Tuesday, April 12, 2011
It's a challenge teaching my kids a second language.
Little Miss S, Baby J and I have a secret language. It’s not made up, like Klingon or pig Latin. We speak Vietnamese. Or rather, a mixture of Vietnamese and English. Before I had children, I knew I wanted to teach them my native tongue. My husband, who only speaks English and barely passed his college Spanish classes, encourages me to speak Vietnamese to our children. Since we met, the most he has learned are the names to his favorite Vietnamese dishes. As we approach Little Miss S’s entrance to kindergarten, my friends have encouraged me to apply for one of Montgomery County’s language immersion programs. I appreciate living in an area that offers such an amazing array of language immersion programs: French, Spanish and even Mandarin. …
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
A 5-year-old's curiosity is a valuable gift, except when she talks non-stop.
I hear chatter all day long. It’s not the voices in my head I’m hearing, but Little Miss S. From the moment she wakes up to the time I tuck her into bed and shut the door, she’s talking. She’s curious about the world around us. A budding scientist, she asks me questions about how our hearts pump, why isn’t Pluto a planet anymore (yeah, why?), when will her cherry tree grow and much more. Usually, I remember enough from grade school to answer them. She used to grill me on my math, too. What’s 8+8? 16+16? 32+32? 64+64? 128+128? You get the drift. I’m glad she’s fascinated by numbers, but when we get to 3-digit addition, my mommy brain hurts. Thank goodness she hasn’t queried me on multiplication and division yet. Sometimes, I wish she asked …
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
It doesn't have to be scary talking to your children about sex and babies.
Little Miss S wants another sibling. Both my husband and I repeatedly tell her that it’s not in the plan to have a third child. Her optimistic response: “Well you never know, Mommy. There could be a baby growing inside you right now!” After hearing this response numerous times, I figured it was time to explain to her a little bit about the birds and the bees. I’ve never shied away from teaching Little Miss S about her body. I taught her all the correct (non-slang) terms for her body parts. We don’t use the word va-jay-jay in our household. In fact, it makes me cringe when I hear grown women use that term because they’re not comfortable saying the word vagina. When I was pregnant with Baby J, I did explain to Little Miss S how babies grow …
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Parents have many options when it comes to schooling their children, but home schooling isn't one for me.
When Little Miss S starts kindergarten in the fall, she’ll be one of the older kids in her class. Her birthday is a couple of months past Montgomery County Public Schools’ cut off date. She’s precocious and was hyper-verbal at a young age. I worried that she would be bored in school. So last year, I considered home schooling her. In Louisiana, where I grew up, the home-schooled kids were known to be a bit socially inexperienced. During the course of my research for Little Miss S, I learned that it was a myth. In fact, Montgomery County has several home schooling co-operative groups, both secular and non-secular. These groups meet often. They play team sports together and attend field trips as a group. The parents also trade off teaching. …
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Sixteen months after I had my second child, I've decided it's time for mother-daughter dates with my 5-year-old.
Is it silly for a 5-year-old girl to go for a pedicure? A few years ago, my answer would have been a resounding “yes.” But this weekend, I took Little Miss S for her first one. Last month, we instituted a mother-daughter date. Once a month, we would leave my husband and Baby J at home and have a girls-only outing. I’ve wanted to do this since Baby J was five or six months, after I got a handle on parenting two small kids. Now Baby J is easing into 16 months of age. Better late than never, I guess. When Baby J was born, taking care of him was consuming, both in time and energy. Since I was breastfeeding and the only one in the family who had the ability, he was in my arms quite often. It was a tough transition for then-4-year-old Little …
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True Nails Spa
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Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Sometimes you just have to lower your standards.
