Mamorial Day, 2011

I usually don’t talk about anything other than kids on the blog, but I thought this was funny. So I figured I’d post it. Yesterday, we went over to my mom’s for a small cookout. It was nice to spend most of the day outside and away from the computer. We brought Vic, the yellow lab along. He enjoyed laying in the grass and was at times amused, but for the most part, he was disinterested in my brothers six chicks. My brother brought a couple of them out into the yard to munch on the grass. Here’s how they all interacted. The cat in the picture is my mom’s. Who knew we could get a picture of a dog, cat and a chicken! The poor chick cried while she was in the yard by herself, but felt better after her sister came along. It was an enjoyable day.

Weekly Favorites for May 29, 2011

Here are my favorites for the week. Like many of you, I'm having trouble commenting on others blogs so if I don't leave a comment for you, I'm sorry. I hope everyone is enjoying their Mamorial Day weekend!

1.
Baby Playtime- Water Bottle Water Fountain From Toddler Approved.
A fun bath time toy.

2.
Boys in the Doll House Teaching Tolerance
A great post about tolerance.

3.
Ice Cream Cones for Literacy or Math
An ice cream cone printable that can be used for a variety of activities.

4.
30 Ways to Play with Balloons from hands on : as we grow.
Thirty neat activities to do with balloons.

5.
Learning Activities with Rocks from ABC and 123.
Some great activities using rocks for learning.

6.
Salty Starfish Art Activity for Summer from Little Running Teacher.
This would be great for an ocean theme or for a general summer activity.

7.
Sensory Play Play-dough and Marbles from mama smiles.
Here are some different things you can do with marbles and play-dough.

8.
Ten Ways to Attract Girls to the Block Corner from Let The Children Play.
A number of ways to get girls more involved in the block area.

9.
How to Make a Recycled Bubble Wrap Travel Game from ohdeedoh.
A simple game to keep kids occupied while traveling.

10.
Homemade bubble Bath from Heavenly Homemakers.
This recipe is so simple.


Thank you to those of you who have served our country in the past and the present.

Play is Essential Work for Your Child (Video)

I thought some of you might enjoy this short video on the importance of play.

Outside Play Time for Babies

Today, there were six babies. It was a nice surprise to have Baby C there all day. Usually she’s only there for a couple hours in the afternoon. Baby M was there as well. He’s one of the youngest and is pretty fussy. There were a few times where we couldn’t figure out what he wanted. He was so tired, but wouldn’t fall asleep and when he did, it was only for about 20 minutes. That’s nowhere near enough sleep for him. I spent a lot of the morning playing with Baby C since Crawling Baby and Baby L went for a walk with the toddlers. Baby O was also with the toddlers since she’s transitioning over. By June 1st, she’ll be over there all the time.

Baby C and I played with rubber duckies, plastic fish and a few different rattles. She kept laughing and smiling while playing with the toys. We rolled and bounced on the big ball. She liked when we sat on the ball and I’d role it back and forth. It was like rocking and she almost fell asleep. When Baby L came back from the walk, he and Baby C played together. Baby C kept grabbing the bunnies on Baby L’s feet. He had one of those onesies on that has feet with bunnies on them. They kept grabbing each other’s faces and taking toys from each other. They didn’t seem to mind though. It looked like it was there way of playing together. Crawling Baby came over with a book in his hand and sat in my lap. Baby L wanted the book so he took it away from Crawling Baby. The tables were turned. Usually it’s Crawling Baby that takes things away from Baby L. Crawling Baby started to fuss and tried to take the book back. I got it back for him, but a couple seconds later, Baby L had taken it again. Crawling Baby got fed up and crawled off to do something else.

We played our game with the round squishy thing. I found out it was for the front of the squishy seats. It fits in the seat so that the baby doesn’t fall over. Crawling Baby didn’t chase after it this time, but laughed when it would hit things. He was amused when I’d crawl after it. So when he’d laugh, I had to role the round thing and then crawl after it. After doing this a few times, he started crawling after me. He’d wait until I’d ask if he was going to come with me and then he’d crawl over. He especially liked when it’d hit the gate. Another thing I noticed about Crawling Baby was whenever I’d leave and come back into the room, he’d rush right over. He kept sitting in my lap. It’d only last for a few seconds before he was on the move again.

