Art & Play.....with Love

We had fun making some Valentines Day crafts at The Book Outlet. 

We made heart shaped sun catchers using red cardstock, clear contact paper, tissue paper squares and ribbon.

These were really easy to make and look great in a sunny window! Both moms and kids were able to make these by putting the 2 hearts, tissue paper squares and a piece of ribbon between 2 pieces of contact paper. We then trimmed the excess contact paper around our hearts.

We also made some foot print art. These would look great on a canvas or in a picture frame. Our foot print art was captioned

I love you.........

From the bottom of my heart,

to the tips of my toes!

At momstown Niagara, we also enjoy using this time to socialize with other mommies and daddies, while our children make a cute craft that they are proud of to take home. We love the chance to listen to each others stories, ask questions, get advice, and talk about our children's milestones.

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Art & Play is one of our 20+ monthly events and is included in your membership fee.  Your membership also includes a one year subscription to Today's Parent!  To get in on the fun this winter register here http://niagara.momstown.ca/user/register.

The Alpha-Bits letter of the day ….. is the letter L.

There are so many different words that begin with the letter L. 

During our circle time we enjoyed an Alpha-Bits Cereal snack. We tried to find the letter L in our cereal.....but it tasted so good that it made it difficult to take time out to look for any letters. Alpha-Bits are most often served during breakfast with or without milk, but did you know their website has different recipes that include this great cereal? They can be found here: http://www.postfoods.ca/recipes?alttemplate=Alpha-Bits-CARecipes&brands=1175

Today we had a bag of "L" surprises, and in our bag we found a leopard, a lion, a lamb, some lettuce, a lemon, some lips, and a Lalaloopsy doll.

Together we learned about the sound the letter L makes.

After singing the alphabet, we read a story called Ten Little Lady Bugs. It was written by Melanie Gerth and illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith. This book is so much fun to read with its reverse counting, rhyming, and 3-D ladybugs!

Alphabet craft time was next!

We painted our babies feet to make adorable lady bugs......

and our toddlers made a lion out of an uppercase L and a lollypop out of a lowercase l.

When we were finished, we had just enough time to play with our parachute! The Creative Dance Company provides us with a great space to be able to be able to open our parachute and sing songs and play games.

Alphabet Play is one of our 20+ events that we have each month. A momstown Niagara membership is great for the whole family and includes events like these all year long. Join us today at http://niagara.momstown.ca/user/register.

Baby Basics: Scholastic

momstown.ca's theme for this month is Planes, Trains, and Automobiles and our babies and moms met at the Book Outlet for our monthly infant literacy program sponsored by Scholastic Canada.

It is always so amazing to me that our young babies love listening to stories as much as the older kids.

This month our little ones read "I am a Train" written by Ace Landers and illustrated by Paola Migliari.

It was fun to learn all the different ways that trains are useful! 

We always include a fun keepsake craft during our Baby Basics Scholastic program.  Many of our moms keep a folder at home to look back on how their babies have grown over their first year

And these are our lovely finished products!

 

Maisy Is a Sensitive Child

Maisy is a sensitive child. 

A very sensitive child. This information should really come as no surprise since I have spent the last four years releasing spiders back into the wild and having her draw her feelings on a white board. I love who she is, and I really do try to encourage it.

The other day, she and I were at the dollar store. She was, as usual, wearing her favorite red and white tutu. An employee commented on it. More specifically she said “What a lovely dress.” To which Maisy responded, “It’s not a dress, it’s a tutu.” Not in a humble way. Not in a thank-you-for-the-compliment-but-for-clarification-purposes-its-actually-a-tutu kind of way. Just in a surly, four year old “are you friigin blind, lady?”, sort of a way. I said “Maisy that was very rude.” In a tone that conveyed, I wasn’t happy. A tone, that hopefully conveyed to the woman that I am not the type of mother who stands for that kind of nonsense.
 Maisy looked up at me, with her eyes wide and began to cry. And me? I let out an audible sigh. I mean really, I had pens to buy and here was Maisy slowing me down. As knelt down, I was prepared to hurry her along. Prepared to say something like “Firstly, you were not using your manners and secondly I am in a very big rush, so please just pull it together and let’s go.” But, something stopped me.

 I realized that I would never do that at home. At home, I’d pull her close to me. I’d ask her how she would feel if someone didn’t thank her for a compliment. I’d tell her that although I know she’d never intentionally hurt someone else's feelings that she accidentally may have. That I know how important that tutu is to her, but try to remember to bring kindness to every situation she is ever in.
 I asked myself, what was different? What was it about being in public that changed the kind of mother I was so drastically? It was because I wanted approval. Some tiny part of me desperately craves for the virtual strangers to think I’m doing a good job. Its the same part of me that cringes when someone asks where Matilda’s missing sock is, “What if they think I’m the kind of mom who only puts on a single sock?” or when an old lady comments during a toddler meltdown that I need to show her who’s boss. 

