One of my goals is to provide Abby with a variety of "toys" - I have toys in quotations marks because I don't mean I want to go to the store and buy her a bunch of plastic things. I simply mean that I want to provide her with a plethora of safe, eco-friendly items for her to use to stimulate her brain and broaden her horizons.
For example, a favorite "toy" lately has been a pot and a ladle - I put different things in the pot and Abby "stirs" them around. I repurposed an empty formula can into a sort of large rattle simply by keeping the measuring spoon (that comes with every can of formula - talk about a gross misuse of plastic!) in the can and snapping the lid on! Abby likes to roll it around on the floor and gets a kick out of the noise it makes!
I also poured a generous measure of dried black beans into a Ziploc bag (Ziploc = the devil, so I try to reuse them whenever I can) for her to shake around, but my mother isn't too thrilled with that. She's convinced that Abby is going to gnaw through the plastic and choke on the beans. Yes, Mom, because I often leave my 7 month-old alone with bags for extended periods of time. ::rolls eyes and laughs:: I have a helicopter mother, can you tell?
As a kid, I spent a lot, and I mean a LOT, of time playing in cardboard boxes. My brother and I each had a GIANT one that we "carved" into houses using steak knives (Mom was NOT too pleased about that!). We pulled each other around in the laundry basket, tied things in our rooms together with leftover (and otherwise useless) bits of yarn, and spent a rather insane amount of our childhood literally entranced by a pair of ancient intercoms we'd unearthed in the basement one day.
We also played outside - a LOT. It makes me really sad to think of how SO many kids today spend all of their time inside, on the computer or watching TV or playing video games. No wonder so many children are obese! At 7 months, I cannot see ANY reason why Abby needs to watch any TV whatsoever.
I'm trying to decide whether or not I'm a hypocrite. With our cable bundle, we get a channel that plays only kid-friendly music (we also have a ton of other music channels, which I love!) - not music videos, but there is always a non-moving picture on the screen when a song plays (as well as the name of the song, the group, the album, etc.). Would any of you actually count this as watching TV? I find it a really helpful child-raising tool, because I want Abby to listen to music, and having a channel entirely dedicated to appropriate music is a million times easier than dragging out my stash of CDs every day and constantly changing the disc. I COULD use iTunes, but we don't really have much kid-friendly music on there, so I feel this is the best idea.
Anyway, my husband and I have no plan to introduce her to TV anytime soon. We'll have to figure out what to do about movies when she's...oh, I don't know, 3, maybe? When I was a child, we had a family movie night (with pizza and OJ!) every Friday night, and I REALLY loved it, and looked forward to it all week. But it didn't start when we were super young - I think I was about 6 when we started it. Help me out, Mom?
So leaving the TV off and avoiding buying new plastic toys (I have purchased a few used plastic toys at rummage sales, and I'm okay with THAT - just as long as we don't get too many or buy them new) leaves things up to my husband and me to entertain and teach and stimulate our child's mind. She's just beginning to get to the age where she really wants to play with THINGS, but she's not yet old enough for some toys. At some point, I'd like her to have a nice set of U.S.-made, eco-friendly wooden blocks and maybe some nice wooden cars/trucks/vehicles to push around. I will admit that I have no problem with having a girlie girl, but I think boys and girls should both with dolls AND cars - if they want. I'm sure some girls have no interest in cars and some boys have no interest in dolls!
Right now, I need to find ideas of things to make for her - things that are safe and recycled and have a purpose. I'd read something somewhere about filling a small glass jar with water, cooking oil, and food coloring to make a kind of mini-lava lamp, but I don't know about the glass, keeping the lid tightly attached, and what I'd do if it DID open up or break.
So I'm open to suggestions - and my research will begin NOW! :)
Monday, August 9, 2010
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Jen,
ReplyDeleteThis is so cool! It's great to see your creativity when it comes to toys for Abby. She is so lucky to have you for a mom! The first thing I thought about when I read the part about the bag of beans, was my cats and the joy they take in ripping bags to shreds. Though I doubt little Abby has sharp pointy teeth! (Or any teeth at the moment.)
I am assuming these are beans you plan to use at some point, otherwise I was going to suggest a cloth enclosure. Though I suppose you could put the ziplock in cloth, so maybe that would work out!
Only other thought was a mobile or something similar with sewn parts. I know I have some tired clothes that could definitely be made into something fun! And I apologize for the cat reference again, but I do make cat toys with old cloth remnants that we have laying around. I use newspaper, junk mail, and other useless paper to stuff them, so they make a fun crinkle noise. I know human babies like crinkle sounds too!
~Sara Carfora
Yes, Jenni, I think you were about six when we started movie night. And oh what a time I had finding appropriate movies for you guys. Even some G-rated movies didn't pass in my opinion! We sure had fun, though.
ReplyDeletehey jen, i like this blog ;)
ReplyDeleteif you (and your mom) are concerned about the plastic bags, you could sew a small little pillow or some odd shape, and put beans in one, rice in another, wheat in another, etc. for different textures!
later on, sand is a huge manipulative you can do tons of stuff with!
this is a fun question you pose! the wheels in my head are chugging from both teaching and my own childhood.