Suction cup ladybug toothbrush holder

I recently purchased three of these toothbrush holders for my family's toothbrushes.  My youngest son was at home when they arrived by mail as well as the two girls I babysit regularly...one 4.5 years , her sister 2 years.  The three of them were in awe after I assembled the holders and suctioned them to the tile wall.   The older girl said,"It's good that you bought these."  She really likes things neat and organized.  My boy loved the mechanical nature of the product.  How..when you put your brush in as shown in the photo...the ladybug closes up.  just tug lightly outward and the ladybug opens to release your toothbrush.   No more tossing toothbrushes in sink when finished...now my boy rinses his brush with care and places it back into his ladybug.   


I love them because I buy the recycline preserve toothbrushes...made from recycled yogurt cups...and they are too large for the permanent toothbrush holder grouted into my tile wall.  (http://www.preserveproducts.com/).  Also the ladybyg keeps dirt off the tooth brush especially cat hair.  Very cool.  I really wanted the Hello Kitty version but I try to stay away from characters...but I do adore Hello Kitty.  I even made a knitted Hello Kitty bag for a child's birthday...then I made one for my little boy because he is fond of her as well.

"It is an erroneous belief of our materialistic times that very young children should learn to decide for themselves." -RS

This quote is from page 45 of The Education of the Child.    I find alot of truth in this statement with my own children and with the children in the Nursery class I work with.   It is really hard when I am hanging out with another parent who constantly gives her child choices.   After awhile it starts to drive me a little crazy.   Then the choices spill over to my child who is there playing with her child..and then it is ," Curtis , do you want to do this or that....ok...you chose that now the other child will do this when you are finished that and never the two shall meet.  This was done in an effort to resolve conflict.   I just am clueless as to how to handle this situation tactfully without upsetting the other mom who is clearly a great, loving mother...and a cool person to boot.   Even in the woods this mom asks the child which direction at the fork in the word he wants to go....Negotiation, asking...I am no whip cracker but I was starting to really lose it.  How does one tactfully go about saying,"  You are really giving that child way too many choices" ?  In training this past summer...it was noted that a teacher..."can never have too much tact."   And that this is a sacred bond between this mother and this child...I guess what really gets me is that in that space it was effecting my child.....and I felt helpless to change that.  Perhaps I could have said ....I don't offer choices like that....?

Steiner goes on to say after this quote..."During this period of childhood, [first seven years]  children should learn through authority....By freeing the child from the limitations imposed by authority, you rob the etheric body of the possibility of a well-founded development."

My Stroke of Insight by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor

This book was recommended reading in one of the movement lectures with Jane Swain.   The full title of the book is : My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey.  Of all people in this world to have a stroke...this woman, a neuro-anatomist,...takes a stroke.  and is actually able to heal her mind and come back from it..not the same person...but  dare I say a new and improved person with higher cognitive functioning.  And then writes a book detailing her experience.  The book was mentioned  with respect to the work of Emmi Pikler, the late Pediatrician from Budapest.  Pikler's work focused on deep respect of the child...most especially the very young infant...or rather how not to treat the infant as an object or a piece of laundry that needs to be maintained but as a true individual...a soul with flesh.   Dr. Taylor after her stroke, reverts in many ways to an infantile state.  As her left brain was injured...she lost the ability to speak, her vocabulary, her ability to sense herself as a solid object with boundaries, her ability to decipher symbols representing words or numbers, her ability to perform mathematics.  Most interestingly she lost what she terms, "her story-teller"  or rather the chattering voice inside our brains which constantly reminds us of who we are, what our likes and dislike are, what time it is, what needs to be done next etc.  I was immediately reminded of the "monkey mind"  that one is asked to observe without interaction during meditation practice.  So Dr. Taylor lost alot of the information or access to the information she had accumulated all her life.   She was left in what she describes as a really beautiful place where she felt total oneness with everything she encountered.  She was not hurried, she was enraptured by various objects in her environment.  She was acutely aware of the vibe present from various individuals.  She could intensely feel if someone were impatient with her or if they were ignoring her and just going through the motions of her bodily maintenance.  She also acutely felt the warmth and radiance of those that projected true love and caring for her.  To save herself from the trauma of the bad vibe experiences, she would just shut down so as not to interact with those individuals.  She couldn't get up and leave their presence as she was unable; she could not voice what their presence was doing to her; so she would just shut down from the inside.  
We as caregivers to the young child would do well to take these insights into our being.   These  young children who are mostly sense organs, still experiencing the oneness with all, are so effected by our inner intention.   The idea that I need to check in with myself constantly to see where I am is a bit daunting.   However, am I changing these three children's diapers in a hurry because we are late for outside time and they still need their fifteen layers of winter gear?...And how dare they have just decided to poop when we were at the bathroom not 15 minutes ago......
This reminds me of some of the writings of Kim John Payne (Simplicity Parenting) where  he mentions the hurried harried parents of today.   We have our checklists for the day and must drag the children along to our activities and their activities...without having enough time to allow the children to find a pleasant stopping point...a harmonious place where the transition might be easier.  I know I have taken his words to heart a bunch this summer.  I have really simplified my schedule.  When I am alone with my youngest son...or I have him and a few others to care for.....there are no huge outings...just easy transitions from inside to the outside (be it the woods, or the pool, or the garden) with food breaks and rest breaks peppered in.
In Dr. Pikler's philosophy, the time spent on the care of the young child is the most meaningful of our daily interactions with them...That time is when the most eye contact is made, the most loving, soft physical touch is used, the most softly spoken words are voiced...we are filling up the child then with care and love.   How did Dr. Pikler gain such insight into these moments with children?  And here we have validation of her insights from  the insights of a  21st century  stroke-recovered neuro-anatomist.  Indeed, in the infantile state...those times of physical care can be blissful or traumatic depending on the state of the caregiver.  

