If I ever have to survive "If you're happy and you know it" one more time I'm going to throw something! At home we sing "If you're angry and you know it... if you're sleepy and you know it... If you're ambivalent and you know it..." How many ways do we need to teach preschoolers to show their happy, anyhow? This is the one emotion that really doesn't need coaching for proper expression.
Other peaves...
Great kids books that we co-opted by large media outlets and watered down to deliver preachy impractical messages (Winnie the Pooh, and Little Bear)
Songs that pop up on otherwise fab kids CDs that lie by claiming "It's always more fun when you share"
Any story book that ends in everybody hugging and kissing because someone had the wisdom to share perspectives between opposite sides of a blood feud.
I'm all for peace, happiness, and conditioning our kids towards pro-social behavior, but let's let stories and music be stories and music. Let message simmer well beneath the surface. Our kids are perceptive enough that we don't need to preach at them! And fantasy is fantastic as a place to go so our minds can expand and play, but dont tell my kid that all problems magically evaporate by page 14. Sometimes arguments, fears, and tension take a while to resolve, and sometimes compromises lead to everyone grudgingly agreeing to move on, rather than thanking each other for shining new levels of enlightenment.
(Thanks for letting me rant. Now I feel better!)
Other peaves...
Great kids books that we co-opted by large media outlets and watered down to deliver preachy impractical messages (Winnie the Pooh, and Little Bear)
Songs that pop up on otherwise fab kids CDs that lie by claiming "It's always more fun when you share"
Any story book that ends in everybody hugging and kissing because someone had the wisdom to share perspectives between opposite sides of a blood feud.
I'm all for peace, happiness, and conditioning our kids towards pro-social behavior, but let's let stories and music be stories and music. Let message simmer well beneath the surface. Our kids are perceptive enough that we don't need to preach at them! And fantasy is fantastic as a place to go so our minds can expand and play, but dont tell my kid that all problems magically evaporate by page 14. Sometimes arguments, fears, and tension take a while to resolve, and sometimes compromises lead to everyone grudgingly agreeing to move on, rather than thanking each other for shining new levels of enlightenment.
(Thanks for letting me rant. Now I feel better!)
