Thoughts

My sister emailed me a few days ago about her three year old grandchild, who she feels is very cute and very bright (while he is, I don't have the heart to tell her that my grandchildren are obviously much cuter and brighter!).  While he was visiting he asked to see the creek behind the house.  My sister felt that it would not be very interesting because the water level was low, but they walked down to the creek.  The grandson looked at the creek and told her, "It's full of allergies".  "Allergies"?  In a creek?  Suddenly it dawned on her - there was algae in the creek.  The grandson was commenting on the fact that he saw algae in the creek. 

Now, this is a very cute story, and I enjoyed it very much.  While I enjoyed it because it was funny and made me laugh, I enjoyed it even more because of what it told me about the grandson's life.  This is a child who is obviously interested in what is going on around him and who enjoys being outside.  This means that he has parents and grandparents who let him run around, investigate, and enjoy nature.  He observes his surroundings and talks about what he sees, which means that adults are looking and talking with him.  He is comfortable in the outdoors, which means that he has spent time in the fresh air.  He has an unusual vocabulary, which means that he has been developing communication and language skills by talking with the adults in his life.  Children do not learn about algae by playing Angry Birds or by watching cartoons.  This is a child who has an excellent start in life because the adults in his life are paying attention to him rather than parking him in front of "educational" electronics.

Several days later my sister sent a picture that grandson had painted for her.  He told her that it was a picture of a circle, and she had framed it and hung it in her living room.  I always admire people who frame and display children's art (don't tell my sister, however) because I tend to be the sort of refrigerator magnet decorator.  I enjoy his paintings and his sense of color, but I especially enjoy them because his parents and grandparents enjoy, admire, and treasure them.  What seem to adults to be mindless scribbling and swiping are actually very important developmental steps for a child.  A child needs to go through 80 stages of scribbling before they can begin to form letters.  These first attempts at writing and drawing are the equivalent of learning to crawl, stand, and walk, but many parents treat small children's art as if it were meaningless, rather than celebrating it with their child.  One of the saddest sight that I see in a child care classroom is a cubby stuffed full of a child's art that has been accumulating for several months.  Even sadder are the parents who tell the staff to "just throw it out".  (My staff, by the way, will not throw out a child's art.)  A child who is prewriting, drawing, coloring, writing, cutting, and pasting is learning many important skills which include:  fine motor control, sorting and classifying (math skills), color mixing (science), and self-expression, not to mention the language, communication, and social skills that are developed when the child talks to an adult about their artwork.  Parents who are pushing their children to learn what they believe is necessary to become ready for kindergarten give the children no encouragement when they take the steps that are needed to develop the skills.  Children are excited and proud about their work, and having a loved one ignore it to throw it into the garbage without looking at it is horribly unkind.  A picture in a frame seems to be a small thing, but it speaks volumes about the way that his family understands the grandchild and how much they value him. 

So what is my point in all of this?  Rather than worrying that your child is not learning enough to be ready for school, get involved with him.  Put down your ipad, turn off the tv (and don't tell me that it is educational videos - that is usually an oxymoron!), turn off your phone, and spend time with your child.  Talk about what you see, what you are doing, and what is happening.  Use grownup words and talk as if you were talking to a peer - that is how children learn language.  If you always baby talk or use one syllable words, so will your child.  Not only will you be helping your child to succeed, you will be having a whole lot of fun!

Yogurt

As I have explained before, my greatest interests are young children, nutrition, and cooking.  Fortunately for me, these interests combine easily and work together well.  This does not always happen - imagine trying to cook while skydiving...  Anyway, I have begun making my own yogurt.  It is easy, cheap (a week's worth of yogurt for about 99 cents), and it really impresses people who don't know how easy it really is.  Yogurt making is very simple, and children can help. 

All you need for successful yogurt making is a kettle, thermometer, whisk, 8 cups of milk (any kind - I use skim), and a small container of plain yogurt.  You do not need olive oil - that was just on the counter.

Heat the milk to 180 degrees to separate the proteins.  If your thermometer is the kind that is encased in Pyrex, make sure that it is not touching the bottom of the pan, since it will not read correctly.  Stir the milk occasionally to prevent sticking.  If you are the type that multitasks, do not wander off.  scorched yogurt tastes terrible, and if it boils onto the stove it makes a mess (trust me on this one!).

