Dates!

Dates aren't just for grown-ups...

One thing I've learned (and relearned) is never to underestimate one on one special time with your little one, especially if there is more than one! Sometimes it's the random "cure" for off behavior, a much needed break for both of you away from the day to day to-do list, and most times...it's just plain fun.

I especially need this time with my girls when the holidays start. Between shopping, parties, dressing up, family visits and visiting, pictures, and trying to do the not-so-fun year 'round stuff (cleaning, cooking, etc)...we can forget or put off time just to talk and enjoy time with our kids.

I've learned some really neat things about my girls when it's been just the two of us. It also has opened the door for some deep conversations, and given my oldest the opportunity to share her heart more freely. I've never once regretted the few hours on our "dates."

It's also really important for Dads to take part in this too. There's nothing like daddy time, and please never make the mistake of underestimating it's importance. My husband recently took our 3 year old to a local lotus park/pond for a tea party. To her delight, she was allowed to dress in her Cinderella dress, get all "fancy", and they had a sweet time, just the two of them. She served him "tea" and even cut up his muffin for him. It was a great time for both of them and she almost walked on air for the rest of the day.

So think about what you can do that your child would enjoy, away from the normal routine, just the two of you or your child and husband. What can you do to make it happen? Write in on your calendar, plan it in advance, or life will tend to get in the way.

And trust me...next month you won't remember how clean your floor was or how many loads of laundry you did that week. And neither will your family. But you'll ALL remember and be really changed when you take time to simply enjoy each other, especially around this busy time of the year.

Car Games: Stickers!

On a recent vacation I had to find some fun for my munchkins for the car ride. So we pulled out some stickers, and I started calling out body parts. Their job was to stick the sticker to the correct body part. My toddler loved practicing and my preschooler loved passing out stickers and peeling them from the sheets. This game lasted a good 30 minutes and they were (delightfully) covered from head to toe...literally. It was also a fun and easy way for me to see which body parts I needed to work on. It also gave us a learning opportunity, like learning clavicle, shins, knuckles, and other parts.

This could also work in a grocery store, waiting for food in a restaurant, a doctor's office, or just about anywhere you need to divert some attention for a little while.

In The Car: Finding Colors

This is an activity my husband came up with to keep our children occupied in the car.

He simply says, "I am going to find a blue truck. What are you going to find?" They each choose what color and type of vehicle they will find. They are then quiet as they watch for their chosen vehicle.

Not all children (or parents) will be into the type of vehicle, but we can all do colors.

Sometimes Kaitlyn chooses "pink" or "purple." We always just say okay and let her wait to figure out those vehicles are very few and far between.

This is a fun, simple way to keep everyone focused on something other than the long car ride.

Another Car toy!

It was a complete accident that I discovered the all consuming enchantment my toddler would have with this toy. Are you ready? Here it is........drum roll..........

A half full (or half empty, depending on your point of view) bottle of water.

You are going to do a post on the fun of a half empty water bottle?

Okay, please don't stop reading. I know that sounds mundane, boring, silly, and even obvious.

Here's my story. After an unsuccessful morning nap for my youngest, we traveled to the nearest grocery store for some much needed sustenance. On the way home I was trying my best (without endangering anyone on the road) to keep my toddler awake to preserve the afternoon nap. In a last ditch effort, my daughter passed her my half full water bottle. Her eyes lit up, she squealed happily, and proceeded to shakity-shake-shake that bottle all the way home....fully awake. *insert happy dance here*

So once the girls were down for their naps, I promptly dug through our recycle bin to find any worthy container, and started filling and gluing tops on.
Here are some ideas of what to fill them with:

• water
• colored water (water and food coloring)
• make a mini ocean in a bottle
• water and glitter
• oil and water
• sand
• rice
• sand/rice with small objects, like plastic insects, marbles, dice, part of a crayon, a puff ball, whatever... (leave a little space at the top so when they shake it and rotate it, they can find the objects in the jar/bottle).
• coins
• beans

Use any combination of the things above (colored water, oil, and marbles). Add this to the car wallets, and your little one may actually make it to the afternoon nap. :)

Learning Games On the Go

In a recent Parenting Magazine, Melody Warnick wrote a Keep 'em Busy article to occupy your kiddos for 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes. Some of these ideas are great, so I wanted to share a few with you!

30 Seconds:

• Frozen Frog You are the frog, and when you stick your tongue out, your child has to freeze. They can move again when you say "Ribbit." (works for lots of different animals! Great to review animal noises.)
• Rock the Vote Have your kiddo make a thumbs up or thumbs down when you name different things, like foods, TV shows, colors, activities, places. I bet they surprise you!

