoes torn to shreds by my dog. Just when I thought that my day couldn't get any worse, I realized that I forgot to apply deodorant this morning. All in all today was not one of my good ones. I needed some Kayden time more than ever. I picked him up from daycare and we went straight to the library to have some relaxing reading time together. I told him to go pick out any book he wanted to. I sat at the small reading tables in the kid section and waited. He quickly chose three books and eagerly brought them to me. His favorite one was a book about farm animals. He could recognize every animal and what sound they make. It makes me so proud to know how advanced my son is for his age and actually get to experience his intelligence first hand instead of his teachers telling me. We then moved on from the noises the animals make and started to state the colors of each one. I never knew that we could have such a great time at someplace as simple as the library. I try to read to Kayden as much as I can but have decided to read at least one book everyday with him. Not one time did I think about the awful day I was having prior to that.

    The importance of reading to your kids at a young age is mind-blowing.  I have researched multiple statistics of reading to children at a young age and the benefits of it, and the results were actually quite shocking. Based on the research by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the website Homework Help Secrets indicates, “Reading is the single most important skill necessary for a happy, productive and successful life. A child that is an excellent reader is a confident child, has a high level of self esteem and is able to easily make the transition from learning to read to reading to learn."

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=968&sid=15431484

I want nothing but the absolute best for Kayden so I'm going to encourage reading time with him. This will benefit him in the long run and also creates quality time for the both of us. I love discovering new ways that we can bond while stimulating my toddlers brain.

Day at the Park

Getting ready for the beautiful, sunny day.

He's so excited he didn't even want to get dressed!

     It is a beautiful day outside today. Our activities took place outside for this one. Kayden and I decided to go to the park. I walked there and he drove his battery powered car. He loves his car and the days it's nice enough to drive it outside makes it that much more fun. We had a wonderful time and had nothing but smiles on our faces. I'm glad that we found an activity that will challenge his hand eye coordination skills at such a young age. Not a worry in the world was on my mind during our time together today. I was amused because he definitely gets his driving skills from me. Today we managed to only put two scratches on the car. This is an accomplishment! Kayden screamed, "BEEP BEEP, out of my way!" to everyone and everything. He even said it to the park bench whom wouldn't get out of the way, which explains the scratches. We parked the car and played on the playground for a while. He likes to swing across the monkey bars with me holding him up. He says, "I monkey mommy!" 
I feel it is super important to engage your children in activities that challenge their hand eye coordination at a young age. After doing more research on the importance of this, I find it even more necessary than before. Van Thomas states that "Hand-eye coordination is the ability to track the movements of the hands with the eyes, thus enabling the eyes to send important signals to the brain about hand movement. Poor hand-eye coordination can greatly compromise your ability to exercise and can also affect everyday tasks such as writing." http://healthyliving.azcentral.com/importance-handeye-coordination-10148.html Stressing the importance of this is needed because without the proper hand eye coordination your brain can't send the proper signals to your muscles so an activity such as simple exercises could be potentially difficult for one who doesn't have the coordination compared to someone who does. 

Dino Soap

  
    Kayden and I have decided to make today a artsy day. While exploring the web, I came across some fun DIY videos. I found this super cool way to make soap to encourage children to wash their hands. We went to Michaels and got all the supplies we needed. While we were shopping Kayden picked out the little toys he wanted to put into the soap. He chose plastic dinosaurs. Kayden was very excited and I was too. We ended up making these soaps and had a blast doing it.
https://youtu.be/OCYJoUZUQZc

    Kayden is now so eager to wash his hands because of these cool soap bars. He roars like a dinosaur and turned something as simple as washing hands into a fun, enjoyable activity. I'm glad that we stumbled upon this video because I want to teach Kayden the importance of getting into the habit of washing your hands throughout the day. I read an article about the importance of children washing their hands. Kids Health states that, "Kids don't always listen when parents tell them to wash their hands before eating, after using the bathroom, or when they come inside from playing. But it's a message worth repeating — hand washing is by far the best way to prevent germs from spreading and to keep kids from getting sick."

http://kidshealth.org/en/parents/hand-washing.html