Wordless Wednesday ---the little things you might miss if not paying attention!

Becka has a Bachelors in Early Childhood Education and Development, and has 18 years experience in the field. She is a Certified Parent Educator and Licensed Baby, Toddler, and Preschool Sign Language Instructor. You can visit her site, at www.learnandgrowtogether.com

Attention-seeking Toddlers

Does your child often demand your attention? Here’s how to cope with those constant interruptions.

by: Elizabeth Pantley

Attention Seeking

• Teach your children how to tell if something is important enough to warrant an interruption.
• Don’t answer your toddler’s question when she interrupts–this only reinforces the habit.
• Teach your child to gently squeeze your arm if she wants your attention when you’re talking to someone else.
• Put together a box of activities or games specifically for when you’re busy and can’t be interrupted.
• Praise your toddler for using good manners, such as saying “excuse me” when she wants your attention.

Read the full article here





Becka has a Bachelors in Early Childhood Education and Development, and has 18 years experience in the field. She is a Certified Parent Educator and Licensed Baby, Toddler, and Preschool Sign Language Instructor. You can visit her site, at www.learnandgrowtogether.com

September Giveaway!

This month we start a giveaway! We will not be doing this every month, so be on the lookout!!! 

This month we are giving away a cute bib with the ASL sign for I Love You and a First Words ASL book for babies and toddlers!

(The bib will say I Love You, and not grandpa)


All you have to do is tell us a story about your child signing!! I will have one of my kids randomly pic a winner on September 30! You have 30 days to enter and please, only enter once!





Becka has a Bachelors in Early Childhood Education and Development, and has 18 years experience in the field. She is a Certified Parent Educator and Licensed Baby, Toddler, and Preschool Sign Language Instructor. You can visit her site, at www.learnandgrowtogether.com

Practice makes perfect: How you can learn and remember a new sign quickly

As busy parents, many times our brains are overloaded with the tasks and responsibilities of our daily grind. Whether it be work, play, child rearing or all three, learning and executing a sign does take some work, but it doesn't have to be as overwhelming as you think. There are many things we can do to help increase our chances of remembering a sign learned in a book, DVD or class. When learning new sign language vocabulary, consider these important tips to help you remember them:

1. Will a short note or picture help you to remember how to execute the sign? Have pen/paper ready so you can write down memory reinforcers. Sentences don't have to be complete, little notes will do. Better yet, if you don't have a handout of the sign vocabulary, draw little pictures of the sign to help jog your memory.

2. Is the sign iconic? Does it look like what it represents? An example of this would be the sign for "banana". It looks exactly like what it is... peeling a banana.

3. Is there another sign that looks similar to the sign that you know? Sometimes distinguishing one sign from another can help you to recall the signs quicker. When you forget the sign, another word comes to mind to help you remember what you learned. An example of this would be the sign for candy and apple. They are both done at the cheek and with the pointer finger. The only difference is apple uses a bent index finger and candy uses a straight index finger. If you tell yourself that the sign for "apple" is very similar to the sign for "candy" and vice versa, your chances of recalling the sign increases.

4. Is it an initialized sign? Meaning, does the sign begin with the first letter of English word? An example of this would be the sign for "yellow" where the sign is made using a "Y" hand shape. A short mental note of this will help you to recall the sign quicker.

5. Does the sign show a movement that the object makes? For example, the sign for "monkey" is done very similar to how a monkey moves. Again, a short mental note of this will help you to recall the sign quicker.

The best advice I can give you to increase your potential in remembering a sign is something my father taught me long ago, "practice makes perfect"! Sign the vocabulary over and over and over again in as many appropriate contexts as possible. The more you practice using the sign, the easier it will be to recall it.  

Becka has a Bachelors in Early Childhood Education and Development, and has 18 years experience in the field. She is a Certified Parent Educator and Licensed Baby, Toddler, and Preschool Sign Language Instructor. You can visit her site, at www.learnandgrowtogether.com

Sign the Petition: Fix No Child Left Behind!

Dear Congress:
We, the undersigned, urge you to make revamping No Child Left Behind your top priority in education reform this year. It’s two years overdue for reauthorization, and the time to act is now.

