Let's Play School!

Based on one of her favorite Barney episodes Manahil and I recreated Baby Bop's school, for pre-preschoolers. Just like Baby Bop we started by teaching our make-believe students the "Itsy-bitsy spider" with a toy spider, then we learnt the alphabet on Manahil's magnetic board, learnt about shapes and colors, read red riding hood aloud (the book contains audio and read itself since Manahil can't read) and for lunch everyone gorged on Baby Bop's favorite, mac and cheese! There was also the bonus gym class where everyone indulged in Baby Bop's favorite exercise, hopping. I think that was Manahil's favorite part by far. To top it all off, since Manahil has a pretty lame mom who can't help but learn kiddie movie songs by heart, we sang all the songs that come in the Barney episode!

To try this at home you will need:
- some poems to sing
- some books to read
- a make-shift chalk board (the magnetic board in our case)
- some shapes and colors to play with
- some home made mac and cheese
- a bunch of stuffed animal students
- one teacher baby
- at least one disgruntled and unwilling student baby (a.k.a Rayyan)

I think Manahil and I will play this again tomorrow!

The Impromptu Game of Dance-tag

Let me introduce everyone to: The Impromptu Game of Dance-Tag. This is the kind of game that comes in real handy when you are sleep-deprived, with two vaccinated babies on your hands (who cannot seem to forget that their thighs are sore) and artwork has been suspended indefinitely *big sigh*.

It involves turning on any random song, (in our case this was old mcdonald on Manahils counting train), then everyone can just pick up a freestyle dance and occasionally hold hands and go round in a circle till they're dizzy. And when the dance starts to get old or the song finishes you just chase each other up and down the house, climbing over beds and hiding behind doors till you're thoroughly exhausted with laughing and everyone has completely forgotten that an hour ago, they felt they were unable to move their legs.

To try this at home you will need:
-one repetitive song
-one baby to dance and scream "karo! Karo!" If you, god forbid, pause for breath
-one spectator baby to watch and be entertained

Have fun! 

An Activity a Day Keeps the Mommy Sane

Keeping an 18month old entertained is a tricky business. They're not old enough to completely entertain themselves and yet not young enough to be entertained by a bouncy ball or reptitive toy (both of which my 6 month old loves). So, if you ignore them they'll simply wail down the house till you give in and hand them your phone, equipped with youtube, and watch helplessly as they make phone calls to random strangers.

Not to mention the fact, they're at the in-between age where they can gobble up oodles of learning and yet are too little to be shipped off to a preschool for several hours. 

Faced with this reality, day after day, I was forced to think of things to do. And today, I realized that we mothers need a repertoire of activities to refer to on those days when we simply cant think of anything! So here we go: I am going to  share some of the things I found quite useful when dealing with my 18 month old. On top of that, Manahil and I are going to do an activity a day, to keep her busy during the daytime, and I'll share the details of that with you as well.

Generally to keep her busy in the mornings I encourage her to help me clean, feed her baby (random stuffed toy) while I feed Rayyan cerelac, give one of her stuffed toys a long (and I mean really long. Long enough to let me type this blogpost) bath with a nearly empty baby shampoo bottle, do some painting or coloring... And the list goes on. In the evenings I take her to the park or swimming to up her activity. But the hardest part is that chunk of the afternoon when it's too hot to go outside, and being inside the whole morning has pushed her to the limit. Hence, an activity a day. 

Today, manahil and I constructed a den. Constructing a den is simple: merely take two chairs facing outwards and drape a large blanky over them, ta-da! Then we filled it with some of her toys and books and wow, was she excited. Everytime I had to speak with her I would have to knock on the chair and then she would regally give me permission to enter. To be honest, I had quite a bit of fun too. We even ended up playing some hide and seek with the den! 

Stay tuned for the next activity!