You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. – Franklin P. Jones

This statement is especially true when it comes to toddlers, isn’t it?

Patience is actually the solution to most of our situations. As parents, we must learn to be more patient because well, they are toddlers, they are supposed to be running all over the place, touching everything, trying to do what we do and more and more. That is what toddlers do! Let’s explore some of this in more detail.

Apart from patience, it is how we look at a situation. As mentioned above, they touch everything – in actuality, they are exploring their environment. They are trying to take in and understand what they are looking at, what the things surrounding them are. So rather than us taking something away from them, we could try telling them what that is and it’s functionality.

Running all over the place – these adorable little humans are full of energy which the need to exhaust. It is extremely important that we offer them ways to do this – outdoor play, cycling, climbing things in the play area. Most important here is to let them do it themselves. Yes you need to be around, close enough to catch them it if will be a big fall but do not hold them and make them climb – you are limiting their development.

Trying to do what we do – And they do it pretty well! Yes, toddlers mimic what they see adults around them do. It is their way of learning; hence, it is very important that we model good and appropriate behaviour around them. We behave and talk how we would want our Munchkin to do – this becomes the best and easiest way to teach them manners and build their personality.

Before we teach our Munchkins, we need to learn ourselves. We need to learn to let our children be, let them try to do things on their own – try to dress themselves up, eat on their own, fill a glass of water for themselves, cut their own fruit, make their own sandwich – let them be independent. To be able to do these things we need to learn to have faith that they are capable of doing it themselves. It may take a little longer, it may make a mess, it may break a thing or two but the lessons they learn are invaluable.

Do you let your Munchkin do things themselves?

Ho! Ho! Ho! This is a lovely DIY and can be used as DIY gifts too this season.

I wanted to introduce My Munchkin to Play Dough for quite some time but I was sure that I would not use the commercial ones, as you know everything goes into their mouth.

So I researched on loads of different ways of making it and finally found one that worked well for me, and it is just SO SIMPLE to make at home.

What you would need is:

1)  1 Cup of All Purpose Flour (Maida)

2)  ¼ Cup of Salt

3)  ¾ Cup of Water

4)  3 Tablespoons of Lime Juice

5)  1 Tablespoon of Oil

6)  Food Colouring

7)  Food fragrance oil (optional)

What you need to do once you have your ingredients in place?

In a nonstick pan, mix water, oil, and lime juice and heat over medium flame. Add food colouring (whichever colour you choose to use) and food fragrance oil, if using (I did not use any) to the mixture.

Note: When you do not use the fragrance, there will be a little smell of the lime. My Munchkin and I am okay with it so I continue not using this ingredient.

In another bowl, combine the flour and salt.

Once the water mixture become hot (it should not boil), slowly add in the dry ingredients (flour and salt mixture) and keep stirring it in.

Continuously stir this mixture until all the ingredients combine. If you feel any part is sticky, flatten it with your spoon and flip it over and then mix again. It should start forming into a ball (make sure not to overcook it). 

Remove it from the heat and on to a plate and let it cool down a little bit. Next, start kneading the dough for two to three minutes.

The entire process probably takes 5 minutes.

Voila! Your Homemade Play Dough is ready to use.

While kneading you will feel how soft this is to use. One batch of these should make about 450-500 gms of Play Dough.

Store it in the refrigerator in an airtight box and it will stay for a minimum 3 months. So you can make 3-4 colours at a time and keep it.

Age: Whenever you feel your Munchkin is ready. You can start as early as 1 year old (I started at almost 20 months but also because I was looking for the perfect recipe). 

Purpose: Extremely good for gross motor development and also open ended play.

Tips: You often may have a problem that all the colours are mixed up or because they are not put back in the box they dry out. What I do is, I have small boxes (50 gms roughly) where I remove only a little dough at a time and give My Munchkin to play. This way it lasts for very long.

Also initially I would recommend to give only 1 colour at a time, so as to not overwhelm them, and then later increase to two colours and so on.

So hurry and start making your own Homemade Play Dough and share some pictures with us.

With this I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round, Round and Round, Round and Round….

