Old Return Address Labels
Although it may be tedious work to cut the picture off old return address labels, they can be put to good use as stickers for your child. Some relatives recently moved and gave The Boy all of their old return address labels to play with. We cut the name and address portion off and now have a good-sized bag of fun stickers for him.
Toddlerobics
We’ve recently discovered the Toddlerobics books and they have fast become favorites. One of our recent posts talked about ‘do-it-yourself’ toddler classes. If a gymnastics/activity class is not in the budget for you, check out these books for some toddlerobics at home. The Boy loves to do the activities in the book as I read them. Zita Newcome’s rhymes and illustrations appeal to children and adults alike. You can use these books to do a 20-30 minute gymnastics class at home!
Toddler Classes at Home
There are many classes available out there for toddler and preschool age kids, especially in urban areas. However, classes can be expensive and hard to fit into the budget of a single income family. If classes aren’t going to fit into your budget, here are some ideas of ways to do class activities and socialization at home.
1. Form a Playgroup. If you don’t know anyone in your area with kids, start hanging out at the park or another play area. If you already have some friends who are also stay at home parents, organize one or more day(s) per week to get your kids together to play. A park is an ideal place to start. When the weather turns bad, try a play area inside a mall or other free play area. This may not be a structured activity, but it will get your child playing with and around other children, an important part of early socialization skills.
2. Plan ‘Classes’ at Home. Plan an hour (or 10 minutes) every day (or once a week) to do some structures ‘class’ activities at home.
For Gymnastics: Put some pillows on the floor and let the kids do tumbling. Practice balancing on one foot, hopping and doing other stretching/tumbling activities.
For Art: Put a protective cover on the table and get out the paints. Use crayons, colored pencils, watercolors, scissors, glue, stickers and paper and simply let the kids explore different types of media.
For Music: If you are not a singer yourself, find a cd or dvd that has some good singing and encourage your kids to sing along. If you have toy musical instruments, get them out and have ‘band practice.’ Find songs that have a good rhythm for clapping hands and tapping toes. Sing songs that include movements like “Hokey-Pokey” and “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.”
Getting an Early Start on Chores
Don’t think that just because your child is a toddler that they cannot start helping with ‘chores’ around the house. I have noticed that there is a window of opportunity where kids actually like to help. By taking advantage of that early window, you can set up routines and examples for your kids to follow as they grow.
Picking up Toys: I think the best way to start forming good habits is to have kids help pick up and put away their own toys. Teach them early on that part of playing with toys is putting them away. Even if you put away 90% of the toys and they only put away 10%, it is a good start.
Laundry: Putting dirty clothes in the laundry basket is a good place to start for kids helping with laundry. After they get undressed, ask your toddler to pick up the clothes and take them to the laundry basket. This works best if the laundry basket is low to the ground. If you have a taller hamper, consider putting a small step stool nearby. Toddlers and preschoolers might also be able to help load the washer and dryer, especially if you use front loaders.
Dining Table: Most preschoolers can start to help setting the table. Be prepared for things to be put in the wrong place and dropped on the floor though. Silverware might be a good place to start. For example, ask your child to take these spoons and put one at everyone’s place at the table. Or say, here is your cup, go put it at your place. Cleaning up after meals is a little more tricky. We typically head right into potty time or bath time or nap time right after meals, so help in clearing a washing up will have to start a little farther down the road for us.
Cleaning: Dusting is a great place for toddlers and preschoolers to begin helping. Give them a damp dust rag while you are dusting and let them go at it. They might just move the dust around instead of wiping it up, but at least they are getting the idea of wiping down the furniture. *Remember to keep toxic cleaning chemicals away from your child.
Yard Work: Most kids love to play outside. Make outside chores a fun activity for your child. If you are working in the garden, let them have a small plot in which to dig and use a watering can. Weeding (provided you are specific about what is a weed and what is not) can be another fun chore. The Boy also loves helping pick up clippings and taking them to the street or to the compost pile. Sometimes a child-sized accessory (like kid gardening gloves) is all it takes for kids to actually want to help out!
Free and Amazing Photo Organizer
So you have kids and a digital camera. That probably means you have anywhere from 1-10000 pictures and videos of them. Most digital cameras come with software to help you organize and edit your photos, but most leave a lot to be desired. One of the best programs out here also happens to be free! It is called Picasa.
This program is amazing. It can watch your picture folders, adding new ones anytime you plug in your camera. It creates thumbnails of all your videos and pictures for easy organizing and editing. You can do a lot of basic editing, cropping, red eye reduction and a bunch more.
One of the best features is you can choose what format to print pictures in. You can have wallets, 5×7, 4×6, all the common formats. You can print out the best pictures and give to family members as gifts!
You can also have it resize images before you email them so you don’t clog your family’s email accounts with glorious pictures of your kids.
Once I discovered this, I threw out the horrible Canon software and have never looked back. And that was about 6000 pictures ago!
Paper Tablecloths
I don’t endorse using paper tablecloths, but sometimes you need to, right? Maybe to match with shower decorations, or at an outdoor party. After it is used, don’t throw it away! Check it for food stains (cut out or tear those parts off and throw them away), then save the rest. Here are some ideas for how to use it.
-Spread it out and let your kids go crazy with crayons or markers (just be sure the markers don’t bleed through to whatever is underneath).
-Cut it into smaller pieces to use for travel placemats or smaller coloring pages.
