Today I was inspired by a new baby music class that we went to.  She had these plastic hoops with ribbons / streamers coming off of them.  Each child had one and she played some upbeat music for them to wave them around.  Ethan absolutely loved it!  I couldn't find one to buy online (I'm not quite sure what they would be called) but I did find these streamers that could be fun as well.  So, I decided to make one myself.  I used a roll of masking tape for the hoop and collected up some ribbons.



Ethan loved waving it around to the music, I think that I'll have to make another one so that we can have one each and he can copy the movements (as he seemed to be watching everyone else at the music class and that got him more excited).  It was fun to find a new activity that is great for his Creative Development as he learns to move to the music.

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Now that Ethan is walking quite confidently we have started playing Hide and Seek.  It is so much fun and he finds it absolutely hilarious!    I run ahead of him and hide behind a door or behind the couch and he follows and finds me and bursts out laughing and gives me a big hug.  It's lots of fun, a great way to tire him out and good for him to understand that even if he can't see me, I'm still there (object permanence) which is good for him when we are separated, a part of his Personal, Social and Emotional Development.

Today we played Row Row Row Your Boat for quite a long time.  I get Ethan to sit across from me and we hold hands and rock back and forth.  Ethan loves it and always giggles away :)  Today was extra special because he started to sing along!  Just making little sounds while I sang and then at the end of the crocodile verse he was saying 'ahhhhh' after me.  It was incredibly sweet, and great for his Creative Development that he is joining in with singing.

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Life is but a dream.

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream.

If you see an crocodile,

Don't forget to scream.

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently to and fro.

Wibbly wobbly, wibbly, wobbly, 

Over the side you go.

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the river.

If you see a polar bear,

Don't forget to shiver.

Inspired by our Three Pigs puppets we made our first story sack today!  As we love The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle it seemed like the perfect choice.  I ordered a few cotton sacks last week which arrived today, collected up some play fruit, toy caterpillars, an egg, a butterfly, and other VHC books we had like the Little Library and Finger Puppet Book.



We had so much fun going through the sack and pulling everything out and then reading the story with the little caterpillar and other props.  After we went through it the first time Ethan took the caterpillar and started going through the book and re-enacting what we had just done, it was amazing!  It really helped bring the story to life and Ethan seemed to pay a lot more attention to the story than he often does, a fantastic Literacy activity!

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We bought a new toy storage unit yesterday, and today we put it together and organised all of Ethan's toys!  



Something so practical can actually be quite fun and educational.  I made labels for all of the boxes and we collected all of his toys from various other boxes and bags and started to sort them into their new containers.  I told him about which boxes hold which items and we sorted through them together.  Of course there was a lot of taking things back out of the boxes, but we had fun sorting and matching which things go together.  Sorting is a part of Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy.

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Today we went to Ikea and bought Ethan his first train set.  We got home and he brought the box out to open it right away, we played with the tracks (then Daddy came and make a super track for us with a bridge and a tunnel!)



Ethan drove the train along the track, made his usual car sounds (we're still working on train sounds) and really enjoyed driving the train through the tunnel and watching it go fast as it went down the bridge.  Ethan has really started noticing trains and buses when we're out and about, and he certainly likes playing with all sorts of vehicle toys.  Learning about the sounds they make and the jobs they do is all a part of his Knowledge and Understanding of the World.

It's snowing!  Not very much, but we have some snow flurries, and since we missed the big snow day in January while we were away, we're having our own snow day inside today!  We put together a snow day sensory box with all sorts of fun stuff to play with and explore.



Inside our box:

• cotton wool balls
• scoops and spoons
• winter animal toys
• winter clothes (mitts, hats, etc.)

Ethan really enjoyed throwing the cotton balls around, filling the box up and dumping them out again.  He also enjoyed scooping them up, "shovelling the snow", playing with the wintry animals and even wearing his mitts to play with the snow.  He won't normally wear mitts, but he's loving putting them on and taking them off in play, so I'm hoping that I'll have an easier time getting them on him when we go out next!  We had a great time playing in the 'snow' a wonderful activity for Ethan's Knowledge and Understanding of the World as he learns about snow and winter.

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Today I thought it would be fun to do something new, so I rummaged through the kitchen cupboards for some inspiration.  I found some plastic cups and thought I must be able to do something with them.  I took 10 cups and wrote numbers on the bottom of them (1-10) then I drew some shapes in different colours on stickers and stuck them inside the cups.



