Ever wondered if you are doing it right, this thing called "parenting"? Whether you are teaching your kid(s) enough or if you are teaching the right stuff?
I've felt low level anxiety about it for 10 years.
And then I decided to keep a record of
one thing I've taught my child every day.
I've been doing it for 5 months and while I still don't know if I am doing it right (nobody knows, really) I look at this record and I know I am doing my best and I am doing okay. In fact, I am a pretty amazing mum! And so are you.
Try it for yourself - I cannot recommend it highly enough, this "one thing I've taught you today" thing. I suspect it will also make a lovely birthday present and/or a memory keepsake.
one thing I've taught my child every day.
I've been doing it for 5 months and while I still don't know if I am doing it right (nobody knows, really) I look at this record and I know I am doing my best and I am doing okay. In fact, I am a pretty amazing mum! And so are you.
Try it for yourself - I cannot recommend it highly enough, this "one thing I've taught you today" thing. I suspect it will also make a lovely birthday present and/or a memory keepsake.
This is what I've taught my 10 year old in 5 months:
January
1/1/15 going to Sainsbury's on a bike; buying milk on your own
2/1/15 that only wellies
are suitable for paddles (although not too happy about how I reacted to wet
feet)
3/1/15 encouraged
roller skating in the house
4/1/15 introduced to
kids meditation tape
5/1/15 watched roller-skating
beginners video - T position and front/back position
6/1/15 what's in National Geographic (with daddy)
7/1/15 taking meter
reading with daddy; what happened in Paris, what are terrorists and why what
happened is wrong
8/1/15 the
difference between a debit and a credit card and how credit cards are bad
9/1/15 taking deep
breaths to calm yourself down when feeling rushed/stressed
10/1/15 signed up
for football practice; how to play the new "forbidden words" game;
what is "Samaritans"
11/1 tying shoe
laces tightly; football practice
12/1 multiplying 3.4
x 100 (decimal places and x 10, 100 or 1000)
13/1 how to make
yourself a cream cheese wrap
14/1 that borrowing
money requires paying them back (even when you really don't want to)
15/1 borrowing and
then having to pay back what you've borrowed
16/1 swimming -
level 7 first time;
17/1 visit to royal
observatory to look at stars; found a 10yr old in the photographer of the year
exhibition (aspirational role model)
18/1 dissecting fish
head; how to peel an orange
19/1 how to help me
navigate by using the iPhone GPS
20/1 great chat on
way to school about taking deep breath and letting stress roll over you (let it
"roll" as Skylanders say)
21/1 how to open a
Lego box to make a lid; how to be happy but also mindful that other children
might be upset if they did not also get into the English Touring Opera
production "La Boheme"
22/1 how mummy and
daddy may have different opinions about things. That's not always arguing. And
it is never your fault or problem, it's theirs.
23/1 how to make супа
топчета!
24/1 what baby Max does
(in prep for auditioning for Michael in Peter Pan)
25/1 how to make ice-cream
26/1 adding up large
numbers incl decimals
27/1 what happened
in the Holocaust
28/1 how to feel
happiness on the wings of a dream about Disneyland
29/1 how to audition
for a role in Peter Pan; what is pantomime; how a friend has created a theatre
performance with no words about her dad dying
30/1 not to put foil
or metal in a microwave
31/1 how to do
"weights" exercises with a big milk bottle before cereal time; being
part of a winning swimming team
February
1/2 how to share
your medals with a swimming teammate who contributed equally but did not get
any
2/2 how to get
organised to do the homework in the morning (rather than end of day when tired)
3/2 how to cease the
moment and run into the park making a snowman before school; how to put the
snowman on a sleigh and take it home;
how to chop up
chocolate cubes with a knife; how to open a bottle of J2O with a bottle opener;
how to eat lobster tails; how to peel open chocolate wrappers
4/2 encouraged for
having a go with YouTube on how to tie a tie
5/2 how to clean
football shoes after practice and deal with your own mess (not nice, I know!)
