Entertaining 2-year-olds (whether or not they're being angels)

A friend asked me recently (okay, back in February, but I've been meaning to post this since then) for some ideas for entertaining her 2 1/2-year-old daughter. Since most of our children have been or will be two, I thought this was a topic of possible general interest, so I thought I'd post my response here. This family lives in India, so my comments as to "available there" refer to that fact.

Ah, children's toys/activities. How did you know my weakness? We've never had "bristle blocks," "waffle blocks," or "tinker toys," but just about everything else non-electronic . . .

I don't know what all you would have access to there, but I'll list several things, and hopefully, you'll hit the jackpot on some. Or something will look promising enough to be worth the time to make, if that's an option.

- lacing cards (threading a shoelace through holes around the edge of a shape; could be made, if necessary)
- Duplos/MegaBlocks (large/extra-large legos)
- cardboard bricks (these come flat and then you assemble them, so it's possible to bring them over in a suitcase/trunk)
- instruments, like shakers, cymbals, drum, etc. (although, then, you have to deal with the noise :-)
- dollhouse (Melissa & Doug makes a folding one that is relatively compact, but you could probably find something locally or make something out of cardboard boxes)
- dolls & doll stroller, plus doll blankets, doll bed, etc.
- dress up clothes (if you have a used clothing bazaar, this is good for stocking up; also, buy scarves, etc., locally; they're great for dress-up, plus it ties the kids into the culture)
- wooden puzzles
- Mr. Potato Head
- magnetic playsets (search for "magnetic playset" on christianbook.com; they're backgrounds with figures to play with on them; also great for travel)
- play food and dishes
- wooden blocks
- books (if you can, train her to look at them by herself, especially ones she's been read enough to know the story line)

For an electronic options, iTunes has a great selection of PBS shows. At that age, Little Einsteins and Blue's Clues (okay, so that's Nick, Jr.) are good options. We tried to steer clear of Dora, with the goal of mastering Arabic before we added Spanish, but that's just a personal preference.

Similarly, pbskids.org and nickjr.com have some simple games that P might be ready to get started on, if you have a desktop computer you're willing to let her play on. Or if you want to attach a mouse to a laptop (that would work for some 2 1/2-yr-olds, for others, it would be a recipe for disaster :-).

If you have a video iPod, audible.com/kids is building a collection of children's audible books that show the illustrations on the screen as the book is being played. Under "categories" at the bottom of the page, look at "with synchronized images." Kids books can be kind of short, but if you teach her to navigate the click wheel or she listens/watches nearby with you to help, it might buy you a decent chunk of time. (Man, I did *not* need to look at that site again. I'm a sucker for children's books and gadgets. This is the perfect marriage of the two. :-P)

Children's Songs

Went looking for "Wheels on the Bus" (one of Z's favorites) and, well, I stumbled upon this "little" list. Okay, so it was a tad comprehensive. I shelved it to the wish list until the kids' annual Christmas iTunes gift certificates came from Uncle Carter & Aunt Karen. Then, I spent Z's and JAK's on the essentials of the essentials. The following was the result. (I noted a few others, such as several songs from the Mary Poppins sound track, for future purchase. Shhh. Don't tell MA. Her birthday is this week. :-)

Chicken Dance - DJ's Choice
B-I-N-G-O - Larry Groce & the Disneyland Children's Sing-Along Chorus
ABC (The Alphabet Song) - Dora the Explorer
Are You Sleeping? - Twin Sisters
Rubber Duckie - Ernie
The Farmer in the Dell - Larry Groce
Hokey Pokey - Ultimate Party Mix
I've Been Working on the Railroad - Pete Seeger
Old MacDonald - Larry Groce
It's a Small World - Disney Studio Chorus
Itsy Bitsy Spider - Tom Gardner
John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt - Larry Groce
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - Elizabeth Mitchell
Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes - VeggieTales
Pop! Goes the Weasel - Larry Groce
Row, Row, Row Your Boat - Elizabeth Mitchell
Shoo, Fly, Don't Bother Me - Larry Groce
This Old Man - Rob Newhouse
Wheels on the Bus - The Little Series
Skip to My Lou - Larry Groce
Where is Thumbkin? - David Jacobi
Linus & Lucy - Vince Guaraldi Trio

* Also of note is iTunes Essentials Children's Lullabies list. We have many of them, and it's enchanting.

Mommy/Baby Hospital Lists

Quietly announcing that I'm going to try to post something to one of my three blogs each day in February. I figure that's a smoother attempt at getting back into blogging than to try to jump full force into one of them (or worse, all of them). We'll see how I do.