It was such a nice day and we were finally able to take the babies outside. Crawling Baby played in the sand box. Babies L and M were on the swings. Baby O had come back to the infant room and she played in the sand box too. When Crawling Baby got tired of sitting in the sand box, he tried the rocking horse. After rocking on it a few times, he was done with that and started exploring the grassy area. He stood up holding on to the fence, but then wanted me to hold his hands while walking up the hill. Then he decided he wanted to crawl on the tar path, but there was an open swing so I brought him over to it. He fought me as I buckled him in, but he didn’t cry. After I pushed him and he started swinging, he loved it. I don’t think he realized what it was at first. They had some other things on the infant playground. There were a couple of slides, a small climber and some other things they can rock on. They had a grassy area that they can crawl around in and a few of them can fit in the sand box. Crawling Baby’s socks got dirty from the sand so we had to take them off. It was funny to see his reaction when his bare feet touched the grass. That was when I had to leave, but it was nice to see them having fun outside.

Assignment: Childhood Stressors: Violence and Natural Disaster

A couple of years ago, I worked with a little boy who had already experienced a great deal of stress. He had been severely abused both physically and emotionally. For the purpose of this assignment, I’d classify that stressor under violence. He had a lot of trouble coping with what had happened to him because he wasn’t able to process it yet. Even then, coping with something like that is a struggle. I found that he used play as a way of sorting through the emotions of what happened. He’d set up scenarios that would make him powerful. He’d be the good guys and his purpose was to get rid of the bad guys, but it was always in a violent way. Other times, he’d tell us that he was the monster or a bad guy. Role playing is common at his age, but his was always extreme and revolved around the same thing. This made it harder for him to make friends because they weren’t interested in his play or they got scared of him. One thing he did that seemed almost therapeutic for him was any kind of art activity. He enjoyed making things with play-dough. He loved to draw and gave lots of details about his pictures. He loved tape and would make all sorts of creations with it. He’d make bracelets, houses, different designs etc. He’d usually be all over the place, but when it came to creating something, he would spend at least a half an hour on each project. One day we made mini beach buckets by putting colored sand into these tiny buckets so they could take them home. He sat very quietly focusing on adding each color of sand just right making a color pattern. He paid close attention when transferring the sand from a cup to the little bucket. I think creativity was his main coping mechanism at that point. He also started to become close with his grandparents who were in the process of adopting him. That helped him to have their support. They also used outside resources. He had a play therapist and a person who helped him with issues he was having in the classroom.

The recent natural disaster in has been a major stressor for Japanese children. Some of the short term signs of trauma include fear, not letting his or her parents out of their sight, nightmares, crying, some children not talking at all etc. To minimize the long term effects, psychologists are there to talk to children and families. In one case, I read they set up a coffee shop for people to just come in and talk to them. It’s an unthreatening environment which makes it easier for people to talk. In Japan, people don’t like to admit that they are suffering from any kind of mental issue. In one article, the children were starting school again and they stressed the importance of stability. Even though some of the children might have lost homes, belongings, or family members, they still have a place at school. For the children seeing their friends again was important. Children are using play to cope with disaster. World Vision has set up child friendly spaces where kids can play and older children can help the younger ones. In one example, high school students were using the space to teach younger kids how to play soccer. Play helps keep their minds off the tragedy or helps them work through their emotions. These spaces also allow parents to have a break from childcare so they can tend to other things like getting assistance and try to find jobs and housing. Many grandparents tell the children stories about difficulties from their own childhood during and after World War II and how they overcame them. Children are resilient. If they are able to get the help they need and find a sense of stability, they can get through almost anything.

