Gift baskets make a fantastic baby shower gift. If you have a friend or a family member who is about to welcome a baby boy or girl, a baby basket will make a very thoughtful and practical present. Once you have found the ideal baby boutique to shop from, be sure to explore your options. There are baby gift baskets that come in various color themes. These baskets feature many baby essentials and toys such as a stuffed teddy, baby’s body wash, a bib, baby booties and a picture frame for the baby’s first picture. Baby shower gift baskets are also no longer limited to your traditional basket. Some are designed as a flower bouquet, wheelbarrows and more.

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Me as a toddler, with my Mum.

Think back to when you were a child. Now think of the word “holidays.” What immediately springs to mind?

For me, it was…

Me, about 2, visiting Old Mr Keith’s farm for eggs.

When I asked Dad 101, his responses were;

With my cousins, on holidays.

It is now summer in Australia and many families are enjoying school holiday time together. I do however wonder if the simple pleasures of holidays a generation ago; when holidays were about doing fun, hands on things together as extended family – fishing, beach combing, bushwalking, camping – and children had more freedom to roam and explore (innocently) in *gasp*gangs playing outdoors; have been lost.

Have we traded the opportunity to create our own family fun for overseas flights, five star hotels and room service? Sure, we may visit a faraway, tropical oasis and swim but rarely do hotels provide space and resources for kids to TRULY BE KIDS. Kids Clubs have replaced cubby building. The Nintendo DS and portable DVD player are poor substitutes for making campfires or baiting a hook. Do we take a tour, rather than explore (as a family) for ourselves? How many of our children have caught dinner, cleaned and eaten it?

I wonder if, in our own desire to escape the pressures of busy working lives, we adults choose family holidays that suit our own need for an easy, luxurious getaway?

Like everything in our lives these days, I believe it is all about balance. Yes, it is nice that more families today have the means and opportunity to consider a broader range of family holiday options. I just hope that sometimes we choose the simpler ones for the sake of our children.

What words spring to mind when you think of childhood holidays? Can the same be said for the experiences of your own children?

Whenever the weather requires us to spend extra time indoors, I often look for little things that I can do to make our time in ‘confinement’ more fun. The last few weeks have seen some particularly hot days where we can only really be outdoors for any length of time early in the morning or in the late afternoon. There are quite a few hours in between and as I am dealing with a toddler’s short attention span, this can mean we need lots of little activities to fill our day.

One simple thing I quite like to do is set out an indoor picnic afternoon tea for Immy to enjoy after her nap.

As you can see, it really is simple. If you look in the picture, you will see the following;

• A silk scarf for the picnic rug (purchased at a thrift store). I really like scarves as they can be used for so many play experiences. A scarf can be anything from a swaddle for a baby to a superhero cape.
• Some ‘friends’ to share the meal with. This encourage Immy to engage in a dramatic, social play experience with her dolls and puppy and extends the fun out into other areas, it is no longer just about afternoon tea.
• Immy’s afternoon tea served in a little wooden bowl. I think this makes such a nice change from plastic or melamine (this is one of a set of four, also from the thrift shop).
• A teapot and cups (Immy uses the little silver egg cups as cups) to share tea with her toys.
• A little red bag, like a picnic bag it has some teaspoons and napkins inside.

Of course, your picnic setting could look entirely different, it really depends upon what engages your child to play. A picnic with dinosaurs served in a tent cave would be fun or a picnic on a beach towel with everyone wearing swimmers and sunglasses.

The point is, you are using the opportunity to set the stage for learning, yes, social/dramatic play like this is learning for young children. Taking a minute to present a fun experience in an attractive manner influences your child’s desire to explore and inquire. And, it really does take just a minute.

Related Posts

• Lots of ideas for Indoor Fun
• Learning How to Play
• Reflections on a Day at Home

Change can be a good thing. In fact, I really love change and big events in life. I get excited about how life will be different after a big decision. The results of change are thrilling even if its an unexpected turn of events in life. There is change in my life and as a result The Mom Crowd is closing. This basically means that we will not be publishing any new content. The blog and archives will remain online. We may re-run some of our best posts in January.

