{Printable} Paper cutting and Lego tray

 Paper cutting tray

Last night, Dr B took a pair of scissors and started cutting a strip of adhesive backing that he found. So I believe it’s time to bring out cutting strips. With USB I used to just print out blank squares and rectangles in the beginning. But I saw the colourful themed strips on Deb’s Living Montessori Now blog and thought I’d make one too. I just picked some royalty-free images of the cars Dr B likes and made the strips and printed them out.

I then prepared the cutting tray. I placed the strips on top, a pair of scissors on the left side (to reinforce writing movement from left to right if you use the Latin alphabet) and a small bowl to put the cuttings in. 

I presented the tray to Dr B, demonstrating to him how I picked up one strip of paper and handed it to my left hand, picked up the scissors, cut and placed the photos in the bowl. Dr B would sit and watch with his hands on his lap (it took many many times until he finally understood the need to sit still while observing 😅).

When he was done with his tray, I put the cuttings alongside art supplies to be used in collages and other artwork. 

Here is the link to the car cutting strip printable: Cars

Lego tray

USB is currently obsessed with Lego so I decided to make a Lego tray for him. This way, when he is done building something, he can put it on his shelf and then I can rotate with other sets.

I prepared the tray by putting the instructions and a container of the corresponding Lego pieces on the left-hand side and the sorting tray on the right-hand side. 

He sorted the pieces by colour and proceeded with building following the instruction booklet.

Thank you for stopping by!

If you use the printable, please leave a comment and link back to the blog :)

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{Printable} Sink and float activity

 
Aiming for a quick activity, I just gathered a few (waterproof) things around the house and put them in a small TROFAST container.

We had another tray for putting the items on and two sheets of laminated paper for sorting the items.

USB filled the container with water and tested each item on their floatability (or sinkability; whichever way you prefer).

I had a rubber duckie, empty and full minty tins, a key and a cup among others.

You may take it a step further by comparing empty and filled things; for example would a an empty cup sink or float? What about a filled one? At first, you might just want to introduce the concepts of sinking and floating. Then you can talk about the science behind it.

This activity is also perfect in the bath or outside.

These are the printables to go with the sink and float activity:

Float
Sink

{Printable} Number Bingo

This classic game is perfect for brushing up your child's number recognition skills.
 
What I did:

I printed out the bingo sheet and numbers and laminated them (optional), cut the numbers and place them in a bag (or box). I then used a permanent marker to randomly write down the numbers in the squares on the sheets.

How to play:

1. Each player gets a sheet and a washable stamping marker (or any washable marker will do).
2. A number is taken out of the bag and each player marks the corresponding number on their sheet. 
3. The first player to get 5 numbers marked in a row yells out BINGO! and wins.

To play again, simply wipe off the marker on the sheet. If you want to change the numbers on the sheet, use rubbing alcohol to take off the numbers written with the permanent marker.

The great thing about this game is that you can use any numbers you want depending on your child's level. I will include more printables later on for other numbers.

The printables for the Bingo sheets and numbers from 1-25:

Bingo Sheet
Bingo numbers (1-25)

Have fun and thank you for stopping by!

{Kids} Dealing with baby cold

Umar caught his first cold at two weeks. Feeding time was a struggle as he could not breathe through his blocked nose. He would latch on for a few seconds then unlatched for air, screaming because he had to let go of his source of food for a few seconds, as you do. I asked friends-with-kids' opinions regarding how to best remedy the situation. Most suggested using unmedicated saline spray then suck out the snot using the included aspirator/bulb, which I was already doing. 

But one friend's advice that worked for me was to put some eucalyptus oil on a cloth and place it near the baby's head as they sleep. She also recommended baby vac which you use with your vacuum cleaner to suck mucus out.

