Merry Christmas

I am taking a break from blogging for the next week to celebrate the holiday's with my family. Thank your to everyone who has been supportive of my new little venture and for your kind words. Warm wishes to everyone this christmas!
Sarah

Beautiful Books

 I set out a book basket this holiday and the kids have been enjoying the christmas collection that my family has.

The Mitten is a delightful book about a boy who loses his mitten in the snow and the animals who seek comfort in it. It's short enough to read to a toddler without losing them and the pictures are wonderful.

Room for a little one is also the perfect length for a toddler and tells the story of Jesus birth through the barn animals, I love this book!

The Christmas Sweater By Glenn Beck is my husband favourite and is constantly missing from the basket only to be found in Max's bed after the read at night!

Something about christmas makes it ok to sing the same song everyday without getting sick out it, read the same book and never grow tired. I have memories of christmas books that I read as child and I'm hoping that my kids and the kids that I care for will have the same happiness from these books.

Can you hear what I hear

Sometimes I hear myself throughout the day, I hear myself nagging, and directing and controlling. I don't know if as parents we can help it, if we can parent without conflict because not matter what at least once a day you have to request something from your child that they are not going to want to do. Brush your teeth, clean up, come for dinner, get your shoes on .....all simple requests but for some reason most come with a struggle a bribe and a hurried plead. I have been trying very hard to listen to myself and the children to slow down and remember that they are small and the day is big, the day is big for me so I can see how they feel the need to resist.
My husband and I have been changing our family ways over the past year, we have chosen to live a simpler life, to go out less, to eat in more, to talk more and listen more. We eat dinner together every night and our 2 year old can only seem to stay seated for about 10 minutes and nightly Daddy says to Max please eat with me I want to hear about your day. Just barley able to form a complete sentence Max is excited at this request and I translate what Daddy can't decipher as Max describes his daily highlights sometimes things that didn't happen that day but are clearly fond memories that we are excited to see he is forming.

What used to happen at our table was me begging and Max crying and both of us giving up frustrated. I was only focused on him eating his dinner forgetting that when you are two that's the last thing you are going to focus on. Mike and I used to talk between ourselves forgetting that little words needed to be heard. Now we listen and when he is done and we are all satisfied he is excused and we talk adult talk and listen to the chatter of make believe in the background and everyone is happy.

I am please with our approach to control our parenting instead of trying to control our child.

When our days seem to be filled with chaos and tantrums I encourage myself to be mindful of their world to take a deep breath and take time to listen.

Giving

 Last week was our last swimming session for the year and I wanted to make something for the boys teachers. Especially Max's teacher as he gave her a run for her money the first few weeks! So I thought it would be nice to have Max make the gifts. I needed a quick idea so that we could work on it while the baby napped. This was perfect and Max did almost all the work. I had him line up all the pretzels then told him that he must open all of the chocolates and place one on each pretzel before he was allowed to eat one.




 He worked very hard to unwrap each one and perfectly placed it on the pretzels all the while chatting about swimming and blowing bubbles and kicking his feet. When he was finished he was thrilled to be able to eat the left over's and I was melted to see that even though there were only three chocolates left over he still offered one to our dear friend who came for a visit and gladly ate the half melted offering, and the last one he offered to me. Makes a mommy so proud.

After melting the kisses in the oven I placed the smarties on as it was a pretty warm job for little hands! That night at swimming Max was so excited to hand out the treats and thank his teacher for all her hard work.

 

Happy Hands

By the end of the day my two year old is always needy for my attention after all the other kids have gone home. I hate sitting him in front of the tv so I always try to include him in dinner prep and I love it! But some day's I just don't have the time to let him help or it's something that isn't child friendly. So one night out of desperation I made a little sensory tub that I now keep in the cupboard for when that little voice asks to help and I need to keep his hands busy. I keep changing the toys that are in it and switch the contents from rice to pop corn to barely and it seems help him feel needed and me keep up with my task.

If you are looking for something to keep the little hands in your house busy try this!

The Little People Place: Creative Christmas

The Little People Place: Creative Christmas: "When were we learning the letter B the kids got hooked on singing Brown Bear and doing the actions we still do it by request about 3 times a..."