Japan: After the earthquake and tsunami, back to school
» Japan quake’s youngest victims cope through play
Tsunami trauma stalks Japanese children

Surprise Visit

During my short break yesterday, I went over to the infant room. I wanted to stop in to say hi to the babies. When I walked in, Crawling Baby crawled over to the gate, started to stand up and reach his arms up for me to pick him up. I picked him up over the gate and gave him a hug. I told him he was my buddy and asked how he was doing. Then we went to play. The first thing he did was stand on his own for a few seconds before falling. We walked around the room a couple of times. He stopped to look at a truck. While he was busy with that, I walked around the room to talk to the other babies. Baby J was busy with his bottle. There’s a Baby M who I don’t get to see often because he’s usually not there on Wednesdays, but I stopped to say hi to him. He was babbling to himself while in the jumper. Baby C was sitting in a play pen type thing surrounded by soft toys. We looked into this mirror with soft edges. It was pretty big so Baby C liked looking at that for a few seconds. She was playing with a big plush frog, but she wanted to be picked up so I picked her up and talked to her for a few minutes. I was running out of time so I looked for Baby L, but he had left early. I felt bad because Baby C started to cry and I wanted to see Crawling Baby again before I had to leave. Luckily, they were warming up Baby C’s bottle and I sat with Crawling Baby for another couple of minutes. We looked at the truck and I started to play a game with him where I rocked him back and forth. He’d laugh because sometimes I’d pick him way up in the air. He likes games like that with some form of surprise. They always make him laugh or smile. He’s easily entertained. Then I had to get back to the toddlers, but it was a nice little break.

Activities for Toddlers

Here’s what we did today.
We built towers with square blocks. They were taller than most of the toddlers, but the best part was knocking them over. In one case, one boy ran the bike right through it.
We chased, kicked, threw and bounced balls. The best part was seeing how far they go across the room. One girl asked to play pass with her friend, but unfortunately she wasn’t interested. Maybe next time. Some of the boys carried them around keeping them from everyone else. Eventually, when they found something else to do, other kids got to play with them.
We bounced on and built towers with large squishy blocks. The toddlers had the most fun bouncing on them. It got a little chaotic when everyone wanted a turn at once. A couple of them started working together to bounce by holding on to each other’s hands instead of mine.

I blew bubbles while the toddlers chased after them. One boy kept asking for a bigger and bigger one. I did the best I could with making them bigger, but there’s only so much you can do with a small wand and a different amount of liquid each time. They thought of a new game when they started stomping around and saying, “pop, pop!”

All the toddlers rode bikes at least once. The toddlers love the three bikes and everyone wants a turn at once. I had to distract them several times by building towers, throwing balls, etc. It usually worked, but some were insistent on having the bikes now. One girl sat with me until she could calm down and eventually she got her turn.

They finger-painted while I watched. It was more about the process because there were few colors and the toddlers didn’t stay at the table long. There were some lines and blobs and when some were done, they folded and crumpled their papers. We unfolded them and set them in the hall to dry. We ended up with eight paintings that looked pretty much the same, but that’s okay. It’s for the experience.

We played outside in the rain. I didn’t enjoy this because it was a little cold and wet, but they loved it. They played in puddles, rode bikes on the path, played in the sand box and simply ran around the playground. They didn’t mind the rain at all and needed the fresh air.

We looked at books. Several of us sat together and just looked at the pictures. Some of the books had special features like textures and a bell, but the children were most interested in the ones with simple words and pictures. Many of the books had pictures of different people and animals. They especially liked the book with pictures of babies. It had baby rabbits, human babies etc. One of the babies even looked like one of the toddlers.

When nap was over, we started the routine all over again. The only things that were left out were playing in the rain and finger-painting. We also used the tunnel. It worked well at first when one person went in at a time, but then got crazy when three kids were inside the tunnel at once. It was too crowded and the one in the middle wanted to get out. We had to put it away after a while, but it's a good activity for learning to take turns. My day ended quietly with all the kids leaving before five.

Weekly Favorites for May 22, 2011

Here are my favorites for the week. Enjoy!
1.
Contact Paper Recycled Sculpture from The Imagination Tree.
A simple activity using recycled materials.