Does your Munckhin have a favourite rhyme? My Munchkin seems to love a lot of them and we hear and sing a lot of them all day long. In fact, I catch myself humming them even when she’s asleep sometimes!

Most important is that rhymes are only sung to her, with her and we do not play them for her on our phones, laptops, etc. We actually have a zero screen time policy for her at home. To be completely honest, we do not manage it 100% and she does watch a little bit when we are on the phone or someone else is (but this is also limited to just a few minutes). I may have mentioned this in a previous article but this is a big reason that she loves reading and it is a big part of her daily activity, also a big source for her increasing vocabulary.

So our main routine has been the same this month with a lot of shelf work repeated so we had lots of Play Dough, Blocks, Books, Matching Cards to Animals, Outdoor Activity, Riding her Bike Practical Life (help with chores done at home) and so on.

We have a construction site close to where we stay and she enjoys watching all the Construction Vehicles at work with the Bulldozer being her favourite. We took her to a spot in our compound which was close to the site and she enjoyed watched the bulldozer at work.

Did we introduce anything new this month? Yes, we actually did introduce two new activities, as below:

Threading Beads

A very good activity for hand-eye coordination. We bought this one online and recommend choosing big beads, so as to avoid any threat of choking, and also it would be easier for them to bead initially. There are many beads that come along with the pack but we initially kept the thread / string in a basket along with 3 beads each of just the primary colours – red, blue and yellow (you can even start with lesser beads if you feel necessary). I presented the activity to her the first 2-3 times she used it and then left her to work. She is still getting a hang of doing it. I try to observe her whenever she works with it to check if she would need another presentation or is moving ahead or needs a slight change. I will have to just wait and watch.

DIY Colour Sorting

By Colour Sorting, I do not meaning learning names of colours. In Montessori, we do not teach names first (on the contrary, they come last). The first step is to show the child how to pair objects of the same colour. We did a simple DIY for this (will upload complete details soon) where My Munchkin has to match the pom poms to their respective colours. She had a lot of fun doing this activity and she enjoyed doing it over and over again.

She got a complete hang of it and managed to do the activity herself in a couple of tries. I plan to add in some more colours soon.

Did I teach her the names after she paired them correctly? No! It is still early for that, we can start this in probably another 6-8 months. Yes, she does know names of a few colours but those have not been taught too her, rather picked up from reading time and regular conversations we have.

Do you enjoy making DIYs for your Munchkin? Do share some with us, would love to have some new ideas.

The last two weeks or so have been a crazy rush of too many things happening at the same time. As you can imagine, having a toddler around you doesn’t always help things go faster. My apologies for the delay in posting an article.

We did not introduce many new things to her this month and worked on her ‘Care of Environment’ skills as well are outdoor activities. But there is so much indirect learning that has been taking place and you can notice it your daily activities.

Indirect Learning

As you may have read in many of my blogs, reading is a big part of our schedule. No matter how busy or tired we may be, we make sure to spare at least ten minutes to read. Honestly, My Munchkin makes sure one of us reads to her so it’s not an option anymore (and we love that!).

So what exactly do I mean by indirect learning? Absolutely everything. Infants and toddlers learn from everything in their environment – the language, habits, culture, food preferences – everything! Like Maria Montessori says, the child has an Absorbent Mind and takes in everything they see, hear, feel, smell.

My Munchkin has developed a lot of her vocabulary through books we read and general conversations. Does this mean we are teaching her things and making her repeat after us? Not at all. These are regular conversations like we adults have or have with older children – just talking about things, explaining what we are doing, talking about things around us. We read a book just how it’s normally done with older children too and read it again if she asks us to (which happens most of the time).

We make a big mistake of underestimating children and thinking they need to be taught things whereas in reality they need to experience things and that helps them learn all about it.

Sticking on Paper

A simple activity for hand-eye coordination. I picked up stickers from the Supermarket of different animals, vehicles (things she recognizes). Gave her a sheet of stickers along with a blank piece of paper. Presented the activity to her by showing her how to remove and then stick on paper and left her to work.