A Little About Me (Amanda)

I am the Editor and one of the original founders of The Mom Crowd. There hasn’t been any drastic change in my life unless you count adding a second child into the mix this year. I feel that it is time for me and my co-writers to end this phase of our lives. The Mom Crowd has grown to be a wonderful, successful blog, but to take it to the next level of blogging would require more time than I am able to give the site. Blogging is so much more than writing blog posts, in fact that is the easy part! Blogging also includes marketing, networking, accounting, updating design, adding new features, search engine optimization, promotion emails and planning the blogs future. I don’t have time to keep all of it going.

As a result of The Mom Crowd ending in my life I am excited about devoting this new found time to new projects. I have a personal blog that got sorely ignored and I can’t wait to revive it. I want to blog more about my family and my random thoughts that aren’t necessarily related to motherhood. So you can find me over there. (You can also find Dawn at her personal blog and Amelia at her blog as well.)

This next year I have some new opportunities to serve at my church, River City Community Church. I also plan on helping my husband in a bigger role with his web development business, Grow Development. I am excited about the new opportunities that I have to serve others and help my family in 2010.

Finally, I helped create The Mom Crowd 3 months after quitting my full time Human Resources career. I needed a creative outlet that let me use my brain. This has been an amazing project and I have learned so much about leading a team, accounting, and networking! I think I am definitely more confident in my role as a Stay at Home Mom and I don’t need a successful project to define what I do now. I will be forever grateful for the bridge that The Mom Crowd created for me.

Thank You!

Thank you all so much for reading and commenting. Thank you to the sponsors of The Mom Crowd. Our goal has always been to encourage, inspire, and inform moms. My hope is that The Mom Crowd has helped you in some small way in your life. Thank you from the bottom of my Texas-sized heart for your comments and reading The Mom Crowd!

Our History

I co-founded The Mom Crowd 2.5 years ago with my friend McKenna. Together we brainstormed a name, design, blog posts topics, and the future of our site. We felt that we had information and encouragement for new moms to share with our friends. McKenna has expertise in Down syndrome and loves to research everything. I brought my own excitement of building a website and my knowledge of breastfeeding and natural child birth to the table. We felt like we could conquer the internet world and even host a conference one day! I registered a DBA and opened business bank account and got ready to launch August of 2007.

McKenna and I quickly realized that it takes a lot of time to write meaningful content 5 times a week. So we asked my friend Amelia to join us. Amelia has 3 boys, is a Bradley birth instructor, and shared our love of investigating motherhood. Amelia brought honesty and transparency through some of her mothering events and some interesting propositions to The Mom Crowd. Our site would not have been the same without her.

As the blog grew I needed more help with content so I could work on marketing and with advertisers on the site. Myself, McKenna, and Amelia all agreed to include our friend and frequent-commenter, Dawn. Dawn’s original title was “Pop Culture Correspondent.”  She wrote about movies and television shows portraying motherhood. She later wrote more about her own motherhood lessons with her children. These last few months she began writing our wonderful Abiding Monday series focusing on being a woman and a Christian. I am so thankful for the friendship that grew between Dawn as we worked together on The Mom Crowd and other projects.

This past Summer in 2009 McKenna stepped down from contributing on The Mom Crowd and we invited Christy to join our team. I hadn’t seen her in person in 14 years. She brought a fresh look at motherhood with her experience with Juvenile Diabetes and her amazing frugal sense. Christy is a wonderful mother and a great writer. I will always be thankful for her insight and time that she gave The Mom Crowd.

We have had some fun here on The Mom Crowd. Along the way McKenna and I thought we were going to be big internet stars and created a web show called, “The Mom Crowd Show!” We wanted to be the Diggnation or CommandN of motherhood. It was fun to film, but a heck of a lot of time to edit, render, and upload. We didn’t have the tools and equipment to make this happen full time, but we had a lot of laughs filming.

The focus of The Mom Crowd was always changing. In 562 blog posts we have focused a lot on Down syndrome, breastfeeding, natural child birth, being frugal, pop culture, and recently Christianity. I have loved every post and learned so much here.

Check Out These 10 Blogs

If you have enjoyed The Mom Crowd, here are 10 other blogs that I enjoy and I think you will too:

• Like a Warm Cup of Coffee- Sara Mae writes wonderful posts on Christianity, motherhood, and many other subjects. She is also fun to follow on Twitter.

