SpoonFullofJelly

Over the top birthday parties are not new concept. They were the center of parent's secret conversations for years. But what I was surprised to learn is that it is still a problem. Large parties are the norm for so many families while others cut cake with a handful of friends. If you are new to the parenting thing like me, here are a few tips I've gathered over the last month planning my son's first birthday. I am not an expert on baby birthdays, but my husband is an expert on depression and stress. Some of his clients suffer from social anxiety and birthday parties for children are part of the problem. Go Big or Go Home Traveling petting zoo, human-sized Characters, Pony rides OH MY! The list can go on and on for what can embellish the 1st year's birthday party. But going big can be too much stress. I would rather go home! Tons of Littles The thought of spending the afternoon with 20 toddlers may excite you or actually scare the pants off of you. Think abou...

If you are just joining me on how I share new skills with my tot, head back to part one. I spoke of the schedule I used for working with the babies and toddlers overseas. This schedule is not dependent on time. It may take you 20 minutes to read a story, two minutes to point out the vocab words and half hour singing the lullaby because baby loves the song. The point is the complete these activities throughout the day. If your little one isn't into singing on Day 2, skip it. In Japan, the focus was not to drill the information into the child. The goal was to continue to introduce new words, new experiences and constantly be surrounded by the spoke language. Why Rather you are focusing on your native language or a foreign language, never stop reading. Never stop introducing new vocabulary. Never stop exploring the world around you. Babies and toddlers are soaking up everything. I am working hard to add new vocab and books to Baby E's life because I have seen the result...

Babies need books just as much as they need diapers! Perhaps a baby can live without diapers, but they should not live without books. I am old fashioned and I believe in the power of reading. I like physically holding books in my hand. I love the feel of pages and the smell of hardcovers. I did not jump on the digital book craze, but slowly crept in. I am currently reading three books on my phone, only because they were free. It takes me twice as long to finish them. I plan on keeping Baby E surrounded by hard copies of books. I want him to learn how to turn pages rather than swipe left. I'm judging those that love digital book...Yall, do your thing! I am making a list of books that I want to introduce to Baby E this school year. I am doing this now because it allows for Hubby and I to reduce the amount of guessing. Life gets busy during the winter. Our weather forces us inside and I don't want to wake up next spring and have missed out of the opportunity to have intr...

I spent nearly two years living and working in Japan at an English School. Not only did I develop programs for my branch office to increase their sales, but I also taught English. I taught hundreds of children under the age of 18. The youngest group was a baby class of five, 6 month old babies. The babies began to respond to English commands and then speak English and Japanese around 18 months old. I was amazed! The babies attended English lessons 1.5 hours a day, three days a week. This was considered "early childhood education" for these families. Most of these families believed that language must be introduced early in order to give their child the best advantage of being bilingual. They were right. The toddler group that I taught after the baby class was able to hold a full conversation like a native English speaker after one year of learning. I promised myself that I would do the same type of lessons with my future children. Baby E Playing with an animal so...