Balance Bike

We have been trying our hand on the bicycle and after a lot of research choose something on the Montessori principles (after we were convinced this was the best choice). We decided on getting her a balance bike (a cycle without pedals). We have this for sometime now but have just about started using it. I will wait for sometime before giving a complete review and experience. Till then, you can read about it and always contact me if you have any doubts about the Balance Bike and I would be happy to help.

Care of Environment

Should we get plants? Is it the right time? What if she puts the mud in her mouth? What is she pulls out all the flowers and leaves? Is she ready?

Some of the many questions we had for a long time and kept delaying it. But this month we finally got some for our house and we are so happy we did. My Munchkin is daddy’s a little gardening helper. She helps him water, sits and watches when he plants new ones. She did not do any of the things we were worried about. In fact, she reminds us every morning that they need to be watered and brings the watering can to help her father.

Plants at home instill in children a core value to care of other plants and tress in our society, city, and country, everywhere. And I am sure you agree this is the need of the hour.

Apart from plants, My Munchkin knows where the duster, broom, mop, etc are kept and quite often uses them to clean the house. For example, when she spills water, she brings the duster to wipe the water. Children watch us or house helps clean and they learn from them. It is very natural for them to want to broom or mop and wipe something and it is important that we let them do this. It is an urge they are fulfilling and it is also helping them learn to keep their environment clean which is something that helps in the long run.

What does your Munchkin do for Care of the Environment? Do you have Plants that they help care for? Do they enjoy cleaning the house too?

As children grow, they are more interested in seeing people and animals; if given a book with realistic images they will enjoy looking at them. after a certain point they are able to distinguish between known faces they see on a daily basis and are able to recognize each of them.

I had once come across a nice DIY on familiar faces and I decided to try that out for My Munchkin based on the above two factors. So I did a DIY of our families’ pictures – My Munchkin, her father and mine. I kept it to just us so that I do not overwhelm her with too much at one time.

What do you need for this DIY? Pictures, that’s what you mainly need.

I suggest having the images of mid size, something like 5 x 5 inches so that your Munchkin is able to hold them easily and look at them.

There are two ways of making this activity:

1)Give the images of a photo studio or printing shop and they will print and laminate it for you.

2)If you want to DIY the entire thing, then get the photos printed on card stock (or good quality paper).  You would also need to buy lamination sheets (1 sheet of A3 size would be enough for 4-6 pictures). I would recommend buying one that is at least 125 microns thick. These would be available with your local stationery shop.

You guessed right – we are going to laminate them at home!

Once you have your pictures print, cut them out to the required size. Take your lamination sheet and place the images in between. Make sure you keep sufficient space between them to cut so that they do not open up.

Once this is placed, heat the iron up. Place the lamination sheet on the ironing board or a smooth surface and put a cotton cloth over it. Press down with the hot iron and slowly move the iron from one end to the other. Do this without lifting the iron to avoid bubbles from forming. You can repeat this step once more.

Let it cool a bit and then check if it has laminated from all sides. If you feel it is opening up from some part, cover that with the cloth and iron over it.

Once done, let it cool completely and then cut each image out – do keep some of the lamination plastic as a border (like it is normally seen it laminated documents).  Do round all the sharp edges with a scissor so they do not hurt your Munchkin.

I will try and upload a detailed DIY for laminating at home soon.

Once you have your pictures ready through either of the above methods, put them into a little basket / tray and give them to your Munchkin to explore.

Age: You can start as early as 5-6 months and they generally use this activity for a long time.

Purpose: Helps in recognition or familiar faces. Later this becomes a goo way to associate a picture to the actual person.

Do try this one out with your Munchkin and leave me some feedback on how they enjoyed it.

Transferring Activities are something we do in various ways and most of the time what keeps My Munchkin occupied while I am in the kitchen.

Some of the transferring kitchen activities she does are:

1)Transferring cut potato or vegetables into a bowl of water;

2)Transferring from bowl of water into a colander;

3)Picking up peels or remains of the vegetables that are being cleaned and putting them into a bowl which later we throw into the trash.

Based on her involvement in the above, I made her a transferring activity for her shelf. This one involved transferring balls from one bowl to another.

