Hello and Welcome!
Instead of starting with a formal introduction, talking about my past, I (Vanessa, 32 yr old woman, wife and mom to a 2.5 yr girl) am going to talk about the present. Meaning RIGHT NOW. We'll get to know each other through the posts.
Hmmm, well, let's talk about what I just did. I just visited my new favorite blog to get instructions on how to make a sensory table:
http://playathomemom3.blogspot.com/
This is an amazing place and has truly changed my daily life and motivated me to become so much more involved (and sometimes less) with my child. They are a group of moms, really committed to child lead learning, mainly through creative play.
So, as my baby is turning into a toddler (Castalia is almost 2.5), I am revisiting my ideas about how to care for a 2 yr old. I read not long ago a quote from Tagore "Don’t limit your child to your own learning, for he was born in another time."
Well, that's what I challenged myself to do over the summer. My child having many health issues since birth, we spent the first two years of her life at home, ALL the time. And I mean ALL the time. 24/7...Sooo, you HAVE to be creative and create a world for yourself-otherwise you go insane...literally!
For the most part, I think I'm still pretty sane so I'd pat myself on the back on that one!
So, now that fall is around the corner, I felt that it was time for me to step it up a notch and get ready for yet another lonely flu season. Now, my toddler is more verbal and really engaging, so I'm looking forward to that.
She is a sweet little girl, she has had a very rough start in life and a hard journey, especially the first year and a half. She has overcome SO much but there are still a lot of things we have to deal with. And we do. She does. With amazing strength and grace. She is a ray of sunlight and her hardships make me want to help her develop into her optimal self THAT much more.
I am a teacher and have always loved arts & crafts. I paint (too rarely), I almost finished a painting actually. It is a close up of a Chinese girl wearing a red turtleneck. I like it so far.
I am getting excited to share this with Castalia, she seems very receptive so far. In any case, I don't think you can teach a child talent but I do think you can teach him to be creative. Many studies have shown this. We make more connections in our brain in the first three years than we will for the REST of our lives.
I was recently reading "How Early Experiences Affect Brain Development" and, as the author puts it,
http://main.zerotothree.org/site/DocServer/startingsmart.pdf?docID=2422
"In early childhood the brain is genetically programmed to produce more synapses than it will ultimately use." You might not know what a synapse here but I bet you know what it looks like from the movies though. Those blue spider webs in your brain bringing the info to where it needs to go. Well, the idea from 0-3 is "use it or lose it." If some parts of the brain aren't used, they are just "pruned" by the baby's brain. A lot of people with young toddlers think, well I'll take him to XYZ when he is older, he won't remember it anyways. Well, his visual memory won't but you might be creating life long, very important connections with these experiences.
I think that the brain is such an interesting area of study and so mysterious. We know so little about it.
What I do know is that I want to give Castalia the best chances in life and want to help her be her optimal self. She is a very smart little girl but is a bit too "academic" if one can call a two year old that. LOL She is really into letters, numbers and reading. The other day, I turned around after hanging up from a speedy phone call and she had written 6 letters on her white board. I have never showed her how to. She then wrote her cousin's name.
Don't get me wrong, I think it is awesome, especially after spending the first 1.5yr of her life wondering if she would be mentally delayed from the severe brain bleed she suffered at birth. Or Spending the first 8-10 months wondering if her she would ever get to see the pretty princess dresses I got her at a garage sale when she was still in the NICU. It is THOSE moments where it feels empowering to be a preemie/EA/TEF mama. My child had SO many obstacles in front of her but STILL, she thrived.
My point with this little story was that, she is very interested in these things before her time and I wanted to encourage her to act more like a kid. Don't get me wrong, I won the toddler lottery, she is super obedient, never had a full on tantrum ever, I can't even recall when the last time she cried or even whined was, she squeals to go to bed and asks to nap...I mean she is a 30 year old! I probably whine more than she does!
So, all of these ideas: the importance of brain connections, flu season coming up, encouraging creative play and being introduced to the Stay at Home blog all came together in one great room...My basement!
We had this room which was set up as a cellar but we used it as storage until we found a better use for it. DONE!
I put together an awesome "Creative Play" Room. I had a ton of fun in the process. I am slowly adding different areas but Castalia and I (and Daddy too sometimes) are having so much fun.
The room is fun because it has a lot of corners which I turned into different "areas." As of today, there is:
- The "Enchanted Forest: (AKA the doll/floor play area)
- The Dress up area
- The Arts & Crafts tables
- The puppet Theater
- The Animals area
- The White board/Magnetic Area
- The Light panel/Blacklight area
- The sensory Area (under construction at this time)
I am just SO excited to see how much it has done, not only for her but for us so far. My husband is excited to go down there and do things with her. "Their" thing is Play-Doh, and I love that they have that time together. For Castalia and I, it makes the day fun and I love hearing how she comes up with little stories. It is so cute.
So, I guess, to conclude this introduction which looks nothing like what I expected it to be LOL I'd like to say thank you for reading and I hope you'll come back.
