Learning & Development

Both of my toddlers (ages 2 and 4.5) are really into using scissors and cutting right now, the younger one more so because it’s a newer skill she’s developed. I’ve been running out of creative ideas for practicing but came up with this a few weeks ago and it was a big it! I will […]

This is a really simple way to make playdough play more fun for your kids! I’ve learned that giving my girls an activity or open-ended prompt to do with playdough drastically increases their time playing with it, and allows them to use their imagination and flex those thinking skills!! For this I simply hid plastic […]

One thing all of the educators in my life have told me in the past is that if I’m going to work at home with Piper (age 4) on anything educational I need to make it FUN. Learning through play works best for these youngsters so we’ve skipped the workbooks and I’ve tried to come […]

It’s on all of our minds, especially since Coronavirus has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Events are being cancelled left and right and most parents are just wondering when not if schools will be cancelled. This idea makes many working parents worried, myself included so I thought I’d compile some of […]

I must have been living under a rock because I had never heard of or seen playdough mats until a late night Pinterest session a few weeks ago. What a simple concept you can do SO much with!! I knew I wanted to make one for my girls to get creative with…..and rainbows and shamrocks […]

It’s Activity Box time! I got a little off schedule with sharing for February but hope to bring you simple and easy ideas you can implement with your kids all month long. I’m also going to share how I stretch these 5 activities out to last the entire month. You can see 5 more activity […]

We’ve been practicing colors with Flora (age 2) for a few months now and I pulled out this easy activity the other week that she’s been doing independently with her big sister. It allows me to get stuff done and not feel guilty about her being in front of a screen plus she’s learning! All […]

Last year I shared how I’d been having Piper practice her letter recognition in a FUN way with Trader Joe’s letter cookies. I just wrote down the alphabet on a piece of paper but have since upgraded to a printable that I covered in contact paper. A year later and she’s still really enjoying this! […]

It’s been a while since I shared a pretend play prompt for my girls (see our hot cocoa and ice cream shop here) and with Valentine’s Day around the corner I gave them a box to set up a romantic restaurant date. They LOVED this! Basically all I did for this was use an empty […]

If you’re new around here maybe you haven’t heard about my activity boxes, so here’s the deal! I started doing them a few years ago with my toddlers as a way to set up our activities for the week. When my girls were young (12-18 months) I found I most needed them to be entertained […]

Have you heard of ‘calm down bottles’ ? They are a great sensory activity for your child to play with when they need a break, a quiet time or to….calm down! We’ve been using them for a while with the girls – I would say optimal age would be 18 months – 4 years. I […]

If you’ve been reading The Mama Notes for a while you know we are big fans of the pom pom drop over here! Now that Flora’s a bit older I had to give it a fun seasonal twist for the upcoming Valentine’s Day holiday! I’m also sharing some adaptations and ideas for playing with it […]