We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup.

Christmas is here and I have LOTS of opinions about it.  I've never been financially wealthy so I've never been a fan of the spending craz' that happens this time of year.  In fact there was a few years in my past I even used the word 'hate' and Christmas in the same sentence.  However, times have changed.  I am a Mother now and I started to be the 'pooper' this time of year and had to be reborn!

Our first Christmas in Ohio was amazing!  I'd never been a part of a family that did so many gifts for Christmas - my Mother in law had never been a Grandmother so she decided spoiling was her game - and we didn't mind but our son, well, he had to take a nap in the middle of opening presents.  Yes, it was that crazy!  As the years have gone by - we have all simmered down on the spending, the gifts, and the time it takes to open presents.  My Mother in Law still completely spoils the children and my husband and I but it's better in a calmer sense.

I thought I would blog today my tips for Christmas with kids and my top ten favorite toys... 

Tips for Christmas

• START A NEW TRADITION for you and your family.  We have friends who instead of sending out Christmas cards they make a Christmas CD for us.  WE LOVE IT and them and look forward to it each and every year.  Our house has the tradition of Mexican Hot Chocolate with whip cream throughout the month of December- I spend two dollars on whip cream and let the kids put it on and I am seriously treated as a Queen.  We also have the tradition of going to the Columbus Zoo for wild lights,  watching Charlie Brown Christmas & ELF, whatever it is - just talk it up and bring it up- year after year after year.
• INCLUDE EVERYONE!  This is crucial.  I find that sometimes it is easier if I do everything myself, decorate the tree, cook a special meal, shop for everyone's presents - but then I become overwhelmed and bitter and one thing I've learned, especially as my children are now 10 and 7 - THEY want to help.  They want to decorate the tree, help bake, and especially pick out presents and wrap them for one another if for nothing else but to tease one another with the information for twenty some days.
• READ Holiday books ALL MONTH LONG!  I have a special collection of my own Christmas books to read during this month and my kids love it.  I just box those books in with our Christmas decorations each year and wha-la, out on the bookshelf they go.  I would strongly suggest getting books on Hanukkah too.  If you don't have any, well, my suggestion is Sammy Spider's First Hanukkah, by Sylvia A. Rouss.  Or check out your local library - they always have a holiday section and if you are living in Ohio - THE WESTERVILLE LIBRARY ROCKS! There are several Bernstein Bears books about Christmas that I like, traditional books like night before Christmas, and Lemony Snicket book about The Lump of Coal, Arthur's Perfect Christmas is so good they read the book and play the movie in schools everywhere!  A new night time favorite of ours is Where did they hide my presents?  A group of silly songs about Christmas - great for all ages.  A few years ago my son thought Napoleon Dynamite was the funniest thing ever and I found a book called Napoleon Dynamite: The Twelve Days of Christmas, this was such a hit it too went into our decoration box.  Get some books on Kwannza too!  I had to give a presentation at Otterbein University last year on December holidays and found out lots that I didn't know.  It's important to tell your kids 'truth' - A professor created Kwanzaa to help build a community up and celebrate family, community, and culture.  Isn't it tragic that I didn't know that fact until my thirties! 
• Christmas Movies!  As soon as your children are old enough start watching a few Christmas movies - Elf is now a family favorite in my house.  Last year was the first time I had EVER watched A Christmas Story and I finally 'got' the 'you'll shoot your eye out' line.  Don't let your kids grow up confused like me!  Whatever your beliefs or style, remember YOU are creating your family history this month!  Tons of pressure to make it cool, who knows - maybe one of your choices from above will help your future daughter or son in law pick your casa for Christmas!  

Here is my most important TIP for Christmas...

• Explain CHRISTmas.  I think it is important to tell your children, regardless of your religious beliefs what the original idea of Christmas was.  There will always be debate whether or not the birth date of Jesus is on December 25 but it was begun to celebrate the belief that God came into the world in the form of man to atone for the sins of world, and that was the primary reason in celebrating Christmas.  (in Short, not about a big white man in a suit of red overeating and spoiling little ones who have chimney's)

Christmas is a PERFECT opportunity to throw in EDUCATION!  If your child needs to work on speech, buy a microphone, fine motor skills - get clay for her stocking, is large motor a concern?  Get a membership to gymnastics!  This is the TIME to use it while you can - and oh yeah, us teachers we USE this time to buy things our kids might one day outgrow so we can use in a classroom!  Here is my list of top ten presents!

1. Melissa and Doug toys.  They are amazing, the art supplies, the cutting food, the pizza, the birthday cake, oh my Gosh, I love all of it.
2. Memberships!  Oh yeah, the zoo, the museum, Franklin Park Conservatory, the local community center, gift card to Sky Zone, or other similar fun outings, etc.  These are great from Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, & friends.
3. LESSONS!  Art, Music, Gymnastics, Judo, dance, you name it, someone locally is offering lessons in it!  
4. Leap Frog rocks.  My favorite for little ones is all the phonic stuff - fridge phonics, writing lettter stuff, etc.
5. Legos - I won't go into how incredible this toy is for me but... um, yeah, just get your kids interested in legos.  They rock.
6. NERF!  So I went YEARS without letting my son or daughter play 'guns'  Then it happened, a Nerf gun came into our life and we have had so much fun.  We have rules and we follow them but the fun - I'm serious, is addicting!  In November - we added Nerf swords into our lives and love them!
7. Books!  They are crucial to have around and to encourage more reading time less DS time.
8. Subscriptions!  Magazines, book clubs, you name it - give it as a gift!
   