• Kristi Stephens – Kristi loves researching the Bible and sharing deep insights in scripture. I love that she is real and isn’t afraid to share who she is online. Kristi is one to watch in up and coming blogs.

• Big Mama – Seriously funny. I had the privilege to have lunch with her one day and pick her brain about blogging. Sometimes I happen to sit on the same row with her at church. She is as funny in person as she is on her blog.

• Sarah Markley – I found Sarah’s site, because MommyZabs often posts links to Sarah’s posts on Facebook and Twitter. Sarah posts sometimes say what I am thinking. She wrote her post about temptation and marriage around the same time I wrote my post on the same subject.

• San Diego Momma – I got to meet Deb the writer behind San Diego Momma a few months after starting The Mom Crowd. She blogs unabashedly about her weaknesses and experiences with her own brand of wit and creativity.

• Firemom at Stop, Drop, and Blog – I somehow became a follower of Firemom on Twitter. I then read her profound story of her daughter and life with her boys. The blog is great and fun, be sure to check it out!

• Happy Mom Amy at Makes Mom Happy – For product reviews, be sure to check out Makes Mom Happy and follow Amy on Twitter. She is a great follow and nice person. She really is happy and you never hear her crabbing much.

• Women Living Well – I found Courtney’s site through Kristi. Courtney has been on Rachael Ray showcasing traditional marriage and motherhood. Her site is helpful and encouraging to all women.

• Run Faster Mommy – If you are a runner, you must read Heather’s running blog. She is encouraging and helped me out a lot when I was confused about breastfeeding and marathon-training.

• Mom Bloggers Club – Technically this is not a blog, but I have to plug The Mom Bloggers Club. This is a great site to discuss blogging, meet friends online, and join groups. The founder, Jennifer James, is very nice and sincere. I really enjoy hanging out over there.

Phew! There are so many GREAT blogs out there. I could keep listing more. A lot of Mommy Blogs have started and have become successful since The Mom Crowd started 2.5 years ago. I am proud to have been a part of the mommy blog movement and I can’t wait to see the power of this blogging movement grow.

Thank you again for being a part of The Mom Crowd!

- Thank you photo courtesy of Vernhart

What do you do to recharge your energy or to re-focus? Perhaps you relax in the front of the T.V., enjoy a cup of coffee, indulge in some ice cream, or curl up with a good book. All these things are perfectly okay to do, but they don’t truly give us life. Sometimes I relax with my favorite show or a cup of tea, but I never really talked to God that day.

God says in Jeremiah 2:13 -

“My people have committed two sins:  They have forsaken me, 
the spring of living water, 
and have dug their own cisterns, 
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

As a mom I need energy, life, encouragement, and love, because I am pouring out all day long. After the kids are in bed, my husband and I crash on our bed and “take 5 minutes.” We need to recharge and rest. The constant listening, concern, disciplining, and physicality of lifting children is draining.

I often look in the wrong direction to recharge my “batteries.” I sometimes fail to have a quiet time and meet with God that day. I don’t wake up until I hear my children are awake and the bustle of my day immediately begins. Why don’t I fight for time alone with God?

My friend, Esther, shared this quote with me this past week:

“God is your greatest fan. As your heavenly Father, He is constantly coaxing you forward into the heights of spiritual victory. When you neglect the secret place, He’s not disappointed in you, He’s disappointed for you. He sees the spiritual riches available to you, and His heart breaks when He watches you getting by-passed. He wants you to share in heaven’s best, and He looks with wistful longing when you short-change yourself spiritually.” – Bob Sorge

Ouch! We are robbing ourselves of God’s living water with the cisterns we have created for ourselves. We are short changing ourselves.

It is hard to find time to spend with God. I don’t like waking up early and my brain is fried and exhausted at night. I have to fight to find time with God. It isn’t easy. I sometimes sit at a crumb covered breakfast table with my 2 year old sitting next to me drawing in her own notebook. Sure, she is distracting, but at least I am sitting at the side of a river with flowing living water. Its probably better to be sitting at the river slightly distracted with my children, than not even going at all.

My mentor, Kristin, gave me this challenge and I am passing it along to you.  Before you do anything fun for yourself spend some time with God. What she means is before you sit down to watch TV or read or eat for fun do something to spend time with God. It could be reading the Bible, listening to a worship song, or saying a prayer. The point is to seek God for His life. He wants to be the source of our lives!