Ethan loved just playing with and exploring the cups at first.  We lined them all up and counted them, turned them over and said all the colours and then all the shapes.  We took different coloured pieces of felt and put them in the cups and used the cups to hide and find different shapes underneath.  There are so many different activities involving Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy that can be done with these simple cups.  Although I would recommend slightly more robust cups as Ethan soon realised his own strength and began crushing them!

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Today I decided to introduce Ethan to yoga. I had great intentions of doing Mum and Baby yoga with him when he was tiny, but time passed so quickly that before I knew it he was too big / too mobile to go.  I did a training course to teach yoga to children, so I thought it was about time to try it out with Ethan.



We started slowly today, just watching an episode of Waybuloo and doing to "yogo" poses along with them. Ethan thought it was hilarious when I got down onto the floor into these funny positions, but happily allowed me to put him into the poses as well. Of course he would only manage to hold a pose for a second, but it was lots of fun and yoga is great for his Physical Development and it can be very calming which would be good for his Personal, Social and Emotional Development as well.

Ethan got an adorable Three Little Pigs puppet set and book as a late Christmas present and we had such fun playing with it today.



Ethan loved grabbing the puppets we read the story and helping the wolf to blow down the pigs' houses!  He loved the book as well (he does love books) and sat for ages afterwards turning the pages himself and "reading" the story (babbling away).  A fun activity for his Communication, Language and Literacy as we brought the story to life (and inspiration for me to start making some story sacks!)

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I hadn't really realised how much more Ethan understands now.  It happens so gradually that you just get used to it.  So today we really focused on following instructions.  I was amazed at how much Ethan understood and he was so pleased with himself as he did different things and saw how proud we were of him.  We asked him to pick up certain things and bring them to each other "Bring the ball to Daddy" and he would happily pick it up and walk across the room, beaming :)  A great activity for his Communication, Language and Literacy as he listened and followed instructions and for bonding as we had such lovely family time together.

Watching Ethan learn to walk has been so much fun, he is now walking quite confidently in the house and other indoor places, but we haven't done much walking outside without holding hands.  It's been very cold and muddy so today we wrapped him up and put on his new wellington boots, and off we went to the park.

Today we brought Ethan's stacking cups (one of his favourite toys since he was about 6 months old) into the bath!
He had so much fun pouring water from one cup to another, working on his Physical Development and aim trying to get all the water into each cup.  He loved watching the water trickle through the holes in the cups and into the bath and of course throwing the water and splashing around!

We have a box in the kitchen for Ethan to play with whilst I'm preparing his meals.  We're always adding interesting things in the box, interesting containers and kitchen utensils mostly.  Today Ethan was especially interested in it, getting out the ice cream scoop and using it as a drum stick on the hula hoops tin.  



It was a great opportunity for me to sit down to play and discover with him.  We went through all of the objects in the box, bashing them together and seeing what made a good noise!  It was a fun and noisy activity developing Ethan's Knowledge and Understanding of the World.

Happy Valentine's Day!  We wanted to make another present for Daddy today, so we did some painting!  I found a fantastic idea for heart stamps on Pinterest from Rust and Sunshine.



Ethan loves playing with paint, especially with his fingers!  We used the kitchen towel roll to make some heart stamps and then he just had fun finger painting with the bright red paint!  He was free to decorate his masterpiece however he liked, really expressing himself through his Creative Development.

Today we made a Valentine's Day card for Daddy!  Again we went to our trusty Pinterest for inspiration, and found this great idea from A Day in my Life blog.



It certainly wasn't easy to keep Ethan still to trace his hand, he found it fascinating and wanted to help with the pencil!  But we got it done in the end, and he had fun decorating the card.  I also showed him as I did the writing and had him help trace over the letters, a start of his letter writing for his Communication, Language and Literacy.

Today we sat together and read some lovely books in preparation for Valentine's Day.  We have some fantastic books about love, so we chose just a few; Hug, Mummy and Me, Daddy and Me, Monkey Puzzle and Love is a Handful of Honey.



We had such a nice time reading together, developing Ethan's Communication, Language and Literacy.  We hugged and gave kisses when they did in the story, we pointed out the different animals and identified who was the Mummy, Daddy and baby.  It was a lovely afternoon of reading and cuddles <3

Today we made more Valentine's cards for Ethan's friends, this time with an animal theme! We really wanted a way to make some nice Valentine's that Ethan's friends would like, but that didn't have any candy or any small toys as they're only just over a year old.



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Happy Chinese New Year!  Today we celebrated by playing with red envelopes.  I printed out some outlines for red envelopes from KidsCanHaveFun and cut them out.  I also found some other sizes of plain red envelopes to play with.