2 Minutes:

• Feeling Charades: Act out sad, happy, excited, surprised, grumpy, etc and see if your child can guess. Then let them have a turn! You can also ask them to "Tell me something that makes you feel _____"
• Food Mystery: Give one clue at a time and have them guess. "I at something green. I ate something round. I ate something that comes in a bunch." Great work on using adjectives and being aware of shapes, colors, and attributes in the environment.
• Robot Dance: When you press a pretend button on your kiddo, they have to dance like a robot. You can add "sing like a robot," "eat like a robot," "run like a robot" buttons on them as well. (Be creative!)

5 Minutes:

• Just Like the Other Find 2 things in the room and ask your child to think of something they have in common (they are both green, they are both soft, etc). Then try it with 3 or 4 objects!
• One, Two Wiggles Have your child follow instructions like "Wiggle 6 times" or "Jump 4 times". Or say a number and a body part, like "Hands, five." (They can clap, shake, wave or whatever, 5 times). Fun way to practice counting.

10 Minutes:

• Sit on It A one person game of musical chairs! Have your child circle a chair until you call out a body part, like foot or elbow. Then as fast as they can, they have to touch that part to the chair.
• Something's Missing Dump our a few objects from your purse and let them study it. Then have them close their eyes while you remove an item. See if they can figure out what disappeared.

The Doctor's Office

We are right smack in the middle of winter here in Virginia. We've spent some time at the doctor's office in the past month between the two girls. The doctor's office can be tough. Lots of tempting toys to play with that have previously been played with by sick children that day, probably lots of waiting, and the need for mom to have an uninterrupted chat with the doctors and nurses. So what can you do with your child when you are at the doctor's appointment?
Instead of packing toys that could get lost or are too big to fit in the bag, here's how we keep on learning even when we are out of the house.



I pack a special bag of rarely seen/played with items to help! Here's what is rotated in my tote:

1. A mini doctor's kit- Before the doctor gets in the room (and before the nurse, if we have time) we review what the doctor may do. I go through all the possibilities to hopefully prevent the element of surprise. I may pack a small teddy bear for her to practice. Our doctor is great and examines the teddy bear, too. We listen to the chest, practice taking breaths, look in ears and nose, open the mouth and say "aaaahhh," and even practice what to do in case of a shot. We've been doing this since 18 months old.

2. Mini books- These are for her to look at while the doctor and I talk. We have previously practiced Book Time at home (a time where she reads quietly by herself on the couch) so I just tell her that it's Book Time and we can talk after the doctor is finished. My books are Leveled Readers from my teaching days. I have those set aside for the doctor's office because of their size. Small size means easier to transport.

3. Crayons and Coloring book- Great time to color together. We play "Color Call Out", where we take turns calling out a part of the picture (like Cinderella's slippers) and a color (like green). We rotate calling out the items and the color.

4. Shake and Find jar- I took a few empty disposable water bottles and made them into a fun game for the car or doctor's office. Here's how to make it:
*Wash and dry a plastic bottle, such as a water bottle.
*Add some rice to the bottle, then a small object that you want to hide, another layer of rice and another small object. Continue the layers until you only have 1-2 inches of empty space left at the top of the bottle.
*Use super glue and glue the lid to the bottle. Let it dry.
*Make a list (I have a picture list for my toddler) of items to find. I saved the list to Word so I can print one off when we go off and she can actually mark it off.
*Let them find the objects and check them off as they find them.

5. Play toss the sock- Using one of my books in the bag or a magazine from the room, ball your child's sock up. Let them try to throw it and make it land on the magazine, or even just hit the magazine. (Parenting Magazine August 2008)

6. Pack of sticky notes/stickers- Call out body parts and have them stick the papers or stickers to the correct spot. You can also practice positional words ("Put the sticker on top of ___, under ___," etc).

7. Long piece of yarn and large pasta (with holes)- Have them practice stringing the pasta. They could make a necklace for the nurse, or for themselves. You can bring washable markers to have them decorate the pasta too!

8. Pen-Draw faces on fingers/thumbs and pretend play. "Little Bunny Foo-Foo" and "Where is Thumbkin?" are great choices.

9. Pocket Mirror- Breathe onto a pocket mirror and steam it up. Practice drawing shapes or letters. (Parenting Magazine)

10. Old Magazine and Washable Markers- Let them go through an old magazine and use the corresponding color marker to find things that color in the magazine and check them off. If you don't want to use markers, give them an item to find (pets, drinks, squares) and let them circle/mark them out.

11. Small cookie sheet and dry erase marker-- Draw shapes, letters and have them guess. You can also draw items in the room and see if they can find that item. Another option is to bring a small sandwich bag with magnetic letters which can be used on the cookie sheet.

