Just a Few Gems

 We Made Our Own Book of ABC's! Easy. Fun. Worth it. I LOVED this activity! I have always wanted to write a book (and have started but not finished many books, many times) but this time, I will actually finish one! Granted, this particular work may not be what you would consider a literary masterpiece and the editing was a breeze (hehe), but it is a book nonetheless and one that our whole family is excited for.  What We Did The prep was incredibly easy.  DAY 1: "A"is for Apple I drew out a capital letter "A" and a lower case letter "a". We talked about the letter, traced it with our finger, and talked about the sound it made. We used items we had around the house to help us to trace the letters. For the "A", we used stamps that G really likes. We then talked about words that began with the letter, such as "Apple" and "Animal". We took a photo of G with an apple and a photo of the letter sheet. I then edited them together t

Sensory Bin Ideas for Early Childhood "A sensory what?" I was first introduced to the words "Sensory Bin" at a driveway distance visit with a friend. Having taught in mostly the junior division, I was aware of the idea behind it; play based learning and use of the senses, but I didn't have much experience in the area. The goal was to create some easy, fun, and educational bins for G to play with and explore, that could be stored afterward to be reused in the future. We had such a fun time putting the bins together and then playing with them. I had lots of ideas for bins; Here are just a few gems: DAY 1: Wash the Toys! All we did was put out two bins; one to wash with dish soap and water, one to rinse with water only, and then a towel to dry. G loved this! It was so simple but she had so much fun playing in the water and cleaning any toys from outside that she deemed worthy. Did this Mama sit back and have a coffee? Yup. Win - win! DAY 2: Play Dough Ice Cream Bin

Butterfly Week with a Toddler This week was so fun (and tiring!) for a couple of reasons; we had our 10 year old niece visiting, J, which was so helpful and G had the time of her life playing with her AND it was Butterfly Week in our household! One of our good friends put together a monarch habitat for us. We are growing a monarch from egg to butterfly, so we thought it would be fun for G to learn all about them this week, with the help of her cousin. I put together five activities that I thought were sure to be home runs.  I'm going to be very honest! Instead of talking about how well they went (because they weren't all slam dunks this week!), I'm going to talk about something I humbly learned with each activity. Here are "Just a few Gems": DAY 1: Counting Butterfly Spots This activity was designed to have J help G to count out spots for each butterfly, keeping in mind that the butterflies' wings are symmetrical. They could use any colours, but the wings need

A Week of Toddler Activities: Where and How to Start! My "Why" This is my very first blog post so this is definitely an exciting day for me! On my About Me page, you can read all about my intentions for starting this blog. In a nutshell, I’m hoping it will help me to be more intentional with my activity planning for my toddler, G, and hopefully help others who may be in a similar situation; looking to plan fun and educational activities for their little ones. As a Momma currently on maternity leave, it’s important for me to have easy and affordable activities to set up and clean up. I try to use things we already have in the house or in our ever-expanding craft box, usually garnished with finds from the Dollar Store. So, this blog illustrates “Just a Few Gems” to hopefully spark some ideas for ceating with your little ones. When the pandemic began and daycares closed, I went from “Ok, let's make a detailed schedule for the day and get on track". Reality set in pretty