Preschooler

When I saw this on girl with fabric’s website, I immediately asked to borrow the idea. Turns out she saw a variation of it on Ohdeedoh, but either way, I think there are countless creative ways to riff on this idea.

You might set it up as a nursery decoration - the alphabet in it’s entirety - as fabric girl has done.

Or, make it an ongoing project to work on with your preschooler - whenever you’re out and about or on a special vacation, finding a letter to add to your letter collection would be a little thrill. Any reason to take Julian to thrift stores is exciting for me, and we have a bunch of awesome salvage stores around here that sell old signs. Surely a good place for us to start.

If you want to just do the whole thing upfront, you’ll probably have to buy and decorate some letters yourself. Fabric girl used mod-podge and papers. I might try fabric. Other ideas?

Ahh, yes the laundry. It plagues me to the point where last night Alec was out with friends and all I wanted to do was to curl up with a movie and a beer and fold laundry after the boys were in bed.

So, what’s the activity? Where’s the fun that makes mommy happy and keeps the kid busy? Well, if you can get your preschooler to load up your washing machine (even if it’s one sock at a time), and then load up the dryer, you will not only have a free hand to drink your coffee, but you are also helping their Proprioceptive Development!

Loading and unloading the washer and dryer is #27 of 99 sensory activities on MommyPoppins.com. This list was created by Occupational Therapist Casey Halper to help kids with sensory integration issues, but I find that it’s an excellent list to review when you’re in need of ideas to tucker out a revved-up child.

Sensory activities fall into different categories. Perhaps the most useful one for self-regulation is Proprioceptive Input. That’s a fancy word for “heavy work” that engages your joints. These activities make you feel grounded and can be calming for a high-running child or invigorating for a low-running kid.

Refer to this list and see what other heavy lifting you can get out of your three year old!

A couple weeks ago, I learned that Wedding Anniversary #4 is the “appliance anniversary” so I’m also pleased and slightly embarrassed to report that we got a new dryer and I Love It! Holden likes that he can watch things spin around and I like that the laundry basket now fits under the swinging door.

Many of the activities on the list of 99 were excerpted from Raising a Sensory Smart Child.

An editor from Parents magazine called me recently and asked “What’s the perfect playdate?”  Since I have focused so much on the ideologies of this site (and it’s companion book), I wanted to immediately respond, “One where the moms are having fun.”  But no, she was interested in more of what Parents magazine readers want to (tell themselves they like to) read, so the follow up questions were more about what the children should be doing. What time is ideal? What should the host do if the guest child acts out? Tattle when her mom arrives? Discipline her?

For me, and probably for most readers of this site, these questions are a little hard to field.  We are still playdate rookies, really.  We haven’t had much experience with the drop off playdate.

Since Heather has recently complimented me on my ability to set boundaries, I thought I’d share a related tip with you.  If you are hosting someone, whether it’s a whole family for dinner, or a mom/kid duo for play, be clear when you make the plans about what time you need them to leave.   It is completely reasonable to want your guests to depart so that you can make dinner, get to the gym, return phone calls, or get to SLEEP if you have a baby who DOESN’T!

Today in fact, I need to be using Scarlett’s naptime to work, so I told our playdate that I knew she couldn’t get to our house before 11 am, but I really had to put Scarlett down at 1 pm so I could work for 2 hours before picking up Julian.  If I don’t do this, my playdate is on her own schedule, and if her kid doesn’t need to nap until 2.30, she might lollygag at my house, leaving me with only one hour free before I go on full mommy duty with both kids, inadvertently stressing me out.  So, take a lesson from me.  When you invite someone over for a playdate (even if it’s just a pretend playdate for the mommies to talk while the babies sit in their infant seats) say, “We can’t wait to see you. I can hang out until 3 pm and then I need to do other things.”

Oh, and a bonus tip for preschool playdate havers - meet at the park so that no one has to host, feed everyone, clean up, etc.