I love to entertain. I love cooking for dinner parties, having friends over for cocktails or just hanging out to watch a movie. Sadly, I haven’t been able to do that for about four or five months, ever since Baby J started walking. Now he’s a little monkey, climbing on everything and anything. Everything is fair game for him: the coffee table, bookshelves, Little Miss S’s top bunk and any chairs that are not pushed under the table. When he’s not being King Kong, he’s tearing all the DVDs from the tower. After the DVD cases are strewn all over the floor, their carcasses covered with grubby baby finger prints, he moves on to the books. Next comes the bins of toys we keep in the living room for both kids. That’s why his nickname is "Babyzilla…
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Family dinner can be a great way to slow down and reconnect. How do you manage to get everyone together?
As parents in Colesville, White Oak, Burtonsville or any of the other East County neighborhoods, we're presented with special challenges unique to our region. And then there are other parenting questions that are so universal we're convinced mothers and fathers all across the globe face the same issues. Every Wednesday, MomsTalk will tackle just one of modern parenting's conundrums. (Don't let the name fool you: dads, grandparents, step-parents and just about anyone involved in child-rearing are invited to participate.) This week we want to know: How often do you sit down for family dinner? With soccer practices, piano lessons, Girl Scouts and other extracurriculars, families are constantly on the go. Add that to the parents’ work …
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
A schedule keeps the kids on track and allows for some peace and quiet.
Every evening, I look forward to 8 p.m. It’s not because my favorite television show airs at that time, rather it’s when I can shed my mom responsibilities. I do my best to put Little Miss S in bed by 7 p.m. Baby J goes down either before her or right after I tuck her in. If everything works out right, they both are asleep by 8 p.m. Then, it’s my time. My “me time” is precious to me. I can actually take a bath and catch up on my magazines. Or, I can eat my dinner while it’s still hot. I can watch my procedural dramas on television. Since I work at home, the evening is when I do the bulk of my work. Bedtime by 7 p.m. wasn’t always the norm in our household. It took many weeks of crying and tears to get Little Miss trained for a 7 p.m. …
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
This week we're talking treasured childhood books.
As parents in Colesville, White Oak, Burtonsville or any of the other East County neighborhoods, we're presented with special challenges unique to our region. And then there are other parenting questions that are so universal we're convinced mothers and fathers all across the globe face the same issues. Every Wednesday, MomsTalk will tackle just one of modern parenting's conundrums. (Don't let the name fool you: dads, grandparents, step-parents and just about anyone involved in child-rearing are invited to participate.) This week we want to know: What were your favorite childhood books? Our kids might love series like Harry Potter, Magic Treehouse or Twilight, but the classics will always have a place in our hearts. Margaret Brown Wise’…
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Open up a new world to your children by encouraging them to read.
I’m a nerd. I love books: reading them, collecting them, writing about them, even swapping them. I’ve spent countless hours browsing books at Borders. I have distinct memories of hiding under my covers after bedtime, reading by light from my flickering flashlight. That probably explains why my eyesight is bad. Wearing glasses is totally worth the exciting places and worlds I’ve traveled through books. I exposed Little Miss S to books early. As soon as I could, I read to her. We read classics like Good Night Moon. We read the little board books that came in Chick-Fil-A’s kids meals. At first I felt silly, reading all of these books to her. “The lion goes roar!” or “Look a yellow sun!” I pointed out to her. Mostly, she tried to eat the books…
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White Oak Library
11701 New Hampshire Ave, Colesville, MD
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1299037
/locations/3486505
39.101523
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Marilyn J. Praisner (Fairland) Library
14910 Old Columbia Pike, Burtonsville, MD
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39.05719
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Chick-fil-A
12289 Tech Rd, Colesville, MD
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1300490
/locations/3486507
Thien-Kim Lam
10:26 pm on Wednesday, April 13, 2011
My daughter doesn't understand everything that my mother says to her but I think we are off to a great start. When she is old enough, I will enroll her into a Vietnamese class as well. That's great that your husband is so supportive! Mine is definitely supportive as well. In fact, he just realized that he knows more Vietnamese than he thought he did. more ›