Kids having temper tantrums…how to deal with it!

Temper tantrums have been a hot topic for quite some time.  Just search online – you’ll find hundreds of thousands of resources that deal with them.  Bookstores like Barnes & Noble, Borders & Amazon.com alone yield hundreds of books pertaining to the subject!

Understanding why tantrums happen can help parents better deal with kids having temper tantrums.

Kids having temper tantrums are dealing with their frustrations of the moment, whether it’s physical, mental or emotional.  They may be hungry, tired, frustrated, have had their feelings hurt, or are frustrated because we don’t understand their limited vocabulary.  The result of this frustration may be a temper tantrum.

There are certain things parents can do while they’re waiting out this period in their child’s development.  According to Dr. Jay L Hoecker, a pediatrician at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, you should do the following:

• Be consistent. Establish a daily routine and stick to it as much as possible.
• Plan ahead. Go out and about when your child won’t be hungry or tired. Always have a snack or portable activity or toy on hand.
• Encourage your child to use words, or teach them sign language for basic words that are necessary for communication.
• Let your child make choices (one or the other) when you can, to give them a sense of control in their every day lives.  When they’ve chosen, compliment their choice.
• Praise good behavior; offer extra attention and lots of praise for it.
• Use distraction if you feel a tantrum coming on.  Do something – anything! 
• Avoid situations likely to trigger tantrums.

Dr. Hoecker also says ignoring a tantrum is best.  Like Mama in Stromple and the Super-Huge Temper Tantrum, ignore it and never lose your cool – if you do, your child will only learn that kids having temper tantrums run the show.

Kids having temper tantrums can learn that they really aren’t worth the effort!

This useful tidbit can be found on the site map at www.stromplesspot.com.  The site is still a tiny bit under construction, but I hope it will be finished very soon.  Go there for other great information and resources for kids, parents, teachers, etc. and also for worksheets that reinforce literacy and coloring pages that…well…are just fun to color.  Or, send yours in to the coloring contest for a chance to win a signed copy of Stromple and the Super-Huge Temper Tantrum!

Children’s Book Networking on JacketFlap

On my previous blog I said that JacketFlap was like facebook for book-faces.  It really is!  Promote yourself here if you are one of the following:

Networking on JacketFlap

I checked the “fine print” for my (second and younger) cousin, who is inspired to draw, and apparently does a bang-up job – it reads (Ahem):

“Anyone can have their own Profile page on JacketFlap.”

So there you go, Blake.  I look forward to seeing you on JacketFlap!  Look for me

Your cousin,

Stacey

Back to the novella I’m writing. Thank you, Mr. Vicodin.

What do you know – Vicodin doesn’t put me to sleep, doesn’t make me goofy (I could still drive, for sure), and it cuts the pain – mostly.  For a while, anyway.  It does feel somewhat like drinking an entire pot of coffee, though!

So thank you, Vicodin.  Because of you, I was able to stay up and work on my novella last night.  I won’t be sad to see you go, though.  This bad back business can’t last forever, right?

The novella is written in vignettes – short character sketches – and I’ve finished 5 so far.  I definitely will go this route, but will probably have to repeat characters to make it work.  The following is somewhat of a teaser, ad libbed.  I don’t even know if I’ll keep this man’s name, but this tidbit is from Nic, the elderly gentleman who lives in “the big house” next door to the home this young couple is currently signing papers for.  The home is in a well-established neighborhood which for generations has been comprised largely of members of Nic’s extended family.  This home in particular has ALWAYS been owned by someone in the family:

Nic

Being here at today is really bringing back…memories.  Seeing people I didn’t know come through to see the property was strange in itself, but this event has a permanence I don’t care to think about.  In all honesty, this will feel equivalent to a death in the family.  These people seem nice enough, but that house has always been ours.  The whole neighborhood has been ours since the early 1900s.

Until now.  Bit by bit our family had lost our foothold over the neighborhood, with a divorce here, relocation of the younger generation or a sudden death there.   With the sale of this home, the trend would continue. 

Like I said, this couple seems nice enough.  In this final hour I find myself desperate to make a strong connection with them.  I need them to become a part of the family – to feel very welcomed and to accept us all.  This will be my mission; I will make the other family members see that even though they aren’t blood-related, our sense of oneness can continue.  More importantly, we can keep the house, in a sense.  I owe it to my mother and her mother and all my aunts, uncles, grand-this-or that’s and to the younger generations here to do that.  In this way, we’ll keep the home in the family - not by blood, but with heart.

