My hope for this thread is that you’ll be enticed to write up things you thought about that seemed so obvious AFTER you thought about it, but that, for whatever reason, took you a while to figure out.
I’ll give you two examples off the top of my head (and hopefully add more as I think of things, ha!)
I bought a toilet seat attachment for toddlers for Cub to use while traveling. PokerMom didn’t want to pack a full sit down potty and certainly didn’t want to have it sitting around with family and friends a few months back on her first trip. We recently went out of town for a week and used this attachment during the week to do all our EC. What I noticed was that I didn’t really have to clean out feces from the potty bowl.
About an hour ago, I hear Cub let out a grunt - and he hadn’t gone in a day or two so I was expecting it. I immediately told him to stop (which he does respond to) and that I’d take him to his potty. I started to put him on his potty and then realized how foolish this was, so I went into the other room, grabbed his attachment that we used while traveling and brought him into the bathroom to go.
Needless to say, it’s a lot easier to just flush than it is to wipe out and disinfect!
Here’s another “why didn’t I think of that sooner” from a while back. Early on, I did Starfall alphabet letters with Cub as a way to expose him to all the various sounds in the alphabet (and hey, learn some letters too!). Well, after several months of this, it was time for Cub to take that first trip I spoke of with PokerMom, and we thought it might be nice to be able to have him watch the letters on the plane (except it’s all on the internet and interactive). So, I got out Camtasia and stayed up late recording myself going through a bunch of letters! Why didn’t I think of this sooner? Now, I can just play a video on one screen, while I read the forum or news or poker hand histories on the other (not being watched) screen!
Easy!
What are some of the obvious things you started doing that you didn’t think about at first?
Yes, we only used the toilet seat covers for my kids, we just kept on in each bathroom, much cleaner, plus they are more likely to stay still until they are done.
If you do use a small potty again, keep a little water in the bottom. So much easier than wiping poop out.
And depending on the size of poker cub he might be big enough to sit on the toilet backwards facing the tank. My son still does this. He straddles the toilet and he can’t fall in.
Toilet seat reducers here too, changed my world (only a mild exaggeration)
Masking tape to label the house
Using different coloured markers to label items on different languages
Great thread. I’ll add more as I think of them. Looking forward to reading the responses.
My husband thinks this is me trying to give the kids OCD, but I created labels for their clothes on the computer (4 per a page), cut out holes for the dowel and a slit to fit it over the dowel. I laminatated the whole thing and it allows my kids to put their clothes away neatly and in an organized fashion, as well as always find the shirt or pants they need.
Get big print from any book you own by scanning it and playing it on the iPad, computer or better yet the TV! Zoom is a wonderful feature for early readers!
Laminate any paperwork you will want them to repeat. Math facts, letter tracing, Venn diagram, mazes…
Use a dispensing water bottle on the counter for child to have independent access to water. This may not work if you have a child that will play. My son never did and it saves me getting him endless glasses of water a day.
Tear toilet paper into segments just the right size to wipe. And put in a tissue holder. My son will either unroll almost a whole roll or tear off a single piece.
totally agree - seat cover vs potty is a big improvement! My daughter still prefers the potty though so it doesn’t always work - I think we got her to love sitting on the potty, because to get her to like it initially, we used to sit with her singing songs and reading books while she was on the potty, and she seems to have fond memories of her time on the potty :-). We bought the tommy tippee seat cover when we went to Thailand on holiday for the same reasons and really liked it.
As to the “Why didn’t I think of that sooner”, there are lots of things I am doing with my second daughter that I wish I had done with number 1. This is a bit controversial (though not among GD followers I guess) but I put my second daughter on her tummy to sleep at nights, and it has made a world of difference. With the first one, she had really narrow airways and whenever she had a runny nose, she couldn’t sleep on her back, but we always always put her to sleep on her back and it was a nightmare for over a year. She could never sleep and woke up screaming all the time. Even when she had a full-on cold, we would put her on her back because of the SIDS recommendation, and she would immediately wake up having trouble breathing and scream. With the second one, after digging into the actual SIDS research and reading about how beneficial tummy time is, I decided to try out the prone position for naps, and when she suddenly napped for 3-4 hours in one go, I decided to try it at night. My daughter sleeps through (as in 9 hours and then another 3 hours) at 3 months, she started sleeping through at two months. She is also incredibly advanced, already crawling and rolling over at 3 months. I think I could have saved myself many sleepless nights and a lot of trouble trying to manage full-time work with having a little child if I had known the magic ingredient with my first daughter.
