Play Dough Snowmen

We've had a lot going on around the house and so I have lots to blog about but to start I wanted to talk a little bit about Echo and her current projects.One of my new years resolutions was to start journaling about her interests and coming up with ideas on how we can expand on them.  My journal pages look something like this.

Picnics
       - pretend picnic indoors with play food
       - help plan and shop for a picnic
       - prepare food for picnics
       -read stories involving picnics

and so and so on. I list an interest first and then list ideas of projects we can do involving her interests. Well one of her interests lately is snow/winter. We have a book she got for Christmas about seasons in a town (In the Town All Year Round. It's truly fantastic!) and she is really interested in the winter season and winter activities such as snowball fights, sledding and building snowmen.

Unfortunately we have had a pretty warm winter so there is no snow to play in. I came up with the idea to make snowmen out of play dough and decorate them as an alternative though and it has turned out great!

hard at work

 She also got a massive play dough stash for Christmas so we have been making tiny snowmen and then decorating them with beads, paperclips, sticks, seashells, and other small items. It is a really great hands on activity and keeps her occupied for a good long while.

It's been really wonderful to see her unschooling in action. We follow her interests and let her set her own pace. We are starting to be amazed at the things she picks up without any formal instruction. She knows all the primary and secondary colors, can count to 10 and is beginning to express an interest in learning to write. We are having so much fun being her mentors on this unschooling journey.

"Cooking" with Echo

Seasoning her creation

I've found the best way to get things done in the kitchen lately, it is basically an advanced version of the coffee play I mentioned before. I am so tired and uncomfortable from pregnancy that any little thing that can help me entertain Echo without too much fuss is a life saver! She always wants to help me cook and wants to be involved in everything i do in the kitchen but she is too young to do much since she can't chop and is still not great about understanding that hot things will burn. I usually let her put seasonings in but she always wants to add way too much so that can be a problem too.

What I've been doing lately has been working really well though and I thought those of you with toddlers might want to try it. I set up a little station for her at the kitchen counter and put out a number of small bowls and plates. I pull up our Ikea stool so she can stand at counter height and then I fill the little bowls with dried lentils, flour, dried beans, loose tea and seasonings. Then I give her a spoon and let her go to town mixing and combining ingredients. I probably only use about a tablespoon of each so there really isn't that much wasted and while it does require some clean up after (lots of spilled materials end up on the floor) it is totally worth it!

She loves working alongside me and she takes it so seriously, it's pretty adorable! It will keep her occupied for as long as 45 minutes which is a life saver when I am trying to make dinner. She gets to feel included in the cooking process and has fun and I get to have her close by and entertained. It's a win win and so easy to set up. I'll be adding this to my file of easy, cheap and effective toddler activities!

Parenting: Trust, Doubt and Respect.

My amazing girl

As I lay awake last night holding my little girl and listening to the rain I was overwhelmed by my love for her. Even though she had just gotten me up from a deep sleep at 1:30 am (as she does most nights) I took a moment to savor her warm head resting on my shoulder and her small sleepy sounds as I snuggled her back to sleep. This is the good stuff, this is what it's all about.

While I waited for her to drift back off I thought about the kind of parent I want to be and the lifestyle I want my family to have. I had been reading some parenting and unschooling articles earlier that day and and came across this really excellent one from Life Learning Magazine (which is a really amazing resource for anyone interested in unschooling). This article reaffirms so much of what I believe about raising children and education and it made me feel so relieved to hear it from someone else.

I tend to be the kind of person that doesn't have a lot of strong opinions. I try to see both sides of any argument and will always admit that I could easily be in the wrong. However, parenting and education are probably about the only things in life that I have VERY strong opinions about. In spite of the fact that I am convinced that this style of parenting is for us, in spite of the fact that I know unschooling works from personal experience and in spite of the fact that I have faith that if we trust and respect our children they will surpass our wildest expectations for them, I have a hard time not doubting myself every so often.

Why is it so hard for parents to trust themselves and their instincts? Why is it so hard to keep the doubt at bay? For me I think it is that I am so passionate about my children and their education and lifestyle that I think about it constantly. I read tons of parenting and child related articles and I feel like I am usually barraged with information that is totally counter to how I want to raise my kids. I knew going in to this that I would be in the minority but it is still sometimes difficult to stand by what you believe when it feels like everyone else is telling you something different.