Instead of starting with a formal introduction, talking about my past, I (Vanessa, 32 yr old woman, wife and mom to a 2.5 yr girl) am going to talk about the present. Meaning RIGHT NOW. We'll get to know each other through the posts.
Hmmm, well, let's talk about what I just did. I just visited my new favorite blog to get instructions on how to make a sensory table:
http://playathomemom3.blogspot.com/
This is an amazing place and has truly changed my daily life and motivated me to become so much more involved (and sometimes less) with my child. They are a group of moms, really committed to child lead learning, mainly through creative play.
So, as my baby is turning into a toddler (Castalia is almost 2.5), I am revisiting my ideas about how to care for a 2 yr old. I read not long ago a quote from Tagore "Don’t limit your child to your own learning, for he was born in another time."
Well, that's what I challenged myself to do over the summer. My child having many health issues since birth, we spent the first two years of her life at home, ALL the time. And I mean ALL the time. 24/7...Sooo, you HAVE to be creative and create a world for yourself-otherwise you go insane...literally!
For the most part, I think I'm still pretty sane so I'd pat myself on the back on that one!
So, now that fall is around the corner, I felt that it was time for me to step it up a notch and get ready for yet another lonely flu season. Now, my toddler is more verbal and really engaging, so I'm looking forward to that.
She is a sweet little girl, she has had a very rough start in life and a hard journey, especially the first year and a half. She has overcome SO much but there are still a lot of things we have to deal with. And we do. She does. With amazing strength and grace. She is a ray of sunlight and her hardships make me want to help her develop into her optimal self THAT much more.
I am a teacher and have always loved arts & crafts. I paint (too rarely), I almost finished a painting actually. It is a close up of a Chinese girl wearing a red turtleneck. I like it so far.
I am getting excited to share this with Castalia, she seems very receptive so far. In any case, I don't think you can teach a child talent but I do think you can teach him to be creative. Many studies have shown this. We make more connections in our brain in the first three years than we will for the REST of our lives.
I was recently reading "How Early Experiences Affect Brain Development" and, as the author puts it,
http://main.zerotothree.org/site/DocServer/startingsmart.pdf?docID=2422
"In early childhood the brain is genetically programmed to produce more synapses than it will ultimately use." You might not know what a synapse here but I bet you know what it looks like from the movies though. Those blue spider webs in your brain bringing the info to where it needs to go. Well, the idea from 0-3 is "use it or lose it." If some parts of the brain aren't used, they are just "pruned" by the baby's brain. A lot of people with young toddlers think, well I'll take him to XYZ when he is older, he won't remember it anyways. Well, his visual memory won't but you might be creating life long, very important connections with these experiences.
I think that the brain is such an interesting area of study and so mysterious. We know so little about it.
What I do know is that I want to give Castalia the best chances in life and want to help her be her optimal self. She is a very smart little girl but is a bit too "academic" if one can call a two year old that. LOL She is really into letters, numbers and reading. The other day, I turned around after hanging up from a speedy phone call and she had written 6 letters on her white board. I have never showed her how to. She then wrote her cousin's name.
Don't get me wrong, I think it is awesome, especially after spending the first 1.5yr of her life wondering if she would be mentally delayed from the severe brain bleed she suffered at birth. Or Spending the first 8-10 months wondering if her she would ever get to see the pretty princess dresses I got her at a garage sale when she was still in the NICU. It is THOSE moments where it feels empowering to be a preemie/EA/TEF mama. My child had SO many obstacles in front of her but STILL, she thrived.
My point with this little story was that, she is very interested in these things before her time and I wanted to encourage her to act more like a kid. Don't get me wrong, I won the toddler lottery, she is super obedient, never had a full on tantrum ever, I can't even recall when the last time she cried or even whined was, she squeals to go to bed and asks to nap...I mean she is a 30 year old! I probably whine more than she does!
So, all of these ideas: the importance of brain connections, flu season coming up, encouraging creative play and being introduced to the Stay at Home blog all came together in one great room...My basement!
We had this room which was set up as a cellar but we used it as storage until we found a better use for it. DONE!
I put together an awesome "Creative Play" Room. I had a ton of fun in the process. I am slowly adding different areas but Castalia and I (and Daddy too sometimes) are having so much fun.
The room is fun because it has a lot of corners which I turned into different "areas." As of today, there is:
- The "Enchanted Forest: (AKA the doll/floor play area)
- The Dress up area
- The Arts & Crafts tables
- The puppet Theater
- The Animals area
- The White board/Magnetic Area
- The Light panel/Blacklight area
- The sensory Area (under construction at this time)
I am just SO excited to see how much it has done, not only for her but for us so far. My husband is excited to go down there and do things with her. "Their" thing is Play-Doh, and I love that they have that time together. For Castalia and I, it makes the day fun and I love hearing how she comes up with little stories. It is so cute.
So, I guess, to conclude this introduction which looks nothing like what I expected it to be LOL I'd like to say thank you for reading and I hope you'll come back.
I'll keep posting some of our fun activities -I will have plenty of time during flu season!- and I hope you'll join us in this journey...In this blog I will invite you into our playroom and will try to share our daily fun with you. Beware, it IS contagious :)
V&C
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