When do you find time to be with God? What are some of the “broken cisterns” that you have created that you use to relax?

Amanda’s post yesterday got me to thinking about all the things we do in our lives that seem innocent enough, but in reality can lead us down a path of destruction.  Now, having a cup of coffee or watching a little tv isn’t going to kill us, but the influences we allow in our lives (including those on tv) can be dangerous.

About five years ago, I was an avid Oprah watcher.  I loved how she seemed to have less drama and more information on her shows than other talk shows and how she was always encouraging people to be a better version of themselves.  (Now some people may get mad at me for writing this and quite frankly I was having a hard time deciding if I should open this can of worms, but my heart said I should.)  I remember watching one particular episode where she was talking about writing in her gratitude journal and something she said caught me off guard.  She started talking about God, whom she had always claimed to follow, differently… like he was just a force and how we could harness the power He had by being good people.  She stopped talking about Jesus and started talking about a spirituality that was anything but Christian.  This belief system she supported grew and grew and she started promoting this “church” on her show.  I saw how so many women in our culture blindly followed her, even after knowing the Truth, because she simply was Oprah.  I felt sick.

Our culture tends to glamourize anything that celebrities do and women in our society are the ones that do it.  We are the ones that read the gossip magazines, that watch the gossip type shows… now I’m not suggesting that all of us do it, but we as women seem to be more vulnerable to this vice.  All this to say, the Bible warns us in 2 Timothy 3:5b-7 to “turn away from such people! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”  By our very nature and by the proddings of society we are vulnerable to be influenced negatively. 

I write all this to say that we have to guard our hearts like never before (Proverbs 4:23) so that we can be godly examples to our children.  Let your children see you reading the Bible, praying, doing things that edify.  Don’t let the negative influences, even the ones that society deems as positive, impact your life so that your heart is no longer guarded.  It’s easy to let your guard down when something seems to be good… even when it’s not.  And by all means, guard the hearts of the beautiful gifts God has given you to raise.  What you bring into your life, you bring into theirs also.

How are you doing your best to guard your heart and that of your children?  What negative influences have you omitted from your life in order to guard yourself?

Photo courtesy of WolfSoul

We recently encountered a situation where friend of my kids stole some toys from the house. I was in the living room while the boy was playing nearby. I noticed that he kept looking at me to see if I was watching him while he played. I saw him fold some toys in his hands and then casually get up and go out of the room.  I thought I saw him put something in his pocket.  He said he was going to go visit another friend.  My suspicion increased.  I was pretty sure some of our lego guys were in his pockets so I asked him if he had put any of the legos in his pocket. He told me no and I asked him if he was sure. He was sure.  I was pretty confident I had seen him sneak the legos away and put them in his pocket but I knew I could have been wrong.  My mind started reeling.  What should I do?  How should I handle this?  Why didn’t I ask him to empty his pockets (nicely of course)?

It turned out he left something at our house andI knew he had to come back, so I waited. My husband came home and I told him what happened. We talked about it and decided to wait for the boy to come back. When he came for his forgotten object, my husband casually asked, “We are missing some legos, did any end up in your pockets? Could you check?”  The boy felt in his pockets and said, “Oh, I guess I put some in there.”  Busted.

My husband said, “Thanks for checking.  We don’t want to lose our legos.”  And off the boy went back to his house.  After he left my husband and I realized we have several options on how to deal with this situation.

How would we want someone else to deal with our children should they steal something from another child? We would want them to be kind, but direct.  Not yell and shame.  I’m glad for his sake that he got caught.  Learning at a young age when the consequences are less costly is a lot better than learning them when the “price is higher” (i.e. stealing toys from a friend when you are 6 or 7 years old vs. stealing $$ from friends while older or stealing cars etc.) Of course a 4 year old taking toys from a friend’s house deserves a different approach to consequences than a 6+ old child.  A 4 year old may not fully understand what he/she did was wrong and need to be told directly “taking toys from a friend’s house without permission is wrong”.  A 7/8 year old is much more aware of appropriate behavior at a playmate’s house.