2.
Balloon Powered Boat from A Little Learning for Two.
Make your own boat for a fun addition to water play.

3.
Baby Learning What to do with Your Newborn from Pocketful of Posies.
A list of things you can do with your newborn.

4.
Kids Art: Clay and Egg Shell Mosaic from Childhood101.
A neat art project.

5.
Smelly Flowers from Plan your Preschool.
A simple craft for spring.

6.
Flower Art Box from The Artful Parent.
A very cool idea using a cardboard box and flower petals.

7.
Pool Painting from JADA ROO CAN DO.
A fun way to paint outside.

8.
Nature Bingo from Preschool Printables.
Another great outdoor activity.

9.
Rose Petal Fairy Perfume from The Imagination Tree.
A fun project that includes mixing, experimenting and the senses.

10.
Building with blocks for Girls! from Mama Pea Pod.
A great way to get girls more interested in building with blocks.

11.
Top Ten Tips for late Talkers. from Child Talk.
An informational post containing tips for helping children who are slower with language development.

Growing Up

There were only three babies for most of today. Baby J left this morning because his mother didn’t feel well and decided to go home. Then Baby O left at 12 O’clock. That left Baby L and Crawling Baby until Baby C came this afternoon. One of my assignments was to do an observation of infants so I picked Baby L for the first part of my assignment. I wanted to get the first part finished up before Crawling Baby got there because he’s rough with everything and I didn’t want him to get near the laptop, but it didn’t work out that way. I started my observations and things were going well until Baby L needed a diaper change which took a while. Then a few minutes later, they decided he needed a nap. That left me with only about five minutes of real observation so I had to try again later. After he woke up, I started observing again, but this time, Crawling Baby was there. He only grabbed the laptop once, but he was pretty rough. He grabbed the screen and started pushing the keys. I was able to distract him with a ball I found on the shelf. I rolled it fast across the room and Crawling Baby went after it. Baby L was interested in the laptop too, but he wasn’t so rough. He touched the screen and felt the texture on the back. He was interested in my typing for a while. He kept watching me. Luckily, I know him so he wasn’t bothered by me sitting near him just watching. He probably wondered why I wasn’t playing with him instead, but I was able to after the observation was over. One thing I noticed about him today was how vocal he was. Not too long ago, he only babbled once in a while, but he’s learning new sounds and tries to communicate using sounds a lot more.

I sat with him in the rocking chair for a while because he seemed tired again, but he wouldn’t go to sleep. He was fascinated by the picture on the wall and he kept babbling to himself. He kept grabbing my hand and trying to get me to play games with him instead of sleep. Eventually, we gave up and put him in the swing. He actually slept for an hour and a half which was surprising. He also took both of his bottles today which surprised us too. Crawling Baby didn’t want to sleep either. He finished his bottle and wanted to look around and squirm instead of rest. Eventually, I got him to sleep, but he woke up earlier than he should’ve and was cranky for the rest of the day. We couldn’t get him back to sleep even though we tried. When Baby C came in, her mother said she was tired too. We tried putting her down for a nap and she kept babbling to herself and laughing in her crib. Eventually, every one of us had gone in the crib room to try to get her to sleep. For the most part, she’d just cry and want to get out of her crib. We took her out for a while longer and then eventually put her back in the crib, but she still didn’t want to sleep. I don’t know if she fell asleep or not because I had to leave.

This afternoon, I did the second part of my observation with the three of them. That worked a lot better, but it almost didn’t happen because they were trying to get Baby C and Crawling Baby back to sleep and if they had napped at that time, I wouldn’t have gotten it done. Luckily, I got some good observations to use.

I played with Crawling Baby for a while. I made up a game that he thought was fun. They have these tube shaped squishy things that I think are used for them to crawl over. Anyway, I kept rolling one across the room and Crawling Baby would chase it. Then I’d chase him and he’d laugh. When he’d reach the tube, he’d point at me and want me to role it again. When I’d role it and it would hit something, he’d laugh and go over to wait for me to role it. I also used the big ball with the three of them again. They enjoyed bouncing on it. I tried looking at books with Crawling Baby, but he wanted to close the book instead of looking at the pictures.

