Monday 16 May 2011

Baby sign - does it reduce tantrums!

Without consciously setting out to do it, I started doing some signing with Little Miss CS when she was about 10 months old. Because I was used to doing it at work, I started subconsciously signing "more" and "finished". Mr CS was very skeptical until one morning in bed, he asked Little Miss CS if she wanted more milk and she signed "finished"!

She had these 2 signs down pat by about twleve months and we decided that we wanted to teach her some more signs but wanted these to be really functional. So the next two we are focussing on are "eat" and "toilet". This last weekend Little Miss CS has really started using these well.

Now that she is better (finally!), she has been standing in front of the pantry and signing "eat". Clearly she is trying to put on all the weight that she lost while she was sick! She has also been signing "toilet" when she does a poo or a wee or when Mr CS or I go to the toilet.

The reason I wanted to blog about this is because I believe that this small amount of sign has limited Little Miss CS's frustration and (touch wood - we'll probably have one tomorrow) as yet, we have not had any tantrums.

I had a bit of a look on google scholar tonight and found a critical review paper looking at articles on teaching hearing babies some sign language. Here is the link: http://publish.uwo.ca/~larchiba/2010%20pdfs/Tong.pdf Appealed to the scientific side of my brain!

Would love to hear about other people's experiences with baby sign. What are the most useful signs to teach? What do you think I should focus on next? Do you have any questions??? (I am no expert but happy to share my thoughts).

Have a great week!

Common Sense Mummy xx

Tuesday 10 May 2011

Our own cardboard box challenge

This past week I have been totally inspired by the 20 bloggers out there who have been partaking in the Tinkerlab cardboard box challenge. Lots of the bloggers who participated seemed to have older children so I wanted us to do something that was age appropriate for Little Miss CS (15 months).

Little Miss CS has been very sick the past week but on Sunday morning (Mothers Day) we decided to risk a trip to Bunnings to pick up some new herbs for the garden and some wood for Mr CS (he is making us a craft table - yay! - will blog about it when it's done). Anyway, when we were mosying around Bunnings, I saw some vanities that they had in very large boxes. I quickly cornered a young salesman and asked him if I could have one of the boxes. He said that they normally crush them straight away but that he would check out the back and see if there were any that hadn't been crushed yet. And.....success! We got a huge box that used to hold a very large pot.


So, that afternoon - after a LONG sleep by all of us - we decided to head outside and plant our herbs and BUILD OUR CUBBY!

CSM lovingly outlined where I wanted the doors and windows to be and then Mr CS and Little Miss CS took over and created our masterpiece.


Note the arch above the doorway after Little Miss CS hit her head on the way in the first time!


Little Miss CS just had to get in on the action....


 And then some more help from the inside...


Unfortunately since that afternoon Little Miss CS has been very sick so we haven't had a chance to play in it or paint it but we will and I will definitely post some photos when we do.

Are you inspired to do your own cardboard challenge?

What are your favourite beginning pretend play activities for toddlers?

Have a great week.

Common Sense Mummy (CSM) xx




Monday 2 May 2011

WELCOME!

Hi everyone and welcome to the Common Sense Mummy!

Thanks for stopping by.

I am new to the blogging community but I have been inspired by some amazing "mum blogs" that I have been following recently.

I have been a mum now for 15 months and I have tried to follow as much common sense advice as possible on my journey. I am an allied health worker in the paediatric field and I feel like this has helped me make these "common sense decisions" along the way.

My aim is to share tips, thoughts, ideas, articles and links for mums on my blog on all sorts of topics. Play, feeding, sleep, work/mum/life balance, behaviour and sensory processing just to name a few.

I am happy to "investigate" for people so if you have a question or a topic that you would like some more information about, feel free to leave a comment below.

Please stop by again soon!

Thanks for your support.

CSM (Common Sense Mummy) xxx