my little corner of organized crafty chaos
In preparation of St. Patrick’s Day and Green week in my Tot School plan, I put together a green water bead sensory bin! If you have never played with water beads you are really missing out man. It’s like if you could make Jello more solid and more slippery and well less edible!
Everyone is more than they make themselves out to be. You never know what you may have in common with someone else. In an effort to give you a little more info about me and maybe find some of that common ground, I pulled together a list of random facts. They make up part of who am. Megan, who is more than just a mama. Leave a comment if we have any of these things in common!
If you have never tried toy rotations you really should! It’s amazing how much more they will play with something when they just haven’t seen it for a while! I rotate 6-8 toys, as well as a puzzle. Her babydolls, play kitchen, some blocks and her gross motor toys stay out full time. I keep the rest of her toys tucked away in her closet. I call our toy display, her play shelf but really it’s just the bottom shelves of the living room bookcases! Also Let me know if you would want to see a toy storage post. You know me I love to talk organization. 😉
Bitty has been on a routine of some kind her whole life. her 18 month routine has just evolved naturally as her needs change. With the exception of us learning her sleep needs as a baby she has been a very good kid as far as going with the flow and I don’t know if that has anything to do with our routines but it makes it nice when I have to change things up a bit!
This is our first real month of tot school. Prior to this, I would randomly pull an activity out. I wanted to start slow to make sure that we were both okay with it and not overwhelmed. (to be honest, she’s a pretty chill kid so she would be fine I didn’t want to bite off more than I could chew…lol) So our March Tot School is more or less just a theme for me to work with and maybe a couple of new words for her to hear.
You’ve heard about them in parenting groups on Facebook, you’ve looked them up on Pinterest and you just don’t know where to start. No Worries! I am here for you and I will hold your hand through your introduction to sensory bins. You wont regret it I promise!
Sensory bins can be as fancy or simple as you want. In truth all you need is a container, scoops and a filler of some sort. All the extra things are just that. Extra. The most important part is to have fun and embrace the mess just a little bit.
Continue reading “Introduction to Sensory Bins: What you need to know”I am all for letting a child have access to as much of the house as possible. We keep cleaning supplies up high or locked away and small choking hazards also out of her reach, but other than that its free for her to explore
The living/ dining room is our home base for most of the day. This is where her toys that are out on rotation are displayed. We are lucky enough to have a spacious living room with space for multiple toddler play spaces!
Tot School is not quite preschool – there is no structured lessons or specific thing she has to learn. But it’s also more than just daycare. It’s more about exposure to concepts and everyday tasks, as well as the chance to practice skills that those busy toddler brains are already learning. It also gives a theme for some direction and keeps things interesting for everyone!
Bitty is 18 months old right now and I find that if I don’t have some kind of plan in place we end up watching too much TV. So what did I do? I made a plan, and not just loose ‘hmmm here’s a couple ideas’ kind of plan. There are tables and categories and themes. Just like you would expect my type A brain to do!
Continue reading “How to get started with Tot School for Young Toddlers”With Bitty solidly in toddler land things are changing everyday. Tried and true baby tricks are out of the window and she is ready for more “big girl” activities. I feel like toddlers are a whole new challenge, but they payoff is some real connection and communication and I LOVE that!
Motor skills have never been behind for this little lady. She was walking at 11 months and has never slowed down. She dances all the time (and has some killer moves too), we saw the precursor to jumping the other day and she is climbing her Pikler all the time. She has recently decided that she needs help getting down off her stools, which is a bit of a regression so I am trying to re-teach her how to do that.
Her sign language has really been taking off! She has had all done, more, please, eat, drink and nightnight for months. Help…she does wrong…but she has done it the same way for so long, no matter how many times I correct her that I give up! She also has dog and cat and bird and squirrel, and train. We recently added Daddy and she latched on to that one. Mommy she still won’t do, but she did pick up on the sign we created for her name really quickly.
She has been able to say Mom and Dada for quite some time, but just a week we added our first other words. Join us, as we have entered the “no” phase. She very clearly says no and yup and actually means what she says maybe 50% of the time. We might also have heard ball, I’m waiting to see if it stays consistent. We do make a lot of animal noises as well. Woof, Meow, Moo, Neigh, Baa are the most common.
Continue reading “Toddler 18 Month Update”