Toddler Time!

Over the last week or so, I've been asked on several occasions what I do with my toddler now that I have her and a little one all day long?  I think sometimes people think that because I'm a teacher, I automatically know what to do with all kids, but that's not the case!  Once they're 5, I got them!  But all the years before that are COMPLETELY new to me!  I have on the other hand, tried to figure some things out and use my knowledge of being a teacher to help me along the way.  I'm going to write this post in 2 parts, the first being about toddlers and the second being about babies.  Once you have kids, you suddenly notice that everyone else has kids and while you're preggers, you notice that everyone is also preggers!  There's so much to know that no one can tell you and no book can teach you and soooooo much of it just happens as you go along - it's how you deal with the unknown that either makes or breaks you I believe!

When I decided to stay at home with my little ones this year, I realized right away that I had to have some structured activities to keep my 2 year old busy and learning, or she was going to drive me crazy!  As a teacher, one of the things you learn very early on, is to over plan so that you're never left scrambling to figure out a lesson for kids - that's how you lose them and how chaos ensues!  The same goes for toddlers as far as I'm concerned!  I LOVE that Deena is curious and has lots of questions and wants to try new things, but when I need some down time, this makes me crazy and I need some things to quench her thirst for knowledge while I take a break!  Below you'll find a list of things I do on a weekly basis and some ideas for activities to do at home for when you need a break too!

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I take Deena to Gymboree!  One of the best discoveries I made this summer was Gymboree's Music and Play located at the Avenues Mall.  Now, I knew about Gymboree before, but I never had the time while I was working to take Deena to the classes.  We spent all summer going to Art class, Music class, and Play and Learn class.  I have to say that she loves all 3 of them, even though the Play and Learn class is her favorite.  If you haven't checked out your local Gymboree, I strongly recommend it!  It gets you out of the house with some structured play time with your kiddo and if you are consistent with it, you really see the growth and learning happening!  I have brought several friends with me for trial classes and many of them have gone back and found their local Gymboree to go to and try out in their neighborhoods.  The first class you take for each music, art, and play and learn is FREE!  So you can always try one with your kiddo and see if they'll like it!
http://www.gymboreeclasses.com/en/

Deena in Music Class

Deena in Art Class

Deena in Play and Learn Class

The next best thing I've done for Deena was to get her into swimming lessons.  I started swimming lessons with her when she was 16 months while I was off for the summer.  I took her to lessons at Swimming Safari where I had to get into the water with her and the instructor showed us how to teach our kids to swim. I loved it at the time and it was a great start for Deena.  She absolutely LOVES the water!  We stopped lessons once I started school again and then re-started them this summer at JCA.  Deena cried and cried for the first 4 lessons at JCA because I wasn't IN the water with her and she had to be with an instructor on her own, but once she got the hang of it, she LOVED it. Now she looks forward to going every week and has no tears!  My husband has decided this is the event he wants to have some daddy-daughter time with and so he takes her to swimming lessons every Sunday.
http://swimmingsafari.com/
http://www.jcajax.org/youth-aquatics/

Swimming Lessons at JCA

Each Friday, we go to our local Public Library for their Toddler Story Time.  I LOVE taking the kids to this.  The librarian usually does a letter of the day, sings some songs, teaches them some sign language, and reads them several books about the same topic.  She then has them do some sort of craft that goes along with the theme.  We always stay afterwards and "play" in the children's library area.  Our local library has several toys to play with and Deena LOVES to stay afterwards and do that.  While she plays, I pick out new books for us to check out.  Deena is in charge of returning her books and checking them out each Friday and we usually read those books several times throughout the week until we go again.  I always try to get books about things going on in our home life at the time (ie.  when we were about to have the new baby, I got her big sister books....when we were traveling, I got her books about airplanes and vacations...etc.).
http://www.jaxpubliclibrary.org/kids-teens/young-children

Deena completing the craft activity after story time at the South Mandarin Branch Library

So that leaves me with Monday and Wednesday as sort of "buffer" days throughout the week without a structured lesson or activity.  On those days, I like to schedule play dates with other little friends we've met along the way!  One of Deena's favorite things to do is to go to the zoo!  We got a season's pass to the zoo and have used it a lot this year.  We've also tried things such as gymnastics, soccer, Bay & Bee, nature classes, the beach, the Thomas the train play area inside of Barnes and Noble, etc.
My saving grace on my "off" days has been my local YMCA!  You get 2 hours of "me" time while the kiddos are playing in the Kid Zone.  I have to admit, I tried really hard to make this work for me last year when Deena was 1, but she cried the entire time and more times than not, the staff had to come and pull me out of class because they couldn't help her stop crying.  Now, this made me feel horrible, but I knew I had to try, so I kept trying.  Eventually she was fine, but then school started again and she was in daycare and I stopped dropping her off at Kid Zone.  Now that I have 2 kiddos and Deena is older, she LOVES going to Kid Zone while I work out.  Again, this has been my saving grace!  I know my kids are safe and cared for in the same building that I'm in, but I'm getting some "me" time and most of the time, this means getting my yoga on!  I think this concept is hard when you're a first time mom, but now that I'm on my second, I swear by it and wish I had really taken more advantage of it the first time around.  The more you try, the easier it will become - just trust me!!!
http://firstcoastymca.org/

At the zoo!