6/2 how to lock the
back door (special lock);
7/2 how to love
drawing squiggles Quentin Blake-style
8/2 how to put the
battery in the drone before flying it in the park; how to mix the bath tap
water before a bath; that mummy will not stand up to being continuously shouted
at and that if upset you should ask to speak to someone at school about it
9/2 the difference
between opera and operetta
10/2 making a sphere
out of playing cards (although we have a way to go with learning patience)
11/2 what is a
politician
12/2 introduction to
Quentin Blake's red smudge pencil
13/2 Google
translate from Italian the song in La Boheme
14/2 showed
predictive text on text messages (although I think that was not exactly new - I
am getting into the "Mum, I knew that already" zone)
15/2 what is an
electric circuit and how to close it; what makes explosions (science museum
activities)
16/2 trying to instill
the understanding that you are allowed to have a different opinion about which
football bag to take to practice but that you should voice it calmly and
respectfully, not in a strop angrily as that only antagonises the other person
17/2 the leafs of
banana trees come from the middle of the plant even when the outer leafs look
not healthy; how to spread jam on and roll your pancake
18/2 read in
National Geographic about mites, how they live in your hair and crawl on your
face at night and die for the lack of an anus after a few days as they fill up
with "food"
19/2 that it's
possible to get inflatable parrots for when you are a pirate
20/2 that it's ok to
cry or be sad while watching Kong Fu Panda 2 because the mum had to leave her
baby behind; to hug when sad as it makes it better
21/2 daddy's phone
number
22/2 that a parent
can be selfless and step back, almost disappear into the background to make
space for time with the other parent
23/2 what is MSM
(mirror-signal-maneuver) and the meaning of triangular road signs
24/2 reverse today:
I learnt how to play a Lego Mini Figures Monopoly game invented my Martin. It's
a great game!
25/2 "любов"
е женски род; how to make me a cup of hot water in the morning
26/2 that it would
be nice to carry my groceries shopping bag and be a gentleman
27/2 sadly, that
being rude to your mum in front of others in order to get attention is not a
nice and respectful thing to do
28/2 that not
feeling like going to swimming is not a good reason go come up with a hurting
shoulder excuse. It's always better to tune into yourself and be honest what
you feel
March
1/3 introduction to
what is a Spending plan. I really hope this takes a much better foundation than
what I've had
2/2 how to do
weights exercises to build muscles
3/2 told a story of
a girl who was mugged in the underpass on way to school with a warning (plead,
really) not to walk there on your own
4/2 keeping at it
with Rosetta Stone French lessons
5/2 how to stop
crying when cutting onions (going outside + the very random wooden spoon trick)
6/3 and 7/3 today I
outsourced life lessons to grandma
8/3 painting pottery
(although really I did not teach anything, just provided the conditions for
learning and fun to take place)
9/3 set up a 1:1 talk
at school with another adult outside the family as an outlet for venting
frustration with mum and dad
10/3 where is the
West Bank and what is going on there (prompted by a Michael Marpurgo story
about kites)
11/3 division by 100
and other sorts
12/3 that taking
flowers from public gardens is not the thing to do - we have flowers in our
garden; but that if I get one anyway - it is very much appreciated.
Also that getting
your trousers dirty for jumping over the fence really does not need worrying
about - it can be fixed
13/3 that nervous
before a performance on stage is "good nervous". Even to be enjoyed
14/3 that I am
so proud of the performance that I come to see it a second time in a raw.
