You have described the past year, at least, with my 8 year old who desperately wants a dog and “feels she can’t be truly happy until we have one.” Right now it just feels like so much on top of everything and it’s hard to have a good answer for her (or her 4 year old sister who is all to happy to help pile on.)
I have never had a pet (and honestly never really wished for one, I’m uncomfortable around all animals) my husband did have dogs growing up but is on my side right now in the feels like a lot camp! Tl;dr solidarity in this sort fight!
oh my gosh, I definitely read it as: the british nurse who murdered 7 babies while she had insomnia at 4am --- I see now after reading that I read incorrectly haha. What a flawed justice system we have.
Your descriptions of your kids and their dynamic always remind me of my own kids more than anything else I read…and I pretty much exclusively read about kids/parenting (in an effort to improve my kids’ behavior/my parenting…it’s going great 🫠). We’ve had the same discussion about getting a dog many times, and we finally cracked and agreed to get one at the end of the summer. I’m not a dog person, or even an animal person, and I am mostly dreading this but also getting a teeny bit excited. My oldest is 11 so it felt like we were nearing the end of the era where she would “grow up” with a pet and so we gave in. Here’s hoping it’s not a full-on disaster!
You’ll have to let me know how it goes. I did not grow up with pets so it all feels intimidating. When I met my husband he had a cat so that was a gateway but a dog feels like a whole other step up!
I’m sitting here with the puppy we got 3 weeks ago. I would say my 7year old daughter asked daily for 4years??? So far so good. She’s super sweet. Golden retriever. Gretchen Rubin has great advice about when you’re deciding between 2 options like get a dog / don’t. (She was deciding on a dog also) Choose the bigger life. Always stuck with me! ☺️
I just signed my kids up for the summer reading program, and it has worked like magic. The badges and prizes (beach ball, craft kits, etc.) are enticing enough and do the trick.
Public libraries now run summer reading programs via the Beanstack app. I signed-up for the adult program and have to read 30+ hours and collect prizes and badges too. My 8-year old daughter particularly likes the app because she can write reviews of the books she reads and read reviews from other kids as well.
Yes, I got tired of “we’ll see” and / or must have subconsciously wanted a cat because one day on our after-dinner walk I answered “Let’s get a cat!” and now we have two cats that live in the rooms of the house I don’t sleep in because I’m allergic.
As for reading, I put the Raz Kids app on my phone for my 6yo this summer. While I think “levels” are crap, in her case and given her abilities (a bad case of perfectionism made the struggle to learn to read very big for her this year), she really, really needs continued practice. I’m a teacher and I’ve never cared about “the summer slide” until this summer. I won’t do a chart or anything because that is not her jam but I do think I have to start in with some gentle nudges at least… We’re on holiday in Italy and haven’t even opened the app yet.
Our 10yo is never not reading and uses the Amazon Kids subscription on her kindle.
I have one kid very motivated by the prizes and charts and one who could not care less! I mostly just want to keep them reading. As a teacher who you have any thoughts on getting a kid to read not *just* graphic novels/build more chapter book reading stamina? Struggling with this but maybe I shouldn’t care?
That’s so common among many parents :) When it’s what they love and they’ll keep reading, let graphic novels reign! There are so many good ones with complex plots, characters, and themes. And even when they’re not complex (looking at you Dog Man), love for reading trumps all other concerns we might have.
That said I also believe it’s valuable for kids to read widely. To support that we can nudge toward illustrated chapter books, audiobooks, or things like the I Survived or Science Comics graphic novels, which make it an easier jump to other genres. At the end of the day, I’ve found I don’t have much power in persuading kids BUT their friends do! (I teach G5.) So I always always try to include a peer in the “hmmm what could Kiran read next?” or “what might Myra enjoy?” conversations.
I know that’s not super helpful in summer. There’s so much research about continuous partial attention and the negative impact that’s having on all of our focus and perseverance so just keeping our kids reading means so much. It sounds like your kids have the right support from you and access to lots of books and that’s awesome!
I loved this - especially the description about kids silly made up arguments. We’re on a vacation in Santa Fe which involved a two day road trip to get here with our 7 and 9 year old girls. Miraculously they’ve gotten along really well, but there’s plenty of pointless arguments sprinkled in. Like who gets to split their mango lassi with me instead of their dad - who gets into the car first - that one of them is ‘glaring’ at the other. We keep having to explain that winning an argument when it results in family frustrating isn’t really winning at all!
They are both delightfully creative weirdos though and have spent the bulk of the trip ( including hikes) in the make believe world of their stuffed animals. Sometimes they shine in the ‘yes and’ world of improvisation- just making up stories and plot lines and it’s really a marvel to listen to.
But sometimes one of them thinks their identical bars got switched and refuses to go on the hike we’ve drive a ways to. That’s super fun for me!!
As we always do, we’ve visited four bookstores - my 7 year old bought Land of Stories ( her sister read them at school) and is loving it while we’re finishing up Eva Evergreen too.
The oldest got Magnolia Wu and Wolfish and plenty of other graphic novels for both - books are always our number one souvenir!
It’s hot here so we’re going to Inside Out 2 tomorrow afternoon - it’s their second time in a movie theatre ever!
I am so sad I didn’t see this tahini coffee situation at 6am but will rectify tomorrow. Our 10yo is just making the big switch to chapter books and it sort of happened on its own, I think a lot of the graphic novels started to feel babyish and sort of fell away. And he doesn’t seem to have any interest in comics. He does love the WARRIORS series which is about….feral cats? I’m not sure but it might be the perfect in for a kid who likes pets.
You have described the past year, at least, with my 8 year old who desperately wants a dog and “feels she can’t be truly happy until we have one.” Right now it just feels like so much on top of everything and it’s hard to have a good answer for her (or her 4 year old sister who is all to happy to help pile on.)
