I think that one of the most important things we can do for our children is read to them. When parents read to their children at a young age, it helps to instill a life long love of reading. By reading to our young children, we are also helping to improve their little vocabularies and thus working their minds. It is encouraged that we read to our little ones at least fifteen minutes a day. California-bases Shae Homes is sponsoring an initiative to help parents do just that. "Setting aside 15 minutes a day is a very manageable time commitment for any parent or caregiver and the potential impact to our nation's future is phenomenal," (Pisetsky). Most days, we get this done not a problem, but there are a few days here and there that I don’t read to them at all. I’m trying to eliminate those days all together though.

I used to read this animal book to my boys. After each animal, I would ask them what that animal said. Having done this over and over again, the kids learned it. You can imagine my surprise when I walked around the corner into the dining room about a week ago and found Adin reading it to Arin. Adin will turn to an animal, look at it and say, “Pig, what’s a pig say Arin?” “Oink, oink” Arin will reply! Then Adin will tell his brother, “Good job Arin.” It just amazes me that by reading a book to my kids a bunch of time, I have helped my older son become a teacher to his younger brother. And not only that, but Adin is providing positive feedback and congratulations to the baby. Who knew that one could accomplish all that just by reading to your kids?!
Here is the video of Adin “reading” to Arin…

I try to feed my kids healthy foods all the time. But I am going to be honest; there have been a few days here and there that I have fed them something completely off the wall and totally unhealthy. For example, one day a few months ago, my boys had pickles and donut sticks for breakfast. Now I know that this is very unhealthy, but I guess I was just feeling lazy that day. They asked for pickles and donuts, and I caved and said OK. Oops. At first, I didn’t know that there were “brain foods.” I didn’t realize that food had any effect on your brain and how it performed. I was tooling around on the internet the other day and came across a pretty interesting article on the Dr. Phil McGraw website. In regards to brain foods, it talks about how children need a balanced nutritional diet with lots of vitamins and minerals to help their brains function. They did a study in New York and found that if they took out all of the fake stuff (artificial colors and flavors, dyes and additives) out of the kids lunches that their IQ’s went up by 14 points! And that was only lunch! Can you imagine how smart our children would be if we took out almost all of the fake stuff in their diets?! So I think that when I go to the grocery store next time, I’m going to look a little closer at the labels and try to buy more brain foods for my boys. Things like oranges that are high in vitamin C and that will help improve their memory and performance. Eggs are also considered a brain food because they are high in choline which is a memory boosting vitamin; so I think that instead of Pop-Tarts of Froot Loops, maybe we will start having eggs for breakfast! I guess that means no more pickles and donut stick mornings….

So didn’t start out that well. I woke up feeing like crap. I wanted to give them pickles and donut sticks for breakfast so bad this morning. But then I remember that I learned the importance of brain foods. Instead those pickles and donut sticks which are high in crap, I decided to go with something a little better for them like whole grain oatmeal. I knew that the whole grains would give them the carbohydrates are needed for sharp mental performance. After breakfast, I really wanted to just let them go watch a movie while I laid down on the couch and moped, but I didn’t. I thought that it was ‘school’ time. I remembered an idea that I had come across somewhere out there in lala land. I decided to start from the beginning of the alphabet with the letter A. I made a construction paper cut out of a capital A and taped it up on the wall. Immediately, my three year old son Adin yells at me, “A, Mommy, it a letter A!” After hearing that, Arin looks up and says, “A, A.” I knew that we were off to a good start then. Then we went around and found all the things that we could that began with A. Of course, Arin didn’t really understand, but that is one of the reasons that I include him in things like this, he has to learn sometime, and sooner is better than later. Adin on the other was a little confused, but he had a great time. What I did was tell them that something like apple begins with the letter A, then have them go find me an apple. When they brought it back to me, I would then, of course, tell them what a great job they did, and then ask them what letter apple started with. Adin would respond with, “A Mommy!” and Arin would chirp in with, “A? A!” After seeing how much fun they had, I am really glad that I didn’t just lay on the couch today and wallow in my yuckiness.

So I thought that I would touch on why it is so important that parents begin to educate their children early. According to the Ohio Department of Education, “The years from birth through preschool set the foundation for much of what children will learn in kindergarten, the first and second grade and beyond.” If you think about it, the majority of little things that your little ones learn before preschool are things that they will continue to use throughout their lives. We teach our kids to tie their shoes, clothe themselves, teach them their colors, teach them how to share, how to be polite, and a ton of other things when they are young. I know that I still use all of theses things in my day-to-day lives. Another thing that I think is super important to teach our children when they are very young is manners. It amazes me that my 18-month old son had better manners than some adults out there! My baby Arin knows that when I hand him something, he says “thank you,” if he wants something, he says “please,” and if someone says thank you to him, he says “your welcome.” When you build a foundation of good manners early in life, it carries with them forever. I think that is one of the most important things you can do for your children, teach them manners at a young age. Even if a parent does not think that it is necessary to begin education early on in the child’s life, I feel that it is a must for the parents to teach the child/children manners.

So I went looking around and I found a few sites that help me out both in parenting in general and will help with the development of this blog.

1. Dooce - This is just an overall good blog site. She has some hilarious things to say on her aspect of parenting and life.
2. Notes From the Trenches - Fighting the war on tantrums since 1994- that title says it all. This one is a well-rounded blog from all the aspects of her life, not just her children.
3. Rocks in My Dryer - She has a combination of scripture, good links, and stories on there, I love the variation.

Hey there everyone out in la-la land. To begin with, let me tell everyone a little about myself. My name is Jordan and I am a 23 year old NOVA student. I am an Army brat who was born in Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri to two very dedicated soldiers. I was raised in central Illinois and am huge Illinois sports fan with the exception of the Chicago White Sox’s. I am a Cubbies fan through and through! I married a Marine in March of 2003 and we have two little ones, Adin (who will be three in December), and Arin (who is 18 months). I am a full-time student/mom/wife. Due to the fact that I am home with my little ones all day, I thought I would make my blog about how important it that education starts at home. Because I am in an online parents club with children all born in December of 2004, I know that there are many different views on how early education should begin. Some parents diligently teach their children things, some do it moderately, and then there are parents that have no concern when it comes to early education. Some parents feel that the time in a child’s life before preschool is for the child to have fun and just be a kid and that the time for learning comes when the child enters preschool. I personally disagree with that. Most institutional daycares now have an education program for all ages of the children attending. Seeing how I am a stay-at-home mom, I feel that it is my job to teach my boys things before they enter preschool. I realize that there are things that I could be doing better and maybe there are some days that my boys watch a little too much TV, so that is probably the main reason I picked this topic. I feel that need new ideas to help educate the sponges that are the minds of my boys.