What should the consequences be for that child the next time he comes to our house? Possible options:

• Tell his parents and come up with a plan together.
• Make sure we put the legos away when he comes over to play.  (The boy likes legos a lot so I think they are a particular temptation for him)
• Ask him to check his legos to make sure that none of our other legos “accidentally” made it back to his home.
• Not let him play at our house anymore.
• Be a little more direct and tell him we know that it wasn’t an accident that those legos ended up in his pockets and that he won’t be allowed to play legos at our house anymore.
• Check his pockets everytime he leaves our house.
• Let it go and hope he doesn’t do it again.

Some of these options are more appealing than others.  What we ended up doing was talking to his parents and let them know what happened. I talked to his mom and told her that if the situation was reversed I would want to know what was going on with my kid.  We had a good conversation (although I admit I was very nervous because I don’t know the parents VERY well and I was worried about relational consequences–would she think I was accusing her of being a bad parent?  Their faith beliefs are different from ours–would she feel like we were being judgemental religious people?  Would she think I made the whole thing up?).  I told her that her son is always welcome to come play at our house. He is a very sweet boy and he plays well with the kids.  She was glad I told her and shared with me some things going on with the boy.

My husband and I decided that we would keep the legos put away when he comes to play and that he is welcome to play at our house anytime.  I feel satisfied in the way we handled the situation.  This was one of those issues that surprised me–I wasn’t really expecting to deal with stealing at such young ages (okay, I don’t think I was even aware that I MIGHT have to deal with it one day).  It was a good life lesson for all involved.

Have you ever encountered a similar situation?  How did you handle it?

photo courtesy of pooyall

^“17 Now when they [the shepherds] had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. ¹⁸ And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. ¹⁹ But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.” Luke 2:17-20 (NKJV)

The shepherds who came to see Christ after His birth understood the importance of His birth and in essence were the very first missionaries for Jesus Christ.  In verses 9-14, angels came to the shepherds and proclaimed that they were bringing joyful news “to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  The shepherds went and saw Christ and were compelled to go share the good news of Jesus with everyone they knew.  Then to top it all off, they went back and then glorified and praised God.

The shepherds on that first Christmas are a perfect example of what our hearts should look like every Christmas and year-round… hearts that long for the world to know Him and hearts that give God praise for sending Christ for us.  Even when we are trying to focus on Christ at Christmas, it’s easy to get sidetracked from having the right heart.  Make it a point this Christmas, and from everyday forth, to share the good news of Christ’s birth, death and ressurection and then daily go back and praise God for His love and mercy to all mankind by sending Christ for us.  It will give Christmas a whole new meaning for you and maybe for someone who’s heart is ministered to by you.

Lord, please give us the hearts of those first Christmas shepherds.  Let us see Your good works and know who You are, share it with the world, and always come back to give You the praise and glory.  Let Christmas be a time of ministry in our lives and not just a time of gifts, decorations and stress.  Thank you for sending us Jesus and for giving us examples of what You want us to do.  In His precious name, Amen.

The year is almost over and what a year it has been. We have moved across the country, I have been published for the first (and second) time and Childhood 101 won an Asia-Pacific wide blog award.

Here is a month by month overview of the most popular posts (yours or mine!) since Childhood 101 started in the last week of May.

Perspectives

My first post which identifies so much of what I believe early childhood education SHOULD be about.

JUNE

Mudpies & Magpies: 10 Super Sandpit Ideas

A post which continues to be popular with Google searchers.

JULY

Creating Learning Communities

One of my posts from the Emergent Curriculum series; how we share responsibility as parents AND teachers to create the best possible learning community for our children.

AUGUST

DIY Kids Kitchen for Under $10

I can’t really go past the first DIY Kids project, the box kitchen, for the most popular post in August, though Encouragement vs Praise and Growing Kids Who Read were not too far behind.

SEPTEMBER

Frugal Friday, but Fun

This series contained lots of ideas for teaching children about money and no- or low-cost ideas for family fun.

OCTOBER

Gobsmacked

The highlight of October would have to be our trip to Singapore for the Nuffnang Asia Pacific Blog Awards. It still amazes me that we brought home the ‘Best Parenting Blog’ statuette! We had a great time getting to know other bloggers and I certainly learnt a thing or two about travelling overseas with a toddler!

