Sprout has always loved music. His first favorite toy was a Baby Einstein music player that played the Baby Einstein versions of Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi, etc. with the touch of one big button, which Sprout made extensive use of. That toy is now tucked lovingly away in the keepsakes box. After that, he moved on to the radio that accompanied a Wiggles book. That set us on our path into all things Wiggles. But now Sprout’s tastes have become more sophisticated. He’s no longer content with all Wiggles all the time. Hallelujah! So at Christmas, Michael, Santa, and I looked high and low for a new radio type thing for Sprout. Our search led us to the SweetPea3, and we could not be happier.
The SweetPea3 is an MP3 player that is both small enough and large enough for little hands, made of durable food grade rubber (I didn’t even know there was such a thing), and has only three buttons for ease of use by both children and parents. It is listed for ages 0-6 and is one of those rare toys that I believe can live up to the wide age designation. Sprout at 2.5 years has picked up its usage quickly. It has volume and shut-off time settings that are accessible by adults but not the kids. I’m a fan of any toy with a parents-only volume setting: There are so few of them. It plays MP3, Windows Media Player, and iTunes formats, and even plays audible.com files, which is the part we love best. It comes with the USB cord to transfer files from the computer to the SweetPea3.
The product complies with the latest safety standards of the Consumer Products Safety Commission. Though manufactured in a Chinese factory (what isn’t these days?), that factory has been certified to employ only workers over the age of eighteen. Would that all toy manufacturers would be so responsable.
The SweetPea3 comes loaded with a variety of music, both upbeat, which Sprout calls happy music, and lullabies, in addition to complete voice narrated stories like The “Tortoise and the Hare” and “The Little Red Hen,” as well as a sampling of offerings from the Audible.com website.
Sprout’s new bedtime routine involves bedtime stories, not my strong suit unless I make them up, which my pregnant self does not always feel up to. Now, we just cue up a story on the SweetPea3 and everybody is happy. Each night, Sprout drifts off to dreamland with his radio beside him, lullabies playing softly. Now, if they could only make a toy that could get him to eat.
My only quibble with the product is that to cycle through the menus, one must hold down the left and right arrow buttons simultaneously for a reported six seconds. This ensures that your child can’t change, say, that ever important volume setting. That’s great, but the six seconds is an optimistic estimation. It’s more like twenty seconds, and a slow twenty seconds at that. It’s a small complaint, but an important one when your sleepy, cranky Sprout wants to hear Bitsy Bitsy (Itsy Bitsy Spider) and wants to hear it right now.
For more information, visit SweetPea3.com and Audible.com
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Trial and Error, and Error, and Error
Discipline is tricky business no matter how old the child is, but discipline for a two year old seems particularly challenging. This is not a discussion about spanking. Everybody has an opinion on that and for the most part, nobody else cares what that opinion is. Every kid, every parent, and every situation is different. Some days are a struggle just to keep one’s head above water. I know that. Who am I, and who is anybody, to judge what keeps somebody afloat in the ever-changing tides of behavior problems? I know that the important thing in disciplining a child is to be consistent. But we’ve recently found ourselves in situations where what we were doing was consistently not working. Uh oh.
Sprout has taken to “sshh-ing” people. This is not cool. Last week, he even went so far as to tell me to shut up. There are few things in the world I hate more than hearing a kid sass a parent like that. So what did I do? I went all Angry Mommy – mad face, deep voice, pointed finger, swooping down like Batman on a bad guy – and sat his little hind end right in time out. There. That’ll show him. As it turns out, time out is the only time and place wherein my child can effectively entertain himself. He counted his fingers, sang songs, and in general had a grand old time. What should I have done in that situation? I should have ignored it. Had I ignored the “shut Up,” he’d not have known that he’d hit on a mommy hot button. Now, when Sprout is feeling bored, Angry Mommy is an entertaining show, and a good sshh-ing is the best way to bring out Angry Mommy. Okay, so that failed miserably.
In general, I find parenting books to be the height of stupidity. But in desperation, I turned to one such book for help. The book said to calmly tell your child that his behavior was bad and let him know how that behavior made you feel. Sure, sounds reasonable. I’ll try it. So the next time Sprout sshh-ed me, I did just that. I sat him down, told him it was wrong to sshh people, and told him that it made me very sad when he did it. Then I told him he was in time out, and of course he started with the singing and partying, all the while adhering to the no-getting-up-while-in-time-out rule. Well, so I had executed the book advice to the letter. Go me. Later that day, Sprout wanted some chocolate milk. I told him he’d have to wait until after dinner. We have this same conversation every day. So Sprout began his usual whining, then said in the most pitiful voice, “Mommy, you make me sad when you don’t give me chocolate milk.” FYI: Parenting books are the height of stupidity.
In that same parenting book, I learned about bargaining with kids to get them to eat. It goes like this: Just eat and then you can go play. Okay, just eat half your food. Okay, you win, just eat three bites. The idea being that your kid feels like he is winning and will eventually eat something, which is really a victory for you. I was dubious about this one, but willing to try anything because my kid does not eat. Of course, the bargaining didn’t work. Let me clarify: It didn’t work for me. Sprout has found the technique useful for getting more gummy bears out of Mommy. I guess I just don’t have his tenacity.
Sprout has taken to “sshh-ing” people. This is not cool. Last week, he even went so far as to tell me to shut up. There are few things in the world I hate more than hearing a kid sass a parent like that. So what did I do? I went all Angry Mommy – mad face, deep voice, pointed finger, swooping down like Batman on a bad guy – and sat his little hind end right in time out. There. That’ll show him. As it turns out, time out is the only time and place wherein my child can effectively entertain himself. He counted his fingers, sang songs, and in general had a grand old time. What should I have done in that situation? I should have ignored it. Had I ignored the “shut Up,” he’d not have known that he’d hit on a mommy hot button. Now, when Sprout is feeling bored, Angry Mommy is an entertaining show, and a good sshh-ing is the best way to bring out Angry Mommy. Okay, so that failed miserably.
In general, I find parenting books to be the height of stupidity. But in desperation, I turned to one such book for help. The book said to calmly tell your child that his behavior was bad and let him know how that behavior made you feel. Sure, sounds reasonable. I’ll try it. So the next time Sprout sshh-ed me, I did just that. I sat him down, told him it was wrong to sshh people, and told him that it made me very sad when he did it. Then I told him he was in time out, and of course he started with the singing and partying, all the while adhering to the no-getting-up-while-in-time-out rule. Well, so I had executed the book advice to the letter. Go me. Later that day, Sprout wanted some chocolate milk. I told him he’d have to wait until after dinner. We have this same conversation every day. So Sprout began his usual whining, then said in the most pitiful voice, “Mommy, you make me sad when you don’t give me chocolate milk.” FYI: Parenting books are the height of stupidity.
In that same parenting book, I learned about bargaining with kids to get them to eat. It goes like this: Just eat and then you can go play. Okay, just eat half your food. Okay, you win, just eat three bites. The idea being that your kid feels like he is winning and will eventually eat something, which is really a victory for you. I was dubious about this one, but willing to try anything because my kid does not eat. Of course, the bargaining didn’t work. Let me clarify: It didn’t work for me. Sprout has found the technique useful for getting more gummy bears out of Mommy. I guess I just don’t have his tenacity.
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