F is for Family

Family, home, travel, life

Archives for April 2013

Wanderlust Toddler Style: The Pre List

We are on our final countdown until we leave for an 11 day trip through Europe…with our toddler. So let’s get it out of our systems, “are you crazy”, “why would you do that”, “oh God, good luck”. Yes, I know, I’ve heard it all. I do know she won’t remember this trip, I know it may not be “ideal” to travel with a toddler but I also couldn’t imagine leaving her for that long or having this experience with my whole family.
Now that we got that out of the way, on to the strategy of how to make this work. I’m going to post a series of “Travel Preparation” posts starting with our pre packing must have list. We’ve flown a few times and the most successful trips have been when we took the time to be prepared.

· Saniwipes

o The germ infested part of airplanes is everything you touch NOT the air. We learned from an aviation engineer that there is some insane amount of filtered air pumped in and out of the cabin per minute that the air quality isn’t what you should be afraid of

· Entertainment for busy Toddler

o Our Miss Busy loves books, songs and specific TV shows. We love to carry one regular book, and a few small board books for her to flip through. The mini’s are the best because you can throw them into anything throughout your travels. We also purchased the Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood series onto the iPad for a backup plan.

· Snacks

o Plane friendly snacks that are easy to grab are the best. Little baggies of goldfish, blueberries and a few Golden Graham’s mixed (this is our sweet version of toddler trailmix), string cheese and crackers, crackers and almond butter sandwiches.

· Clean and Sealed Paci

o We have a back-up paci always on hand. It stays in a snack Ziploc in case one makes a nose dive in the airport or anywhere else for that matter.

· Food Supplies

o This trip I decided to add some additional products to the list since we now have a “real food eater” on our hands. I purchased a pack of disposable sippy cups that have travel lids, disposable bibs and disposable placemats. These will take up little room in our bag and will help with the unknown that can occur with traveling. I also plan to grab some forks and spoons from Target’s $1 area. This way if they are lost along the way, the financial impact is minimal.

This of course is just the preliminary list. I’ll have my detailed list for packing baby soon. Very soon since we have only 10 DAYS to lift off!!! What are your go to products or tips when you travel?

Wanderlust Toddler Style: The Pre List

We are on our final countdown until we leave for an 11 day trip through Europe…with our toddler. So let’s get it out of our systems, “are you crazy”, “why would you do that”, “oh God, good luck”. Yes, I know, I’ve heard it all. I do know she won’t remember this trip, I know it may not be “ideal” to travel with a toddler but I also couldn’t imagine leaving her for that long or having this experience with my whole family.
Now that we got that out of the way, on to the strategy of how to make this work. I’m going to post a series of “Travel Preparation” posts starting with our pre packing must have list. We’ve flown a few times and the most successful trips have been when we took the time to be prepared.

· Saniwipes

o The germ infested part of airplanes is everything you touch NOT the air. We learned from an aviation engineer that there is some insane amount of filtered air pumped in and out of the cabin per minute that the air quality isn’t what you should be afraid of

· Entertainment for busy Toddler

o Our Miss Busy loves books, songs and specific TV shows. We love to carry one regular book, and a few small board books for her to flip through. The mini’s are the best because you can throw them into anything throughout your travels. We also purchased the Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood series onto the iPad for a backup plan.

· Snacks

o Plane friendly snacks that are easy to grab are the best. Little baggies of goldfish, blueberries and a few Golden Graham’s mixed (this is our sweet version of toddler trailmix), string cheese and crackers, crackers and almond butter sandwiches.

· Clean and Sealed Paci

o We have a back-up paci always on hand. It stays in a snack Ziploc in case one makes a nose dive in the airport or anywhere else for that matter.

· Food Supplies

o This trip I decided to add some additional products to the list since we now have a “real food eater” on our hands. I purchased a pack of disposable sippy cups that have travel lids, disposable bibs and disposable placemats. These will take up little room in our bag and will help with the unknown that can occur with traveling. I also plan to grab some forks and spoons from Target’s $1 area. This way if they are lost along the way, the financial impact is minimal.

This of course is just the preliminary list. I’ll have my detailed list for packing baby soon. Very soon since we have only 10 DAYS to lift off!!! What are your go to products or tips when you travel?

The Busy Toddler: Matching Game

         It’s official, my 18 month old micro preemie is bridging the gap between her adjusted age (little over 18 months) and her adjusted age (14 months). The problem at this point is keeping her challenged without frustrating her. So, I was at Target since it’s impossible to get in and only purchase what you came for, I ended up in the $1 area and I got a toddlers paradise worth of things. I picked up a few coloring books because she is now like to “color”. We are working on learning to not just jag the crayon although she maybe she’s just perfecting her Pointillism technique, what do I know!
               
Old Maid from Target $1

I also picked up a $1 pack of Old Maid cards by Crayola which I used to play a matching game with Little Miss Busy Pants. I only pulled out 4 sets of matching cards at a time. I would lay four cards down, hold 4 in my hand. She would “pick a card” and then I’d ask her to find the match. Example, “this is the pig. Can you find a pig?” This was WAY over her head, she just wanted all the cards and she also wanted to just fold them in half. Fail!







But this got me thinking about games I could play with a young toddler that would challenge her, lead to working on more complex cognitive skills and still be budget friendly. So off I went to the 2nd worst place to go if you are trying to live on a budget…Michael’s! And that’s where I found it, my young toddler friendly, matching game, well an improvised version that is. Searching the aisles, I looked for something that was easy for her to recognize and identify and I found just what I needed in the scrapbook section, Sesame Street Crafting Chipboard Embellishments.