The one-size-fits-all approach to the law doesn’t reflect or support the incredibly varied needs and strengths of the schools across our nation.

Instead, in many towns and cities, NCLB has fostered an environment where teachers are forced to drill only basic skills that can be measured by a multiple-choice exam instead of helping children acquire a true depth of knowledge. As a result, 44 percent of districts nationwide have made significant cuts in untested subjects, including history, science, and the arts for the sole purpose of making more time for reading and math. Our children—and the future of our country—deserve better. As you begin your work, we urge you to ensure the new law:

1.	Receives FULL funding. Since 2002, you’ve put $85 billion less into education than the law called for. And while the infusion from the stimulus package was much needed, it’s only a start.
2.	Sets realistic standards. The notion that nearly 100 percent of students—including those with learning disabilities and those new to this country—will achieve a certain level of proficiency by 2014 is ludicrous. Children are not robots. They each learn differently and at different rates.
3.	Provides for well-rounded student assessment. We don’t expect standardized testing to go away, nor should it. But we do expect you to help states design better tests—ones that can demonstrate that children can actually work out a problem, make connections and describe their knowledge.
4.	Measures individual progress. The current system looks no deeper than groups of students. While that’s beneficial to a point—schools are no longer allowed to hide behind broad averages—adopting growth models would allow teachers and schools to know how much each student actually gains from year to year.
5.	Gives schools and teachers the support they need. Of course, there need to be consequences for schools that fail their kids. But those that are struggling need the flexibility to choose programs that actually fit their needs—instead of being forced to use cookie-cutter curriculums. And teachers need more money for training so they can become the best they can be.

Together, we can help every child reach his or her potential, which as parents, is exactly what we’re supposed to do.
Thank you.

Click here to sign the petition!






Becka has a Bachelors in Early Childhood Education and Development, and has 18 years experience in the field. She is a Certified Parent Educator and Licensed Baby, Toddler, and Preschool Sign Language Instructor. You can visit her site, at www.learnandgrowtogether.com

No Child Left Behind: The Good And The Bad

Krista Sokolsky teaches third grade in San Lorenzo, CA, a lower-middle-class area near Oakland. Every morning she greets 24 little faces at Hillside Elementary, and they kick off each day with a grammar game. But lately she's wondered whether her ten years of experience in the classroom even matters. Because her school has failed to meet California's reading targets for the past four years, Sokolsky must follow a state-mandated, cookie-cutter curriculum intended to do one thing and one thing only -- raise test scores.

continue reading.





Becka has a Bachelors in Early Childhood Education and Development, and has 18 years experience in the field. She is a Certified Parent Educator and Licensed Baby, Toddler, and Preschool Sign Language Instructor. You can visit her site, at www.learnandgrowtogether.com

Wordless Wednesday

Becka has a Bachelors in Early Childhood Education and Development, and has 18 years experience in the field. She is a Certified Parent Educator and Licensed Baby, Toddler, and Preschool Sign Language Instructor. You can visit her site, at www.learnandgrowtogether.com

Tueday MEME

Ok so today is about not cracking open a bottle of wine! My daughter woke up with a 104 fever. My husband took her to the ER. It went down, and she came home. They did send her home with a script for antibiotics...but we have NO money to get them until Thursday. So she woke up from a nap crying...her fever went up to 105.6! I have been giving her Motrin (which we ran out of and, of course, can't get more of!) and Tylenol.

My baby (2 months) got shots yesterday and has a 100 fever from it. He is doing ok, but screaming a lot.

My 2 yr old has a temp, but not a high one...99.5.

I am getting over being sick as well, and totally exhausted.

Wonder if my 9 yr old will be next?!

Oh, and did I mention that my 2 yr old got out of the house while everyone was sleeping the other day and got into the (thankfully mpty) pool?!

And I have managed to kep my sanity....so that is my MEME lol. I have not killed anyone or checked into the mental hospital! 

Anyone have a margarita?





