Here are some tricks to turn laundry time into a great learning experience!  Children can practice sorting and classifying skills that are so important to their reading and math development.

• Give your child all the socks with instructions to find the “matches.”
• Children can carry all the stacks of folded clothes to the appropriate room.
• Give them washcloths, undershirts and panties, show them how to “spread, smooth, fold” — If the folding isn’t perfect…who cares?
• Give the child one piece of laundry (a sock, shirt, etc.), and ask him/her to tell you everything they can about it (color, size, function, etc.). Play detective – “Who does this sock belong to?” “How do you know?”

Monkey Sandwiches

Let children make their own wild and wonderful sandwich by wrapping a peeled banana in a hot dog bun or soft tortilla spread with peanut butter. Children can make this nutritious snack all by themselves if you have the patience to sit back and let them do it. Encouraging children to be self-sufficient is the best way to enhance their self-esteem! Don’t forget! Children should also be expected to clean up all mess before eating.

A Wildflower Walk   Wild flowers are beginning to bloom all over. Take the family out to explore the beginning of spring. Whether you do a spur-of-the-moment walk through your neighborhood or a more formal trip to a local park or secluded woods, the children will enjoy discovering the early spring flowers. Flowers are a natural for discussing colors and size or counting groups of flowers. An inexpensive guide to native flowers can be found at any bookstore if you want to add a little enrichment to your walk by identifying the plants. Your children will think you are a genius if you can identify dandelions, daisies, and roses.

Some suggestions for your walk:

• The Watershed Nature Center, a project of the Edwardsville Nature Preserve Foundation, near the N. O. Nelson School. There should be several varieties of wildflowers in bloom. Walk the half-mile section of the wooded path and see if you can find them.
• Pere Marquette State Park, located on the Great River Road, has playgrounds and hiking trails in addition to flowers and plants. The restaurant at the lodge serves a reasonably priced family style chicken dinner and a brunch on Sunday or there are picnic tables available if the weather is appropriate.

Humans are mammals, just like all of the other animals we are learning about, but they do have attributes which distinguish them from the rest of the animal kingdom. For animals, parenting is usually limited to a just a few weeks. Animal parents protect their young against predators, teach them to hunt or scavenge for food, and in less than a year the young are physically mature, can protect themselves, and are ready to reproduce. The job of the animal parent is done; they have no further responsibility for, or contact with, their young. Love and affection as we know it does not enter into the relationship.

For human parents, their responsibilities to their children are more diverse and the need for protection lasts for a longer period of time. Of course the child’s physical needs for food and shelter must be met, but human parents are also responsible for getting immunizations on time, seeing that children wear a seat belt, develop healthy habits for living, and a conscience for governing their moral choices. As children go to school they are exposed to tobacco, alcohol, drugs, and attitudes of disrespect for their culture and themselves. Protecting a child from these dangers is even more difficult! Parents must help children develop moral values if they are to withstand these subtle dangers. There are universal values that are taught in a general way as part of our culture but children must see that these values are important to their parents if they are to accept them as a guide for their own lives. Whether you teach these values as part of an organized religion or just as a part of a personal code of honor it is important that children have some internalized concept of what is to be regarded as right and wrong in their life.

Children can not learn parental values unless they spend time with their parents. Quality time together is something that every good parent aims for but pressures and responsibilities of supporting a family and meeting all their material needs sometimes crowds out the time that should be spent together. A consistent theme of this newsletter is spending time as a family. This is emphasized because it is the best way to let your child know how much s/he is loved, to teach values, and to give a child a feeling of self-worth and esteem. It is this feeling that will enable her/him to adhere to values no matter what the outside pressures are.

Spending time together doesn’t have to be a long expensive family vacation… just make the most of minutes as they come along. First, be sensitive to what is important to your child, if s/he notices the spring flowers, stop and smell them together. Secondly, talk, talk, and talk some more. Talk about whatever you are doing, from washing dishes to watching TV. And lastly, have fun. Relax and don’t feel like you have to work so hard at being a good parent. Laugh while you work together and play together.

It is true that animal parents may have an easier task… they spend less time and effort on parenting… but they also reap fewer rewards. Spend time with your children now and when you are old they will provide good care for you and for your grandchildren. Human parents, if they do their job well, will enjoy their children for a lifetime!