NOVEMBER

Play

November seemed to be all about play with Explore. Dream. Discover., Why Do We Keep Exploring this Message? and Playful Learning exploring why play is essential to learning. I also included some information for parents about children starting school.

DECEMBER

Everyday Glamour Challenge

The hit for December had to be the prior-to-Christmas inspiration for Mums of the Everyday Glamour series of posts written by a great group of gals (all Mums), exploring tips and tricks for finding a little bit of glam everyday. Oh, and the DIY Kids Ice Cream Shop and felt ice cream tutorial were popular too!

What an adventure starting this blog has been. I would love to hear what your favourite post has been!

10 years ago last night, I met Dad 101 at a New Years Eve party at a Fremantle pub. Neither of use planned to be there but we were both separately coerced by friends to go. The rest, as they say, is history. The photo slideshow tells the following story…
Boy and girl meet
Boy had a job that took him away for long periods of time
Girl hated boy’s job
Boy and girl got engaged
Boy and girl got married
Boy and girl had lots of fun holidays together
Boy started part-time university in search of new job options
Boy and girl moved to Sydney seeking new adventures
Girl started wonderful job setting up a new child care centre
Boy graduated university
Girl went on a holiday without boy, she went with a girlfriend instead
Boy and girl bought trendy apartment near beach
Boy and girl acted to make girl pregnant
Girl had baby girl
Boy and girl love baby girl very much but no longer seem to have time for overseas holidays, go figure!
Boy and girl and baby girl move back to Perth to be near family
Boy and girl revisit where they first met
The End.

Wonder what the next decade will hold for us?

I recently received an email from a reader asking about my stance as an Early Childhood Teacher on packing away. Not normal, everyday packing away of toys but packing away those super special constructions or creative projects that children have spent a lot of time making and refining. Here is Fiona’s question and my response…

Fiona’s question

Hi Christie!

Just recently discovered your blog! I have a question for you as an ex-Early Childhood teacher.

My son is now 5.5 years old. He’s a bit reluctant to pack up activities after himself and does so begrudgingly (but at least he does so). Not as co-operatively as I would like, but not too bad. He’s actually good about cleaning up his bedroom floor at night, which is a job he likes.

However, the real issue is those times when he invests a great deal of time and creativity into making something. Today, my son really spent a long time before school, building a railway. He tried so hard to figure out ways to get the tracks rising up and then down, supported on blocks etc. He was really chuffed when he worked it out the way he wanted. Then he went on to build block stations all around and etc. etc. He’s an only child and perhaps a little too used to having things set up “just so” with no interference.

However, he *never* wants to tear down his creations! He gets quite frustrated and upset if I ask him to pack up one of his super-special marvelous creations. So we tend to leave things out (moved neatly in a corner). Then he will come home from school and add to it. And so on.

What did you do in the Early Childhood setting with the ‘super special creations’? Do you think it is a good habit for kids to get used to accepting pack up and starting again the next day, no matter what? I sort of don’t want to stamp out his creativity and efforts by tearing things down once he’s worked on them, but on the other hand, I just get sick of the procrastination with pack up time.

Hope you don’t mind getting email requests! Love reading your blog!

Fiona

My response:

Yes, in my early childhood setting we valued super special creations, our cleaners were used to vacuuming around interesting construction sites! There are a number of reasons why;

1. Children need time to see their ideas come to fruition and often this time is interrupted by other elements of the daily routine. By packing away for mealtimes or to go out, you child needs to start all over again each time and as well as being disheartening and frustrating, it often means children do not have the opportunity to make more detailed, involved constructions or creations.

2. By revisiting previous work, children usually engage in revising, extending and improving upon their previous ideas. This is an important part of the learning process.

In terms of managing the situation with your son, I suggest allocating a special space in his playroom (or your living room, if you are in the same situation as we are) to be his ‘project work’ space where he can keep projects in progress. This could be a shelf or a mat in the corner of the room. A lightweight piece of board to build on can make moving constructions around the room much easier.

I would, however, negotiate with him the number of ongoing projects that he can keep at any given time, this could just be one, if that is what you think will work best for you (I am unsure how tolerant you are, how much space you have or how large his projects are). Once he has reached the agreed number, he needs to choose which one/s will be kept and which will be packed away. This way he knows the limits ahead of time and he is responsible for making the choice of which to keep and which to pack away.