Creative Christmas

When were we learning the letter B the kids got hooked on singing Brown Bear and doing the actions we still do it by request about 3 times a day.


So I searched for something that we could do for christmas and didn't really find anything that I liked or that the kids liked. So I came up with my own little finger puppet rhyme and found a great tutorial on making finger puppets here.

Here is the poem

One little reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh


Oh no who will help me today


Two little reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh

Oh no who will help us today


Three little reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh


Oh no who will help them today

Four little reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh


Oh no who will help them today


Five little reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh

All the way to christmas day

It's simple and silly and they love it!
The have also taken this poem and started walking around the room holding each other's shoulders like a conga line pretending to pull Santa's sleigh.

Today we made our christmas wreaths and the boys amazed me. We have only been using glue for a short time and at first it was all they could do to not squeeze the whole bottle out at once but now that are actually crafting with purpose and using the glue to help them create. We started this craft with just the paper wreath and yarn that the boys wrapped around and around and then the glued on all their decorations. This time last year I was still pulling crayon's out of their mouths and now they are little artist.



Whenever we finish a craft they hold up their work and I say lets all clap for (the persons name) then we all clap for each other's work but today half of the work fell on the floor so we skipped the clapping till after nap!

Tis the Season

Last week I was feeling a tickle in my throat and was feeling panic in my chest at the thought of getting sick and then everyone around me getting sick. The runny nose had started and I was going through about 4 boxes of kleenex a day......ok maybe I am over reacting but I did get a slight sore throat and I did panic! So I was craving cold things and was thinking maybe my little people were to.
So I got out the blender and made some frozen treats.

I wanted them to have some nutritional value to them so I added frozen blueberries, bananas, yogurt and a little bit of OJ I only blended it for a moment so that it would stay thick.

I made them in little cups because we all know how long and messy it can become when a 2 year old is eating a popsicle.

I put them in a little container in my freezer then about an hour later used the kids spoons at sticks and froze them for another hour.

When nap time was done my treats were ready and the kids loved them.
 

I felt good giving it to them because it was so fun for them to eat and so good for them!

Other things I might ad next time.
Avocado and lemon
Sweet potato and apples
tofu and banana's
If you have a great smoothie recipe I would love to hear it just leave a note in the comment box.

Our Christmas work has begun. I am taking a break from the Alphabet for the month of December to have some christmas fun as we learn. Here are a few things that we are working with.

Above is  Rudolph color nose matching cards

 I cut out these little felt snow men and the kids have already had fun putting them together.

We are going to try stamping for the first time

 
Everyone already loves lacing so I thought we could use bells and pipe cleaners to make our own jingle bells.




 
 We are going to use these foam stamps with paint to make some wrapping paper

 Tonging is always a favourite so we are going to be tonging bells

 This is the advent calendar that I made it's just a shoe rack with card stock numbers and close pins I filled the pockets with enough candies for each child to have one a day. I found the template for this advent here

More tonging with pom poms

I hope this inspires you to create some christmas activities for your little people.

Christmas Post

Christmas Crazy

So I am a little bit of a christmas nut. It's my Dad fault he made christmas magic for us every year, then we talked about it all year long. He even keeps a christmas journal! We tease him but really he has made it so that even in my adult life I feel like each year Santa is going to come down the chimney and bring me everything I wished for. This year all my little people are old enough to understand Santa and I am so excited to fill them with the magic. My little man loves getting the mail with me so I came up with the idea to make our own mail box and let the kids write letters to Santa.



All I did was take an old box, paint it with glitter paint and apply some letter stickers I already had. Then I found some left over envelops and card stock that look christmassy and the kids will be able to write letters to Santa and mail them. I made a little door at the back of the box because I know they will want to be able take the mail in and out a few times.
I'm just going to set them up with the supplies and see where they take it.

I will be posting more christmas fun as we get closer to the big day! I'm trying not to go over board but already my head is spinning with idea's.
I would love to know what you are planning for christmas activities or what traditions you already have.

Happy Holiday planning

Menu's

I decided I would post a menu every once in a while I know myself that it is hard to come up with new and exciting things for them to eat! Mostly I just try to keep it simple so that everyone will like it and it's healthy!


