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Homeschooling a toddler during covid-19.

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Hats off to all teachers and to the parents who voluntarily home school. Covid-19 has a good number of parents/guardians homeschooling.   When we started it was easy and fun and I felt like a pro homeschooling, my toddler. He enjoyed and participated in whole heartily. I got comfortable. ..then one morning he refused to do any of the activities I painstakingly put together. I gave myself a pep talk and weaseled my way through it. The next few days had me talking to myself behind closed doors and thanking God that I have only one child.  I talked to other mums, teachers, and professionals in search of answers seeing that we were going to be homeschooling for awhile. Then in the midst of my personal journaling, a light bulb moment came to me.  I decided to put it to a test. I wrote down in a planner, activities for the week. And then I scheduled schooling time.  On the first day of my new plan, I picked three activities for the week and asked him which one he wanted to do. He picked one
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Beautiful??

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"I don't want to be dark skinned,I want to look like you auntie nice." that remark got me off-guard. Where had she gotten that kind of reasoning? Had I behaved in a manner to make her think she was not beautiful?  I was heartbroken and concerned.  So I decided to try and plant a new seed in her mind in regard to beauty and complexion. I hugged her and and asked to come help me bathe her cousin. Enthusiastically she followed me to the bathroom.  "Why do want to look like me? " I asked her as we bathed the baby.  "Watu wa black si beautiful auntie "(dark skinned people are not beautiful auntie).  "Black is beautiful sweetheart, you always say my baby is beautiful and he has a similar complexion to you, don't you think you are beautiful? " I asked her smiling at her...  We held our conversation until we were done bathing and dressing the baby.  I then took a laptop and opened a photo gallery  of black girls her age and I was fortunate enoug
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Terrific Two.

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It has been too long since I wrote on my blog. A lot has taken place in that period of absence. My son is now two years old! We have come along way my son and I, from trouble feeding to great feeding. The milestones have been amazing, to say the least. Every time someone heard my son is about to turn two they would sigh, smile and say 'brace yourself, mama'. I always gave myself a talk where I said to myself 'you got this! He's not going to be terrible'. It is bad manners to call people names so please don't call your child terrible..they are listening for sure and those words may hurt them. My son has a few tantrum episodes and I have done my best to remain calm through the fits. It is not always easy to stay calm, you have to be intentionally calm. speak. Think positive and do try to go to your child's world rather than expect him/her to come to your world. You will find the bad days are outnumbered by the good days. We are now having to guess less an
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Does your baby have teeth yet??

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People seem to come up with different ways to irk you even before you recover from their last attempt. No sooner had we finished on the feeding drama than people started with questions about teething.  I would go for clinic and soon as the mother sitting  next to me sees my child has no teeth but is walking,she would ask how old he is and once I  respond,she would proceed to remark how late my baby is to teeth.  Gracefully I would say "he will  get them when he's ready".   I wasn't bothered about my baby boy not having teeth despite seeing that his age mates had two or more.  My mind was occupied with other issues like a cute outfit for him that I saw at the mall. The teeth police were allover!!!  Some saying I  need to take him to see a dentist cos something is definitely wrong.  Others remarking how their children got teeth at 4months and so on and so on. ... My baby had hit all other important milestones just fine.  He was clapping, pointing, laughing, call
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Feeding drama 😰

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When I started weaning my baby I was anxious like most first time mums.  I was excited and scared all at once.  Well, I got to know that my fears were not irrational on our third day of weaning.  I had tried a single grain porridge to start with and he was receptive to the new food.  You should have seen how happy I was.  On day three I decided to try a fruit, a papaya to be precise.  My baby vomited all over.  I was in shock. On asking my elder sister about it she said not to worry and to go ahead and try another fruit the next day.  Very cautiously I tried a small piece of watermelon and he projectile vomited on me again. This went on for three days of attempting different fruits.  I decided to shelf fruits and try other foods.   I had already established that my baby was having a dairy, wheat and nuts allergy so as I introduced new foods I steered clear of those. I went into depression as I realized that our son was feeding poorly and vomiting most of his foods.  It was frustrati
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Weaning!

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Pediatricians across the world advocate for six months of exclusive breastfeeding. Your baby's gut is not well developed before six months and most babies can only sit up without support or strain by their sixth month. It is important that the baby is able to sit first to minimize the risk of choking. I looked forward to to the day our six months would be up so that I could start weaning my son. Little did I know what lay ahead. I was fortunate enough to have established my baby's allergies before we got to weaning so I was careful not to introduce anything he would react to. When you start weaning ensure: Utensils Baby's utensils should be in a separate set of utensils from the utensils the rest of the family using (Preferably BPA free). Clean them separately in warm soapy water and rinse thoroughly. ( You can sterilize using sterilizers safe for baby e.g. Milton's liquid or tablets). Wash baby's utensils immediately after use to avoid contaminatio
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Co-sleeping

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The part where you bring your baby home from the hospital can be overwhelming or nerve wrecking for most new moms. I found myself nervous when I came from home as I had not planned for a c-section and I did not know if the baby should sleep with us or his crib. I decided to go on with my plan and sleep with him in our bed as I had earlier planned. For me, it was the best decision at that point. Nursing my baby was easier, I did plenty of skin to skin with him, bonding and I had peace of mind because I could easily get to him when he needed me. co-sleeping is a topic that brings out a mix of emotions as different parents have different views. I am giving my view which is not meant to belittle any other parents' view. we bought him a crib long before he was born but we agreed that he would start out in our bed before moving into the crib. I want to highlight what I viewed as benefits of co-sleeping.  REGULATING BREATHING - Research has indicated that newborn babies have a 15-2
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