The Day my 5 year old Daughter Cut Her Own Hair

Sooner or later it was bound to happen. I knew this. I  have been a Pre-K Teacher for several years now and I've seen plenty of little ones boys and girls alike come in with chunks of their hair missing or radically new albeit surprisingly short new hair cuts. I usually find out that the new style was self inspired by the child or a parent's attempt to try and cover the fact that their child cut their own hair.

I'm not particularly attached to hair. I don't get upset if the lady at the hair salon cut my hair a little too short, or put highlights a little too bright in my hair because I know it's just hair and it will grow back. My family probably still has evidence of misguided hair cuts I've had even into my teens. As a matter of fact the choices made about my daughters hair have been mostly by her request. I was touched one day when she said that she didn't want her hair short in front any more that she wanted to grow her hair long so she could wear it like mine. So, I explained to her that if she didn't get it cut for a long time she could have hair like mine. So she let it grow and it grew beautifully.

I didn't get upset when her step mom texted me while she was out visiting them and told me that my daughter wanted her bangs cut like her little sister's bangs. I told her, it was her hair she could do whatever she wants with it. I only got a little upset when the next picture I saw of my daughter while she was out visiting for the summer was a picture of her with crudely hacked off bangs much shorter and uneven than I thought anyone would intentionally cut someone's hair (clearly whoever cut her bangs didn't know you have to take into account that curly hair springs up after it's cut), but I got over it's. It's just hair and it will grow. Besides, school pictures were still a few months away. She got her very first professional hair cut the day before her first day of Kindergarten and her bangs have grown out nicely. I loved her little springy curls! She looks so cute and lively.

So here we are. August 31, school pictures are on September 10. I am in the kitchen making brunch for my daughter and I when I walk into her play room where she's watching some cartoons. I set her bowl of noodle soup on her little plastic table and there sitting on the cushion of the couch in front of me is a big clump of brown curly hair. I look at it confused for a second. I pick it up and that's when I notice the pink and purple handled safety scissors laying nearby. The clump of hair so big it takes up the entire palm of my hand.
I hold it out and ask her in a somewhat panicked tone,"What is this?"
She puts her head down and reaches for the place on the side of her neck where here hair used to be and mumbles,"My hair."
"Did you cut your own hair?" I asked still a in disbelief.
"Yes." she replied is a sad tone.
"School pictures are in less than 2 weeks! Is this what you want your hair to look like in your pictures for everyone to see and keep forever!?" I took her by the hand and said, "Come here."
I took her to her bedroom to look in the mirror so she can see what she did to her hair. Every step of the way there I was thinking about how I was going to tell her how silly it looks to have one side of your hair short and missing a giant clump. How it doesn't look good to have random pieces of hair hanging at uneven lengths on one side of her head. This is how I was going to make sure she understood she should never cut her hair by herself again.

Then something happened. She came face to face with the mirror I asked her again,"Now is this really what you want your hair to look like in your school pictures?"
That's when I noticed it. My daughter was standing in front of the mirror tilting her head this way and that. A big smile on her face as she shook her head to  watch her curls shimmy around. Then it hit me. She didn't see her hair that way. She saw something much more important. She saw herself as beautiful. No matter what her hair looked like. My daughter was looking in the mirror and only seeing a beautiful little girl with one side of her hair cut pixie short.
"Yes!" she said.
"You like your hair like that?" I asked
"Yes!" She said still smiling and entranced by her beautiful reflection in the mirror.
That's when I realized, I could either teach my daughter that she is beautiful no matter what. Or I could teach her to look in the mirror and find fault with something about her body. I wasn't going to do that. I don't ever want my daughter to look in the mirror and see herself as anything but beautiful. My daughter is beautiful no matter what style her hair is: Long hair or short, hacked off bangs or not, even or uneven, or no hair at all. She is beautiful.
I felt the panic and disbelief subside.
"Ok." I shrugged. "It does look kind of cute even though one side is shorter than the other. Just promise me you won't ever try to cut you own hair again, ok?"
"Ok, I won't. I'm sorry Mommy"
She gave be a big hug than went back to looking at her cute little curls again.