The funny thing is, when I mention this “secret” to other moms expecting them to be horrified, almost all of them confess they are doing the same!!
In the last several weeks, I’ve begun to use operant conditioning in Cub’s language development. Before I explain, I’ll digress for a moment… Skinner was brilliant, but in his hypothesis about language acquisition, his theory was a joke - but he still adamantly defended it. That got me thinking one day prior to his first birthday…
“hey, he really wants to eat these berries,” I thought to myself and at that moment I decided to employ a Skinner tactic. I requested that Cub make an effort to vocalize the word “berry” in order to obtain the berry.
This really helped him, IMO. After I started doing this, his babbling and attempts to say words seemed to take off. This isn’t to be confused with “his language improved” which would have happened anyway with age - HIS EFFORT INCREASED because I gave him motivation while also teaching him to communicate for what he wanted.
That’s the first “why didn’t I think of that sooner” to update the thread with. The next one I added shortly thereafter…
why didn’t I think of this sooner?.. at every meal, I take his DoodlePro and write the food that we’re eating. I then read it to him and of course he has to say the word himself to get the food (or at least try). The result is a gradual learning of orthography, reading, vocabulary, and vocal practice!
There you have it… a minor adjustment I’ve come up with that seems to be a no-brainer!
PS EDIT:… one night, Cub shocked his mommy when I started writing meatball as she cut up a meatball for him… I wrote “meat” and then was writing “ball” after when Cub said “ball”… mommy’s jaw dropped. Ha ha ha lol
I also require Reuben to make an attempt to vocalise or use a sign when he is requesting something. Once I increased my focus on this, his language exploded!
My latest “why didn’t I think of that sooner?” was to print the text for the French version of the Little Reader books and stick it over the English words. We watch the story once a day on LR and read the physical book once or more a day. We will do this for 5-7 days before moving on to the next book. This has greatly increased their interest in French.
A related one is that a few days ago I printed the categories we cover each week and put them in book format. I colour code languages, so I printed the English ones in black and bound them with black tape, and printed the French books in blue text and bound them with blue tape. On the first use of the French common animals book, Reuben read his first French word - result!
I did EC, but used cloth diapers during busy times. I finally attached a diaper sprayer to the toilet and this makes cleaning up much easier. The sprayer is great for cleaning diaper and potties and nearby bathtubs. I lived without this for my first child, but Why didn’t I have this sooner!
Putting our learning activities into Little Reader Courses.
For example, Themes to Remember is an amazing Classical Music Recognition program, that goes wonderfully with Little Musician and really effective. When kids listened to the programm, we noticed almost immediate results, but… we were not consistent, simply because I had a hard time keeping track of what we listened to on the CDs, what to review, etc.
Putting it in LR course makes an amazing difference. When kids listen to a certain classical composition, it is marked in LR. I am able to add some other information and media to each composition , incorporate review cycle and even keep the track of each kid’s progress separately by creating LR profile for each.
I am able to do that with so many valuable learning resources which I had simply sitting on my hard drive or on CDs, not because we did not like them, but because we were not able to organize them efficiently.
Now, after spending a little time to put what I need in a course, I have it ready to use for months! During busy days I would not just decide to postpone our additional learning activities because I have not had a chance to organize them, but chose the course from LR menu and have 5 minutes learning chemical elements, facts about animal kingdom, Classical Music or Chess Playing throughout the day!! Win win.
We are remodeling our kitchen and PokerMom went to Home Depot to buy a gallon of paint since we had to texture over a few places. While waiting for the paint to mix, she goes over to the color swatches and grabs a white card, blue card, red card, and green card. She proceeded to use these swatches to entertain PokerCub for a few minutes.
The lady mixing the paint was beside herself as Cub called out the colors. “How old is he?” she asked, “14 months? Oh my!”
Why didn’t I think of this earlier? Home Depot (or paint store) for FREE COLOR FLASH CARDS
Oh!mand never under estimate the hardware store for other things.
Big nuts and bolts make great fine motor play. Matching the bolt to the nut is tricky. You can grab a couple of different sizes to arrange. Wing nuts are easier for little hands.
One of the best things that James got from Lowe’s was actually a free 3 yard long ruler paint stirrer. He loved hoping his toys up and down the numbers, using it as a railroad gate. And more recently measuring how many inches everything is.