Everyday, in every way, in every decision that I make I am trying to be a good mom. And, the absolute truth is that most days I’m not totally sure I’m accomplishing that. So, showing off to an audience of strangers that this child listens to me is my way of getting the validation that I so desperately need. But not on this day. This day, I didn’t care about her absolute compliance. I didn’t care if people thought I was a permissive parent. I didn’t care if the sound of her crying was disturbing to the other patrons. I didn’t even really care if people walking by thought I was a crappy mom. I cared that she was sad that she had attempted a social interaction, and done poorly. I cared that I was the person that she wants to impress most in the world and I had criticized her in public.
 I knelt on my knees and her and I hugged her. I felt her tiny body shake against mine, still so much a baby, even at four. I waited until she was done, because in that moment all I needed from her was for her to be who she was and to feel how she felt.

 This is not to say that she doesn’t have to learn to be polite, but maybe that lesson doesn’t have to be such a battle. Maybe a lot of them don’t. Maybe lessons of kindness are not taught with hurried screams in a mall but rather by showing her the power that comes in treating others well. And maybe the best way she can see that, is by being treated with grace herself.

Written by Mandy McIntyre 

Fun with Magnets!

Our Little Scientists had so much fun learning about magnets and their ability to stick to things even when turned upside down at the Book Outlet. There are so many ways to learn about magnets and we enjoyed trying a few. Our Little Scientists program is great because it provides hands on learning and experimenting every month.

First we used magnets to sort objects into magnetic and non-magnetic piles. We even learned that our magnets could lift multiple objects at one time.

We then used our large magnets to pick up a bunch of pipe cleaner pieces. The more we twisted our magnet into the container, the more pipe cleaners would stick when lifted.

We wanted to test if our magnets would work through water. We were amazed when our magnet lifted multiple bottle caps through a glass jar filled with water.

We learned not so much about magnetic poles, but how magnets could stick or repel other magnets. This was easily observed when using a magnet to push or pull our wooden trains.

We used magnetic “pens” to give hair to our funny Willy faces…..

And finally we had fun painting with magnets!




Little Scientists is one of our 20+ monthly events and is included in your membership fee of only $45 per year.  Your membership also includes a one year subscription to Today's Parent!  To get in on the fun register here:  http://niagara.momstown.ca/user/register

SUPER WORM! Presented by Scholastic

Scholastic Canada provided us with a great book to read during our circle time at our Tales for Tots event called Superworm. It was written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. This captivating story is about a super hero worm that often rescues his insect friends but suddenly finds himself in trouble after being captured by a wicked lizard.

It was such a fun story and everyone really loved listening to Miss Jenn read it!

 Our lucky winner for todays draw was Colton!

After our story it was time to make some crafts!

Our babies made tractor footprints........

and out toddlers made some planes, cars, and rockets with toilet paper tubes


Scholastic Tales for Tots is one of our 20+ monthly events that are included in your membership fee of only $45 per year.  Your membership will also include a one year subscription to Today's Parent! 

If you and your children would like to join us and meet some new friends, please register here   http://niagara.momstown.ca/user/register

Music & Movement

It was so nice to get together to make some instruments and sing some songs. Thanks to everyone who braved the cold today! Our theme for this month is planes, trains and automobiles. We had fun learning some new songs......

Down by the station

Down by the station,

Early in the morning,

See the little puffer bellies,

All in a row.

See the station master,

Turn the little handle,

Puff, puff, toot, toot,

Off we go!

Drive, Drive, Drive(Tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat)

Drive, drive, drive your car,

All around the town.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Up the hills and down.

Turn, turn, turn the key,

Make the engine roar. VROOOOM!

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Let’s go to the store.

Press, press, press the pedal,

Give the engine gas.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Now we’re going fast.

Turn, turn, turn the wheel,

That is how we steer.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,         

Make a turn right here.  

Today we also made a hand drum and a dragon mask.

Both our instruments and our masks were inspired by the Chinese New Year which falls on January 31, 2014. This year begins the year of the horse. After a little bit of practice, we learned how much fun our instruments were to play!

Thank you so much to the Book Outlet for hosting us today.


Music & Movement is one of our 20+ events that we have each month. A momstown Niagara membership is only $45/year for the whole family and includes great events like these all year long! Your membership will also include a one year subscription to Today's Parent! Sign up today on our website:http://niagara.momstown.ca/user/register.