For sale: Educational stuff for your first newborn!
I was schlepping my three children around the other day as usual while listening to “It’s my life” by No Doubt and my 5 year old belted out on the top of his lungs in the backseat of our loser’s cruiser, “it’s my life, la la la”.
I couldn’t control myself from laughing and thinking to myself. Oh, it’s cute now but not when he’s a teenager saying shouting the same thing “it’s my life, I do what I want…You can’t tell me what to do!” *door slamming*
I don’t know about you parents out there, but when our first child (Tyler) was born…anything that’s deemed educational, we’d be the first one in line to buy it. We have a mountain of the Baby Einstein DVD’s and books, Baby Genius DVD’s, Mozart, Bethoven CD’s for any time of the day, night, breakfast, dinner…you name it, we have it.
And then our second son (Trent) came along two years later. Tyler didn’t want to sit through any more baby stuff, he was never one to sit through any of those Barney’s songs or shows, thank the Lord on that one!
Instead of watching Sesame Street, or Clifford with his brother, all Tyler wants to watch now is Transformer, Bionicle, or the “good” part of Star Wars. And of course Trent is now a Star Wars “expert” (he said he wanted to watch Star Wars III the other day, even holding up his 3 little fingers to demonstrate his point). This is the kid who doesn’t even know the alphabet song but he can hum the Star Wars theme song, day AND night, while swinging his lightsaber around! 
Not only that, my 16 month old Sophia has just shown me today that she can hold the lightsaber with just one hand. She is also getting into her big brothers’ Legos stuff. I need to buy her some pink Legos soon. Before you know it, she’ll be saying “Star Wars III” too and holding up three fingers to make a point as well.
As for me, my music taste has changed quite a bit during my motherhood years. I can go from “Sweet child of mine” by Guns N’ Roses, to ABBA to Keane, depending on my mood that day. But my music repetoire has been expanded to include a few new selections, like the Backyardigans, Lazytown, Dora or just anything on Nick Jr.
How about you? Are you one of those (like me) shamelessly snapping your fingers singing “A pirate, a pirate says ARRGH!” while chauffering the kids around in your loser’s cruiser? I’ll show you my eye patch if you show me yours. 
I was schlepping my three children around the other day as usual while listening to “It’s my life” by No Doubt and my 5 year old belted out on the top of his lungs in the backseat of our loser’s cruiser, “it’s my life, la la la”.
I couldn’t control myself from laughing and thinking to myself. Oh, it’s cute now but not when he’s a teenager saying shouting the same thing “it’s my life, I do what I want…You can’t tell me what to do!” *door slamming*
I don’t know about you parents out there, but when our first child (Tyler) was born…anything that’s deemed educational, we’d be the first one in line to buy it. We have a mountain of the Baby Einstein DVD’s and books, Baby Genius DVD’s, Mozart, Bethoven CD’s for any time of the day, night, breakfast, dinner…you name it, we have it.
And then our second son (Trent) came along two years later. Tyler didn’t want to sit through any more baby stuff, he was never one to sit through any of those Barney’s songs or shows, thank the Lord on that one!
Instead of watching Sesame Street, or Clifford with his brother, all Tyler wants to watch now is Transformer, Bionicle, or the “good” part of Star Wars. And of course Trent is now a Star Wars “expert” (he said he wanted to watch Star Wars III the other day, even holding up his 3 little fingers to demonstrate his point). This is the kid who doesn’t even know the alphabet song but he can hum the Star Wars theme song, day AND night, while swinging his lightsaber around!
Not only that, my 16 month old Sophia has just shown me today that she can hold the lightsaber with just one hand. She is also getting into her big brothers’ Legos stuff. I need to buy her some pink Legos soon. Before you know it, she’ll be saying “Star Wars III” too and holding up three fingers to make a point as well.
As for me, my music taste has changed quite a bit during my motherhood years. I can go from “Sweet child of mine” by Guns N’ Roses, to ABBA to Keane, depending on my mood that day. But my music repetoire has been expanded to include a few new selections, like the Backyardigans, Lazytown, Dora or just anything on Nick Jr.
How about you? Are you one of those (like me) shamelessly snapping your fingers singing “A pirate, a pirate says ARRGH!” while chauffering the kids around in your loser’s cruiser? I’ll show you my eye patch if you show me yours.
I always got stuck singing “Where is my hairbrush” from Veggie Tales and “Captain Vegetable” from Sesame Street when my kids were toddlers. Of course now that they’re teens I dream of hearing songs like those again.
Thansk for the comment Jeff.
I learned English from watching Sesame Street at 11 years old, but my kids never got into it for some reason. But they are hooked on Nick Jr., I think the songs have a better beat to it.
Well, you can always sneak in a little of Sesame Street again (while your teens are not looking of course!)
I hate to admit this but sometimes, after I’ve dropped my daughter off at school, I keep her Dora cd playing. It’s fun and upbeat. Plus, at that time, there’s only talk on the radio and who wants to listen to that?
I’ve found some amazing music for kids, and yes, I keep it playing even when they’re not in the car.
As for the educational stuff vs Star Wars-type stuff, I like to think we have a balance of both. I didn’t go overboard with educational videos and toys, but I have more than were necessary. There’s so much kids learn and gain from creative play (with blocks, action figures, etc) that is just harder to quantify than learning, say, letters and numbers.
Oops Star Wars is NOT educational?! Crap - I missed that growing up. At least daddy can enjoy the show with the kids.
And Waya? Well she is free to do her blog at that time I suppose!