Toddler Daily "Grade Card"

Avigael, my 4 year old has the budding attitude of a pre-teen in full talk-back glory.  I find it extraordinarily frustrating when we go 'round and 'round about the same things over and over.  I ask her to do something, she either flat out refuses or ignores me until I'm ready to bark out orders dill Sergeant style.  She takes time-outs like a pro, and it doesn't seem to interrupt her all that much. If I raise my voice, so does she, so that's not an effective method either.  She may shape up for Daddy, but the "wait til' daddy gets home" doesn't work here.

I've tried the sticker chart thing before, and it always seems to fizzle out.  She looses interest, and the rows of mini smileys seem to captivate her less and less after the initial enthusiasm.  So what's an underslept mom with a business to run to do?  I waste so much time harping, pleading, begging and bribing her to refrain from destroying the house in the first place, and helping pick up what she has messed up.

I'm a creative chick, I can sympathize with her desire to get elbow-deep in the Play Doh.  It doesn't even bother me when she stacks her giant cardboard blocks as high as she can and karate chop them into a block explosion.  But WOW do I wish she'd help pick up after herself.  I don't mind giving a warning, but not 20. We've got to figure out a way to get stuff done when I ask, after all, she's a big sister now!

I think I'm equally part of the problem.  I'm overly easy going, and typically distracted or exhausted so sometimes I lack the focus or energy to see an instruction through to the end.  I'll give an order, forget about it, and then remind her every time I become aware that it STILL hasn't been done again..and again.  I often forget to follow through with my threats of time outs or loss of toy or TV privileges.  And most of the time, I just clean things up to be done with it.

She likes the visual cues of the sticker charts, especially when they contain pictures so she can "read" what she gets rewarded for.  But after so many stickers she doesn't seem to care if she gets anymore or not.  So, to help us BOTH be consistent, I'm going to try a variation of a concept we did with the kids at the preschool program I assisted with, and introduce a "daily grade card."

Each day we'd give the parents a slip of paper highlighting the good things and the not so good things to work on.  So on this new experimental daily sheet, I picked the four things we struggle with the most:  cleaning up her room at the end of the day, picking up toys from activities throughout the day, putting away clothes (from laundry and from her randomly changing her outfits a dozen times a day), and going to bed.  I have smiley faces ranging from Smiling, to Uh Oh, to Sad.  Uh Oh represents the warning.  Sad represents a consequence.  Smiling means a reward, like a sticker, or choosing what's for lunch, or something else she wants.  That means it got done with one or two requests at the most.  If she ignores the warning, she gets the consequence.

We'll try it for a week or two and see if it helps or is a realistic tool for our family.  Maybe the visual cues of seeing when she's about to get a consequence for ignoring me (and my reminder of following through with a consequence after a warning) will help us both get on the same "page."  As an added bonus, I'm hoping she'll take pride in being held accountable for some responsibility, AND she can show daddy just how good she was at the end of the day, and get another verbal 'attagirl' positive reinforcement.

I'll keep you posted!

Vintage styled girls' beret cap

Another crafty sewing project I tackled this week was an adorable vintage-styled beret hat for my daughter.  Ok, it started out for me, but I accidentally cut the elastic for the hat band a pinch too small and it ended up being the perfect size for Avi's head. After seeing how lovely the finished piece turned out, I think I'll do it again in my size.

I used inspiration from this tutorial here, although I changed things up. For one, the finished piece is definitely more beret than Garbo.  It's not a floating lining (a sepia toned floral motif cotton), but rather affixed into place within the layers, and I elasticized the hat band, so it's not a simple fold-over as in the tutorial, but rather a tubular casing through which the elastic was drawn and then hand-sewn into place within the rim. As such it stands up more rather than lays down flat.

I finished off with a fabric rosette and a vintage button, which helps keep the beret up on one side so it maintains that "tilted" shape.  The fabric I used was a luxurious satiny pin tuck in a dark copper. I love the look and feel of it, though it's a bit difficult to handle, which is why I hand-sewed it. I've had this home-decor material for a little while, but I've never thought of an apt project for it until I was inspired to try this vintage styled beret.

I've added this prototype to our Bonanza studio, if you'd like to get one of your own!  Send along the desired size for the hat band for a custom fit!

http://www.bonanza.com/listings/Girls-or-Toddler-Garbo-Beret-Hat-in-Copper-Penny-Vintage-Stylish-Pin-Tuck-/44827318

Dress Up Play goodies

Avi is just getting to the age where putting on dress up outfits is fun.  She really got into Halloween this year, having eschewed the Disney princess collections in order to be Bat Girl (her choice).  But she does watch Angelina Ballerina on PBS and does like to dance, so at the risk of offending her tomboyish tastes, I made a little slip-on tulle tutu for her while she was away for a couple days stay at her grandma's.

I made a wand (glittery chenille stems formed into a heart atop a small wooden dowel, painted gold, with shimmery ribbon trim), a head-dress (braided tulle and ribbon with a billowy back and curled ribbon) to go along with the tutu which had two solid and two glittered colors tulle, affixed to a sewn band of elastic in her size.

There are plenty of tutorials online for tulle tutus, but basically it involves cutting MANY roughly 30-inch X 3-4-inch strips of tulle (her skirt for a size 3-4T involved 55 strips).  Each are folded in half and tied onto the elastic band by hand.  It took a couple hours' worth of work for this piece, and another hour for the wand and headdress, including dry time for the wand.

I used rolls of tulle ribbon since it was already the correct width.  To give you an idea on cost and quantity needs, these are $4-6 per roll at Hobby Lobby here in Columbus, Ohio.  I used a total of about 137-feet (55 30-inch strips), or a little over 45 linear yards.

Avi thought the getup was "awesome!  Thank you mommy!" which is saying quite a lot!  She was happy for the accompanying "photo shoot" too.

If you don't have the time to shop for the supplies and DIY, I've added it to our Bonanza studio!  We can do custom color & size requests too.

http://www.bonanza.com/listings/Girls-or-Toddler-Fairy-Princess-or-Ballerina-Dress-Up-Costume-3-piece-set/44827044