Becka has a Bachelors in Early Childhood Education and Development, and has 18 years experience in the field. She is a Certified Parent Educator and Licensed Baby, Toddler, and Preschool Sign Language Instructor. You can visit her site, at www.learnandgrowtogether.com

The benefits of extended nursing

I have 4 children, each with their own  breastfeeding history. My oldest, now 9, nursed sporadically for about 2 months. I was a young mom, in the middle of no where with no family, in a new town. I had a lot of trouble, and he seemed to flat out refuse to nurse. So I promptly gave up. Even though he had an exceptional vocabulary by the age of 15 months and currently tested with an IQ of 140, he suffers from ADHD and other behavior problems.

My daughter, now 6, nursed like a champ for the first 4 months of her life. I contracted a kidney infection, and ended up in the hospital for a weekend, on meds. The nurse told me I had to stop breastfeeding...instead of looking for a lactation consultant to talk to me! I am quite sure she  would have nursed for quite some time. She had bottle mouth so bad by the age of 2, that she had to have mouth surgery. We are still not sure why this happened, as we always brushed her teeth, and took care of her mouth. She also has some behavior problems, uncluding Autism. On the bright side, she is 2 grade levels ahead of her class in reading and math.

I wish I knew about Le Leche League for my older 2 kids. I would have been able to nurse them a lot longer then I did, and they would have been a lot better off for it! To this day, I still feel guilty for quitting on them!

My little man, now 2, nursed for 23 months. I would have gone longer, but he decided to stop, even though mama tried to encourage him to continue! He never had a drop of formula! He is exceptionally bright and, even though he can be a handful, seems to have no other behavior problems I saw in the other two by this age!

The baby seemed to have a hard time adjusting to the outside. He is nursing like a champ, but we did end up giving him a couple bottles of formula a week, maybe 3 a week, for the first 4 weeks of his life. He is now 2 months old and exclusively on breastmilk. I plan to keep it that way for as long as he wants to go! Maybe he will be my kid to go past the 23 month mark. He is also my last baby...so it may take mama a while to wean him!

I see a lot of people wondering when they should wean their baby off the breast. Many think that they have to by a certain age (3 months, 6 months, 1 year, etc...) because they either heard it from a friend or relative, or a doctor. The good news is, there IS no age you HAVE to wean.

First and foremost, doctors have little to no factual knowledge in the area of breastfeeding. They only know what they may have read in a book, or learned in a 5 minute blurb in a class in medical school. If you want the real facts on breastfeeding, contact a lactation consultant, or the local Le Leche League.

Many will tell you that, after a year, there is no nutritional value to breastmilk. That is about as true as saying that after one, there is no nutritional value to food itself. It is just not true. In fact, unlike formula, breastmilk changes and grows WITH your child, to meet their current nutritional needs. The milk that your baby had as a newborn, is not the same as it was/is going to be at 12 months, 24 months, and beyond.

The longer you breastfeed, the better the benefits to both you and your child!

Breastfeeding benefits toddlers and young children...nutritionally, immunilogically and psychologically.
    * Nursing toddlers benefit NUTRITIONALLY

    * Nursing toddlers are SICK LESS OFTEN

    * Nursing toddlers have FEWER ALLERGIES

    * Nursing toddlers are SMART

    * Nursing toddlers are WELL ADJUSTED SOCIALLY

    * Nursing a toddler is NORMAL

    * MOTHERS also benefit from nursing past infancy

    You can read more on the above on the Kellymom site.

There are also some other great resources out there,  including Dr. Sears and LLL.

Some great books I reccommend are:

The Breastfeeding Book 

Mothering Your Nursing Toddler

The Breastfeeding Answer Book 

The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

The Nursing Mother's Companion

These are all great resources to arm yourself with information, the next time you are confronted on your personal choice to breastfeed, and the most important thing you can do for your baby and toddler!

Happy nursing!






Becka has a Bachelors in Early Childhood Education and Development, and has 18 years experience in the field. She is a Certified Parent Educator and Licensed Baby, Toddler, and Preschool Sign Language Instructor. You can visit her site, at www.learnandgrowtogether.com

Fighting for a School System that puts children and families first!

What IF we had a school system that challenges our most gifted, raises up our most vulnerable, engages our families, and supports our communities?

