Sticker and crayon play

As an OT I am obviously interested in developing Little Miss CS' fine motor skills. I am continually inspired by the amazing blogs that I follow but often the activities that I see are targeted more at the 2-4 year age range.

Last week I bought a packet of stickers at Kmart (Dora of course!) and thought we would give them a go. I had to help Little Miss pull them off the page but then she loved placing them on the paper and pointing/chatting about them. We had the crayons out as well and we both did some drawing on and around the stickers. I have been using Crayola Slick Stix with Little Miss because they are so smooth and so much darker than regular crayons so she is able to see her drawings better and get more immediate satisfaction from her drawing attempts.

Here is our finished product:

This activity is good for:

•  Fine motor skills (pulling the stickers off, drawing with crayons)
• Starting to understand that what we draw means something (the very beginnings of handwriting believe it or not!)
• Language development (pointing at drawings/stickers and talking about them and labelling them)

What are your favourite toddler fine motor activities?

CSM xx

Guilt free Mummy...

I was chatting to my neighbour and good friend today about things we are going to try hard NOT to feel guilty about. I am totally susceptible to "mother guilt" and have been since the day I fell pregnant. So....these are my top 3 things that I am going to work hard on NOT feeling guilty about over the next few weeks....

1. Letting Little Miss CS watch a small amount of television every day. I know the government guidelines say no TV under 2 but it helps me put something semi-nutritious on the table every night when I get half an hour to do this. I know I should sit and watch with her but I don't. I feel really really guilty about this so this is my top one that I am going to try and NOT feel guilty about. I am trying to see it as some timeout for both of us and just another play experience during the day. Am I convincing anyone yet????

2. Doing something for me (like read my book for 20 minutes) while Little Miss CS is asleep in the day. I always feel really guilty because I should be using that time to clean/cook/make phone calls/do the filing etc etc. But I need to look after mummy too so I am going to try NOT to feel guilty about 20 minutes of down time.

3. Not filling every moment of every day with "developmental play opportunity". I think it comes from being an OT (I am sure my health professional and teacher readers will relate!) but I tend to feel guilty if I am not providing Little Miss with creative play experiences every day. I really want to let this go and enjoy her and let her be a little girl with no expectations.

I really feel vulnerable writing this. As if I am exposing my soul. But I figure that if I share these resolutions then I will be accountable to trying my best.

Would love to hear your "mother guilts" or more importantly - what are you going to try and NOT feel guilty about???

CSM xxxx