It seems to me that the majority of parenting articles I run across are aimed at trying to trick your child in to being a particular way. They tell you how you can "win the bedtime battle", or "make your kid good at science". All too often they pit parents and children against one another and encourage you to manipulate your children. The people who write these articles depict children as wily little devils who are trying to manipulate and outwit their parents while the parents are trying to beat them at their own game. Why do people want to mold their children to be a certain way? Why can't we celebrate who our children are rather than coerce them in to being what we want them to be? Why can't a family all be on one team instead of it being parents against kids?

The core of my parenting philosophy revolves around trust and respect for all family members including ourselves. I believe that children should be given respect equal to any other household member and this means no arbitrary rules, no power struggles and no "because I'm the parent and I said so". My children will be given the freedom to do what they want, when they want. Just as if they were adults in the house they will be allowed to use it's contents as they see fit (provided they are respectful of the communal living spaces and don't damage property). Just as I would never tell my husband that he can't have a snack right now or can't watch any television, I don't want to do these things to my children either. I want to afford them the same freedom that any family member deserves. This is really not easy to do for me even though I raised this way. It's hard to go against the societal norm and let your children have freedom to do what they wish even if it's not something you like. For example it's easy to let your kid paint or read all day but a lot harder to sit by while they play video games for 8 hours straight. The thing is, and I truly believe this, if you leave them alone they won't want to play video games for 8 hours straight. At least not for more than a week or so. Once the novelty wears off they are going to get bored and want to try something else. Kids are naturally bright and inquisitive, if you leave them alone they will want to do interesting and amazing things!

This doesn't mean that my kids will always do things I agree with and it doesn't mean I can't have concerns and talk to my children about them, but basically there should be a good reason behind it if I am going to ask them not to do something. If I feel like the kids are watching too much TV I can talk to them about and explain why I feel that way. Conflicts will be resolved with family meetings rather than top down authority. Since my daughter is still a toddler there are plenty of times I have to tell her no, but I try to think very hard before I tell her she can't do something. Is there really a good reason she can't do it or am I just instinctively saying no because I don't want to deal with it right then? As long as she isn't hurting herself or someone else than I think she should be aloud to do pretty much whatever she wants.

It's really hard to keep all this in mind on  a daily basis and consistently put it in to practice but communicating with others helps me remember to be the kind of parent I want to be. That is why I want to not only continue to read stories from others that have a similar parenting philosophy but to write down in my own words what I believe, to reinforce and remind myself that I can trust my own parenting instincts and I can trust my daughter to be the amazing person she is.

I know that my time and temper will be a little shorter when our next baby arrives so it will be even more important to make the effort to trust and respect Echo at that time. I look at how strong and smart and happy she is now and I want her to stay that way. I want her to know how truly valued and respected and loved she is. I never want her to feel like a second class citizen in her own home, I want her to know that she is a full fledged family member who's opinions and needs are valued.

Echo's Recent Artwork

Echo continues to enjoy painting on a regular basis and I love seeing her skills with a brush improve! She recently started making dots with her paintbrush instead of just kind of scribbling with it and has noticed that the color green she uses is the same as the leaves on our houseplants. She loves comparing things right now so she will point to the green paint and then at the leaves and back and forth. We have also done some experimenting with stamping using home made shape stamps and she has been doing some collage and getting practice glueing. Here are some examples of her recent artwork that i am loving!

Experimenting with stamps

The above left picture was a collaborative effort, she really likes painting and drawing with me and I feel like it encourages her to stay interested in painting and drawing longer if we work on something together. She also loves to show people her paintings and can't wait to show her daddy what she has been making when he gets home from work. It's been really exciting to watch her as she continues to learn about different art techniques. She still hates finger painting but loves using a brush and is getting better all the time.

Showing me one of her paintings

My little artist with a cute paint smudge on her cheek!