12. Make ahead bingo- Brainstorm some items they may encounter at the doctor's office and find pictures of those things (I use Google Images). Make a bingo board and see if they can find each of the items. Some choices may be a stethoscope, a nurse, cotton balls, a scale, doctor's chair, or tongue depressor.

13. One thing that is fun and helps teach kids about giving and thinking of others is bringing a special gift to the doctors and nurses. This is helpful if you already know you are going (like well visits) and perhaps especially if you have a child who is a bit nervous about going. It can help ease nerves by giving them something to anticipate...giving a gift that's homemade to the staff! We usually bake brownies or chocolate chip cookies. I also have Charis make a card for the staff.

Hope this helps to make future trips to the doctor a bit more enjoyable for everyone!

Shopping

Now that I have 2 kids, one of the tougher jobs on my list is grocery shopping. Well, shopping in general. I have not yet mastered the art of managing two children, one grocery cart, a crowded grocery store, checking off a list, reading labels, and keeping on budget while teetering oh-too-close to either a nap time or meal time. Don't get me wrong--my girls are remarkably well behaved in the store, even with a mom on the brink of a meltdown. You may have seen me out and about...you know, the one answering the thousandth "What's that?" question from a toddler while trying to see which items are on sale and removing the cart strap from the baby's mouth for the umpteenth time. I may or may not be crying. *wink* On a good day you'll see me humming to myself, trying to enter in to my quiet place where I can actually remember what's on my list. Or where I put my list. Anyways...

So is it possible to learn AND shop at the same time? Sure! Here's a few things you can do while you are out shopping to help your toddler or pre-toddler learn, have fun, and possibly allow you to get some shopping done without having to resort to "The Quiet Game." :)
For most of these, it helps to have a Shopping Notebook set aside that you use especially for the store.

1. Stickers-- Peeling stickers is a great fine motor activity. Chances are your child will/does love stickers. They don't have to be expensive, either. Local dollar stores have a pretty good selection generally. If you come prepared, draw lines or shapes in a notebook and have them put the stickers on the lines/shapes you've drawn. (A little hand-eye coordination work).
Another sticker option is to call out body parts and let them stick them on. "Put a sticker on your knee. Put a sticker on your elbow."

2. Pre-printed lists- This takes a little pre-planning, but is totally worth it at our house! Here are 2 options:
*Print off pictures of items needed. I use Google Images, cut and paste. I also put them in order of the aisles at Wal-Mart. For example, I know I start in the back of the store with dairy. So all my dairy items are at the top. You can then ask them "What's next?" "What's first?" "What's last?"
*As you shop, call out items on the list and have your child check them off, or mark through them. It will take them a little while to find them and then mark through them.
For older kids, you won't need to call out anything. Just let them observe and check it off!

3. Coupon sorter: Get your coupons ready and as you get your item, let them look through a stack and see if there is a coupon for that item.

4. I spy: This is a personal game, not one they play with you. Draw or print off a picture of an item and glue it on the top of one page (example: a shirt). Then make a column of colors, like a red shirt, blue shirt, green, etc. As they go through the store they have to see if they can find these things, and then check them off. As you wait in line, help them finish off the list and see how many they've gotten.This is a good chance to work on colors, observation, and tallying.
*For older kids, see if they can find more challenging things, like something sweet, grumpy people, happy people, a kid with a toy, a baby with a bottle, etc.


5. I got this idea from Parenting Magazine--
"Honk if you love..." (or quack, whatever) Choose a funny sound and an object. Whenever you see the object (a teddy bear, a circle, a baby) you both have to make the sound. They'll be very focused on looking around and making the funny sounds. It makes shopping fun for us. :)

6. Again, from Parenting---
"Posers in Waiting"--Both of you strike a pose and hold it until the line moves, like making a face, stand on one foot. The person that stays still the longest gets to choose the next pose.

7. Can you find..
*Someone that has the same color shirt on as you?
*Someone with mommy's hair color?
*Someone with something in their cart the same as ours?
*A mommy shopping with 2 kids, like us?

8. Texture talk- As you bag up your produce, ask them questions. "Do you see a food that looks bumpy? How does this feel? Is this soft or hard?" You can even involve them in the process of choosing your food. "I'm looking for bananas that have NO brown on them. Can you find some bananas that don't have any brown?" or "See how this apple has a little spot on it that feels soft. We don't want that one. Check this apple and see if it looks good." "When we pick out a cantaloupe, you can smell this part. If we can smell cantaloupe, it might be a good one. Do you smell anything?"

9. And finally...the Quiet Game. Or the Still Game. Personal favorites of mine when you just need a moment. Pretty simple--see how they can sit perfectly still or perfectly quiet. *Aaaahhh...*

How about for the babies? Talk, talk, talk. Tell them what you are doing, what's on your list, what you see.

Happy Shopping!
Any tricks in your bag? Share!!