Anna Talk. Charlie Thoughts.

The development of the kids is always interesting. Anna, two, can repeat almost everything we say (even long complicated sentences with long complicated words). She has memorized the text of books, and can "read"  them. She knows the numbers up to four or five, and can point them out (as the cardinality of a group) or count them out.

  
Charlie, four, is interested in superheros, remote control, and trains. He has started to ask about hard concepts like death, jealousy and social exclusion. He recalls events and dreams, and recounts them understandably.

Firefighters - Melrose

My wife and our two small children did a Melrose firehouse visit a few weekends back. http://www.melrose-firefighters.org/

The fire fighters were great. Gave a good presentation. Let the kids climb a bit.

Memories from childhood were there: Call 911 (911 was not universal in my childhood), Get safely to a nearby assembly point. Also remember “stop, drop, and roll”, avoid standing up in a smoke filled room, and test doors for heat before exiting. Smoke detectors seem to have largely prevented those problems.

A few things we had not thought of…

When one is leaving/assembling turn the porch light on. Make your house stand out from the others nearby so that the first responders have an extra few seconds.

The real kicker:

The firefighters did a demo of how they put on their gear. At first this seemed like entertainment. But the demo was about getting the little ones to realize that there is a person under all that protective gear – a person who is there to help. The little ones got more apprehensive as the gear was donned, and warning beeps started coming from radios and breathing gear, and the fire fighter started to look increasingly inhuman. It took some encouragement to get them to come up for a high five and/or a photo. The point being made was to not run away from the firefighter. The firefighters made special note to enjoin the kids to not hide when there was a fire – especially from the first responders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefighter