Dancing With My Milk

Music and milk make the perfect combination.  At least according to F. She paused briefly in the middle of a dance to ask for her milk.

But the music still called even as she drank. F didn't even hesitate. Sippy cup in hand she twirled around the room.

Why not indulge in both? To delight in milk and music at the same time like a toddler.What a wonderful world.

Hours of Quiet Engineering Play

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We love this building kit. T received it Christmas 2012. Today he spends as much time with it as he did when first unwrapped it. When it comes to toys that says volumes!

When playing with it he is quietly content.  His focus is intense. He can spend hours fitting the pieces together, disassembling and reassembling. So a definite boon is this toy helps him work on concentration skills.

In this era of STEM education I love how it teaches engineering. His dad says it is great how realistic the elements of construction reflects real life. Even the screwdriver works like a DeWalt. The only con is it is made of plastic.  A metal set would be si much better. We're thinking about adding to the set (maybe a Caterpillar bulldozer) for his 5th birthday.

In case you're wondering the set is by EZ Build.

Reading List 12-24 months

There will be some overlap in this list, the preceding list for infants, and the following list for toddlers. This list includes our favorite and our dislikes. Hopefully it will give you a few ideas.

Check back at least monthly. F only turned 1 in February 2014 so this is ever growing.

Enjoy!

Hits:

Vincent's Colors
This is a book I checked out for my almost 5 year old. To my surprise is actually my 1 year old who most enjoys it. The book features beautiful color photographs of Vincent Van Gogh's paintings. They are accompanied by a lilting text of descriptions quoting Van Gogh himself. Quite creative.  The book is hardcover,  not a board or cloth book, so be aware.

Monet's Lilies
I have an entire blog post devoted to this one. A touch and feel book with rhyming text. In the back are two pages with more information for the parent.

Global Babies

This book is stunning! Perfect for any baby or toddler 3 months through three years. Features photos of baby faces from all around the world.

DK Touch and Feel series
With a wide variety of titles there's sure to be a favorite.  Each touch and feel book's pictures are actually photographs making the books more interesting.  Has titles like Farm, Kitten, Playtime, 123, etc.

Misses

-not every book is a hit-

Little Miss Austen Pride and Prejudice
I'm sorry. I just can't get into these. The artwork has nice contrast but both unrealistic and unremarkable. The literary value is gone. In fact it really has no story at all. Events are out of order. If you took a bunch of stills from the P&P film and highlighted a certain number of people or things in the still that'd be another matter entirely.  This is not a good way to introduce your young bibliophile to famous literature.  It's written more for the fan than baby. If you want baby to learn counting and be introduced to the cultural literacy road there are better ways.

Transferring, Opening, and Closing

What comes second nature to us took a lot of effort to learn. Watching a baby or child learn and grow is an excellent reminder.  To me the most amazing thing is the perseverance shown by these mites of humans. I mean seriously. Very few of us maintain the same level of drive throughout our lives. At what point does it get lost? Very gradually I'm sure.

F's project today is to transfer Duplos from their container to a box with lid and back again. She holds each block high proudly displaying it to me or brother T. Then F grabs the handle on the lid. Open and shut. Open and shut. Open and shut again. There's so much she's learning in this simple activity when you think about it.

What marvelous ways this world works.

Count Monet's Lilies (touch and feel art book)

While it can be a challenge to find beautiful children's illustrations you are generally safe with Caldecott books. What about baby though? There are some marvelous board books if you search. I will be featuring some favorites as F makes her way through toddlerdom.

For her birthday we added to our small collection of Touch The Art books by Julie Appel.

Yes, that's right. Touch and art in a single sentence.

If you are like me you want your child exposed to all that is beautiful.

Babies love to touch with their fingers and mouths.

Usually that rules out fine art.

Not with this series.

Each page has a piece of artwork from whatever era the particular volume is focused. Undrneath in small print is the title of the painting, the name of the artist, and museum location. On the opposing page is a charming little rhyme describing the painting and encouraging the toddler to touch. Count Monet's Lilies also teaches counting from 1-9.

Touch what exactly? Depends on the painting. In this volume you can smell fruit, scratch sandpaper sand on a seashore, pull on a ribbon, and more.

Little F has two pages in particular she loves. She flips back and forth between Snap The Whip (Winslow Homer) and Fishing Boats On The Beach (Vincent Van Gogh). We have developed a funny little game too. First she will feel it, then she grabs my fingers to make me feel it too. We go back and forth feeling these two paintings for several minutes at a time.

I hope you will check out this and the other Touch The Art books. The are a treasure that should be in more home libraries.