My public school drives my absolutely bananas. I wanted to get Madison’s hearing screened just to make sure that there were no problems. We thought maybe some of Madison’s attention issues were due to her not hearing. However, my school being the pain in butt that they are wouldn’t do it unless we scheduled her to be prescreened for preschool through the school (which is a joke but I’ll tell you about that later). Obviously, there is some sort of federal funding they get for this, because I wanted a five minute screening and got stuck with an hour long screening. I sucked it up and took her.
I swear that they expect these kids to have a flash memory drive in their heads. I could hear some of the things they were testing her on, and from what I could tell, she was doing well. When they called me up after the testing was over, I was right. Except for cutting and catching, she scored everything else in the 6 year old range. Madison is only 4. I am seriously wondering if some of the attention issues we are having with her at preschool are due to her being bored. That was the good news.
The bad new was that we failed her hearing screening. I asked what the school would do for that. The answer: nothing. We would have to pay for additional testing elsewhere. The other thing that ticked me off to no end was that she couldn’t even get into the school preschool if I wanted to send her. The only kids who get in are those who are considered “at risk” (which Madison is obviously not) and if we made less than $80,000 a year. Umm, yeah. We make more than that. In Chicago, I am not sure if you can even own a decent house making less than $80,000 a year. Basically, the only kids who get in are those who don’t speak English (because there were several kids like that there) and low income people. I guess my question is what about the middle class? Why do we always get screwed?
Amazon, if I could, I would seriously make out with you right now. Yes, I said it. Whoever came up with frustration free packaging is a genius. They deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. I also have to give a shout out to 37 Signals and Remarkable Parents for letting me know about this.
Now, you can see from this picture how the packaging is different. The one of the right is what it looks like now. The one on the left is the new packaging. I find it weird that a lot of bloggers find this wrong. However, as a mother of a 4 year old and a 1 year old I find this genius. I remember when Madison turned one. It took 6, yes I said 6, adults over an hour to open her toys. Now, that is crazy. I remember my fingers hurting from the twisty tie things and just the waste and the mess. How would you like to get just a brown box, and all you have to do is open it? Sounds much better, doesn’t it? How many of you have had kids whining “do you have it out yet??!!??”? I know I have that here. They don’t have the attention span while you find a screwdriver and everything else you need to get some of these toys out of their packaging. Heck, I remember cutting my arms on the clamshell packaging when you are trying not to saw the entire top of the packaging off. Plus, this new packaging is so much better for the enviroment. I would love to be able to recycle that box (where I live, the more the community recycles the less we pay for our garbage to get picked up). Now, this packaging is done right at the factory too, and only effects Amazon. You will still find normal packaging at your favorite brick and mortar store.
The main argument against this is that the kids can’t see what they are getting. My response to that is what is worse — they have to actually open the box or have the toy stuck in packaging so the kids can see it but can’t play with it because it will take me 20 minutes to get it out?
I am interested — what are your thoughts on this? If you can’t tell, I give Amazon two thumbs up on this move!
Oh the joys of having a four year old (who is almost five and cries almost everyday because she is not five yet). Madison has finally started noticing things – especially things called commercials. Every single commercial she sees she wants whatever product their are selling be it a pancake ball maker to a baby that swims (though she said she wanted that and a towel to dry her off too so she is able to think beyond the commercial). It has gotten to the point that she actually will take the remote and pause the TV to make sure you see what she wants (and no I am not kidding about that). Needless to say, we have started talking about money.
I will be honest — Madison has no concept of money whatsoever. However, we have explained to her that daddy goes to work to make money so we can buy things we want. (Madison asks every morning where daddy is and why does he have to go to work). This conversation is daily so hopefully one day she’ll get it. She is too young to understand that 5 pennies is the same as a nickel. In her head, more coins equals more money. I am hoping that because we are starting to talk about money now already that she won’t fall into the traps so many of us have. I don’t want her to be one of the many Americans who carry loads and loads of credit card debt (which her parents do not. We pay off ours every single month. If she does choose to have credit cards, I want her to be smart about it. For example, the one credit card we have gives us 1% of purchases. That 1% is then directed to the principal on our mortgage). I want her to be able to live within her means and be happy (which her parents also try to do).
Capital One has stepped up to the plate and has developed a Moneywi$e eLearning tool to help us teach our kids about money. It is more for teenagers than my little ones. However, there are definitely some tips on there that I can start teaching my children now. I have to thank Parent Bloggers for bringing this to my attention.
When did you start teaching your children about money?
Don’t you wish the kids nowadays were more responsible? I know that I hear that a lot from older people. When you have younger children like me, now is the time to install that. Liberty Mutual has made that a little bit easier for us parents. They created a series of short little films for you and your kids to watch called The Responsibility Project. Thanks to Mom Central who told us about these awesome films, Madison and I watched several of them. I found that because they were short, she was able to pay attention to the movie. She also found The Hot Seat quite funny (which it was because anyone who has worked in an office has seen this very thing happen). They were able to show how not taking responsibility for something can truly make a bigger mess of things. They also showed how it makes people happy when you do take responsibility. I am going to try and embed the Hot Seat so you can watch the video with you little ones too. Little stories like this can go along way.
