One activity I enjoy as a parent is sharing books with my daughters. I'm so thankful
for all of the books we have. From friends and family, from our garage sales, from our library, and form Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. Here are some books that have been extra special to our family this past year.
1. "Baby Animals Black and White"
Babies visually are drawn to both black and white images and to look at faces. This book has both. While it doesn't have words, it is fun to make up what the animals have to say. It has also been good for tummy time. My first daughter enjoyed it when she was younger, and now our new little baby is enjoying it.
2. "A Mother For Choco"
This has been my one year old's favorite the past year. She would read it over and over again. It is about a little bird looking for someone to be its mother. My daughter liked acting out parts of the book (crying, hugging, kissing, dancing).
3. "Barnyard Beat"
This book about all the animals on the farm "having the beat" is so fun to read. The words are written in way that you can't help but read them in a rhythmic manner. Even for someone like me who doesn't have much of a beat!
4. "Baby's First Bible"
This has been a wonderful first Bible for our daughter. We wanted a children's Bible that included the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which this one did while still being age appropriate. The illustrations are really engaging for a child. Lots of animals are spread throughout the book, which gets her attention. At the same time she is getting exposure to the vocabulary of people in the Bible.
5. "Press Here"
This gets the award for the book that I am most looking forward to reading more of. We just got this book last week from the library. It is an awesome interactive book that at the same time teaches spatial awareness, left, right, etc .
Recently I started a Learn and Play Group at our home. It has been so much fun! 6 children ages ranging from ages 4 years old to 10 months old get together with their mothers for a little over an hour. We sit in a circle, read some short books, sing 2-3 songs, do a craft/art project and then have play time. I've found that doing these activities with a group rejuvenates me to do these type of learning activities with my 1 year old the rest of the week.
It has been a fun challenge to come up with activities that can benefit all of the age ranges on some level. Especially craft/art projects with young ones that are still exploring with their mouth! So far we made edible finger paint (recipe), homemade playdough that is non-toxic (recipe), and shake and see bottles. None of the crafts went how I envisioned, but we had fun and I think it was still a learning experience for the kids.
Babies love to find tags on blankets and toys to play with them. Taggy blankets provide babies with an over abundance of tags to touch and explore. I made my first taggy blanket for a friend from high school that just had a baby boy.
Again, this project reinforced from me that sewing in squares or rectangles is one of the easiest things to do. Despite looking at this tutorial, I still almost sewed the tags inside the blanket instead of outside the blanket! I'm so thankful that in sewing that we can redo mistakes and are not stuck with them! One side of the blanket was minky material (the bumpy side), which was more difficult to work with than I expected, but it still came together.
This has been my one year old's favorite the past year. She would read it over and over again. It is about a little bird looking for someone to be its mother. My daughter liked acting out parts of the book (crying, hugging, kissing, dancing).
