Slow and Steady: Week 35

For Age 0, Week 35 of Slow and Steady Get Me Ready the activity is to introduce your baby to bubbles!

I love the idea of blowing bubbles for my baby. But what if it's too cold or windy outside? Slow and Steady has a great idea: do it in the bathtub! I loved this idea, and when outside proved to be too windy for the bubbles to stick around, we moved to the bathroom. Unfortunately, Lady Bug did not care for these strange things flying around her.

I tried catching one to show her, but the bubble solution I was using was too easily popped. Also, I think she was cold and unhappy just sitting in the bath tub in a diaper.

So I gave her a break from the bubbles and set up some warm water to splash in the bath tub. Once she was warm and happy again, I had to figure out what to do about the bubbles.

Since we were in the bathroom, the solution presented itself: baby shampoo! J&J Head to Toe Body Wash to be exact. I poured some out in a dish, tried it, and it made excellent bubbles! It was easier to make only one or two at a time with, so she wasn't overwhelmed by too many. And they stuck to her instead of popping right away. That way, Lady Bug was able to see what happens when you touch a bubble and practice intentionally popping instead of it happening on it's own.

I'd say the second attempt was a success! And very little soap was wasted, because we used it for a bath once we were done making bubbles.

I like that in the bath tub the wind can't blow the bubbles away, so baby can have more contact with bubbles. But I'm sure she'll like bubbles flying away from her, too, now that she's had this experience.


















___________________________________________________________________

 Slow and Steady Get Me Ready has a preview available at Google Books. It can also be purchased at Amazon.com (the picture of the book is an affiliate link.)

I don't get paid for reviews; all opinions are my own.

Slow and Steady: Week 34

For Age 0, Week 34 of Slow and Steady Get Me Ready the activity is to introduce sizes with mixing bowls and measuring cups.

The idea is to line them up, (their) left to right, smallest to biggest. Use the words "small," "middle," and "large," to identify, and put them inside of each other. If you do this often enough, eventually baby will start doing it themselves. Or, if they're teething, like they probably are at this age, then they'll probably just put them in their mouths.

Ether way, it's starting to build understanding vocabulary, encourages observations, and free new toys! (Assuming you don't actually need them for baking.)

At this age I like to place object just a little bit out of baby's reach, so they have to stretch to get it. Once they're comfortable with reaching a little bit, I put it a little bit further. This is intended to encourage movement and eventually crawling.

We'll keep doing this for a week and see if she starts putting them in each other. And I'll enlist the boys to show her, too. They love helping teach "baby school."
________________________________________________________________
 Slow and Steady Get Me Ready has a preview available at Google Books. It can also be purchased at Amazon.com (the picture of the book is an affiliate link.)

I don't get paid for reviews; all opinions are my own.

Slow and Steady Week 30 (and Week 11)

For Age 0, Week 30 of Slow and Steady Get Me Ready the activity is to encourage your baby to crumple paper and, if they're interested, to then throw it into a box.

A few weeks ago when I was first looking ahead at lessons, I was not sure that this was an activity that Lady Bug would be able to do. But then I noticed that when given a napkin or a paper towel, she would crumple it all on her own. So developmentally, I'd say the book is pretty much on track.

I didn't want something quite as harsh as regular paper, so I used some softer paper that had been used to pack an order that I had saved. I had the idea this would be a fun game with tissue paper and a gift bag, but I couldn't find my tissue paper. Lady Bug had plenty of fun crinkling the packing paper.

So much fun, in fact, that her brothers decided that they wanted to crinkle paper, too. And throw it. Thankfully, I had plenty of paper. Lady Bug not only got to practice fine motor skills by crumpling up the paper, but she also practiced hand-eye coordination by reaching and trying to grab one of the papers her brothers held out for her.

Lady Bug loved this. She also liked putting the paper in her mouth, so be aware of what type of paper you give your baby. Any time you need help crinkling tissue paper for gift bags, I highly recommend a baby six months or older. Including up to age 4.9 and 7.

We also did the suggested activity from Week 11, with one adjustment. The book, recommends early on making a colorful sock ball to use in various activities. That's where I got hung up so many months ago. But I realized the exact same effect could be had with a small stuffed toy. And, it turns out, I was doing something very similar to week 11 already. I just hadn't realized it. I started the bird near her diaper and had it "hop" along her torso up to her neck, and repeated or let her grab it; whichever happened. Even though it's almost 20 weeks behind, Lady Bug still enjoys trying to catch the bird.