15/3 how to
have fun working as part of the family team reorganising a room
16/3 a life lesson
of being late for school if throwing a tantrum for walking there and instead
taking the bus and getting stuck in traffic
17/3 walk to school
conversation about running a restaurant and keeping some of the profits in the
business to buy more stock with it
18/3 money maths
blitz session
19/3 showed up at
school as a governor and gave a personal example of how to show up and care for
the education of children, the community and the well being of others
20/3 read and watch
the BBC videos on how to watch safely the solar eclipse
how to enjoy the
moment and play hide-and-seek even when you are an adult; how to grab life with
both hands in the moment - in the glorious sunshine and child laughter filled
moment that can be treasured forever and enjoyed immensely at its time
How to not be angry
when circumstances out of our control change (no cubs) and even being late for
a concert is not a big deal
21/3 that I have a
lesbian friend; what that means and how can a lesbian couple have an IVF baby
22/2 that the start
of spring on march 22 sees the same length day and night, and that from
tomorrow the day grows bigger than the night
23/3 intro to eBay
(selling the old bed)
24/3 a very very
detailed explanation of ebay: how you list items, how you bid for items, how
you pay for items you've won; accompanied by explanation of bidding/auctions,
only bidding for things you actually need/want after having put them on your
wish list for 5 days; how things never run out even if you don't win this
auction; how to set the price of items you want to sell by looking at the new
items price + similar items on ebay + past sale prices (and making an informed
decision which is different for every item)
25/3 how to search
the Hendon town library catalogue
26/3 how to return
books we found at home that are not ours but we forgot; how to wait until the
last few seconds to bid in an auction (I admit I am worrying a bit about this
intro to bidding)
27/3 who Frank
Sinatra is and that he "turns" 100 this year;
That double yellow
lines mean no stopping/parking and they are always around turns off the road
28/3 how to tie your
trouser ties
29/3 that the clocks
"spring forward and fall back"; what is HALT (hungry, angry,
lonely, tired) - the four factors that result in unhappiness and danger that
you have to address to feel happy and balanced and not act out;
Also how to say
sorry by setting a personal example and apologising for making him do
handwriting to achieve something I did not achieve myself - being honest with
him and humble about it which shocked him, and quite rightly so: telling him
that his handwriting is perfect and he should do his handwriting however he
feels like doing it that makes him happy
30/3 brief intro to
what is a rental contract between landlord and tenant
31/3 how to scan
your ticket at Eurostar check in; a whole lot of Eurostar interesting facts
like - there are 3 channels (the middle one for service access); the Queen and
an Olympic torch have been on Eurostar; somebody crossed the channel in a bath
tub and it took him over 9 hours; and others like that
April
1/4 Disneyland
lessons involve:1. If you ask, you get to sit on the front raw. So always ask.
The worst that can happen is people will say "no".
2. Queuing nicely
(and being annoyed when people try to jump the queue)
2/4 some
conversation about The Big Bang and how the Moon was a piece of Earth
(possibly)
3/4 helping in the
kitchen and an example of how to deal with a knife cut emergency
4/4 how to DIY that
staple British food: microwaved baked beans
5/4 how to bake
cupcakes on your own (with a little help with/demo of how to do the spooning
into the cake cups and mixing the icing)
6/4 a few French
words and words of encouragement for learning French
7/4 how to aim at a
mini golf course
(in addition to
intro to fishing and intro to architecture: cladding, provided by daddy)
8/4 what's the real
name for матрëшка
9/4 that overtaking
in France is on the left and you have to indicate with left indicator when you
start and with right indicator when you finish;
Also illustration of
the effect of compound interest; the difference between "gross" and
"net"
10/4 "operation
Ouch!" on BBC seems to be doing a lot of work for me; added Organ Donor
Database registration in the mix;
11/4 more talk on
controlling compulsive spending - writing things down on your wish list and
waiting 5 days before you buy them; not borrowing money to buy stuff even from
your mum - you can't spend what you don't have
12/4 what's
"autobiography"
13/4 Custom stamps
on the back of packages from overseas and what is Customs
14/4 that you can
try to work out what words mean by thinking of other words that belong to the
same "family" - e.g. You don't know what is "exclaim" but
does knowing what "exclamation mark" mean help?