You could also involve your son in making a sign for his special space. For a small child they could make a picture representing ‘Don’t touch,’ similar to the photograph at the top of this post, older children can have a go at writing some words for their sign.

If you have a digital camera you may also suggest that your son take a photo of a project before he packs it away. These can be printed out and stuck into a scrapbook for him to revisit (and rebuild) at a later time.

I hope these ideas help Fiona and others facing similar difficulties. What are your strategies for managing super special creations? Please leave a comment below to share.

Related Posts

• Playful Learning
• Short Term Memory Games
• How Clean is Your Mess-o-meter?

Image: Johnny Jet

This morning Immy was wandering around the house with an adult sized thong on her foot, saying, “Thong.” (insert short pause)

“Thong.” (insert short pause)

“Thong.” (insert longer pause as readers begin to wonder where I am going with this!)

Of all the millions of things this busy toddler did today, the reason I noticed this in particular, was that I have never told her what thongs are. Her Dad and I don’t wear them, and if we did then I would call them ‘flip flops,’ not thongs, thanks to the last six years living on the East Coast of Australia. The only reason this pair of thongs is even in our house is that they were being given away as part of some company promotion and Dad 101’s assistant at work grabbed a few pairs. One of these pairs made it home with an office Secret Santa present and was thrown into our shoe basket, where Immy discovered them this morning.

While I understand that this is not necessarily an indicator of her being some highly intelligent, gifted or talented individual, after all she could have picked up the word ‘thong’ anywhere – from Playschool, from family members, or maybe I missed a scintillating conversation about thongs between Immy and her dad; it was a definite reminder to me that children see and hear everything! It can be so easy as parents to forget this. Especially with babies and toddlers who are pre-verbal or still learning to communicate their thoughts verbally. They are like little sponges that absorb words, ideas, knowledge through some form of osmosis. Somewhere along the way, Immy has heard the word ‘thong’ to describe a particular type of shoe and is using it correctly, not ‘sandal’ or ‘shoes’ or ‘boots’ which are the everyday words we use when talking about our shoes, but ‘thong,’ a word she can only possibly have heard once or twice in her life.

A reminder indeed to watch what we say when our children are around as they hear it all and understand more than we think (both the good and the bad!). In this case, it was relatively harmless but who knows what the next ‘new word’ could be!

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the presents bought, and the shortbread made (thanks Amanda!)

but I still feel that something is missing. It took me a little while to put my finger on it….

I am missing my Christmas spirit!

Where can it be?

In the hustle of shopping, maybe I left it at the shops?

Or in the bustle of writing cards and sending parcels, maybe I posted it by accident?

Oh where, Oh where can it be?

Today I think I worked out why I was missing that joyous, Christmas feeling.

Music, we have no music!

(Well, actually we do have music, everyday. But it is of the Hot Potatoes or Dinosaurs Roar! variety, not the Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer type.)

I miss listening to Christmas Carols! Usually in my work with children, we would have had carols and all types of festive music playing for weeks now in the lead up to the festive season. Poor, neglected Immy hasn’t even been introduced to the joys of Silent Night or All I Want For Christmas or even We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Fortunately, we still have time! Expect to hear this…

… on continual replay at our house for the next few days. And family coming to visit on Christmas Day, get used to the idea because Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

As I survey the pile of gifts I have to wrap for Immy, I wonder if I should instead have just bought her a packet of patty pans and some bag ties? You see, the scene in the recent photo below, shows Immy having a marvellous time raiding my kitchen drawer. The one where I keep the tongs and rolling pin and cup measures and all manner of kitchen bits and pieces.
She spent a good half an hour, tearing bin ties apart and spreading out patty pans, and (at times) matching ties to pans with terrific 1:1 correspondence. She would come in to see me in the living room and tell me what she was doing and she was so surprised at one stage to find that I had snuck one mini marshmellow into each of her patty pans!

It was so lovely to see her having fun and a good reminder that for children it is about learning with everyday things, as well as your time and interest in what they are doing that is most important.

For me, having worked for many years in child care, preschool and kindergarten, I know the types of toys and games two year olds love playing with and I want her to have as many of these learning experiences at home as she would if she were in an early learning program. I have to keep reminding myself that children learn from the simplest of items, not just expensive toys. Lids, boxes, sand, a tub of rice or flour and food colouring, are all bursting with learning potential through time to play alone and with an interested adult.