Baby C was sitting up by herself. Two weeks ago, she needed help. She doesn’t like being on her belly, but today she ended up that way a few times. She’d start fussing, but we’d let her because she needs to find ways to get into another position by herself. We know that she knows how to role over so after some fussing, she actually rolled over and seemed happy again. . She doesn’t mind rolling over when there’s something around her that she’s interested in. Everyone’s favorite toys this afternoon were three rubber duckies. Crawling Baby even brought one with him when it was time for his bottle. He kept hitting the bottle with it. In two weeks, Baby O will be moving up to the toddler room which means that Crawling Baby will be the oldest. It’s strange to think that when I started, these babies were only five and nine months old. Even though only a few months have gone by, they’ve grown so fast.

Weekly Favorites for May 15, 2011

I’m sorry for my absence this past week. I’ve been really sick since last Saturday and have been on the computer to do only my homework for the most part. For most of the week, any time I’d be on the computer, I’d get a headache. I’m sure I got this horrible cold from one of the babies. I didn’t even get to see them on Wednesday. It was disappointing, but I had to stay here and rest. I’ll see them again next Wednesday. Hopefully I’ll feel better by then. I’m still not back to my normal self, but I have to get back to doing stuff around the house and get caught up with everything else. Since I didn’t post my favorites from last week, some of these links are from last week and there are a few from the past few days. Since I was so behind, I just read what I could from this week and picked some from those. Enjoy the links and I should be back to blogging regularly soon.

1.
Acorn Textured Turtle Kids Craft

2.
Soap Experiment and Sensory Tub

3.
DIY Veggie Garden Sensory Box

4.
Frosting Dough

5.
Six Fun Beach Ball Games for Preschoolers

6.
Black Sparkle Play-dough

7.
Play Kitchen Recipes Printables

8.
Yummy Egg Carton Grapes Craft

9.
Multi Sensory Bath Times

10.
Flower Arranging Sensory Bin

Assignment: Public Health Issue Malnutrition in India

I chose the public health topic of nutrition or malnutrition. Nutrition is very important because children need the proper amounts and types of food to grow and develop. There are many negative physical and emotional effects of malnutrition. There are children all over the world who aren’t getting enough to eat. Through some research, I learned that this is a big problem in India. India has 40% of the world’s hungry children. There is a problem with low birth weight babies. Every year, 2.5 million children die in India. Over half of these deaths could be avoided if mothers and children were well nourished. As in other developing countries, this problem of malnutrition is a result of extreme poverty, lack of access to health care, safe water, sanitation services and appropriate child feeding and caring practices. For some this is combined with social discrimination, lack of education and gender inequality. The low status of women is apart of the problem because they often don’t have access to the services they need to properly care for their children or make decisions about their health. Mothers are also malnourished with 83% of women in India having an iron deficiency. Malnourished and underweight mothers without access to proper prenatal care are at an increased risk of delivering malnourished babies. Other countries with the highest numbers of malnourished children are Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Nepal. India has a few public programs to help such as Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and the Public Distribution System (PDS), but they aren’t enough. They need programs that cover more people across the entire country.
I got my information from this article.
sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty

I don’t feel that the information I’ve learned about the malnutrition problem in India will directly affect my work, but it’s always good to know what’s going on in the rest of the world. You never know when there’s a cause or project that you can get involved in and help out in some way even if it’s small. However, I think that learning about what foods are best for children is really important if you are working with them. These are some of the resources I’ve used in the past.
USDA Food Program
Our center uses this and so do many other centers in my area.
Inside the Pyramid.
Breaks down the food pyramid and gives lots of examples of healthy foods to eat.

Baby Buddy Movie

Here's a video of babies who are playing together. they are starting to develop social skills even at this early stage. Here is the link to the original post with the video by Janet Lansbury. She promotes allowing babies to explore and play on their own and respecting the feelings of even the youngest babies.

