I wouldn’t call myself a master baker. In fact, if you asked T he would say that some of my cooking was sub-par at best. Despite this, when it comes to kids and the kitchen, I find that getting them involved in making things that they eat is not only a great activity but also helps to foster a lot of learning.

How?

A lot of early childhood education is based on the concept of learning through play or hands on learning, and this is a subject that I'm going to get into at a later date. As more and more research is done into the way children learn, we are discovering that having kids sit at a desk and do work sheet is not a way that all kids learn. Many children grasp concepts such as language and maths through hands on activities and it’s been found that it sticks in their mind a lot better this way. My brother, J, for example was a kid who could sit at a desk and would soak knowledge up like a sponge this way while we had cousins who learnt a lot better by getting out and being hands on.

AJ's Second Month Update

I said this last time but the month has flown by and already AJ is 2 months old!

This past month has been a real test for us because we have spent the majority of it with a very fussy baby, which is not like AJ at all. Most of it could be because of the first mental leap she went through, but we’ve also had a couple of other things happen in this month that could have caused it.

So without further adieu, let's get into this month's updates.

EASY CRAFTS Rocket Off and Sailing Down the Stream

One of the things that I’ve become very aware of over the past decade of being a nanny is that while parents may want to be able to sit down and do a craft with their kids, they may not be artistically inclined.

I know exactly how that feels.

As much as I would love to be able to draw the perfect truck for my nanny boys to colour in or Batman for that matter, I’m just not that good. However, I have been come very good at breaking down objects into basic shapes and creating very easy and very simple papercrafts from them.

Creating simple crafts was something that I have been wanting to create for Le Giggler for a while, but it was put on the back burner with the arrival of AJ. Now that things have settled down a bit, I was able to sit down during her naps and get started on a couple of the ideas I have and now 2 of them are available on my Etsy shop.

Journey to Baby Giggler Journey to Pregnancy

When I look back at the past eleven months, I’m still in disbelief that I currently have AJ. I went into trying to conceive knowing that there was a chance that we were going to have to work extremely hard in order to get a baby. I had known for eighteen months since I was diagnosed with Poly Cystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), that it would play with my fertility and I may not fall pregnant easily. I had no doubt that T’s side of things was all ok, ADF would have told him if there were any issues with all of that, so any doubts that I had regarding us falling pregnant all had to do with my own body’s ability to conceive.

If you look back in the archives of the blog you will see a few posts where I talked about the things that I was going in order to boost my chances of conceiving. I went to my doctor three months before we started and got a full check-up to make sure everything was ok, I started taking prenatal vitamins, I started to track my ovulation, I started eating better and lost weight as it can impact your fertility as well. I did everything I could in the lead up to us actively starting to try for a baby to increase our chances.

EVERY DAY ITEMS FOR LEARNING UNO CARDS

Most people in their lives have played UNO. It’s a very easy card game and I often have a pack of card in my bag when I’m babysitting, out places with the kids or when I know it’s going to be a rainy day. It’s honestly been a great way to pass the time. UNO is also a great resource that you can use every day to help your kids learn from a young age.

Don’t believe me?

Well here are five ways that you can use the cards to help your child learn.  

What is Motherhood?

I recently wrote an Instagram post that seemed to resonate with some people regarding what motherhood is. It all started with a post by The Southernish Mama; she was writing about what motherhood was to her and then asked the question about what it was to others. The question hit me because recently it was something that I had been thinking about a lot.

A few weeks ago, one of my bosses messaged me to check in and see how everything was going as AJ’s arrival had come earlier than we had all expected. We were chatting back and forth on how I was going and how her and her boys were going when she asked me if things felt any different. It was a hard question to answer as while I felt like it was different it was hard to put into words what it was that was different. Then AJ was admitted to hospital for abnormal breathing and suddenly I realised why being a mother was so different to being a nanny.

You see for over a decade, I was in a job that I loved. Sure, it had its down points but overall, I loved being a nanny. I loved getting out and doing things with the kids like going to the zoo or playing in the park or just going down to the local café for a milkshake after school. I loved helping them get out into the world and discover new things about it and themselves. I loved helping their parents raise these amazing little humans during happy times and supporting them through challenging times. I created bonds with so many of the families that I work with that I still keep in contact with them over Facebook so we can keep up to date with our lives and let me just tell you it is shocking when you see your first nanny kid start high school!

Fostering Reading in Children

I, like many other people, am a fan of Harry Potter. I will forever say that the book series is what got me back into reading at the age of 13 after I had hit a slump after reading all of Roald Dahl's books and finding nothing else that I was particularly interested in. I started with book four, had no idea what was going on to begin with, but found the story so enthralling that I continued to read until I was hooked.

My Aunt thankfully had all the books that were out at the time and I was able to borrow them to read the entire series. That year I think I read all four books four times, in between reading books for school and reading other books I found in the High School library. Mum saw my love for the series and bought a set for my birthday that year, which were all re-read again by Easter. I luckily didn’t have long to wait until book five came out and I saved all my money to be able to buy it before talking my mother into getting up early so I could get to the shop the moment it opened to get my hands on a copy.