I think I might just wrap a new packet of patty pans to add to her Christmas stocking!

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This year we started what I hope will be a new Christmas tradition for our family. On the first Sunday in December, we invited our immediate family around for brunch and to help us decorate our Christmas tree.

Now, I am all for beautifully decorated, colour co-ordinated trees but I realised that once children are involved it becomes more about sharing a special tradition which fully includes them rather than how the finished tree looks. After all, Christmas as a celebration is extra special in so many ways once children are involved – their excitement, wonder and joy are truly infectious!

So we decorated our tree with lots of silver and red baubles and then came my favourite part of dressing the tree – adding a special collection of individual ornaments which Dad 101 and I have collected over the years. Each of these ornaments has a special association, a little story to tell – of a place we have visited, an event to remember, or a person we know. I thought I would share just a few…

This silver disco ball is from the night I first met Dad 101. There were hundreds of them hanging in the venue where we welcomed in the new millennium. We met not long before midnight struck.
This decoration I made at my grandparent’s house when I was a child. It is made from a cotton reel, ribbon, ric rac and a bell. My grandma kept it for many years before passing it on to me for my own Christmas tree.
This is the first of quite a few that we purchased on our trip to the states in November/December 2002. It is a beautiful wooden ornament which we bought at Macy’s in San Fransisco. They had the most amazing Christmas tree decorating ideas, all themed and representing everything from ‘under the sea’ to ‘fairy fantasy.’

From the multi-storey M&Ms store in Vegas.

A handmade ceramic bauble from Mexico which we managed to carry around for five weeks of travelling without breaking!

From New York, small Statue of Liberty figurine which I made into an ornament.

From my trip to the UK in 2005 with a very dear friend.

From Devonport in Tasmania, where we spent Immy’s first Christmas celebrating with her Dad’s family.

This one Immy chose on our recent visit to Singapore.

And this one I bought this year to add to a collection for Immy, for when she leaves home one day and starts her own Christmas traditions. I love the number 9 (which is meant to represent 9 Ladies Dancing from the 12 Days of Christmas song) as it is perfect to remind me that it is the one we bought for her collection in 2009!Do you have special ornaments which you hang each year on your tree? What do they represent to you and your family?

Random.org has worked it’s magic and drawn the winners of the Big, Beautiful Everyday Glamour Giveaway!

And the winners are…

The winner of the lovely Exclusive Bags Leather Carry-all in Sunshine Yellow, valued at $270.00 is…

Jen with her super straight hair!

The winners of the jewellery items by the fantastically talented team at Jack Be Nimble are…

Kym of Adventures of my tots to teens and inbetween wins the piece by Jacqueline.

Cindy with her winning tip of naming that which she is thankful for, wins the piece by Alister.

Kelly of Be A Fun Mum wins the piece by Celia.

Cat from Adventures with Kids wins the piece by Kelly.

The gift voucher from abi and joseph goes to…

Louisa of Everything is Edible.

Candice with her tip for wearing concealer and mineral powder foundation.

Congratulations to all of the winners and thank you to all of the entrants for playing along.

Winners please email me your full name and address details (there is a link to my email in the top navigation bar, Contact).

And once again, thank you to all of the prize sponsors and guest posters for their wonderful contribution to the Everyday Glamour Challenge.

In just twelve short months, he has transformed into an energetic, curious, thoughtful, and adventurous toddler. It took me about two hours to go through all the files upon files of pics (literally thousands–yes, I’m trigger happy) that I have of Bean to compile my favorites for this post. The longest part was not in deciding which pic I wanted to represent that month, but reminiscing about his first trip to the beach, his first solids, and learning to crawl. It’s amazing to see his personality develop as each month passed. But my, how quickly a year passes by. . .

February

March
First solid feeding

May
Boy’s Day

June

July
Maui

August

September
Sharing his first birthday cake with his best friend

October

November

December
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Congrats to lucky number 5, auntrene, who is the winner of the Talkin’ Sid the Science Kid Plush! In one of her comments, she said that her daycare kiddos love Sid and he will be shared by all of them. I hope they have fun with him as much as Bean!