Dr. Taylor goes on in her book to describe how she so wanted to stay in the state of her right-mind or rather the state of bliss and oneness with the cosmos...but she had to make a great intention to heal her left mind and take back access to those lost information files.  While lots of knowledge came back to her over time, lots of baggage came back too.   She was in a unique place, a third-person sort of perspective, to recognize that which was not her true being...her being of fluid and oneness...and that which was impatience, or judgement, or anxiety.  She made a conscious choice to minimize her neurological stimulus in those areas of her brain and to stimulate the areas that she found acceptable to the new her.  She gives information on how we , without a stroke, can access our bliss space...and be aware of our "story-teller's lies"  and acknowledge them but give them no energy.  

All in all, I found this book to provide a wealth of advice for my work with very young children...And am most glad it was mentioned during lecture.

Rethinking Nursery Children Care

The training brought so many things up for me about how I have been with the little ones for that past two years in my work.  I have been reading a bit of Steiner...talking to my lead teacher and just trying to watch and imitate her and the Kindergarten teachers.  I feel like I just couldn't find myself.  I wanted to remain authentic but "fix" myself so as to work on things...like the volume of my voice, the quality of my speech, the speed of my movements.   I just didn't know which way to go...should I be like this one or that one..who is the model that I should look too?   One teacher always whispers....another teacher sings alot...What is right?  

Now that I have completed Phase I of my training...which to me seems like Finishing School...I learned so much about walking and talking...and the various schools of thought on how best to BE around children (See the first post " Be Like A Madonna").  Now I feel I have solid directions for self-improvement.    Because the bottom line that I got over those two weeks was this...Where I am on the inside is what affects the children...and to be the person I want to be and need to be for the children on the inside...I have to authentically be this person all the time...and physically and spiritually support myself on this path.

Then there is the Nursery Setting itself at the school I at which I work.  Seeing the Sophia's Hearth Childcare Space was absolutely amazing.  Everything was designed to follow the Emmi Pikler Ideals with a melding of the Steiner Indications.   The childcare center there, I believe, can accommodate children that are crawling to 3 or 4 years old.

The area for the crawling children is not extremely large...It is just large enough to accommodate their toy shelf...play mat space and changing table....all so simple.

This space has a half door which leads to the walking children's childcare room.

Here is a close-up of the toys in the crawling children's room:

See here  a view of the crawling children's space as seen from their separate sleeping quarters. There is the split door in the background,

Here is the split (Dutch) door leading into the crawling children's childcare s pace looking from the walking children's room.