Beezer Playhouse Giveaway!

Thanks for stopping by Miss J.J.'s Pre-K Blog! Pretend play is one of the most beneficial and educational activities for early learners. Playhouses are the perfect catalyst to a day full of imaginary play! Participate in this giveaway for your chance to win The Cottage Playhouse from Beezer Playhouses for your early learners!

Kids love playhouses. Indoors, outdoors, for an afternoon, or as a permanent fixture in your playroom Beezer Playhouses are the perfect setting for hours of creative pretend play. Our Playhouses are constructed from durable, 100% recyclable plastic and cardboard and disassemble in just minutes so your playhouse can easily be stored away under a bed or in a closet. Beezer decals allow the playhouses to be decorated into a cool boys clubhouse or a cute girls cottage; and the all-white interior is a blank canvas to be customized. Beezer Playhouses are perfect for smaller spaces where there isn’t room for a permanent plastic playhouse and they are great for grandparents, home day cares, and birthday parties. Beezer Playhouses are definitely “Fun Right Out Of The Box!”

 

 

Boys and Girls Playhouse Set

A secret boys only hide out or a cute princess cottage - you get to decide with this awesome boys and girls cottage playhouse set. With almost 200 fun decals to decorate your playhouse any way you choose, this is the ultimate playhouse for creative children; and perfect for parents, grandparents, or home day cares where space is limited and play spaces are shared.

When it's time to clean up, Beezer Playhouses collapse and fold up to store in the convenient storage and carrying case which is designed to fit easily under a single bed. Beezer Playhouses are cute, durable, and interactive with plastic windows and a strong plastic doorframe. The double thickness cardboard door features a fun doorknob that is easy for kids to turn and plastic hinges which make the door far stronger and more durable than any other cardboard playhouse. Beezer Playhouses walls and roof are constructed from amazingly strong, full color cardboard with an all-white interior just waiting to be decorated. The playhouse is 100% recyclable, and just in case your kids are tough on toys, we offer a full set of replacement cardboard walls to allow you to re-use the durable plastic doors, windows, and fasteners.

One lucky winner will receive The Cottage from Beezer Playhouses.

Hosted by Mom to Bed by 8 and Donna's Deals and More

Giveaway ends July 31th at 11:59pm, open to US residents, ages 18+. To enter please use the Rafflecopter form below. Good luck!

Rainy Days Inside and Out!

Rainy days have the tendency to spoil plans if you let them. Most parents are well aware of this fact, but among the many talents we develop as parents is the ability to be flexible and improvise. Sometimes rainy days give us a much needed day to just relax and take it easy. Maybe you like to catch up on your kids favorite TV shows or play a video game. It's good to do that every once in a while, but sooner or later the kids get board and want something new and interesting to do. So, I've come up with a few thing you can do on a rainy day to mix it up a little bit.

First of all, just because it's raining doesn't always mean you can't go outside. A light spring rain that doesn't have any lightening or thunder associated with it, that's not too cold, could be fun to play in. If you have a backyard that you maintain so that you know it is free of sharp rocks, thistle plants, glass, or other dangers,  it might be fun to let the kiddos run around in the wet grass in their bare feet. And of course one of my daughter's favorite things to do in the rain or just after the rain is to splash in mud puddles!

You can also have Rain Water Races! You and each child pick a bucket or container of their choice. Then let them pick where they want to place their bucket outside. The object is to see who's container fills up the fastest! This would be a fun way to introduce a liquid measuring activity too. After you see who won. Break out a liquid measuring cup and see how many cups of water each bucket held. They might be surprised to find out that their containers all held the same amount of water, unless one of them was inventive enough to place their container under a wonder spout!

If you'd rather stay warm and dry and not have to do a whole pile of laundry, there are plenty of fun things to do indoors too!

