Encouraging Mamas . Educating Littles
Lifestyle Blog
Before I had my sweet babies, I worked as a Special Education teacher for children with emotional and behavioral disabilities. I spent a lot of time co-teaching with our amazing social worker and this was a version of one of the lessons we did! My hope for for this lesson, is to help littles understand the importance of inclusion and the impact kindness has on others.
Read MoreWe have gone through a lot of playdough since E has been old enough to play with it! In an effort save some money we tried to make our own.
Read MoreOh this play theme has been so much fun and has stirred up a lot of great conversations with Emma. She is really getting to the age where she can identify her feelings but still needs help managing them ;) I think the person who came up with the phrase 'all the feels' had a toddler because we really experience all the feels in a thirty seconds or less. These books and activities have been a great way to encourage both of my babes and their very different personalities.
Read MoreAfter Henry's first birthday, we had a lot of new toys to fill our playroom! I wanted to really clean it out with as few things as possible to make our play time more intentional and clean-up easier. This made me want to change our artwork up on a budget of course. When I worked at Giant Steps during college, we would do a similar activity with the amazing art therapist. We would use huge pieces of paper and let the kids paint it with badminton rackets and paint. SO MUCH FUN. This is a scaled down version for my two-year-old but proved to be just as fun!
Read MoreI know that everyone says this, but I just can't believe my buddy is ONE! We got off to a rough start with our guy, but it was so perfect to celebrate his birthday and how far he has come. I decided on a buffalo plaid/camping theme for the party.
Read MoreI put play-doh in the bottom of each plastic cup and labeled them with number stickers. Emma was able to count and sort her flowers into each cup. I got the flowers at the dollar store and each stem had multiple flowers on it so I just cut them apart and sprayed them with a little perfume for fun!
Read MoreWe were thrilled to open up our box of goodies from Mudpuppy Kids! Their products are created for children ages 1-6+ including games, puzzles, crafts & books. They incorporate illustrations from well-known artists and classic children's book characters. We loved each item we received!
Read MoreEmma has been a pretty picky eater since I started making her baby food at six months. And while we definitely still give her veggies at meals, incorporating them into smoothies reassures me that she's actually consuming them without the struggle!We've tried a lot of different variations of smoothies but these two have been our favorite combinations so far. I like adding the plain greek yogurt in both of them for some added protein too!
Read MoreOur shape theme has been Emma's favorite one to date! I typically keep the theme activities and books out for about three weeks, take a week to slowly put it away and start a new theme the next week for a new month! I started doing this as an easy way to rotate the books and toys to keep our playroom simple. Emma plays more intentionally with less toys around and it makes for much less clean-up!
Read MoreWe have been busy this week working on our play theme, 'Things That GO!' I was able to figure out some activities for my 9 month old and my 2 year old with this theme and it has been FUN! When I do a play theme like this, I never plan exactly when I will do each activity. I just make sure I have what I need on hand and pull things out as needed! Every day looks different around here and it is so nice to have a few structured activities to while we're at home together.
Read MoreMy little buddies are nineteen and a half months apart and I am always trying to think of activities that they can do (somewhat) together! I did this process art activity with my self-contained class when I taught Special Education. It's a fun, mess-free, sensory activity using things you probably already have!
Read MoreAs Emma gets older, I really love having her help me in the kitchen. It always takes longer and it's a lot messier, but the moments together are just so sweet! We made a few easy treats for Valentine's day that were more assembling than cooking, but we won't tell her that ;)
Read MoreEmma turned two in September, so she is able to count up to ten but is just learning to identify the actual numbers. We matched the tops of the cupcakes to the bottoms together many times before she was able to complete it independently.
Read MoreUsing the light table was one of my favorite centers as an early childhood teacher. Thought I could throw some things together to recreate the same idea as a light table and it was a success!
Read MoreThe structured time is good for all of us. You know that awkward time after the afternoon nap but before dinner time/whenever dad gets home? It's the worst. Adding some special activities out of things you may already have can make it more manageable!
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