I have never had a pet (and honestly never really wished for one, I’m uncomfortable around all animals) my husband did have dogs growing up but is on my side right now in the feels like a lot camp! Tl;dr solidarity in this sort fight!
Omg the drama of that statement is incredible (and so relatable to what gets uttered in my house)
oh my gosh, I definitely read it as: the british nurse who murdered 7 babies while she had insomnia at 4am --- I see now after reading that I read incorrectly haha. What a flawed justice system we have.
Haha I do see how it is confusingly written that way.
Your descriptions of your kids and their dynamic always remind me of my own kids more than anything else I read…and I pretty much exclusively read about kids/parenting (in an effort to improve my kids’ behavior/my parenting…it’s going great 🫠). We’ve had the same discussion about getting a dog many times, and we finally cracked and agreed to get one at the end of the summer. I’m not a dog person, or even an animal person, and I am mostly dreading this but also getting a teeny bit excited. My oldest is 11 so it felt like we were nearing the end of the era where she would “grow up” with a pet and so we gave in. Here’s hoping it’s not a full-on disaster!
You’ll have to let me know how it goes. I did not grow up with pets so it all feels intimidating. When I met my husband he had a cat so that was a gateway but a dog feels like a whole other step up!
I’m sitting here with the puppy we got 3 weeks ago. I would say my 7year old daughter asked daily for 4years??? So far so good. She’s super sweet. Golden retriever. Gretchen Rubin has great advice about when you’re deciding between 2 options like get a dog / don’t. (She was deciding on a dog also) Choose the bigger life. Always stuck with me! ☺️
I just signed my kids up for the summer reading program, and it has worked like magic. The badges and prizes (beach ball, craft kits, etc.) are enticing enough and do the trick.
Did you do a local one or a program online?
Public libraries now run summer reading programs via the Beanstack app. I signed-up for the adult program and have to read 30+ hours and collect prizes and badges too. My 8-year old daughter particularly likes the app because she can write reviews of the books she reads and read reviews from other kids as well.
Yes, I got tired of “we’ll see” and / or must have subconsciously wanted a cat because one day on our after-dinner walk I answered “Let’s get a cat!” and now we have two cats that live in the rooms of the house I don’t sleep in because I’m allergic.
As for reading, I put the Raz Kids app on my phone for my 6yo this summer. While I think “levels” are crap, in her case and given her abilities (a bad case of perfectionism made the struggle to learn to read very big for her this year), she really, really needs continued practice. I’m a teacher and I’ve never cared about “the summer slide” until this summer. I won’t do a chart or anything because that is not her jam but I do think I have to start in with some gentle nudges at least… We’re on holiday in Italy and haven’t even opened the app yet.
Our 10yo is never not reading and uses the Amazon Kids subscription on her kindle.
I have one kid very motivated by the prizes and charts and one who could not care less! I mostly just want to keep them reading. As a teacher who you have any thoughts on getting a kid to read not *just* graphic novels/build more chapter book reading stamina? Struggling with this but maybe I shouldn’t care?
That’s so common among many parents :) When it’s what they love and they’ll keep reading, let graphic novels reign! There are so many good ones with complex plots, characters, and themes. And even when they’re not complex (looking at you Dog Man), love for reading trumps all other concerns we might have.
That said I also believe it’s valuable for kids to read widely. To support that we can nudge toward illustrated chapter books, audiobooks, or things like the I Survived or Science Comics graphic novels, which make it an easier jump to other genres. At the end of the day, I’ve found I don’t have much power in persuading kids BUT their friends do! (I teach G5.) So I always always try to include a peer in the “hmmm what could Kiran read next?” or “what might Myra enjoy?” conversations.
I know that’s not super helpful in summer. There’s so much research about continuous partial attention and the negative impact that’s having on all of our focus and perseverance so just keeping our kids reading means so much. It sounds like your kids have the right support from you and access to lots of books and that’s awesome!
I loved this - especially the description about kids silly made up arguments. We’re on a vacation in Santa Fe which involved a two day road trip to get here with our 7 and 9 year old girls. Miraculously they’ve gotten along really well, but there’s plenty of pointless arguments sprinkled in. Like who gets to split their mango lassi with me instead of their dad - who gets into the car first - that one of them is ‘glaring’ at the other. We keep having to explain that winning an argument when it results in family frustrating isn’t really winning at all!
They are both delightfully creative weirdos though and have spent the bulk of the trip ( including hikes) in the make believe world of their stuffed animals. Sometimes they shine in the ‘yes and’ world of improvisation- just making up stories and plot lines and it’s really a marvel to listen to.
But sometimes one of them thinks their identical bars got switched and refuses to go on the hike we’ve drive a ways to. That’s super fun for me!!
As we always do, we’ve visited four bookstores - my 7 year old bought Land of Stories ( her sister read them at school) and is loving it while we’re finishing up Eva Evergreen too.
The oldest got Magnolia Wu and Wolfish and plenty of other graphic novels for both - books are always our number one souvenir!
It’s hot here so we’re going to Inside Out 2 tomorrow afternoon - it’s their second time in a movie theatre ever!
The entire category of fights where the kids fight about whose is whose when something is exactly the same is perhaps the most mind-exploding 🙃
Identical hats* ak
"tahini influencer" >()<
I am so sad I didn’t see this tahini coffee situation at 6am but will rectify tomorrow. Our 10yo is just making the big switch to chapter books and it sort of happened on its own, I think a lot of the graphic novels started to feel babyish and sort of fell away. And he doesn’t seem to have any interest in comics. He does love the WARRIORS series which is about….feral cats? I’m not sure but it might be the perfect in for a kid who likes pets.