Sometimes we get so caught up in trying to find something new and exciting to do we forget about the old faithful activities like coloring or drawing pictures, snuggling up and reading our children's favorite books, or having a movie and popcorn night. But if that still seems to hum drum, I have a few more ideas that might help or even inspire you to come up with your own creative ideas!


Making Old Toys New Again!
A rainy day is the perfect day to break out an old board game or any toy for that matter. We all know how old toys suddenly become new favorites when we try to clean out our kids rooms for a yard sale or to donate to charity. Try digging out some old board games or toys now to see what fun you can find at the bottom of that toy box.

Homemade Board Games
If you have a  lot of time and some creativity you might even want to try to make you own game! Your little ones will enjoy making up the rules and playing by them. (If you write the rules down as they come up with them this will reinforce the fact that spoken words can be written down and that writing has meaning.) They can design their own game pieces, and help color the game board too using items you find around the house! You can use, cotton balls, magnets, spare buttons, or other items as game pieces or make them by cutting, coloring, and gluing cardboard or construction paper! You can create all kinds of different games, ones that are similar to their favorite board games like Candy Land or matching games like Memory. You can even make them educational by making number matching games, or games that incorporate letters of the alphabet. The possibilities are endless, just be creative! Just remember since your little one is helping you it doesn't have to look professional. The process of making the game should be just as fun as playing it!

Pasta Jewelry
Today might be the day to do some of those crafts you've been thinking about, like that painted pasta necklace. If you use different shapes of pasta and string them on yarn you could work on patterning with this activity as well. Have them make a necklace by patterning the different colors or different shapes as they put them on the string.

Fun with Safety Scissors and Glue
As a Pre-K Teacher and Mother of a 3 year-old I can tell you, that if you give early learners scissors, glue, and paper they are allowed to cut and glue they will be occupied for a while! Toss in some old magazines that they can cut pictures out of and they'll love it! You can either just allow them to use their creativity and imagination to cut and glue until the cows come home or sit down with them and try creating a meaningful collage with pictures of things they enjoy and letters that spell their names or words that describe them.

Staying Active Indoors
Depending on the size of your house and the number of kids in it, you might still be able to burn off some of that energy you were hoping would be taken care of at the playground today by playing some active games like freeze tag, hide-and-seek, your own made up game. For instance, My daughter likes to play "Dinosaurs." It's not a complicated game. All we do is stomp around the house as I chant/sing "Stomp, Stomp, Stomp like a dinosaur, Stomp, Stomp, Stomp like a Dinosaur Stomp." This game ends up taking many different forms as we crawl like alligators, fly like birdies, hop like bunnies... etc. I'm sure you get the idea.

Music & Movement and Finger Plays
A rainy day might be a good day to pop in their favorite children's CD and get moving. Whether it's a well known finger play, a song they follow along with, or just dancing like crazy to some of their favorite silly songs, they'll burn some energy and have fun doing it!

The "Best" way to Educate and/or Parent Children

What is it with the human desire to find the "Best" way to do something? And why is it that we, meaning the general population of human beings, feel that there can only be one best way to do something and/or that if one way or thing is good then all the rest must be inferior?

 It's especially troubling that this mindset even finds its way into arguments surrounding teaching and parenting because anyone who's every made it into their core education classes while still just in college knows from day one that there is no ONE best approach to teaching. We hear it over and over again, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to teaching, because children are all different, with different interests, different backgrounds, different cultures, different values,  different needs, different strengths, different learning styles, different temperaments, different base knowledge, different experiences, different talents, and the list can go on. So, how can there possibly be ONE best way to teach or parent every single child when they are all so different?

Maybe there's so many different parenting methods available and practiced because there are so many different children in the world. So, how do you know what the best way is to teach or parent your child? The best way to teach a child is based on the individual child's needs and interests. If you have 25 kids in your class, chances are there are 25 best ways to teach any given lesson on any given day. And just because one particular method worked well one year doesn't mean it will work for the 25 kids you'll have next year. This is also true about parenting. There is no one best way to parent a child, to discipline a child, to motivate a child,...etc. Yet, there are constantly articles being published from professionals to mom bloggers and sometimes just random people, that pit one child rearing technique or teaching method against another. Even articles that are meant to simply be informative end up coming across sounding belittling to any one not accepting of or practicing that particular method.