The days are getting colder in Perth and Dawud has caught a cold at 6 weeks. I am quite crook myself. It is nasty business looking after and feeding the baby while you're under the weather. So here are some tips to make your days and nights easier as baby recovers:

1. Use unmedicated saline spray in both nostrils (baby's) a few minutes before feeding.

   

   Saline spray and bulb

   
   

2. Suck out the mucus using the bulb or baby vac.

   

   Baby vac

3. Feed baby and repeat 1 and 2 before putting baby to sleep. A baby with a blocked nose tends to sleep fitfully so you want baby's nose free of muck.
4. Put a few drops of eucalyptus oil on a cloth, roll up and place near baby's head.
   
5. If baby is older than 3 months, you can rub babyvicks on their chest and back.
   
6. If you can and comfortable in doing so, being mindful of your nurse/doctor's advice about sleeping positions, keep baby's head elevated while sleeping. 
7. You sleep in content (for 3 hours until baby screams for milk).

I got my baby vac from ebay. I find young babies like the sound of vacuum cleaners as it is white noise and therefore easier to use the baby vac on as opposed to older ones who you might have to pin down (2 adults necessary) because they believe the vacuum cleaner can suck their limbs clean off their bodies.

Other tips that might be worth a try are running a hot shower and letting steam tease out the mucus and sucking snot out using your own mouth (which I haven't had the courage to try).

Now that Umar can blow his own nose, I give him a box of tissues and a bucket to throw tissues in when he has a cold. He carries them around the house as he goes about his day parking cars and playing in his one-man band. I still stick to steps 4 and 5 for Umar.

Winter is coming and head colds are pretty much inevitable but hopefully these tips will make them at least tolerable.

Thank you for stopping by!

P/S: Happy birthday to my cousin FA!

{Art and craft} Edible paint

A repost from my old blog horrendezvous.blogspot.com 

Babies and toddlers put everything in their mouths so this quick and easy recipe is great for when you need an activity to occupy the little ones outdoors or even in the bathtub!

Ingredients

1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 cups water
Food colouring
5-6 glass jars (I reused baby food jars)

1. In a small saucepan, mix sugar and flour. 
2. Gradually whisk in water. 
3. Turn heat on low and keep whisking until mixture becomes thick and, gooey. This should take about 5-10 minutes, no need to boil.
4. Divide into jars.
5. Add a few drops of food colouring in each and mix. I used the handle of a spoon. 
6. Leave to completely cool and let the little tike have fun! 

We set up our 'art centre' in the back patio with old towels on the ground in anticipation of the mess but the bathtub would have been great too as you could just wash the bub off right away and extend the 'art' session!

Enjoy! Ta ra~

{Book review} 'New Baby' book series

In trying to help Umar adjust to soon not being the centre of the universe (ours anyway), we've been talking to him about the new baby and taking him to all the doctor's appointments and scans. He loves listening to the baby's heartbeat, not so much feeling the baby move in my belly though, 'that's freaky', he says. I've also bought books from the 'New Baby' series which are illustrated by Rachel Fuller. There are four in the series but I bought the first three as I thought they were the most relevant at the moment.

 

These books are simply worded, with short sentences and are meant to foster discussion between the parent and child.

1. Waiting for baby - the first book chronicles a young child's anticipation in acquiring a new member of the family. Umar has been quoting lines from this one, especially when we're out shopping, he asks 'should we get this for baby?'. This one is definitely his favourite of the three, maybe because he's undergoing the same situation.
   
2. My new baby - next, the baby has come! What does/can he do? How do we react to him? Let's welcome him to the family!
   
3. You and me - baby has grown a bit and can join in and play! But sometimes he does things you don't like... A look at the interaction between older and younger siblings.
4. Look at me! - we don't have this one but I intend to get it later on. I think this book will probably talk about how attention gets divided between siblings.

I think that these books are great in transitioning an only child into an older sibling but of course I will update this review when we're actually facing the real deal.

If you have these books, let me know if they've helped or if you have other recommendations.

Thank you for stopping by!