Calm-Down Corner

We've made some changes in our Calm Down Corner. I got a little inspired after reading an article about someone else's calm-down techniques. She made the excellent point that "who wants to give a glass anything to a tantrumming toddler?" So! Away with the glass glitter jar. Hello plastic ones! And they are little, so perfect or sticking in the diaper bag. The corner has been moved to the mostly unused 2nd booknook. A magnetic animal board was also added.  More for quiet play than anything else.

Now that we've used the corner a number of times, I can say it has been extremely helpful. The glitter jars help calm Ella down almost immediately, nearly an instant mood change. This enables her to be able to actually be able listen to correction since her frontal cortex is no longer shut down by all the emotions. Sometimes just being removed to the corner is all it takes, other times she sits in my lap and we look at the glitter until she's calm. Then we talk. After which I tell her she can play there until she's ready to get out. 

I read somewhere about having a designated calm down corner/space. So we put one together :) Ella loves it. We haven't really had to use it for tantrums, as those don't happen much. Though I did intentionally use it for the first time last night.  Ella likes to play here regardless.

There are some soft cushions to sit on, a glass jar with swirly glitter water, a "seek and find" jar, crayons and paper, feathers, and sensory balloons. Ella loves the sensory balloons, especially. Specifically the red one filled with flour. They are all filled with different things to change the sensory experience: kidney beans, rice, flour, salt, and chia seeds. I had one with water, but it only lasted a day.  Someone learned the hard way not to put the balloons in her mouth. The other basket is just some scarves.

Painting the Blues Away

The artist mother's multitasking. All set up ready to paint!

Ella: I want to get a "W" (alphabet toy piece)

Me: What if you draw one with the paint?

Ella: I can't!

Me: Here! This is how it's drawn. (the big blue W)

Ella: (after painting the little blue W) I CAN do it!

Painting Elsie and Neeny (Angry) Birds

All done! (Ella's anyway)

Activity Bags and Play Room Update

We've been putting together activity bags that will be given to Ella periodically post baby. They're not really "baby gifts" but more something new to do together. But each activity is wrapped up because she loves unwrapping things these days. I'd been wanting to put together more of these kinds of bags because they are AWESOME for just grabbing a couple, sticking in a purse or diaper bag, and heading out someplace that might be less toddler-friendly (like a restaurant). They are FANTASTIC travel companions too. Each activity is in its own bag. Some ideas are from here, and here, and some I just came up with.  A number of these activities include stuff we had in the play room, so they'll seem more exciting being wrapped up, haha!

Color-matching game

Materials: mini clothes pins and paint samples

Hole punching

Materials: hole punchers and colored paper

Sticking stuff in clay (creative title, eh?)

Materials: Modeling clay, googly eyes, gems, eventually yarn

"Painting"

Materials: Crayola oil pastels, mini canvas, mini easel

Shape Matching

Materials: Foam "paper" with outlined shapes, Wooden shapes

Stamping!

Materials: Alphabet stamps, ink, colored paper (not pictured)

Color Matching

Materials: cupcake cups, colored gems

Shoelace Tracing

Materials: Foam "paper" cut into shapes, hole puncher, shoe laces

Fishing for Letters

Materials: dowel rod, yarn, magnet, hot glue, magnetic letters (above is magnet tape on cheap wooden letters)

Fishing for Gems

Materials: same as above except magnetic on gems

Shape Matching

Materials: foam "paper" and shape buttons

Button Snake

Materials: shape buttons, ribbon, felt shapes, hot glue

Play Room Update!

We updated the playroom! I've been wanting to do this for months. Instead of the picture wall, it seemed like it'd be fun to have a magnet wall that included magnetized family pictures. So we found a cheapo frame at Goodwill, got some sheet metal from Lowe's (a kind worker used tin cutters to get it to size for me - SO nice!) and hung it in place!

Ugly picture in frame and sheet metal (steel because aluminum is NOT magnetic!)

Ella LOVED putting the pictures up. Having them as magnets is nice, too, because I have more space to add friends that she knows and...well...more babies and aunts and uncles since our family is rapidly growing. It's a little on the tall side for Ella, but she'll grow into it.

Magnetic rocks from Nonna and Pawpaw and gems with magnets added to the back.

I plan on getting a large piece of felt and glueing magnets on it, too, to have a removable felt board. 2-in-1!

Light Play

These are submersible red lights (4 of them). Ella loved playing with them. Made for some really awesome pictures.

Ella's picture :)

Play Lately

I haven't been very intentional lately in just sitting down and playing with Ella. But now that the third trimester is here I'm feeling the need to sit down and just be more with her. We kept the light box off pretty much all summer and spent most of our days outside. With more indoor time now the lights have come back on! We've had quite a lot of colored rice and salt play this week. Fun to see what she has mastered since last winter when we fist did the colored rice, like pouring from a spoon the "right" way. There's also more conversation that happens during play. While making circles in the rice using an upside down funnel she exclaimed "Circles, circles, more circles!" Also while playing with the rice, I asked if she liked how it felt and she rubbed her fingers together as though feeling the rice in her palm. If I'm not engaging with her though, stuff just gets thrown everywhere. So it's a fine line between letting her discover independently but also engaging (sometimes the latter is harder to be intentional about).

Left over rice from Ornaments that Ella helped make

Colored epsom salts

"Dirtles!" (circles)

Play Lately...

Ella discovered the hose faucet and drank from it, washed her hands, got her hair wet and generally had a fantastic time. It was warm enough for the kiddie pools to be filled. She really liked getting in with her shoes on and then getting out and walking around with water sloshing out all over. We tried another painting project: set out her invitation on the back of the wrapping paper from her birthday. She painted a few strokes of purple on a rock, stuck her fingers in yellow and red then painted her knee, and then dumped the paints on her pool (which was fine because they are tempera and entirely washable). However, she really doesn't seem to care much for paints so I think they'll be tucked away for a while...or for the nephews to enjoy :)