9. Ornament!  Yes, sounds boring but I found if I start giving my children one, by the time they move out - they will really have something to connect them to our past.  Some of my children's favorite ornaments are ones they remember getting at 2 years old and 3, crazy but true - they were only allowed to hold the fragile thing for a few days before I wrapped it up and put it in the Christmas decoration box and it left an impression.
   
10. PERSONAL GIFT!  It could be a family photo framed for their room, a bag of popcorn and a coupon for a date night at home, or a nerf sword with a coupon for a battle to remember!  What ever the gift, remember you are creating these family moments!  Make them rock!
    

Work, works. Especially on the potty.

"Work, works"  That is my husband's tag line to his business, Fit Club.  My kids, friends, and I love to use this line when joking but that's what I am going to write about this morning as it pertains to early childhood.  Many people ask questions like, 'why is my child not potty trained?'  'why isn't little Johnny behaving properly?'  'why does she have so many cavities?'  The answer is usually not that deep.  We don't have to go into genetics, or some dramatic story of a toothbrush nightmare but if we look at how you've been working on brushing their teeth (morning, noon, night), going to the potty on a potty not in a diaper (again, morning, noon, night), or following through with behaviors with little Johnny (morning, noon, night and all the inbetweens) it's simple to see that those parents who work on those skills all day, everyday have the evidence that work, works.

At Gonzaga University I was given lots of opportunities to take, see, and analyze data.  During some time in the Gonzaga Preschool I was able to take data on potty training with the group of boys attending.  My professor's at Gonzaga were brilliant at letting me know and proving to me that if someone with a very low IQ can learn to go to the potty when needed, wipe, and wash hands so can a normal developing child who shows interest in the potty.  That to me was all I needed to see the challenge. 

The book we used at Gonzaga was simple, Toilet Training in less than a day by Azrin & Fox.  The book was exactly as my professors had discussed you can teach any child how to use the potty with the proper work.  Because as I said before work, works.  The boys in our Gonzaga preschool left potty trained and I left feeling quite confident until a few years later when two of my awesome professors came to stay with me in Ohio from Washington for a Applied Behavior Analysis conference at The Ohio State University.  When setting up the arrangements on the phone with one of my favorite professors, she asked, "Mitchell is potty trained right?"  and I choked on my words and said, 'um, he's only 19 months and she replied, "I'm sure he will be by the time we get there."  And that was a helpful phrase to get me going into my early childhood education roots and pull out my beloved book, my notes, and start the potty training journey with my own son Mitchell at 20 months. These are my notes that I took and wrote while re-reading the How to Toilet Train in less than a day book and I took notes while I actually did the training.  This day was one of the best in my life because I felt like when my husband came in the door at 5:30 with Mitchell's Bob the Builder Underwear I had used my priceless education at Gonzaga to perfection and when my professors came the following week, that too felt awesome! 

Parenting is hard - that's why I went to school for it!

Hi!  My name is Tanya Jo Potterf and most of the families in my life call me Miss TJ.  I am the proud wife to Mitch Potterf, mother to two adorable children, and a recent graduate in Early Childhood Education.  I started my early childhood education career in 1994 and eventually ended up at Gonzaga University where I double majored in Special Education and Regular Education.  Gonzaga's Special Education Program helped me develop skills with behaviors and children that I never knew existed.  I finally knew how to measure everything and maybe, just maybe at first I took that too far.  Then in my senior year at Gonzaga I became pregnant.  I decided to walk the talk of what I learned in early childhood and my husband and I decided I would be the stay at home Mom to our son, Mitchell V.  I withdrew from Gonzaga completing all of my classes BUT not student teaching therefore I left Washington State without an awesome piece of paper that reads B.S.  (take that where you may) 
My husband and I left Washington for promises of a great new job and opportunity in Ohio where I could be a stay at home Mom with family close by and hopes of adding another little one to our family.  Our blessing arrived in the form of a little girl, we named her Elizabeth and before you knew it I was signing these kids up for preschool.  I looked all over for schools.  I was in charge of finding the right one - I already attended local libraries all over the area and I did all that could possibly be done at home.  Then the day happened when I went to the basement of a old creepy church in Delaware, Ohio and I met, Miss Anna-Marie.  She was perfection to me and my training and even though the building scared me I said she is the one and my husband agreed and we signed our son up for one day a week of preschool at Delaware Cooperative Preschool with Miss Anna-Marie.
Well, I never really 'left' the preschool.  Miss Anna-Marie was very patient with me and my uneasiness of leaving my first born son - eventually Miss Anna-Marie and I became dear friends and she asked the board if I could teach, and then it happened!  I was back in the classroom again but this time I was a mother with a whole new perspective on EVERYTHING.
First year I taught Toddler time a few days a week, then I was blessed and got to teach beside Miss Anna-Marie, a Montessori trained preschool teacher who is gifted beyond words.  So I stayed at Delaware Cooperative Preschool as a teacher and later as an administrator until my husband and I decided to get that piece of B.S.  (Again, take that where you may)  I was in a new state and guess what?  They don't transfer credits very well - so I had to take a bunch more classes and student teach.  This time, due to money and time I did NOT double major but concentrated on the things I am good at: reading and early childhood.  I graduated September 1st, 2010 and walked in the ceremony in June of 2010.  Finally accomplishing a goal I had set out to do 16 years before.
Which is what leads me to this blog - it's for you.  I have friends and family who come to me for things I assume everyone knows and then come to find out, it's kinda special stuff I know and often times I hear, 'how did you know that?' So here is a blog from Miss TJ - I will add what I know and have learned -giving credit to God, Gonzaga, my husband, my children, Miss Anna-Marie, and all the other awesome people & places that have helped me raise my awesome kids and teach some of yours.