Lesson #7

With four year old children you need to watch what you are saying or doing, or else they end up repeating the same words or phrases. Such as with the cartoons that children watch, often they want to watch the 'big kid channels' where there are phrases that are not appropriate for children.
As often as I can I have my little monster watch the channel that is aimed more toward his age level or have him watch cartoons such as Scooby Doo where there is comedy and the 'bad guys' are apprehended in the end. This way he doesn't have to listen to every word (which I don't believe he does) and he also sees that the bad guy always gets in trouble because he is bad.
So, as a lesson for today, please keep an eye on what your children are watching, if you can, change the channel during a commercial break and inform the child that the show was 'over' and it was time for a better one. If they complain you can always use the trick that the TV is tired and needs to be turned off for a while. Don't be afraid to turn it off, studies show that children should not be glued to the TV. Have them exercise off their endless energy with activities outdoors or activities in doors, such as dancing to music or hide and go seek.

Today to burn off some extra energy, and built on an idea from the previous day, we made our own musical instruments! My little monster has a trampoline that sings when he bounces on it, and he likes to sing his own silly songs. To accompany his silly songs we crafted a guitar out of recycled bits and he was able to sing and dance to as many songs as he wished. To build a recycled guitar use:

• 1 small box (think small like ziti box)
• 3 rubber bands
• 3 paper clips
• 1 paper towel roll (just the cardboard, not the actual paper)
• Crayons
• Tape
• Glue
• scissors

1. Turn the cardboard box inside out so the outside is facing outward. Seal the box closed again with the tape or glue but leave one short end open with a slit big enough to hold the paper towel.
2. Cut six short holes into the box on one of the larger sides, this is where the makeshift strings will be. Please refer to the following pictures for where to place the holes. At this time you may have the child color the guitar with crayons and various other pieces of decoration. Stickers work as well. I had written my little monsters name on the side to make it more personalized.

3. Lace the rubber bands through the holes and secure inside the box using the paperclips. They should hold steady and should not break.
4. Place the paper towel role into the hole made on the top of the guitar, secure with tape or glue.
5. Strum and enjoy!

** Hint: In preparation for his moving up next year, we used this activity to work on shapes. Hence, the box is a 'rectangle,' the paper towel roll is a 'circle' and so on. We also counted the number of strings and drew a number of shapes on the different sides.