Deena playing with the Thomas the train table at Barnes and Noble

At a Soccer Shots trial session

At TnT Gymnastics Toddler Time

Something that I've found to be incredibly helpful has also been to find your local "moms" group on Facebook.  Here in Jacksonville, I love having the Jax Moms Blog on my feed.  Each weekend they put out a weekend roundup of things happening in the city for kids, they post about special events, sales, activities, etc.  You can choose to look or not look, go or not go, it's all up to you, but the information is there for you take - no need to wonder what's going on in the city or if there's something you can do.
http://www.jaxmomsblog.com/

When Deena was a year old, we started Color Splash classes at the DuBow Preschool and we absolutely LOVED that!  Each week the kids would learn about a new color and would get to explore that color using a multi-sensory approach to learning.  It was fabulous and I highly recommend taking your kiddo if you haven't already done this! They have plenty of other classes to off at DuBow, so I suggest checking them out if you're interested!
http://treehouse.dubowpreschool.org/?page_id=31

We also used to go to a mommy and me yoga class that was being held for free at Unity Plaza.  We really enjoyed this and it was great that other moms with kids were there too!  We were all sort of in the same boat and it made it easier!

Now, when we're home and I just need some down time, I've created a rotation of some activities that Deena can do.  If I'm completely honest, most of the time, she wants me to participate with her but I've been trying to make these activities more independent for her.  We have a little table at home for Deena to play and work at and many of these activities are done at this table.

1.  Play dough - Deena loves play dough and I have some cut out shapes I usually let her use with it.  She also likes to get her knives, forks, and spoons from her kitchen area to cut and manipulate the play dough with.  I've also discovered that some of our magnetic alphabet and picture piece can be flipped upside down and imprinted into the play dough and she likes to do that too.

2.  Watercolor paint - I LOVE this paint!  After some training on how to dip the brush in water and how to not mix the colors, Deena can paint using watercolors on her own.  It dries up almost instantly and the paint is contained to one rectangular piece.  It's perfect!

3.  Shaving cream - Deena will play with shaving cream on her table until it disappears (it actually disappears after playing with it for a while).  It is also a GREAT way to clean a table if you're interested!  I let her just dive in with her hands and sometimes give her some plastic toys to play in too.  You can practice writing letters or numbers, drawing shapes or pictures, or just having fun in it.

Playing with Shaving Cream

4.  Barbies - My mom bought her a set of Barbies that I HATED, but now that she loves them, I've tried to make them work.  I think it's really important to guide how she plays a little and teach her how to have them talk to each other and play with each other and now, after lots of practice, she kind of does this on her own.  She does the same with what she calls her "boys"....lol!  She has some Little People that she likes to play with and I notice now that she does the same with them.  She has them play with each other and talk to each other.

5.  Little People - Deena has grown very fond of the Little People School Bus, Airplane, and Farm.  She loves these 3 things and will play with them on her own most of the time. She loves the people that come with them and can usually play independently with them.  I sometimes take out tools for her to pretend to "fix" them and that tends to occupy her for an extra 10 minutes if I need it.

Deena playing with her "Little People" farm

Deena "fixing" her trains

6.  I-Pad - Anyone that knows Deena knows that she was a horrible eater and I couldn't get her to eat anything.  We started letting her watch the I-Pad for meals only.  You Tube has come out with a special You Tube Kids app with kids content on it only.  She still eats many of her meals while watching her You Tube Kids app, but if all of the above fails and I still need a minute to feed the baby in peace and quiet, I'll give her the I-Pad!


The last thing I'm going to talk about is "teaching" Deena.  I know she has a thirst for learning and I have to admit that since having my 2nd baby it's been harder to make time for this, but I've been trying!  While the baby takes her morning nap, I try to teach Deena letters and numbers.  I've created a binder for each and practice about 2 letters and 1 number each week.  I usually teach her the name of the letter, draw the large capital letter in the center of the page, practice saying the name and sound of the letter, come up with ideas of things that begin with that letter and drawing a little picture of it, and then get out my magnetic letters and dump the bag and have her find that letter.  Once she finds it, we review all of the other letters.  I do the same thing with the numbers, but I draw dots under the number that coincide with how they look on a pair of dice.  I have her touch the dots and count them until she connects it with the drawn letter.

That is pretty much how my week goes!  There's nothing incredibly special here, but it's what works for us!  I'm still constantly trying to find new things to do and new experiences for my kiddos to have.  I also try to throw cooking into the mix as often as I can.  These "independent" activities also happen a great deal while I'm cooking dinner!  Pinterest has also played a large role in the ideas I get about activities to do at home and I strongly suggest getting on there and pinning stuff!  I hope this has helped some of you get some ideas!