________________________________________________________________
 Slow and Steady Get Me Ready has a preview available at Google Books. It can also be purchased at Amazon.com (the picture of the book is an affiliate link.)

I don't get paid for reviews; all opinions are my own.

Slow and Steady: Week 29 (and Week 7)

This week's guest teacher in "Baby School" is Builder Boy! For Age 0, Week 29 of Slow and Steady Get Me Ready the activities include stacking four items and then knocking them down and saying "down." Builder Boy was the perfect helper for this lesson and did it with great enthusiasm. Lady Bug, being a people person, was more interested in looking at big brother than watching the blocks. But we'll keep doing it  for a few weeks and see if she starts to pay attention.

After the blocks, Builder Boy got one of each of the wood block shapes he has and introduced her to different shapes. He even got her to reach out and grab one. (This was his own addition to the "lesson.")

Then we did the activity from Week 7 which involved shaking a noise maker around in different areas and observing baby's reaction. Lady Bug is quite a bit older than 7 weeks so she had no problem identifying where the sound was coming from and moving her head to look towards it.
 ________________________________
Slow and Steady Get Me Ready has a preview available at Google Books. It can also be purchased at Amazon.com (the picture of the book is an affiliate link.)

I don't get paid for reviews; all opinions are my own.

Slow and Steady: Week 28 (and Week 22)

I'm finally getting back to doing Slow and Steady Get Me Ready on a regular basis. I stopped doing it for a while because Lady Bug went through a phase when all she was doing was sleeping. And the few times that she wasn't, I was schooling the boys. Or cooking dinner. Or, you know, the whole "mom" thing. Also, I admit I had a bit of a hang up with Week 6. As author of the book tries to keep to stuff you can find in most households, she suggests making a sock ball that will be used for several different activities. For some reason, I got stuck on that, didn't get it done, and felt like a failure. It was 22 weeks later when I finally figured out: I could use a small stuffed animal instead! I don't have to do it exactly like it says in the book because it's not the boss of me. Now that I've finally figured that out, and now that Lady Bug is awake a lot more and is showing much more interest in things, we're back to doing the activities.

I'm going to stick to the activities we would have been doing if we had continued on from when we started. But I'm also going to do some (but not all) of the skipped activities; just not in order.

This week we was about encouraging baby to touch her feet with her hands. Lady Bug has been doing that some already, though I noticed that she doesn't do it when she is in a sleeper/covered feet outfit. So I put her in a jumper to encourage more of this.

I also did Week 22, which is doing "This Little Piggy" on baby's toes. I confess, I love baby feet. Lady Bug's get played with almost every diaper change. I am so enjoying this one last time having a baby.

Slow and Steady: Week 5

For Age 0, Week 5 of Slow and Steady Get Me Ready the activities include introducing mirrors to your baby and pendulums.

The book recommends using an unbreakable baby mirror if you have one. I do, but after two boys playing with it over the years (as well as using it to bend light for a science lesson) its surface is so marked and scratched that the image is too distorted. So I held Lady Bug up to the bathroom mirror instead. She seemed more interested in the lights above the mirror, and didn't really respond to her own reflection. But she did seem to recognize me, which was nice. I took a "selfie" of us since I'm trying to be in more pictures this year.

For the pendulum activity I used the pvc pipe baby gym we made last week. I put the rattle and the spool to the sides and tried just swinging the foil circle side to side. Lady Bug was not interested at this time, though she has been enjoying the baby gym for a few minutes at a time this week.

This is a reminder that just because an activity is in a certain week it doesn't mean that an individual child is going to be ready to participate that week. For example, Lady Bug wouldn't follow a rattle with her eyes, a Week 3 activity, until after we'd been trying every other day or so for two weeks. She also took about two weeks before she was interested in following the flashlight light on the wall from Week 2. That is one of the reasons why the author reminds you at the end of each week (so far) to continue doing the activities.

________________________________________________________________
Slow and Steady Get Me Ready has a preview available at Google Books. It can also be purchased at Amazon.com (the picture of the book is an affiliate link.)

I don't get paid for reviews; all opinions are my own.