YES - It is POSSIBLE!

As Wake County continues to grow and our financial resources are stretched, we have seen our school system significantly challenged. Around here we do not agree upon much - Tarheels vs. Wolfpack - Republicans vs. Democrats - and of course how we prepare our BBQ. But what we do agree on is our children. We want the best for them, and we want to have a say in the process that shapes them and our community. 

continue reading

Becka has a Bachelors in Early Childhood Education and Development, and has 18 years experience in the field. She is a Certified Parent Educator and Licensed Baby, Toddler, and Preschool Sign Language Instructor. You can visit her site, at www.learnandgrowtogether.com

Eight Principles of Attachment Parenting

Prepare for Pregnancy, Birth, and Parenting Become emotionally and physically prepared for pregnancy and birth. Research available options for healthcare providers and birthing environments, and become informed about routine newborn care. Continuously educate yourself about developmental stages of childhood, setting realistic expectations and remaining flexible.

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Feed with Love and Respect

Breastfeeding is the optimal way to satisfy an infant's nutritional and emotional needs. "Bottle Nursing" adapts breastfeeding behaviors to bottle-feeding to help initiate a secure attachment. Follow the feeding cues for both infants and children, encouraging them to eat when they are hungry and stop when they are full. Offer healthy food choices and model healthy eating behavior.

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Respond with Sensitivity

Build the foundation of trust and empathy beginning in infancy. Tune in to what your child is communicating to you, then respond consistently and appropriately. Babies cannot be expected to self-soothe, they need calm, loving, empathetic parents to help them learn to regulate their emotions. Respond sensitively to a child who is hurting or expressing strong emotion, and share in their joy.

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Use Nurturing Touch

Touch meets a baby's needs for physical contact, affection, security, stimulation, and movement. Skin-to-skin contact is especially effective, such as during breastfeeding, bathing, or massage. Carrying or babywearing also meets this need while on the go. Hugs, snuggling, back rubs, massage, and physical play help meet this need in older children.

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Ensure Safe Sleep, Physically and Emotionally

Babies and children have needs at night just as they do during the day; from hunger, loneliness, and fear, to feeling too hot or too cold. They rely on parents to soothe them and help them regulate their intense emotions. Sleep training techniques can have detrimental physiological and psychological effects. Safe co-sleeping has benefits to both babies and parents.

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Provide Consistent and Loving Care

Babies and young children have an intense need for the physical presence of a consistent, loving, responsive caregiver: ideally a parent. If it becomes necessary, choose an alternate caregiver who has formed a bond with the child and who cares for him in a way that strengthens the attachment relationship. Keep schedules flexible, and minimize stress and fear during short separations.

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Practice Positive Discipline

Positive discipline helps a child develop a conscience guided by his own internal discipline and compassion for others. Discipline that is empathetic, loving, and respectful strengthens the connection between parent and child. Rather than reacting to behavior, discover the needs leading to the behavior. Communicate and craft solutions together while keeping everyone's dignity intact.

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Strive for Balance in Personal and Family Life

It is easier to be emotionally responsive when you feel in balance. Create a support network, set realistic goals, put people before things, and don't be afraid to say "no". Recognize individual needs within the family and meet them to the greatest extent possible without compromising your physical and emotional health. Be creative, have fun with parenting, and take time to care for yourself. Becka has a Bachelors in Early Childhood Education and Development, and has 18 years experience in the field. She is a Certified Parent Educator and Licensed Baby, Toddler, and Preschool Sign Language Instructor. You can visit her site, at www.learnandgrowtogether.com

Be My Guest...Mamapedia...I am weaning: any tips for dropping the last feeding before bed?

As a guest blogger on MamaPedia I always see many great questions!

As I was looking through the posts, I found one that was near and dear to me, here.

The subject of weaning always comes up in my little circle of moms. Many times, there are feelings of guilt on mom's part, because of all the pressure from the breastfeeding population to go as long as you possibly can. But for many reasons, we need to start the weaning process. Whether it be because of work, scheduling, low milk supply, or just personal reasons, weaning is something that weighs heavy on the heart.