15/4 the different
forms of the verb "to be" - past, present and future; a telling off
for crossing a road without looking;
16/4 after having
tried the "come to mum's office on your own after school" we now also
tried "walk half the way to school on your own as well
17/4 showed how to
make cut-out cars; conversations about how a boy's body changes with puberty
18/4 a taste of
freedom and being responsible - walking back from school with a friend, going
for a walk around university, buying stuff on your own
19/4 exposure to
labrador puppies as a little seed to loving animals
20/4 keep practicing
reading in Bulgarian; keep reminding what is "ц" and "щ"
and "р"
21/4 that the orbit
of the Earth is tilted;
22/4 picked up from
the library and read together some of the "How your body works" book;
did maths problems that require splitting whole numbers into something and a
half or something and a quarter (e.g. 7/2)
23/4 more of the
"How your body works" book - the blood machine
24/4 talked about
the London Marathon and how people who run it raise money for charity and train
a long time to be able to do it;
Oyster cards and how
they work
25/4 read two rule
from "The Rules of Wealth" book - hoping that something rubs off
despite the resistance
26/4 what is an
"avalanche"; that Everest is in Nepal, and that there was a big
earthquake in Nepal that killed lots of people
27/4 doing division
with reminders or fractions/half numbers (eg 55/2); also discussing the
different options of approaching a girl to tell her you like her
28/4 practice of
going to school with a friend, including crossing the road (checking how it's
done)
29/4 that it is not
allowed to overtake in a tunnel; how to count over 20 in French
30/4 how to prepare
a fire in a stove; how to play "Remí" card game
1/5 a bit of adding
up practice while playing "Remí" card game; how to organise your
cards
2/5 discussion about
castle locations, restoration, what is a "bishop"
3/5 why the need to
switch off the air con (external ventilation) when in a tunnel
4/5 showing trust
with encouraging to go on the bike and pick up a (girl) friend for play in the
park
5/5 how to be a
problem solver and figuring out a way to take and print passport photos (when
dad, sadly, for example, has the automatic "cannot be done"
response); how passports are issued/photos put in them
6/5 how to keep
connected (by leaving a treasure hunt of "guess how much I love you"
notes and chocolates) when mama is away
7/5 i was away but I
guess the learning would have come from being only with daddy and doing it as
boys do
8/5 election stuff
and some balanced discussion about all parties having pluses and minuses in
their policies
9/5 we read out of
the "Wealth" book a story about a guy who in 9 months started with
trading up a paper clip to a one year lease on a house and the lessons of
trading up
10/5 post "sex
education" class debrief (incl clarification on what does "pussy"
mean)
11/5 answering
questions about pawn shops and a bit about currency exchanges and how the pound
is strong now compared to the dollar; a proposition of a saving scheme - every
£1 you save out of pocket money I will double. No doubt the rest of the day
has been spent calculating the rate of accumulating wealth to £170 to buy the Lego
Simpson Shop set
12/5 demonstrating
an idea: investing in a mannequin stand that makes displays for clothes for
sale on ebay more attractive (hopefully increasing the likelihood of good
sales)
13/5 what is fraud
and the case of the bank clerk who took 1p from every customer to steal
millions
14/5 read from a book
about how eyes work; we also talked at dinner how I have paid off and closed my
last credit card and how one should never really spend money they do not have
15/5 talk about
"fellowship" (e.g. Alcoholics Anonymous) and how it is the only
example of an organisation/institution which has nobody at the helm (unlike
companies and MDs or countries and PMs, etc)
16/5 how to play the
battleship game on a grid
17/5 running
commentary on how nice it is to go to bed in clean washed sun dried sheets (in
the hope it sticks and becomes a long term preference too); how to pour ice
cream mixture from higher up into the ice cream machine so that it does not
spill (although I do have to work on how I do that so that it is not
semi-telling off)
18/5 yet again
trusting with locking the front door unsupervised
19/5 BBC sharks
documentary galore
20/5 encouragement
on having auditioned for a female part in the school production. We spoke about
how in ancient Greece (where the present day theatre form was born (or was
it?)) men did all the parts, including female parts. Making a plan to see
Horrible Histories - Ancient Greece (which I think will cover just that).
21/5 showed how to
stand by and support when someone falls down so badly that their trousers tear;
I really bit my lip with the "I told you so/you should look where you
step" letting the child derive his own conclusions and learning
22/5 I honestly
cannot remember but with our arrival in Lyon there must have been something
French on the learning "menu"
23/5 introduced the
idea of UNESCO (related to the Lyon heritage quarter)
24/5 what is an
"immigrant"
25/5 a bit of
telling off for digging holes in the beach and covering whole body (including
face) under the sand; explaining the danger of suffocating
26/5 providing the
freedom of roaming around a camp side with friends and I guess - learning
independence; recognising the stickers on cars for the countries they represent:
"L" is for Luxembourg, "I" is for Italy, and assorted
others
27/5 opportunity to
do a bit of body boarding (or is it called kayaking?)
28/5 attempting to
model discussion as opposed to telling off when dealing with cheating during
friendly competition
29/5 what is the
Fibonacci sequence and how it appears in nature
30/5 canoeing (with
daddy)
31/5 what is the
order of the colours of the rainbow
I wish I had started this record 10 years ago.....