At the center where I work, we try to let the babies interact as much as possible. I notice that with Baby L and Baby C, they learn from each other a lot through immitation and a little friendly competition. they always want to do what the other is doing and they are so interested in each other.

Baby Ball Games

I spent most of the day with Baby L. He still has his ear infections and I think his teeth were bothering him. He had a rough day. When I first got there we played for a little bit with some toys and a big blue ball. He likes pushing it even though that’s the only thing he can do because it’s so big. He likes to scratch at it too. He wanted to sit on my lap for a while and eventually fell asleep after trying to sit with him on the couch and in the rocking chair a couple of times. I had to hold him during his nap which was only a half an hour. While he napped, the other teacher got out some shaving cream for Baby O. After only 30 seconds, there was a huge mess and she already wanted to move on. The teacher got out some plastic foods which all the babies enjoyed.

Crawling Baby was there today and ever since I’ve started volunteering I notice that when he’s brought in, the family members just leave him in his car seat and leave. Maybe they’re in a hurry, but I figured they can at least take him out and get him settled. I think one time; his mom took him out of the seat. Usually, it’s a guy that drops him off. It’s either his dad or uncle because I’ve heard that sometimes his uncle will bring him or pick him up so I’m not sure. It’s not a big deal. Everyone has their own way of doing things. Anyway, I took him out of his seat right away and brought him over to the shelves which he quickly cleaned off. He also was interested in the plastic foods. His favorite is usually the corn on the cob which we often leave out for him, but today his favorite was a slice of cheese. He kept chewing on it all day. Of course, Baby L was playing with the foods too and Crawling Baby kept taking them from him. There were lemons, bananas, hamburgers, peaches, ice cream, a slice of pizza, eggs, hash browns, steak, toast etc. Baby l’s favorite things were the eggs, hash browns, toast and an ice cream Sunday. We joked that he was going to be a breakfast person. The thing is he’s starting to eat solid food, but is not enjoying it at all. He just cries most of the time when we try to feed him. He even won’t accept his bottle most of the time. He’s a picky eater anyway, but since he’s been sick, it’s been worse.

Baby L was fussy today so I tried something new. I sat on the blue ball and bounced which he liked. I also sat him on the ball and bounced him while holding on to him. He thought this was fun. To get him to sleep this afternoon, I started by bouncing on the ball and then when he stopped fussing, I rolled back and forth on the ball which made it like rocking. I’m not sure why the rocking chair didn’t work for him this time. Maybe it was because the chair was noisy, but the ball seemed to work better. I also held him for his afternoon nap.

Crawling Baby and I played games with the ball too. He didn’t like bouncing on the ball so I tried rolling him over it. I held on to him and pulled him across the ball towards me. Sometimes, I’d pick him up in the air and other times, I just let him role across the ball. He laughed at this and I used this to distract him when he’d start to bother the other babies. We also played a version of peak-a-boo with the ball. I’d hide behind the ball and role it to the left or right so he’d see my face. He thought this was funny and if I didn’t move the ball soon enough, he’d start tapping on it. Baby O and I would push the ball back and forth and sometimes I’d push it across the room so she’d have to chase it. Baby C also got her turn on the ball bouncing on it with me holding on to her and bouncing while sitting on my lap.

Baby C and Baby L were both playing with the foods and when one would pick one food, the other would try to get the same food. It started with the bananas. I asked Baby L if he wanted a banana. He took it and I looked over and Baby C had picked up a banana too. Next, Baby L had two pieces of bread and then Baby C wanted the third piece of bread that was left. When Baby C went back to chewing on the banana, Baby L dropped his pieces of bread and grabbed the other banana. Baby C still can’t sit up fully on her own. When she sits in the squishy seat, she often falls back and ends up on her back. Today, she wanted to get closer to the foods because after her snack, another teacher put her in another part of the room. Baby C started rolling over. She moved quite a bit, but would get frustrated because she didn’t have much control about where she could move. I praised her for rolling over. I could tell she wanted to crawl, but when she was on her stomach, she couldn’t use her arms to pull herself forward so she went back to rolling instead. Even though she fussed, I let her keep rolling and eventually she got close to the foods so I helped her sit up and brought her seat over to the area. Baby L was sitting on his own for most of the day without a squishy seat. He fell over a few times and we helped him back up, but he’s pretty good at sitting on his own now. It was a busy day for the babies and me.