As tomorrow is Chinese New Year we decided to start our celebrations today by making Chinese food for dinner (for real and pretend).




Ethan has a wok and some play food from his Early Learning Centre pots and pans set and food set.  We also have some chopsticks and plastic bowls and soup spoons that were perfect for our Chinese food play.  Ethan had so much fun stirring things around with the spoons and trying to pick things up with the chopsticks.  It was a great activity to learn about different types of food and different ways of eating, part of his Knowledge and Understanding of the World.

Today we had a play date with a friend, so we decided to make a Valentine to bring him (as we won't be seeing him next week).  We wanted something a little different, and I knew that I had seen a teacher that I used to work with use glow sticks in Valentine's Day cards before, so it seemed like a great option for us to try.


What you'll need:

• construction paper or card in Valentine's Day colours
• crayons, colouring pencils, heart stampers
• scissors
• thin glow sticks (bracelets)

I cut some heart shapes out of construction paper then let Ethan decorate them however he liked.  Ethan enjoyed trying out the stamper and colouring the Valentines with crayons.  I cut a couple of slits in the heart for Ethan to put the glow sticks through, which is great for his fine motor control trying to thread them through. Then I wrote on a message for his friend that would suit the theme, so I went for 'You make my heart glow'.  

Ethan was able to enrich his Creative Development by decorating the hearts however he liked, and he really had fun being able to decorate them freely without any restrictions.

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Today we went to one of our favourite places, Gymboree :)  We went for an open gym session today, and we brought Daddy!  Ethan enjoyed showing off his incredible climbing skills, and having two of us there with him meant that I could be more brave and we could teach Ethan to slide on his own.

We play on the slide often, but I always hold onto Ethan's hands.  Today we expanded Ethan's Physical Development but teaching him how to go down the slide on his own!  With support at the top and bottom of the slide it didn't take long for Ethan to pick it up and was soon whizzing down all by himself.  Proud Mommy moment :)

One of Ethan's favourite things to play with are boxes, so today I decided to make a game of it, and play with cereal boxes.  We happened to finish up some Rice Krispies with finger puppets on the back of the box, so we started there.



Ethan and I sat and coloured the finger puppets together for a little while, and then he started playing with the boxes, putting things in them and taking things out.  A real Creative Development activity as we came up with ways to use the boxes in many different ways.

I've been thinking a bit about tidying up, and at a play group yesterday was a bit shocked when some parents left about 5 minutes before the group was due to finish without having their children help to tidy up.  I have always sort of encouraged Ethan to tidy up but thought that he was too young to really do anything, until now!

At play group for the past few weeks we've walked around together with a toy shopping trolley at the end, collecting up the play food and putting it into the trolley and then into the box.  We made sort of a game of it, and now we're doing the same at home.  It's a great activity for sorting and organising as a part of Ethan's Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy development.  I also think it's a part of his Personal, Social and Emotional Development to learn about doing his part and helping out.

Today we started our Valentine's celebrations with a simple sensory box for Ethan to explore.  It's amazing how quickly you can put something together by just searching through boxes and cupboards to make a fun and simple sensory bin. 

• wooden hearts (from shape sorting toys)
• red tea cups
• red and pink link toys
• red spoons
• red balls
• a pink boat toy
• red heart foam confetti

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I'll tell you the truth, my little Ethan doesn't like wearing clothes!  Getting him dressed is often a bit of a struggle, as he'd be much happier just running around naked.  I started thinking that I need to come up with fun ways to get him dressed (I would love any other suggestions as well). So today we started playing peekaboo with hands and feet and then counting fingers and toes as they popped out the other side.

Ethan loved this!  It really made him giggle and distracted him from the fact that he was then wearing clothes!  We even sang some number songs, excellent for his Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy as we counted his fingers and toes.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
Once I caught a fish alive,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Then I let it go again.
Why did you let it go?
Because it bit my finger so,
Which finger did it bite?
This little finger on my right.

Recently Ethan has been mimicking a lot of sounds and saying a few new words. I really want to encourage this, so today we spent some time looking at first words books.



Ethan is really sweetly bringing books to me and sitting in my lap to read them together.  We have a few word books and word card sets that we looked at together today, Ethan happily turned the pages as I read the words to him.  Sometimes we went through them with me just saying the words, and other times I described the item and how we use it or made the sound that the animal makes.  Ethan was really listening intently, differently to when I read him a story book.  He made a couple of sounds after me, but mostly he just listened today.  I am hoping that this will help with his Communication, Language and Literacy as he begins to say more words.