The first feeding to drop is usually the night time, before bed, feeding. If for nothing else, this is to teach the child to fall asleep while not on the breast. One option is to feed from a bottle, but this usually means that the child will still be dependent on that before bed feeding. 

One solution to this is to have dad/partner start doing the night time routine. This will not only give daddy some bonding time, but it will also show the child that they can have someone else put them to bed.

We started my 30 month old, who stopped nursing at 23 months, on this routine around 15-18 months. It took a few nights, as any weaning process will, but eventually he realized that it is OK to have someone else besides mommy put him to sleep.

For some children this may take a few days, and for some a month. The key is to be consistent, and not give in during the process.

The next night time weaning is the middle of the night feeding. Most children over the age of 8 to 10 months wake up for this feeding, not because they are starving, but for the interaction with mommy. Daddy/partner can also help with this, by getting up with the child, either giving the child a bottle, or rocking them back to sleep. Once the child realizes that mommy is no longer going to get them in the middle of the night, they will have a better chance of sleeping through the night.

We co-sleep, and this way still worked for us. So even if you co-sleep, have daddy/partner do these things to help in the weaning process.

Of course, never make the weaning process stressful on your child. There are several studies that have shown forced weaning to be harmful to a child's psychological well being.

Obviously for single moms, they do not have the luxury of a dad/partner, and this proces may take a little while longer. My advice is to just take your time. It will happen.

For either case, you can always use the don't offer/don't refuse method for a while, where you do not offer to nurse them, but don't refuse when they ask. After a week or so of this, try the distraction method. When your child wants to nurse during a time when you are trying to wean, distract them with other things, such as toys, books, etc...

Good luck to those who are in this process! And I promise...they won't be nursing until college!!! :)





Becka has a Bachelors in Early Childhood Education and Development, and has 18 years experience in the field. She is a Certified Parent Educator and Licensed Baby, Toddler, and Preschool Sign Language Instructor. You can visit her site, at www.learnandgrowtogether.com

Top 10 Ways to Help Your Kids Get A's

Parental Involvement Is the Answer Study after study has shown that parental involvement is the number-one determinant of how well all children -- regardless of their background -- do in school. Here are ten ways you can help your kids succeed in the classroom -- and beyond. 1. Create an environment in your home that encourages learning. This will be a major influence on how well your children do in school. Provide them with many different opportunities to become excited about learning. Make sure that appropriate materials from puzzles to paints to computers are available to stimulate their curiosity. 2. Provide your children with a well-balanced life. A stable home, filled with love, serves as a solid foundation for getting straight A's. Establish routines so your children get enough sleep, eat regular nourishing meals, and receive sufficient exercise. Limit excessive TV-viewing and the playing of video and computer games. 3. Read to your children every day. Most of the learning your children do in school involves reading. Read to your kids to teach them about reading, expand and enrich their vocabularies, and broaden their experiences. Reading aloud exposes them to materials that would be difficult for them to read on their own. 4. Encourage them to read extensively. As your children progress through school, as much as 75 percent of what they learn will come from the printed page. The more children read, the better their reading skills become. Make sure there is a wide variety of interesting reading materials in your home to encourage the reading habit. 5. Show your children how to be organized. Children who are organized find it much easier to succeed in school. One of the best ways to teach organizational skills is through example. Show your children how to use such organizational tools as assignment pads, calendars, notebooks, binders, and backpacks. 6. Teach them effective study skills. Good study skills are absolutely essential to get A's. Make sure your children know how to read their textbooks, prepare for tests, memorize facts, and use their time efficiently. Encourage them to have a regular time for studying, and provide a study place that is free of distractions. 7. Urge your children to listen and participate in class. Listening in class is the easy way for children to learn. Advise your older children to take notes, which will help them concentrate on what is being said. Encourage your children to participate in class -- it will greatly increase their interest in what they're learning. 8. Help your children learn how to tackle homework. Doing homework reinforces what your children learn in school. Show them how to do it so that homework quickly becomes their responsibility. Help them learn what assignments to do first and how to plan their time. Encourage them not to rush through their homework but to consider every assignment a learning experience. 9. Talk to your children about school. Your children spend hours in school every day. A lot can happen during that time. Show that you are genuinely interested in their day by asking questions about what they did and talking with them about the papers they bring home. When problems occur, work with your kids to find solutions. 10. Develop a good relationship with your children's teachers. Good communication between home and school helps children do well in school and makes it easier to address problems. Be sure to attend parent-teacher conferences, visit your kids' classrooms, and volunteer to help their teachers. And don't forget to express your appreciation to teachers for all that they do for your children. Becka has a Bachelors in Early Childhood Education and Development, and has 18 years experience in the field. She is a Certified Parent Educator and Licensed Baby, Toddler, and Preschool Sign Language Instructor. You can visit her site, at www.learnandgrowtogether.com