This "Versus" attitude sneaks its way into every conversation from individual aspects of parenting and teaching such as whether or not to use "time out" to "what time you put your child to bed" to conversations about entire methods such as whether you should use Attachment Parenting or Common Sense Parenting. And it really just needs to stop. What we need to say when we hear of a new method of child rearing or teaching is "Hmm... that sounds different. I want to learn more about that because there might be something from that method that I might be able to add to my repertoire as a parent or teacher."

I'm a big fan of being eclectic when it comes to which method to use when raising and/or teaching a child. The more you know the more you have to pull from. I talk about teaching and parenting a child interchangeably, for two reasons, 1) I am both a teacher and a mom and 2) Parents are a child's first teacher. So, it all applies. I have my favorites, but I keep what I learned about other techniques in mind and often pull aspects from different methods and implement them when needed. I strongly believe that every teacher and parent should learn as much about the different theories and methodologies in early childhood education as possible and use what works best for them and their child(ren). All techniques and methodologies have their high points and drawbacks and over emphasizing any aspect of parenting or teaching can lead to disaster.

The only blanket statement I can make is that if what you are currently doing is making both you and your child miserable, you probably need a new method. How will you know if it's the right method? When you've found something that helps both you and your child(ren). One that is affective, teaches your child boundaries, works consistently, has consistent consequences and rewards, develops positive self esteem, and creates a positive relationship between you and your child(ren).

Brave - The Prize Trailer

I Love this movie so much I thought I'd post another video!

Brave - A Different Kind of Princess

When I first heard about this movie I had high hopes for it. It touted a tail of a Princess not like the ones we are used to. One that girls today can actually look up to. One whose only value and merit was not her looks. I heard rave reviews from many about this movie, but I was still a little wary of what the ending would be like. Would they get everything right EXCEPT what it means to live happily ever after, like the rest of the fairy tales? Will our Brave princess be strong, talented, and relatable, but still leave our daughters believing that the only way to live happily ever after is end up married? Believe me, I think marriage is a wonderful blessing when you marry the right person. My mom and dad were the real life version of what it meant to live happily ever after and I hope that if I find someone worthy of spending the rest of my life with, that I'll think the same of my own marriage, but it always frustrated me that no matter what else the girl was, no matter what other wonderful talents she posssessed, in the classic fairy tales a woman always needed a man to rescue her, and happily ever after only came after she was married. So, THANK YOU the creators of BRAVE for giving us a princess that is strong, brave, , compassionate, and real! THANK YOU for giving us a princess that sees the value in her own hopes and dreams. THANK YOU for giving us a princess that knows she's a valuable person all by herself. THANK YOU for giving us a princess that knows that happiness comes from knowing who you are and what you want out of life. THANK YOU for giving us a princess who knows that there are other wasy to live Happyily Ever After! This is exactly the kind of princess I've been looking for. I want to see more fairy tales like this one!

Luv Saving Money: Adjust your kiddos pants in a cute new way with My...

My sister has a great Money Saving blog where she hosts reviews and giveaway for many great products. I saw these My Hikes one her 3 year old boy at his big brother's birthday party and Just thought they were they greatest idea! A cute way to adjust the cuffs of your kiddos pants without have to hem them so they can look good for as long as possible. The most impressive thing about the  My Hikes from my point of view is that they actually held the cuffed pant legs in place the entire day! Check out her blog and giveaway try try to win your own set of My Hikes!

Luv Saving Money: Adjust your kiddos pants in a cute new way with My...: I have 3 boys who grow like weeds (as it seems most kids do.). It's more economical for me to buy clothes just a little bigger to ensure ...