Things needs to make this DIY are:

1)Two bowls preferably similar ones;

2)Small table tennis balls – I used a dozen;

3)A tea strainer – you can also use a big spoon

What do we do? Put all the balls into one bowl and the tea strainer or spoon into the other. This is kept together on the work shelf or play area. Show your Munchkin how to use the strainer or spoon to scoop a ball from the ball and drop it into the other bowl.

If your Munchkin is like mine, then be ready to find balls in different corners or the house and some just disappear as well.

Age: Around 16 to 18 months (or as needed)

Purpose: Helps develop hand eye coordination.

It is simple things we find and can make at home that actually help in our children’s development. Everyday activities are one of the best things to involve your child in.

Do you involve your Munchkin in your Kitchen activities?

This month, we continued with the regular shelf work we have been doing so far. There was nothing new introduced to My Munchkin in terms of an activity.

Lately, she has been working a lot with the blocks, animals (and cards), transferring activity. She still shows a lot of interest in the current shelf activities and hence we decided to let her continue with them. After all, it is not necessary to have something new for them all the time; it is more about what they are enjoying working with.

Animal Names

My Munchkin is enjoying working with her set of farm animals and even the wildlife animals. She lays them out in a curve and makes sure she has each one standing without anyone helping her.

At times, she even uses the cube from the school Pink Tower to make her animals stand on them. She constantly asks for the names of the animals and even hears them when we read books. Hence, she is beginning to recognize a lot of them by their names.

Vocabulary

I cannot stress enough about how IMPORTANT it is to read with your child and to speak to them in correct language. They pick up everything the see, hear, taste or feel. My Munchkin is growing her vocabulary by the day. It amazes me sometimes as to how expressive they are if we actually try listening. She is able to convey everything she wants – be it about what she wants to eat, which books she wants to read, whether something is hurting her, going to the washroom and more and more.

Nature Walks

During one of our evening outings, we went looking for birds and animals. The delight when she spotted a dog, cat, crow and many more was fantastic. We now try to do these kind of nature walks often (in the limited space we have).

Raksha Bandhan

Raksha Bandhan fell during Month 19 and we did not want her left behind. So My Munchkin tied her first Rakhi to a little boy who is a family friend’s son and also very fond of My Munchkin. We see a great bond growing between them since.

Do Homeschooled Children Socialize?

Isn’t this a very familiar question and concern? The answer is a simple YES!

At 19 Months, My Munchkin has lots of friends of all age groups. She interacts well and is not shy at all. She even enjoys playing with the children during school hours.

Children are very friendly by nature if we let them be. Some may initially be shy and then ease out but normally they love playing with other children irrespective of being homeschooled or going to regular school.

Do you have any such worries with Homeschooling your Munchkin?

So every time My Munchkin sees her wet wipes box, she opens it and starts pulling out the wipes one at a time. She does the same with the tissue box, climbs on to the dinning table and pulls out the tissues from the tissue box. Keeping in mind she enjoys pulling things out from a box, I made a DIY activity for her to do.

The supplies used:

1)An empty facial tissue box

2)Three scarves (not too big)

That’s all. Just these two things and her activity was ready.

I pushed the scarf into the box, towards the end, folded in the second scarf and pushed that in too and did the same with the third scarf. This went on to her shelf for her to use.

It was definitely something she enjoyed as she could pull out the scarves (and try to put it back in) as much as she wanted. This has also reduced her urge to pull out the wet wipes or tissue paper from their respective boxes to a great extent.

Age: Around 16 to 18 months (or as needed)

Purpose: Fulfilling an urge I noticed

We need to observe to see what our children are interested in doing and try to give them opportunities to fulfill these urges. I tried to do this for My Munchkin with this easy peasy DIY.

Have you made any DIYs for your Munchkin?

Like most of the DIYs I do for my Munchkin, this one is an easy one too, made with things easily available. Threading activities can be done in various forms and at different levels of development. You can try this DIY with your Munchkin once you feel they are ready for it. Even if you introduce it to them and think they are not interested in it or find it difficult, remove it from their shelves / play area and bring it back again at a later stage (this would apply to almost any activity that is done with your Munchkin).

