Organized Play

We've been spending more time at home, especially in the mornings, since Matilda was born, and I find that Shelby can get bored...and boredom leads to mischief and messes.  Using a toddler trays system for offering her a variety of activities has really helped with this.  Here's the idea:

Each tray has a different variety of activities.  The purple tray has a patterning activity, a few noodles that can they be sorted by color using the tweezers, and then the noodles can be made into a patterned necklace.  The blue tray has stamps that spell "Shelby" and are for finishing her Christmas thank you cards.  The green tray has Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and a big white "J" with "J" stickers and stamps for decorating. The blue tray has a xylophone for practicing lowest to highest notes.  Underneath it are different sizes of different colored paper to first sort by size and then sort by color.  There is a numbers tray in the background to rotate in after she finishes one tray.  The numbers tray has a puzzle, a book, and a counting/graphing activity she can do with a stamp marker.  She may choose to do 2 or 3 trays in a given morning, but they well-organized layout seems to pique her interest and help her to select an activity.  It's not forced on her, but it just offers options and helps stave off boredom.

Winter Light

For me, the best days are usually the really fun ones with things like trips to the zoo, concerts and picnics in the park, or visits to museums. But sometimes the best days are the ones full of warm mugs of coffee, jammies, playing dolls and doing puzzles, and never setting foot outside of the house. Today was one of those days. The girls were up from their afternoon naps by 1:30, so my first thought was to gather them up and run an errand to Costco or Trader Joe's. I even put my jeans on. But then I just felt so restrained in my jeans. They just didn't feel good compared to my cozy sweats. And the girls were playing so nicely, Shelby on the floor reading a book to Matilda. And I couldn't get Matilda to nurse and I really hate getting into these situations where I have to nurse somewhere super inconvenient like Trader Joe's. So I put my sweats back on. And decided if the extra long afternoon took a turn for the worse with two sick girls and a sick mom I'd resort to Sesame Street. And I ended up not needing Sesame Street at all.

After a bit of playing and rearranging my bedroom shelves, I decided to do a science experiment with Shelby. I poured a box of baking soda in a container and let Shelby do some finger play. She quickly commented on how the baking soda was like the snow that was falling outside. Then I filled three bowls with vinegar and as I turned to get the paint for coloring the vinegar, Shelby dumped an entire bowl of vinegar into the baking soda. All that fizzing totally wowed her! Luckily I had another box of baking soda to start over with. For the vinegar, I just poured a bit of tempera paint in to color it, and then she used eye droppers to squirt the vinegar into the baking soda and watch it fizz and color it.

After science time, she went outside to play in the snow. See her snow angels? 

Matilda had a ball watching her through the door from her high chair.

After a nice cup of hot cocoa (Shelby's first!, and as she commented, “Just like Charlie and Lola” in Snow is My Favorite and My Best), Shelby played with the lightbox I made for her while I fed Matilda. This lightbox is great because it captivates Matilda as well. It was so easy to make and so worth it since these light tables are so crazy expensive. I just used an IKEA container and first did a coat of spray paint primer and then a coat of metallic silver paint. Inside, I put one battery operated fluorescent light from Walmart. I stole the idea from www.teachpreschool.org. Those are magformers and felt shapes from her felt board on top.

What we do with ourselves...in case you are dying to know

We are in two playgroups, both of which formed when Shelby was 4 months old. Some of the babies in her playgroup are a full 6 months younger than Shelby, so we have known some of these cute little munchkins for nearly their entire lives! It's a really special thing to see a group of babies (and now toddlers) grow up together, learn each others' names, learn to play together (as Shelby is just beginning to play games like ring around the rosie with her friends!), and an even more special thing to have a group of moms to bond with and seek support from.

We take an art class once a week. It has been great for giving me ideas of arts and crafts to do with Shelby.

We also take a music class once a week. This is our second time taking music, and Shelby really enjoyed it the first time around though it took a few sessions for her to come out of her shell. This time around, we are taking the class with a different franchise and things are a little bit different from the other class – younger instructor, slightly different ways of doing things – not bad per se, but different. We are three sessions in and Shelby doesn't seem engaged in it, but I'm not sure if it's just that she needs a bit more time to warm up to the new environment.

We are currently on a break from our gymnastics classes and won't be resuming for a couple of weeks, but Shelby is 100% in her element in these classes and I am eager for them to begin again.