Here is the crawling children's changing table

 The walking children's childcare room is a much larger space, with cubbies, toy shelves, a toy kitchen, a sectioned off kitchen and a bathroom.   The changing table in the bathroom is a Pikler type where the children are diapered standing.  According to the Pikler method, once a child is walking they should be diapered standing up. Here is a view of the bathroom with a changing table that can accommodate a taller, walking child. The tub is there in case any children need therapeutic baths.

Here is the toy kitchen with some dolls and baskets.  I also have those colanders..they come from the montessori website.

Oooh.  What a grand idea.   The low hanging hammock.  It is very securely installed into the wall studs.  They prefer the non-nylon mesh kind as the full cloth variety gives a good amount of uniform constant pressure on the child's body...allowing an awareness of the body.

            
AAAh.  The cozy chair.  This is in the opposite corner to the hammock.  If you are sitting in this chair...to your left would be the play kitchen shown earlier.

 Those awesome wooden cubes are made by a local company in New Hampshire ( Whtiney Brothers) .  And the floors are cork.  The rugs are wool or cotton.  I really like the cozy chair idea...I personally find it hard to get comfy on a rocking chair.  Additionally, kids and cat's tails seem to get in trouble with rocking chairs.

A toy shelf for the walking children....wooden bridges and blocks. That's pretty much it for toys.

The walking children's room has two size tables and variable sized stools.  It is important that the children have their feet well-grounded while eating.

Here are the sleeping futons for the walking children.  These futons are about three inches thick and made of organic cotton.  I was told they are about $70 each and made by a company out west.   There is an additional duvet and sheepskin rolled up into each as well as a sleep toy which is made by the staff and is uniform for all the children.

 
I think it was a knitted kitty. About 9 children at present stay for rest in the walking children room. Tents are not made over the futons. They are simply rolled out and ready before lunch and the children just finish lunch and go to their futons.

Weighted blankets are used if a child has trouble settling down. These are relatively easy to make...with sand or beans filled into sewed up pockets in a blanket.

Here is a view into the kitchen from the play area. The kitchen is segregated from the play area according to New Hampshire child care facility guidelines.

What struck me...after I was struck by the wonder of what I was seeing...was what I was not seeing.    I did not see a rocking chair, dress up clothes, play stands, wooden houses with animals or people, push or pull toys, wooden clips, small rocks or shells.

They also do not require that the children bring lunch boxes...They cook lunch for the children as well as provide their snacks.

The simplicity of this perspective on Nursery age childcare was refreshing.   I am always a fan of decluttering or purging as I like to call it.    Maybe this is something to think about for the younger set.  At the Nursery age...i.e., 3 or less years...They really aren't small five year olds...we can't superimpose the trappings of a Waldorf Kindergarten onto a Waldorf Nursery...or can we?    I suppose that is the question I am holding.

Don't know where to begin... Forget everything?

Well it's been over a week since I left New Hampshire and my training compatriots.  We were advised to, "Forget Everything...And see what comes up...That's the real stuff."   Easier said than done.   I have been so excited about all the knowledge that I was exposed to.  I just don't know where to start.  I have about 6 books for my course work....sometimes I just carry them all around with me in a school bag hoping I will get a chance to at least read a page out of one of them during the day.  How pathetic is that :-)   I was going through the Elersick Finger Games Book....It is so much nicer to have a human teach you those games that to have to sit there and figure them out yourself!   I did practice the ones we learned on my little boy...even though he is almost 5 years old...He absolutely loved them...He even asks for them.  The ones I do for him are

• Ma Ma Mow...
• The Moon is Round
• A little Bird sits in a Tree

He just gets so still and loves them.  I feel the love radiating from my fingertips to him.   In the Introduction in the Elersick book it mentions using some of these Caress Games with older children...It says that they might like the games as a one-on-one...but when they have an audience they might tease about them and think them too childish.    I find truth in this...I tried to do Ma Ma Mow on Curt's toes in front of my mother and he said ," Sshhh. It's a secret."   So sweet...now we can share this special time just between us.

Then I am knitting a sweater for Curt and I still want to learn to play the penny whistle before the Summer is through...oh and make some felted creatures as well.   But I just wonder where does the time go?    At least I did transfer all the material given to us on CD-rom to my Google Documents online...That way they are accessible.....I suppose I could also send them all to my Kindle for easy access.  Just mulling over information options.   Meanwhile I think I will continue to knit and garden (lots and lots and lots of cherry tomatoes and baby squash....)  and read......