 


Here’s how we set it up. The pack comes with individual character cut outs along with round “headshot” coins with each characters cute little mug printed on them. 









I held the round disc/coins and placed a few of the characters in a small container. I would then hold up a disc and ask her to find that character in her container. It went something like this. 

Mommy: “Who’s this?” (holding Elmo disc)
Sofie: “ELMO!”
Mommy: “That’s right! Can you find Elmo? (point to container) Where’s Elmo? Say, Elmo where are you?”
Sofie: (Looks through container) “ELMO!”


Granted that was on a good run. Sometimes we got it, sometimes we didn’t. If it was a miss, I would stay positive and say “who did you find, that’s ::insert character name::”. This turned into a huge success and has been a fun rainy day game that lasts maybe 15-20 min. She practices her memory and matching skills and it’s fun to watch her reaction when she find a “new” character every time she searches. That’s a win in our book!

The Busy Toddler: Matching Game

         It’s official, my 18 month old micro preemie is bridging the gap between her adjusted age (little over 18 months) and her adjusted age (14 months). The problem at this point is keeping her challenged without frustrating her. So, I was at Target since it’s impossible to get in and only purchase what you came for, I ended up in the $1 area and I got a toddlers paradise worth of things. I picked up a few coloring books because she is now like to “color”. We are working on learning to not just jag the crayon although she maybe she’s just perfecting her Pointillism technique, what do I know!
               
Old Maid from Target $1

I also picked up a $1 pack of Old Maid cards by Crayola which I used to play a matching game with Little Miss Busy Pants. I only pulled out 4 sets of matching cards at a time. I would lay four cards down, hold 4 in my hand. She would “pick a card” and then I’d ask her to find the match. Example, “this is the pig. Can you find a pig?” This was WAY over her head, she just wanted all the cards and she also wanted to just fold them in half. Fail!







But this got me thinking about games I could play with a young toddler that would challenge her, lead to working on more complex cognitive skills and still be budget friendly. So off I went to the 2nd worst place to go if you are trying to live on a budget…Michael’s! And that’s where I found it, my young toddler friendly, matching game, well an improvised version that is. Searching the aisles, I looked for something that was easy for her to recognize and identify and I found just what I needed in the scrapbook section, Sesame Street Crafting Chipboard Embellishments.

 


Here’s how we set it up. The pack comes with individual character cut outs along with round “headshot” coins with each characters cute little mug printed on them. 









I held the round disc/coins and placed a few of the characters in a small container. I would then hold up a disc and ask her to find that character in her container. It went something like this. 

Mommy: “Who’s this?” (holding Elmo disc)
Sofie: “ELMO!”
Mommy: “That’s right! Can you find Elmo? (point to container) Where’s Elmo? Say, Elmo where are you?”
Sofie: (Looks through container) “ELMO!”


Granted that was on a good run. Sometimes we got it, sometimes we didn’t. If it was a miss, I would stay positive and say “who did you find, that’s ::insert character name::”. This turned into a huge success and has been a fun rainy day game that lasts maybe 15-20 min. She practices her memory and matching skills and it’s fun to watch her reaction when she find a “new” character every time she searches. That’s a win in our book!

The Busy Toddler: Matching Game

         It’s official, my 18 month old micro preemie is bridging the gap between her adjusted age (little over 18 months) and her adjusted age (14 months). The problem at this point is keeping her challenged without frustrating her. So, I was at Target since it’s impossible to get in and only purchase what you came for, I ended up in the $1 area and I got a toddlers paradise worth of things. I picked up a few coloring books because she is now like to “color”. We are working on learning to not just jag the crayon although she maybe she’s just perfecting her Pointillism technique, what do I know!
               
Old Maid from Target $1

I also picked up a $1 pack of Old Maid cards by Crayola which I used to play a matching game with Little Miss Busy Pants. I only pulled out 4 sets of matching cards at a time. I would lay four cards down, hold 4 in my hand. She would “pick a card” and then I’d ask her to find the match. Example, “this is the pig. Can you find a pig?” This was WAY over her head, she just wanted all the cards and she also wanted to just fold them in half. Fail!







But this got me thinking about games I could play with a young toddler that would challenge her, lead to working on more complex cognitive skills and still be budget friendly. So off I went to the 2nd worst place to go if you are trying to live on a budget…Michael’s! And that’s where I found it, my young toddler friendly, matching game, well an improvised version that is. Searching the aisles, I looked for something that was easy for her to recognize and identify and I found just what I needed in the scrapbook section, Sesame Street Crafting Chipboard Embellishments.

 


Here’s how we set it up. The pack comes with individual character cut outs along with round “headshot” coins with each characters cute little mug printed on them. 









I held the round disc/coins and placed a few of the characters in a small container. I would then hold up a disc and ask her to find that character in her container. It went something like this. 

Mommy: “Who’s this?” (holding Elmo disc)
Sofie: “ELMO!”
Mommy: “That’s right! Can you find Elmo? (point to container) Where’s Elmo? Say, Elmo where are you?”
Sofie: (Looks through container) “ELMO!”


Granted that was on a good run. Sometimes we got it, sometimes we didn’t. If it was a miss, I would stay positive and say “who did you find, that’s ::insert character name::”. This turned into a huge success and has been a fun rainy day game that lasts maybe 15-20 min. She practices her memory and matching skills and it’s fun to watch her reaction when she find a “new” character every time she searches. That’s a win in our book!

Michael’s AD