using the multisensory approach

I believe that there are no bad brains, no broken children who must be fixed in order to fit in with their peers or to perform the way we adults believe they should perform. I also believe that there are ineffective teaching strategies that engage a limited number of children and leave gaps in understanding for many others who learn from a different point of strength.

If your child is struggling or simply not enjoying school, instead of teaching in traditional ways, try a multisensory teaching method, which simultaneously engages all of the senses. By incorporating specific elements in your teaching approach, you can ensure that each child will learn and that you can successfully teach multiple children at once. Multisensory teaching also creates a richer learning experience, benefiting even those who can learn in more traditionally accepted ways.

Learn more atCurrClick!

Hands on. Children who best learn this way need to physically interact with materials; it will not be enough to simply hear something in order to remember it. They may physically build an item, or come up with their own way to find a solution to a problem. After they have worked out their learning, asking them to talk about what they did will deepen their understanding and their ability to remember the lesson.

Visual. Showing the learning in a picture (chart, graph, word map, etc) will enable children who learn visually to have a way to remember it. They may take a mental picture of the image you give them and then mentally see this when they encounter the idea in the future. (Research tells us that children from ages 4-7 will learn most effectively through these key elements).

Movement. Children who best learn through movement need to use motions that mimic the shape of learning. For example, children who are learning their alphabet may be helped by making the shape of the letters with their whole bodies while saying the sound of the letter.

Patterns. These occur both in math and in reading. Children who learn by patterns need to have information presented in groups and these patterns pointed out. For example, when working with spelling lists, it may help to group words like play, say, may etc. together. An effective math pattern is 0+7=7, 1+6=7, 2+5=7, 3+4=7.

Stories. By embedding rhyme and rhythm into stories which give a reason for why something is the way it is, children who best learn through stories will have a way to remember. When later asked to recall the piece of information, they may remember the story complete with the characters. An example is the letter A. We can say it is like an anthill (which has the same shape) and that a bug got tired while trying to climb up the side so tunneled straight through instead, forming the cross bar on the A.

Emotions. Humor and attractive visuals are two of the ways to engage a child in the learning process. Telling a funny story about what they are learning will make the child want to learn.

After completing a multisensory lesson, ask your children “How did you remember that?” Talking about it will help you to better understand your children and know how to tailor future teaching. Realize that each child may learn in a combination of ways. Making children verbalize the way they remember also helps them understand themselves, allowing for future success in learning while boosting their confidence.

Becka has a Bachelors in Early Childhood Education and Development, and has 18 years experience in the field. She is a Certified Parent Educator and Licensed Baby, Toddler, and Preschool Sign Language Instructor. You can visit her site, at www.learnandgrowtogether.com

The latest post from Dr. Kerby T. Alvy

The United States has some serious parenting-related problems that are costing billions of dollars to treat and manage.

These include...

• Child abuse and neglect,
  
• School dropout,
  
• Delinquency,
  
• Childhood obesity,
  
• Drug abuse, and
  
• Gang warfare.

These problems are making life in many of our communities unsafe and intolerable. These problems are wasting an amazing amount of human potential.

Read more and see how YOU can help here!

Becka has a Bachelors in Early Childhood Education and Development, and has 18 years experience in the field. She is a Certified Parent Educator and Licensed Baby, Toddler, and Preschool Sign Language Instructor. You can visit her site, at www.learnandgrowtogether.com