A friend here is due any day and has been packing (and re-packing) her hospital bags. I remembered that I had an ongoing list in my Palm software, so I looked it up and sent it to her. Thought it would be good to post here among all of my other lists.

the "adult" bag (myself and dh)
coffee (for ML & prepared for me)
pillows
hair towel
towel obviously from a previous pregnancy, since the current hospital provides these
camera
house shoes
socks: both
pads
Tucks medicated haven't needed these since my first, but I guess I never took them off
underwear: both
bra
q-tips
lotion
make up
toothbrushes
toothpaste
scrubby
wash cloth
tylenol
ibuprofen
deodorants
hair gel (ML)
brushes
pajamas: both
clean clothes: ML because we got there without any for him one time; oops
t-shirt
jeans
iPod
khaki pants a trusty pair of "transitional size" pants
water bottles: sm 1/2 froz, lg froz again, the more recent hospital provides cold water
OJ
kids' books for when they visit the hospital
phone charger think we forgot this one time, too
blood work
admission papers
bananas/dried apricots

the baby's bag (aka everything else)
candy to give out at the hospital, a cultural tradition
diapers
wipes
hats
gowns/sleepers
under shirts
shoes
pacifiers
blankets
changing pad
alcohol pads
bottles
formula
baby blanket

School Daze

Oh, about a week ago I promised pictures of us doing school when I posted pictures of some of our organizational systems. Better late than never? I have a few excuses, and they're even good ones, but I'll spare you and get to the point.


JW studying his Yo, Millard Fillmore book, a sequenced cartoon picture-recognition method of memorizing the presidents in order (you really have to see it to understand; sorry for my awkward explanation)


MA working in her Miquon book with her Cuisenaire Rods


Figured out the answer!



And afterwards, she got to free-play with the rods. This second one is the L family, ex-pat friends here in town. Two of the children are being held, hence their "flotation" in the air, according to MA. The two older girls' ages even correspond to the value of the rods used to make them.


MS moved to the dining table to work at some point this day, since he had a sore throat and wanted some hot tea. We have been choosing to work in the Family Area most recently, but I didn't want to risk the tea spilling.


Meanwhile, ZL played on the computer.


And read books.


And ML fixed the washing machine. (Yay Daddy!)


And, as a treat, I let them all listen to their memorization songs at the same time (they normally listen individually) while drinking cocoa (we had a late-season cold snap that week). Notice how far I had them sitting from the computer. :-/

For a more detailed description of our school day, read this post. Today was more a visual tour. :-)

A Place for Everything (Mom, don't laugh)

I actually remembered to take pictures during school time yesterday. I think I was motivated by the fact that we will be moving (to a new house in the area) in August (more on that later), and we're starting to pack for the US, so I don't know when the house will look quite the same again. I guess, technically, never, since it will be a different house.

I have some shots of the kids doing school, which I will post soon (possibly later today), but since I actually managed to have a post showing a setup that works in our house on a Wednesday, I decided to grab all the gusto I can get and do a Works For Me Wednesday post. Who knows if I'll actually get around to linking it on her post, but it still counts, right?



So, for now, I'm going to share the basics of how our daily work books and read-alouds are organized. I would show our readers and out-of-rotation read-aloud shelf, but, well, it's not that presentable right now. Maybe after we move.


After trying out having each child have a shelf or a 1/2 shelf in a cabinet to house their school books (workbooks, artpacs, mapwork, current readers, etc.) and having them avalanche constantly, we settled on "School Books Bins." MA's and JW's are stored on this little shelf under a coffee table in our family area. MS actually has a plastic basket (somehow I managed not to get a picture of his), because his won't fit in this sized bin, and it's stored underneath one of our family room chairs. The added benefit is that they can bring their basket or bin to where we're schooling, if it's somewhere other than the family area, which the boys do on Tuesdays when we have a meeting at our house.

In this picture you will also see my crochet bag (which I often work on while supervising schoolwork; it keeps me sitting) and a cloth wipes box (okay, a recycled disposable wipes box). A fairly appropriate homeschooling hodge-podge, I thought.


After running to the shelf daily for the read-alouds we needed (where they were shelved with all the read-alouds for the year), we settled on a "school books basket" that houses all of our current read-alouds (literature, science, history and Bible) and that year's Language Arts Instructor's Guides for handy access.


We started schooling with a pencil box for each child that housed their crayons, colored pencils, pencils, scissors, glue, ruler, etc. I had fond memories of my pencil box from when I went to school in England, and it sounded like a good idea at the time. Only no one ever had what they needed in their own box, and they were constantly having to borrow from one another, and the boxes took up precious shelf room for nothing. So, we now have the "Pencil Box," which is technically the "Pencil+ Box," as you can see from the label, because it houses pencils (periodically sharpened by Mommy, because there is a pencil sharpener-eating monster in our house, and Mommy's the only one who can manage to keep up with hers...barely), scissors, and glue. The first person to get started on his/her schooling in the morning (and, therefore, require a pencil) is responsible for bringing the Pencil Box to wherever we're working (usually either the family area or the dining table, but sometimes the kitchen or the kids' room on meeting days). The last person finished is responsible for putting it away.