Slow and Steady: Week 4

For Age 0, Week 4 of Slow and Steady Get Me Ready the idea is to build a "baby gym" attached to the crib rails. But Lady Bug isn't sleeping in a crib right now (we're doing a mix of co-sleeping and using the Fisher-Price Newborn Rock 'N Play Sleeper) so we don't even have a crib. And I'm not sure how I would attach the string to a Pack 'n Play/playpen. So I walked around the house trying to figure out what I could use to suspend the objects over my baby using household items when I stepped on my answer: pvc pipe! I realize it's not exactly a common household item, but it's very inexpensive. I borrowed the pieces I used to make this from Builder Boy's PVC Building Set that I made for his 6th birthday. If you are cutting the pipes for the first time (ours are 1/2 in pipes) you might want to make the dimensions differently. I just worked with what we already had.

Day 1 of the activity you hang a red (or hot pink!) spool and let it swing. I chose to tie it low enough that Lady Bug could hit it with her hand if she wanted to. She did end up hitting it several times; mostly just by getting excited and flailing about. She followed the swinging spool with her eyes and head and really seemed to like it; she even smiled! This kept her entertained (and her brothers who wanted to "help") for over 10 minutes.


Day 2 has you add a plastic lid that has been covered with foil. I used a circle of cardboard instead. Lady Bug didn't seem as interested in the baby gym that day as she did the day before.

Day 3 has you add a bell or rattle. This is used to demonstrate some items not making noises when moving, and one that does. I did not have any bells (that I could find. I'm still only half unpacked from the move.) I tried making a rattle out of a plastic spice container and beans, but it didn't make any sound when it swung; only when it was shaken. So I attached a rattle I had bought, but it doesn't make sounds when it's swinging, either!

Lady Bug was not in the mood to play with it this morning. We'll try again later.

We are are still doing the stretches and touching from Week 1 every day and once every few days try to do Week 2 and Week 3.

Slow and Steady: Week 3

This week for Slow and Steady Get Me Ready Age 0, Week 3 we started trying to get Lady Bug to follow an object with her eyes and/or head. Our chosen object, a bunny star rattle that came with her bed did not interest her enough. We tried for several days, in different ways, but she just wasn't interested in it. She was, however, interested in her brothers' faces and followed them wherever they go. She also really likes looking at her musical Soothe and Glow Seahorse that lights up, which is an extension of Week 2. We also stretch her arms and touch her hands every day from Week 1.

We'll keep trying to interest her in a rattle or something. And once we do we will begin left to right eye movement training like the book suggests. 

Slow and Steady: Week 2

This week was perfect to start on Age 0, Week 2 in Slow and Steady Get Me Ready. (Here's a link to Slow and Steady on Google Books for a preview of some of the activities.) This week is about interacting with light with your baby, giving them an awareness, and seeing if they move to look towards light. Before now Lady Bug avoided light and closed her eyes every time we turned a light on when it was dark in a room. But this week, since she's been more awake at times, she has started looking towards the bedroom window with light coming through while on my bed. I haven't used a flashlight in a darkened room yet as when our rooms are dark, she's usually (hopefully) asleep.

We are also continuing the movement activities from Week 1, as well as my own "Mommy Has, Baby Has" activity mentioned in that blog post. This week she rewarded our efforts to teach her to reach out and touch us by reaching out and touching Builder Boy! (I think she likes him better than she like me.) It was really sweet and whenever he is in her sight range she moves her head to look at him. They certainly have a special connection, which is beautiful to watch. Today she reached out and touched me, too, on the face, so I don't feel so left out.

We are also trying to make sure she has a few minutes of Tummy Time every day or so. Yesterday she pushed up and rolled over to her back, but I'm not counting that as "official" yet.

Slow and Steady at the end of Week 2 also reminds parents to introduce their babies to music, through humming, singing, or playing music. The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer recommends singing the ABC song every time you change their diaper, just to be in the habit of it. For those who don't like to sing often, I have a playlist on Youtube of my favorite Piano Guys music for babies. Lady Bug seems to like them, and the boys love watching the videos, too. In fact, the video with the open piano had Builder Boy asking how many stings are in a piano (it varies by the type, but there are many more than I thought, according to this Piano FAQ site.) It inspired us to get out our Story of the Orchestra book.
________________________________________________________________________
This blog post contains some Amazon affiliate links and some non-affiliated links. The link for the Well Trained Mind is to the author's publishing company's page. The picture here is to the Amazon.com listing. Pictures of products are also Amazon links.

I don't get paid for reviews; all opinions are my own.