 



Take the pot of milk off the burner and let it cool to between 120 and 110 degrees.  Put about 1/2 cup (more or less) plain yogurt into a bowl.  Add about a cup of the warm milk, whisk until smooth, and add to the pot of warm milk.  Stir.  Do not try to save time by stirring the yogurt directly into the milk - you will have lumps of yogurt (trust me on this, too!),

Place the mixture into a container with a lid.  The mixture will have to stay warm to incubate for at least eight hours.  I found that the best way for me was to wrap it in an old bath towel and place in one of those foil-lined insulated Wegmans bags with a zip lid.  Any kind of container that would hold the temperature would work. 

 

 

The yogurt can be removed after eight hours, or it can stay longer.  I often make mine after work and leave it overnight, and I have left it as long as 24 hours.  The longer the yogurt incubates, the thicker it becomes and the more the flavor develops.  To thicken it a little more, I strain it through a colander that is placed over a bowl.  I line it with an old cotton dish towel, and I strain a few cups at a time just to make it easier to scoop into the containers that I use to store it (in my case, I have a complete matching set of margarine containers).

Draining the yogurt takes off some of the whey and thickens the yogurt.  Exactly how much you drain off will depend on the thickness of the yogurt when you start and on your patience while you are draining it.  It is okay to wander away during the draining; in fact, I recommend it.  Make sure to save the whey in the refrigerator - it is wonderful for baking.  You do not need to use anything fancy to store the whey, although I do have a lovely matched set of mayonnaise jars.

Your yogurt will be thick, much like Greek yogurt, and will be tart because it is plain yogurt.  It can be sweetened with sugar or honey.  I usually eat mine plain, since I put it over fruit which sweetens it enough.  This is a matter of taste.  Once you have made a batch, there is not need to purchase more yogurt, since you can use the batch that you made to start a new batch.

Yogurt is very easy to make, especially once you have made it several times.  It is a great feeling to produce something that is so good and healthy while saving money also.  Have fun and enjoy!



Who me? I'm not scared!

In the last post I referred to parents' fears about raising their children.  While I think that it is very true, I don't believe that it is a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of concern.  Parents want their children to have the best possible childhood, to be happy, and to do well in school.  Unfortunately, these days parents are bombarded with messages about the latest, newest, best product (usually electronic) that will guarantee that their child will be ready to learn in kindergarten and on the fast track to Harvard.  Think for a minute - does the CEO of Matel, Fisher Price, or Playschool really care if Johnny Brown is a success?  Their prime reason for having a company is to make money, and the more that they can guilt parents into purchasing these items, the more money the company will make. 

This is not just the ranting of a grandmother (in my days we. . .), but is a charge that is reinforced by scientific study.  Many of the electronic toys that are aimed at young children claim to encourage language development.  In reality, they tend to retard language development.  Did you know that the Baby Einstein videos were proven to slow language acquisition in children and Disney was forced to refund the cost of the tapes to parents?  Did you know that children today do not make noises when they play with cars or animals because they expect the toy to make noises, and if it does not they assume that it is broken?  Do you know that deaf parents were told to keep the TV turned on so that their children could develop language but the children did not develop language until they went to school and talked to real people?  A fascinating book, At a Loss for Words by Betty Bardige and T. Berry Brazelton, MD, details how children in the United States are not developing language as well and as quickly as in the past.  Because of the heavy advertising, parents who want only the best for their children are actually hindering their progress!

Now what?  Fortunately, the way to remedy this is simple, inexpensive, and uses readily available materials.  What are they?  Your voice and your brain!  Turn off the electonics and talk to your children.  Starting when your child is an infant, talk to them.  Talk about what you see, what you hear, and what you are doing.  Read lots of books.  When you are grocery shopping, talk about what you are buying - what it is, what it looks like, when you will eat it, how it tastes - the possibilites are endless.  There are only a few simple rules to remember.  Always talk in sentences as you were talking to another adult, since children need to learn the sounds and rhythms of language.  Do not baby talk - your children will grow up sounding like they come from another planet.  Most improtant of all - have fun, relax, and enjoy this time together.

I know that so far I have addressed parents rather than caregivers.  This has been done for two reasons - the anxiety that parents feel often influences the pressures that they put on caregivers to do "educational" lessons when they do not fully understand how children learn so I want to relieve this anxiety.  The other is that everything that I have written also applies to the classroom.  Too often I have seen teachers of young children who just sit and watch them without engaging them in conversation.  How sad  that they are missing a true educational opportunity.  If you talk to your children, they will become vocal, literate children who will express themselves well and communicate with others easily.  The only downside of this is that they may never stop talking!