After the Halloween party (last day of school), a parent asked what I would do now that I wasn't making lesson plans, setting up activities, gathering materials, running the program, and cleaning up afterward? I wanted to say, "Well I'll probably just sit at home and cry." I didn't really sit around and cry, but I was sad to have to put preschool on hold while I waited for the new baby to arrive. I did work on setting up things for the baby.
During the break, I worked to SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY. Because I didn't have school friends coming over, I reduced the number of toys I had available to Toddler "K." Less kids means less toys. In doing this, it made clean up much easier for her. Because she is younger than the school friends, she also has a shorter attention span and plays in less elaborate ways. Offering fewer materials has helped her to focus her plans on the play instead of simply dumping materials out (a toddler fave!).
Toddlers are still very much sensory seeking beings even though they are graduating from the "mouth-everything" stage of infancy. Harmony's House always makes use of explore tables, but in keeping with the theme SIMPLIFY, we needed to have opportunities that are quick to clean up and safe for toddlers. Ms. Harmony knew that keeping the work in the explore tables fresh would keep her toddler busy when mom was busy with baby.
These are some of the things we've done in the past few weeks:
Silk fall leaves, pine cones, and forest animals
Play-doh, rolling pins, potato smashers, googly eyes, spatulas, cookie cutters, etc.
Pom-poms, bowl, wire whisk, ladle, and Fisher Price hand mixer
Turkey feathers, large buttons, and colander (not pictured)
Christmas boxes in different shapes and sizes, jingle bells, cotton balls, and bows
As you can see, each table set up includes a sensory component, but also works additional developmental objectives too like fine motor skills, artistic creativity, imaginary play, etc.
With the most recent explore table, Ms. Harmony has been talking to Toddler "K" about shapes, colors, sounds, quantity, size, and popular Christmas tunes like "Jingle Bells." And just like that, we are surviving the adjustment from one child to two, from baby to toddler, one jingle at a time. :)