This week’s Menu

Monday
Snack: banana, arrow root cookies
Lunch: veggie pancakes
Snack: Yogurt Graham crackers

Tuesday
Snack: raspberries, arrowroot
Lunch: Nuggets, fries, Fruit cocktail
Snack: toddler granola (dry cereal. raisins, and pretzels)

Wednesday
Snack: Banana bread Dried fruit
Lunch: chicken and rice, Yogurt
Snack: apple slices and dry cereal

Thursday
Snack: cut veggies, gold fish
Lunch: Ham, pasta & veggies
Snack: Teddy graham’s

Friday
Snack: Grapes and cheese
Lunch: Pizza’s apples
Snack: cereal bars


I love the book Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld click HERE to see, so I try really hard to use as many of her recipes as I can. I also make things a head of time to make sure that all I have to do it pull it out heat it and serve it when the little ones are ready! Lunch is always a crazy time no matter how many kids you have, I just always pray that more food ends up in their tummies then on my floor! Thank god for a swiffer vac. You Can also check out a creative lunch post at Loveable Lunch

Recycled Fun

So clearly I can't afford to supply new toys for the kids on the regular basic I'm not sure anyone doing home child care can nor can many parents, so I am taking an old fashion approach to play and being more creative with what I give them. I'm going to sound old saying this statement but when I was a little kid we really used to find our own fun and I want to encourage that in my own kids as much as I can. I'm dying to throw out all of our plastic and one dimensional toys and replace them with puppets, and silks I found here, more wooden toys and the imagination that will come out of that! I'm in love with the blog Salt and Chocolate and inspired with her simple approach to play check out her blog here So like I said in a past post I have been saving my recycling and decided to ad some of it to our play kitchen. Since all my little people are starting to talk and understand each other they have been thrilled to play with containers that they recognize and enjoy making food and calling each other to dinner. It also turned out to be a fine motor activity learning how to open each container. I love when something so simple and free turns out to be endless fun.

Happy Friday

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Snack Time

Today we tried serving ourselves our snacks including our drinks. I had everything set out in trays to help them stay in place and put our snacks in containers that wouldn't be frustrating for the kids to scoop from.

Everyone was very careful

waited their turns

enjoyed scooping

and pouring

and drinking from big cups

I hope tonight when they go to bed they feel proud of the big steps they have taken today!!

Living The Letter

Living the Letter B

This week we are living the letter B and I say living instead of learning because that is what it has become! Here are some of the B things we have done!



We Blew Bubbles in Blue cups with blue straws!

We Baked Bread (pizza dough) in our little oven. I baked it upstairs after they were done and they were thrilled to have it for lunch! Until they realized that I over baked it and some were like little rocks!

We made Ball painting with marbles and paint!

We read, sang and danced to Brown Bear!
Brown Bear Brown Bear trun around Brown Bear Brown Bear touch the ground,
Brown Bear Brown Bear reach up high, Brown Bear Brown Bear wink one eye
Brown Bear Brown Bear slap your knees, Brown Bear Brown Bear sit down please.

We Balanced trucks on Blocks and Brushed them with water. This is something I didn't come up with I had just set out a bunch of stuff on our table that started with the letter B and the boys started making little car washes. They asked me for water and did very well keeping it in the bowls. When we did have a spill they knew to grab a towel and clean it up.

We Buckled Belts

We Batted Balls with Brushes ( this also was something they started doing on their own and the loved)

We used nuts and Blots! This is a fine motor activity we have been working on for a while. I found this idea over at counting coconuts blog you can fine them HERE

I found with this weeks learning it was easy to find things around my house to fill our days with and sometimes the things I had intended on the children doing with the object they didn't end up doing, instead they were able to come up with their own idea's and learned through play!

I have one more thing to ad about our week in the letter B. I am a little addicted to planning and last night when I should have been sleeping I couldn't stop thinking about how much fun the boys had with there car wash, so I decided today we would make boats and I would be very brave and let them float!! It was a whole lot of messy fun!

I keep a lot of our recycling so that I can use it for crafts and activities so today's boats were made out of our recycling. We just put some of our home made play dough in the bottom of the boat and then a straw and they could pick between a foam sail or a felt sail. These were so easy to make and the kids were able to put them together with little to no help.






Happy Sailing.