But my thoughts consume me.  I can see that I’m making their Realtor uneasy.  She had been making small talk with me successfully, but for the last several minutes I’ve been on a detour into deep reflection.  I can see she wonders where I’ve gone – what I’m thinking.  Best to come back to the here and now.  I can do this easily since Viet Nam – remove myself and return when necessary.  Sadly, this has come to define who I am.

I probably shouldn’t share this just yet – things tend to change a lot, and I am still going rounds with myself about exactly which direction I want to take.  In a nutshell, the book involves a young couple being welcomed into this somewhat odd neighborhood, trying to stay married while remodeling, a good chunk of missing money that was last known to be inside the home they bought, and nosy neighbors with eccentric personalities and hidden agendas.  And ghosts.  All sorts of fun stuff.

I hope I can work this thing out.  It’s very new to me, and it might take longer than I even know, but I really want to finish it.  In fact, I’m  making a promise to myself right now that I will.

So if you think I might be avoiding it because you don’t hear about the book’s progress now and then, kick me in the caboose and tell me to get back to it.  Thanks – I appreciate it!

On a scale of 1-5 stars

Please rate Stromple and the Super-Huge Temper Tantrum’s preview, now in the gallery at www.createspace.com.

Go to https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1057431 and let me know:

On a scale of 1-5, how well do you think children will Stromple and the Super-Huge Temper Tantrum?

Please don’t keep this link to yourself.  Share with everyone you know who knows and loves children who knows and loves children’s books

CreateSpace provides free online publishing tools for writers, musicians and filmmakers.  I’m looking into publishing-on-demand for the novella I’m working on.  If you’re interested in publishing or creating a preview for your work, go to CreateSpace.

A Novella of Vignettes

I became a fan of vignettes when I first pulled the novella “Seedfolks” by Paul Fleischmann off of the Barnes and Noble bookshelf.  It didn’t go back on.  It’s enough that it’s masterfully written in a unique style; the fact that it deals with how human needs, weaknesses and strengths brought a previously divided community together to accomplish common goals was what made it one of my favorites.  How can you not hold dear in your heart a story where a complete absense of unity in what should be a community changes into a unified effort to create and maintain a community garden, all because of a young girl’s attempt to connect with her deceased father.  More than just a garden was created.; a community grew along with the beans and pumpkins, and endured the cold winter to boot.

You may not know tha t I’m a Realtor.  Never in my weavings in and out of writing did I forsee a story coming out of a real estate transaction; but, now I find myself with these ideas on paper, and no matter how many times I let them lie to revisit at a later time, I cannot help but be overloaded with plausible ideas for each vignette and be genuinely excited about how I see them coming together.  It can’t possibly be this easy, can it?  I keep asking myself, “What am I missing?”

I came up with these ideas the day after I had the dream that led me to state that I was in when I wrote down my initial notes for the suspense novel.  It was scary enough for me to admit that I was writing a novel in the first place.  On my map, it’s completely uncharted territory.  Now, am I to say that I’m also writing what I see as a novella?

Well, there it is, I guess. A novel and a novella.  Honestly scares me at this point.  I need some tools, and guidance, for sure.  Please help?

I’m writing a novel.

This is what happened.  A few weeks ago I woke from a dream that really freaked me out.  I can’t explain too much without ruining the story, but suffice it to say I was dreaming for someone else.  So there I was, awake again, with too many ideas in my head.  There was no way I was going to be able to go back to sleep without getting up and writing them down.

I told Dave (my husband) about the dream and my idea for the novel, and he told his mom.  Now she’s excited to read it, and wants to make sure I keep writing.  This genre is right up her alley.

I’m glad to have this bit of self-inflicted pressure to keep writing.  I think it’s helping to keep me in line

Welcome to “Up Again”

Welcome to the next step – I’ve moved on from Stromple’s Spot (content specific) to Up Again to allow me to post about all facets of my life.  Stromple’s on his way with the publication of Stromple and the Super-Huge Temper Tantrum, the first book in the series of stories about him, but there are things I want to say about my other projects, my kiddos and life in general, so here goes

I call this new spot Up Again because very often my ideas come in the form of dreams or while I’m up late at night and the wheels are turning.  It’s at those times that I’m “up again, and writing down.”