I love that this is something we can enjoy together and it always makes for a great rainy day activity. I can't wait to see what she will paint next :-)

Toddler Activities- Blanket Fort

Now that mommyhood is my full time job, I spend a lot of time thinking of exciting activities to try with Echo. Not only is it fun to watch her explore new things, it is essential that I tire her out as much as possible every day. She has so much energy and this is the best way I've found to make sure she sleeps! If the weather is nice my job is easy, I just take Echo to the park and let her play for a as long as she wants. However as we have been having a few cold spells here and there I've had to try to get a little more creative. 

blanket fort from above

 One thing I had been looking forward to trying once I had kids (who am I kidding, things like this are the reason I wanted kids!) is building blanket forts with them. This is something I remember as being so much fun from my childhood and lately Echo has been in to crawling through things so I thought now would be a good time to start.

I mostly stuck to sheets for my raw materials as they are light and easy to work with. I made this fort pretty small scale as this was my first attempt. Echo thought it was super fun and loved crawling through the space. I brought in some pillows and books and she loved reading stories in there too, it made the day feel just a little more special and magical.

My cute little monkey

I imagine building blanket forts will be even more fun once the kids are old enough to help. I'll be honest that I'm not the worlds greatest blanket fort architect but Echo didn't seem to mind and it was a fun thing to do on a yucky day when we were stuck inside.

Other resources I've found for good toddler activities are pinterest and other moms. It's amazing all the cool things that are out there to try with your toddler if you start looking around.

Echo's New Room

At long last Echo's big girl room is complete! This was one of the major things we had to do to get ready for the new baby and we have been planning and talking about it for so long that we are really excited to finally get it done. We plan to put the new baby in the nursery (Echo's old room) because it is right across the hall from us and has easy night time access for me. Echo has been sleeping really well lately making it less important for her to be right next to us so moving her to the other room just made sense. I didn't want them sharing a room at this point because I'm afraid the baby will wake Echo up and don't want to mess with her sleep.  

Before

The biggest thing we had to do in this room was get rid of the nasty carpet (as seen in the before picture). Eric's parents came down last weekend to help us work on it and they knocked the whole thing out in just two days! The new floor looks amazing, it really makes me want to do the rest of the rooms that haven't been done yet but it is a huge pain so who knows when that will happen.

My contribution to the room was a mural by Echo's floor bed. I originally really wanted to do this room in a nautical theme (mostly because I wanted to paint a nautical mural) but I could see that Echo really didn't care about under sea stuff as much as I do so in the end I tried to make it something she would enjoy more. She loves to help me in the garden and loves animals so I did some sunflowers and a rabbit for her. She is so proud of this mural and loves the rabbit in particular. She often goes up to it and pats it or gives it kisses, so cute!

This room feels so much more open and it has been fun watching her get used to it. She spent her first night in her new room last night and she slept great in spite of my worries about her adjusting to a new space.

I'm so happy to have her moved in because now she will have plenty of time to think of this as her room before the baby comes and takes over her old room! We still have a few of her things to move in and Eric is building some shelves in her closet but other than that the room is done. Yay!

Coffee Play

You guys, I found the best toddler activity ever, coffee! I saw this idea on pinterest originally, I've tried a few other toddler activities on there but this was by far the biggest hit. I had some really nasty tasting decaf coffee that I bought when trying to cut out caffeine after finding out I was pregnant (yeah, that didn't last long). I finally figured I was never going to drink it so decided to let Echo play with it instead. 

This has really saved me on afternoons when she is grouchy and I'm trying to get dinner made. I just scooped some grounds in to a cookie sheet and gave her a variety of spoons, bowls and measuring cups to dig in it with. We also added some little plastic animals but her favorite was scooping up the coffee and putting it in different containers. At one point she went to the cabinet and got out some muffin tins and loaf pans all by herself  and experimented with those too.

This is a great activity to try with your older baby or toddler, it will really save you on days when you are having a tough time! Just be forewarned that it can be really messy so if that is going to bother you you might want to skip it. I just keep a broom handy and let her go to town!

More Changes for Echo

Shortly after we converted Echo's crib in to a toddler bed we ended up just going ahead and switching her to a floor bed. The toddler bed was great because she could get in and out by herself but she rolled out a few times and woke herself up so we decided it was time for the floor bed.

So far it has been working out really well and we are all getting better sleep. She seems to be able to put herself back to sleep easier than she did in her crib (maybe she doesn't like being fenced in?) and when she does wake up I can just lay down with her in bed until she falls back asleep which makes it a lot easier on me.