For this Simple Threading Activity, you need:

1)An empty baby powder container;

2)Wooden skewer sticks;

3)A basket / tray

4)Something to make a hole (I used a screwdriver);

5)A pair of kitchen scissors;

6)Sandpaper

First, I cut off the pointed edges of the skewers and cut them into half. Next, I smoothened both ends using the Sandpaper.

Next step is to check that the skewers go in easily. I had to push them in the holes so I made the holes on the powder container bigger. For this, I heated the screwdriver slightly on the gas stove and pushed it into the existing holes on the container to make them bigger. Once done, I tested all the holes to make sure the skewers went in easily.

Once both of the above were ready, I assembled them into the basket/tray and presented the activity to my Munchkin. I simply sat down with her, picked up a skewer and put into one of the holes. I repeated this a few times, and she joined me in the activity. She initially found it a little complex but managed to do the activity after a couple of tries.

Variation: This same activity can be done with ice cream sticks. In this case, instead of holes, you need to make slits in the container for the sticks to go in easily.

Age: Around 16 to 18 months

Purpose: Refinement of hand-eye coordination and grasp.

An easy to make DIY that is very good for your Munchkin’s development. Do let me know if you try it.

Up and down, round and round is what my Munchkin does a lot these days. She’s constantly climbing up anything and everything she can, running all over the place, going in circles. But then isn’t that what she’s supposed to do? She loves it and we just make sure there is nothing around that would hurt her.

Read on to know what new things were introduced to My Munchkin:

Care of Environment

This is something she did by herself through observation. A lot of times you will find my Munchkin with a cloth in her hand dusting things around the house. There are times you will find her with a broom, trying to clean up the house.

There is nothing wrong in letting your Munchkin do this as they are ingraining in them virtues of cleanliness and they are learning how to keep their surroundings clean. We have got my Munchkin her own child size broom and pan.

My Munchkin’s Shelf in Month 18

You will be familiar with most of the things on the shelf from my previous articles. The ones that are new are highlighted below:

Family Cards: A set of cards that have a picture of My Munchkin, her father and me. This is to allow her to observe and associate the image with the person. I will put up a DIY for this soon.

Farm Animals + Cards: You remember we had a set of Farm Animals on her shelf sometime back. We now added cards of the same animals to her basket for her to do a matching activity. Tutorial for this to come as well.

Blocks: My Munchkin has two sets of blocks, one is plain square wooden blocks and the other is big size building blocks. These keep her busy for a while when she works with them. Free play with blocks must be encouraged so let them build things by themselves rather that showing them what they need to do. If your Munchkin has an older sibling, this is one great activity for them to work together on.

Transferring Activity: A lot of our transferring activities are done in the kitchen with My Munchkin transferring cut vegetables into the water, or from the water into the strainer, etc. Since she enjoyed this, I added a transferring activity on her shelf too which she could work on when she wanted. She transfers balls from one bowl to the other. A DIY for this will come up soon as well.

Cupboard: She has had this for sometime now. A child-size cupboard with all her clothes, shoes, accessories in them. This is easy for her to access herself so you find her often opening it to remove some clothes or shoes when she wants to go some place.

Books, books and more books: I am blessed to have a reader. My Munchkin loves books and we have loads of them available for her. We rotate these on her shelf; keep only four to five out at one time. I hope to soon start a section on the books My Munchkin has and enjoys.

Outdoor Activity

The energy levels in babies are amazing and most often parents try to slow them down because they are unable to keep up. It is tiring but we try our best to not be a hurdle in her way and slow her or stop her.

At Month 18, she is trying to build her gross motor skills and what better than outdoor play. As parents we must be around our children when they are playing but at the same time allow them to do things themselves. My Munchkin climbs up the stairs and goes down the slide all by herself. This month she has started climbing the spiral stairs (not sure if that is the correct name) that leads to the slide. You can watch her do that in the video below:

Does your Munchkin enjoy outdoor activities? What is their favourite? Would love to hear about it.