The Pencil Box's cousin is the "Color Box," which houses all crayons, markers and colored pencils. It is not always needed, but if someone needs it (and, most days, there's either an art project, mapwork or a Miquon page that needs colors), they are responsible for bringing it to our study area. And the last person finished puts it away at the same time as the Pencil Box.


All of our assignments are tracked on Homeschool Tracker where I laid them out at the beginning of the school year and assign them according to our school day calendar each six weeks. Even Mommy has assignments. I have all of our read-aloud assignments assigned to me. I tried e-mailing PDF versions of the kids' assignment sheets to them, but someone was always doing something on their computer when they needed to check them to see what they had next, and then I had to check them off on my computer, anyway, so now we just all work off of my laptop, which goes with us wherever we are in the house.


MA and JW both have a "Letters Page" and a "Number Line." Actually, they're supposed to have a Number Line per math book, so two each, one for Miquon and one for Singapore, but I think by this point in the year they may only each have one that just floats in their school books bin and is retrieved when needed. These help with basic letter/number formation in the beginning and are referred to to avoid reversals after that point. The number line goes to 20, and so can also be used for basic addition and subtraction, if needed. These were both created using StartWrite handwriting software, and I print new ones out (usually in new colors) at the beginning of each school year.

For long-term homeschoolers, I'm sure none of this is earth-shattering, but maybe you'll find an idea that's just what you've been needing. If you're starting out, hopefully it can spark a solution that would work perfectly for your family.

Happy Decade Birthday, MS!

Ten years this month (8 February, to be exact), ML and I became parents (okay, life begins at conception, but you get the point). It feels like just yesterday, and it feels like forever ago. I'm sure you understand, if you have kids.

One year, we did back-to-back birthday parties when MS and MA's birthdays fell on a Friday and a Saturday. One year. Just one year.

They pretty much alternate who gets the party closest to their birthday, and this was MS's year to have his the next week. He didn't mind. Much. Okay, so having to go to a little girl's fourth birthday party on his birthday was not exactly his idea of how to celebrate, but he survived. :-)

We're so grateful to have MS in our family. He adds humor and insight and not a little bit of help with everything from corner store grocery and bakery runs to dish washing.






The cake was all Webkinz all the way. After a brief hiatus, Webkinz once again reigns in our home, and it (both the stuffed animals and the on-line play) is the activity of choice for all three Bigs. He wanted the cake to also somehow reference his being a decade old, so we worked that in there, too. The cake itself was French Vanilla with chocolate chips, and the icing was chocolate. We finished it the next morning for breakfast (with eggs), of course.

All of MS's ex-pat friends who live in town were able to come to the party, as were all of the boys in our building around his age. Homeschooling friends in the capital had to miss due to other plans, and the English-speaking cousins of one of our neighbors were also not able to come.







Presents at the party* included a Webkinz (appropriately), the ever-popular money, and...two water turtles! The McB family gave MS a turtle bowl, rocks, turtle food, the turtles themselves, and the promise to care for them while we're gone to America. They were quite a hit.

For fun, the kids had sword and finger rocket battles, played Wii, and even learned a bit about playing guitar, thanks to Uncle J.

*On his actual birthday, MS received his family gifts, which included a Didj from Mommy & Daddy, a Star Wars Didj game from Nanny, and several Webkinz (well, the promise thereof upon arrival in the US) from other family members. He now has 10 Webkinz. :-P

MA turns 6!

Saturday before last, 7 January, was MA's 6th birthday. This year, her birthday fell on a Saturday, which was an available day, so we actually had the party that day. Unfortunately for her, MS's birthday was the next day and his party the next week, so that, on top of the hecticness of life in general, meant that her pictures did not get posted in a timely manner.

But we did celebrate MA, even more than we do daily. She definitely adds more than just a touch of the feminine to our family and is growing to be quite a helper to me, especially in the kitchen, which she loves.







Her cake was Fetch with Ruff Ruffman inspired, as it is one of the kids' very favorite shows right now.

Excepting brothers, it was an all-girl party, just like MA.





There were, of course, presents, including a bead set from which she has made several bracelets and necklaces already.

And then the girls invented their very own party game: Hoppy Poppy Dance Floor, which consisted of laying bubble wrap on the floor, and dancing on top of it. They had quite a wonderful time, and it required no preparation/thought on my part, which is a good thing, because I do not do well with party games.

A good time was had by all, and we enjoyed celebrating our precious MA.