Assignment: Birth Experience here and in Japan

My assignment is to discuss a birth that I’ve been apart of. I obviously don’t remember my own birth. The only thing I really know is that I was born in the hospital and that since my birthday was so close to Christmas, I came home in a stocking. My mom mentioned at one point that she knew of other mothers who didn’t have the chance to interact or bond much with their babies at the hospital. Meaning that the nurses fed and changed their babies. That wasn’t the case with me. She said that they handed me over right away when it was feeding or changing time.



The only other birth I’ve been remotely apart of was when my nephew keith was born in 1995. Like most of us, he was born in the hospital. I wasn’t there for the birth, but I got to hold him when he was only a couple of hours old. At one point that day, my mom even fed him. he got a lot of care and attention that day. I had never held a baby that tiny and haven’t since. It’s amazing that he’s a teenager already.


I believe it was taken on his actual birthday. If not, it was the next day.

For the second part of my assignment, I chose to learn about the birthing process in Japan. These days, prenatal care is very similar to what we have here in the US with the mother regularly seeing the doctor to check up on the baby’s progress. In addition, Japanese women can choose to have a home birth with visits from a mid wife once per month until towards the end of pregnancy when visits become more frequent. The mid wife is there during birth and for a few hours after delivery. She visits every day for the following week and then occasionally visits over the following months. Traditionally, fathers aren’t there for delivery, but one person interviewed from the article said her husband was there so that may be changing. The mid wife and female family members will be with the mother for support. It’s also customary for women to not leave the house for two to four weeks after giving birth. This is also changing. Two women in the article that I read stated that they had appointments or had to get back to doing chores and couldn’t stay home for that long.
Japanese women are encouraged to eat a diet of foods such as fish,
tofu, soup, and fresh vegetables during pregnancy. Women here in the US are often encouraged to eat little fish if any. Thought and music are believed to affect the baby so positive thinking, music and imagery are encouraged during pregnancy for a healthy baby.
The babies aren’t named until seven days old in a ceremony called OSHICHIA. I found it interesting that sometimes the babies are named by their grandparents. If I were having a baby, I can’t imagine letting someone else name him or her. Only family and close friends attend this ceremony.

During my research, I’ve found interesting information about other cultures as well. Some of it you can see in the customs around the world link below if you are interested. The process might be a little different, but every culture has their own ways of encouraging the healthy development of a baby.

Created by students at the Hawaii Community College.
Traditional Health & Beliefs Japanese Pregnancy & Child Birth
Birth Customs Around the World Japan

Weekly Favorites for May 1, 2011

Here are my favorites for the week. I've taken a little break from keeping up so much with the blogs this week. I've been busy with other things online and around the house so the list is shorter. I also wanted some down time before my new class starts up tomorrow. I've already seen my assignments and right now, it looks overwhelming. There is a heavier work load in this class than there was in the intro class. There will be a few assignments that I will be posting to my blog as well. It looks like I'll be using the blog throughout the whole program. I'm glad spring is finally here where I live. The weather has been warmer and the fresh air has been nice.

1.
Tasty Flower Treats
A few cute spring flower ideas for snack.

2.
Exploring Different Art Surfaces with Toddlers
An idea to help toddlers explore art and materials.

3.
Bubble Wrap Activities for Kids
Fun activities using bubble wrap.

4.
Turtle Shell Prints for Preschoolers
Turtle shell prints and other turtle activity ideas.

5.
Free Play-dough Recipes E-book
An E-book full of play-dough recipes. Thanks to Jackie from Pocketful of Posies for sharing.

6.
Ten Ideas for Outdoor Rainy Day Play
Some great ideas to get kids playing outside even in rainy weather.