So this is what her room looks like for now. The floor bed we are using is an old futon mattress. We had a few extra of those lying around so it worked out perfectly. We will still be moving her to a new room sometime this Spring but have to work up the energy to redo the floors first. In the mean time the floor bed is working out great! I encourage everyone to try it if you have a toddler. Just make sure the room is baby proofed first ;-)

Hello Toddlerhood

Eating veggies and rice, she is getting really good at using spoons and forks.

Echo has been growing by leaps and bounds and has reached quite a few significant milestones lately. I still sometimes feel a little shock when I look at her and realize she isn't a baby anymore, she is a full blown toddler.

The most notable change that has happened over the past few weeks is that Echo is now completely weaned. I have to admit, this makes me sigh a big sigh of relief. I worried (especially after getting pregnant again) that weaning would be difficult, that it would result in lots of stress for both of us and that she wouldn't be weaned by the time the next baby came. Silly me, I should know better! as a product of unschooling I know better than anyone that if you wait until a child is ready to do something it will be easy.

I had planned to do the "don't offer don't refuse" method of weaning but for a long time I kept forgetting and offering automatically. It wasn't until I noticed Echo's decreased interest in nursing that I really decided to try not offering and see how it went. It had gotten to the point where when we did try to nurse she would only stay on for about a minute and then either pop off or start chewing on me (no fun, let me tell you) so I knew it was time. It turns out that once I stopped offering she didn't even really seem to notice. She never asked to nurse again and so we haven't. It's nice to have this hurdle crossed before the next baby arrives but the down side is now I have to worry more about what she eats! Breast milk is such an easy, perfect food and I never had to worry about her getting all the nutrients she needed while she was nursing. So it will be a little more work for me but worth it in the end. It's also nice to reclaim my body a little bit before I have to give it over to the new baby this Summer.

We have also been seeing big changes in echo's sleeping habits that are encouraging. I used to think I would never get her to sleep without nursing and now I mostly use a pacifier to help sooth her to bed. However we have seen more and more of her being able to go to sleep on her own lately. If she is really tired I can lay her in her bed and as long as I stay with her for a while she will drift off on her own. We also decided it was time to remove the side of her crib so she is now in a toddler bed that she can get in and out of on her own. For some reason this has seemed to help with her being able to go back to sleep on her own during the night and nap times. I have no idea why but we have definitely noticed a difference since we switched to the toddler bed. When we move her to her new room she will have a nice big floor bed and will be able to get in and out on her own easily but we are wanting to replace the floor in that room before we move her over and finding the time to do that has been tricky!

Anyway, she is still not sleeping through the night but now that we know she can go back to sleep on her own we are feeling encouraged. Hopefully we will make some real progress with this before the next baby comes and we have to start the sleepless night cycle all over again. Echo has also been exhibiting many other toddler like behaviors like eating with a fork and spoon, stacking blocks, painting and drawing and yes, even trowing tantrums. I still can't believe how big an d beautiful she has gotten, she makes my hear do a little flutter whenever I look at her.

I'm kind of in awe at how easy weaning was and it gives me great hopes for potty training days which will be here before we know it. I feel like it just goes to show that you don't have to battle with your children or have a power struggle, you just have to notice them, listen to them and follow theirs cues. If you follow your instincts and theirs you can have a much easier time of things. When they are ready to reach a certain milestone they will let you know.

Echo's First Painting

Oh my goodness I am so behind on my blog! October has been a really busy month for us and we have had company this week plus we are about to go out of town on a family road trip so I may not have a chance to post much until we get back. In the mean time here is a picture of Echo painting for the first time.

I love introducing her to new art materials! She had a great time with her washable paints and was very careful about dipping the brush in the paint pot. She made a huge mess but that is why she's outside and not wearing clothes :-) For clean up I gave her a small bowl of water to dip her hands in (my dad's genius idea!). This works so much better for us than trying to wipe off her hands for her, which she hates. If we just give her a bowl of water she will dip her hands in it and get herself relatively clean. She also loves her nightly baths so anything that didn't get cleaned up with her small bowl came off later in the bath.

I'm beyond excited that she is starting to enjoy making art. I can't wait to do many more art projects together in the future, I have so many plans and ideas!