-Spread it out as a table protector for messy art times.
-Let your kids practice cutting with scissors (and supervision!).
-If it has a print, cut out the animals, flowers or whatnot and use them for other pasting crafts.
If you have to buy a paper tablecloth, be sure you get your money’s worth out of it!
Reading Comprehension, Part 1
I have probably said this before, but, being a former teacher, I feel very strongly about it. Read to your child every day! Children who are read to at home will perform better in school on down the road. Take the time now to read to your child. Even 5 minutes a day will help them to develop their own reading skills.
Infants may not understand the words, but they will certainly understand the soothing sound of your voice while you read to them. At this age you are already beginning to model reading fluency to them even if you don’t know it! As your baby grows, begin to choose books that have bright pictures and easy cadences. Rhyming and pattern books are good to start with too.
Older babies may start to grab at the book or even eat it! Don’t worry, keep modeling good reading. You can give them a board book or vinyl book to hold/play with while you read to them. When babies start to reach the toddler phase, they may appear to not be interested in books or sitting still. You can, however, still model good reading to them. Sit and read your own book, magazine or newspaper while they are playing. Read out loud just one of their stories and then go back to reading your own material. Read to your child in little spurts. One short book before each sleep time or maybe even a short book while they are eating a meal.
As your toddler begins to show more interest in books, let them choose what they want you to read to them. You may find yourself reading the same things over and over. If this happens, after a while, pause at familiar lines and see if they can ‘fill in the blank’ for you. To vary the reading selection use the ‘you pick one book and I’ll pick one book’ routine. While you are reading the same book for the fifth time in a day for the fourteenth day in a row, remember that one day you will probably walk into the room to see your child ‘reading’ that book aloud by himself! And all because you read it to him so many times.
When your child is old enough and has the attention span for it, try short chapter books. Read one chapter or more per day. Continue to read to your child (even for just 5 minutes per day) as your child progresses through school. One day they will probably be too ‘old’ for that. Treasure this special time that you have with them and love of reading it will develop.
Thank You Notes
It is easy to have your kids be involved in the thank you note process, no matter what the age.
For the very young: Write thank yous for the gifts your young children have received on note paper made from their own drawings. Let kids fingerpaint or color on blank notecards or on regular paper that can be cut down or folded to fit in an envelope.
For toddlers and pre-schoolers: Let your child ‘write’ the thank you themselves. Then ‘translate’ the scribbles into readable English. If the kids are starting to write their own names, let them sign the thank you note.
For primary ages: Kids can draw a picture of the gift (wearing the sweater from Grandma or playing with the toy from Uncle Matt) and you can write the thank you words they dictate to you. By this age, though, many children should be able to start writing sentences. A simple Thank You Frame (see below) is appropriate for this age.
For older elementary kids and above: By the time your child is in fourth grade an above, they should be capable of writing thank you notes themselves. One strategy for getting kids to get thank you notes done is to not let them use the gift until the thank you has been written. Another idea is to set aside one morning or afternoon for thank you writing. Put all the supplies that kids will need (pens, pencils, paper, envelopes, stamps, addresses, gift lists) on the dining table. Sit down as a family and have everyone complete their holiday thank you notes. You can do yours at the same time and be a good model for your kids!
All Ages: Take a digital picture of your child with or without the gift and attach it to an email to the giver. Or print the picture on regular paper and use that as your stationary.
Must Have Toys From Yesterday
If you are burned out on all the latest gadgets, fear not! Here is a great list of must have toys from the 1950’s and beyond!
Re-live all your favorite toys and maybe get some holiday shopping ideas!
Make a Homemade Wreath
In years past, we have bought a fresh Christmas wreath for the front door. This year, to try to save money, I attempted a homemade one and am pretty happy with the results. Here’s what I suggest:
1. Find some greenery. We have a juniper tree in our yard that works very well. If you can, go with something that won’t get brown too quickly. Evergreen-type branches work the best. Cut an armful (more if you want a bigger wreath).
2. Cut some rosemary (if you have it) to use as well. This lends a wonderful aroma to your wreath.
3. I used some red berries from a tree down the street (get permission if you are trimming from a neighbor’s yard!).
4. Lay out a sheet (especially if you put the wreath together inside the house).
5. Find some malleable wire. I used beading wire and it worked quite well.
6. Gather one or two pieces of your evergreen, one or two sprigs of rosemary and one sprig of berries. (I only used 4 sprigs of berries total; not every bunch had one.)
7. Bind them together toward the bottom with the wire.
8. Repeat for as many bunches as you need for the size wreath you plan to make. I think I made about 10 bunches.
9. Now lay the bunches out as you want them to look in your wreath.
10. Bind each bunch together by finding a sturdy part of the evergreen and using the wire to fix it to the next bunch.
11. If you can, purchase or make (using a wire coat hanger) a circle to anchor your wreath. I did not do this.
My wreath is fairly sturdy (I used quite a bit of wire), but it would have been much easier to just affix each bunch to a wire wreath instead of to each other.
12. Attach one more loop of wire to use to hang the wreath.
13. Add ribbons or ornaments to make it even more festive.
hints:
-If you have little ones, do this during a sleep time, as your hands will get very sticky and sappy.
-Our front door gets direct sunlight for most of the day. The berries turned brown after about 5 days and now, after about a week, the greenery is beginning to brown. I estimate that it will last about one more week. If you want to spend a little money at the outset, purchase fake berries to use year after year.
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