Simplicity Parenting Treasures

So I have officially finished the book Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne, M.Ed.

There are so many treasures in it that I would like to share with you, but unfortunately that would keep you here for a couple hours.

So instead I am going to share with you a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

"Too much stuff leads to too little time and too little depth in the way kids see and explore their world."

"With "predictability" a child knows what to expect."

"Relationships are often built in the intervals, the space between activities, when nothing much is going on."

"Children who've had a role in preparing a meal assume ownership of it. More simply: When children make the food, they're less likely to throw it, or refuse it."

"Family dinners get much simpler when they're predictable: Monday pasta night, Tuesday rice night, Wednesday soup night, and so on." ( I LOVE this idea!)

"Before you say something, ask yourself these three questions: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?"

Now those quotes barely scratch the surface, but it's all I can offer at the moment :)

A reader asked me a couple weeks ago what my typical day/schedule looks like. Since a big part of Simplicity Parenting is on the Rhythm & Schedules of children I wanted to read it first before sharing my own.

Basically Payne says that children need to know what's next. They need predictability in their lives so that they can fully feel secure in their worlds. They also need time to just play. Payne says that boredom is a gift, a gift that should be freely given to children. It is only through boredom that creativity can be found. A child's daily or weekly schedule shouldn't be so packed that they don't have time to just "be".

In my case, I am home all day with my daughter. We only have one car and my husband is in school full-time. I get the car once or twice a week. On those days I do grocery shopping or other errands. I don't try to jam those days full of errands though because I know my daughter can only sit in a shopping cart/car seat for so long.

My typical day is very typical. For those who care, here is a brief summary :)

- Wake up, slowly make our way downstairs, coffee/breakfast (the coffee's just for me), dishes while Dear Daughter (DD) plays, food preparation with or without DD help, prayer time.

- Upstairs to get dressed, make the beds, tidy up the rooms, brush teeth. All the while DD just busies herself with whatever suits her.

- Downstairs to do daily cleaning, if she is able to DD helps me (like with dusting, "trying" to sweep, etc.)

- Snack/lunch time

- Activity. I usually have one type of activity I try to do with DD a day (which is a separate schedule) that I might do with her before her nap. I could really go into detail but for brevity's sake Mondays I do a classification/sorting activity, Tuesday I do sequencing, Wednesday I do matching/memory games, etc., then DD takes a nap.

Believe me it DOES take a couple hours to get to this point :) I just try to really be present to my daughter and if she wants me to read a couple books or play or do a puzzle, I do those things with her and when I am thru I proceed with what's next on my list.

- Wake up from nap, snack.

- Playtime. I try to go outside with her once a day if the weather permits, even in the cold weather. I think it's important for her to have a change of environment and she really does love being outside.

- Prepare dinner (we eat pretty early) while DD helps or just plays.

- Dinner time, I clean up while DD plays with her daddy. The rest of the evening is kind of up in the air.

- Bath time usually around 7 pm which can last up to 45 minutes, since she LOVES being in the water. Snack, read books and bed!

I do have to say that I love the calmness and simplicity of my days. While I was running my Etsy shop the days weren't so calm and stress free for me, but I have realized that I really do need to maintain a sense of peace within me in order to be the best Mother and Wife that I can be.

I hope this helped! And if you haven't already, check out Simplicity Parenting from the library!!

Baby Dipper Giveaway Winner!

Congrats to Brandy C whose favorite feature of the Baby Dipper is the no slip bottom!!

Please contact me by Thursday to claim your prize!

Baby Dipper Bowl Review + Giveaway

Barbara, a mother of two sets of (gorgeous!) twins developed the concept for the Baby Dipper bowl when she starting the daunting task of feeding two babies at a time! She needed a bowl that required only one hand to successfully feed a baby, but there were none on the market!

Hence came her vision and creation of this bowl!

Here are a few of the ingenious perks of the Baby Dipper Bowl:

*Non slip bottom surface to keep it from sliding

*A sloped interior surface and a spoon-shaped collection point that help gather the food down to the last bite.

*Easy for toddlers to self feed!

*BPA, Phthalte & Lead Free (that's my kind of bowl!!)

Barbara sent me a bowl in the mail to review so I can fully back up every one of her claims. My daughter LOVES to use it for her apple sauce! She no longer asks me to scrape the last little bit out of the bowl since she can do it herself! It even works when the slop is facing away from you ( which is how my daughter insists on using it).

And of course Barbara is generously offering one Baby Dipper Bowl to one of you!

To enter this giveaway:

Please visit the Baby Dipper Website and leave a comment here telling me what you favorite feature of the Baby Dipper Bowl is!

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(Check them out on Facebook too!)

Note: Previous winners of the Baby Dipper Bowl giveaways sponsored by Baby Dippers, LLC are not eligible for this giveaway

The winner will be selected at random on Tuesday, February 9, 2010!!

Montessori Sequencing Activity

Children just continue to amaze me.

I introduced this activity to my daughter about 3 months ago. She sat on my lap while I silently showed her how to match up the cards. Of course she wanted to try and it was clear that she didn't grasp the concept at all. I tried a few more times to no avail. So I decided to put it away for a while.

Last month I got it out again and without me even showing her again she wanted to do it "all by self". Okay, I thought, good luck! She then proceeded to do the entire activity all by herself PERFECTLY. And not only just one sequence at a time but with all of them laid out in front of her at once.

I am reading Maria Montessori's Absorbent Mind right now and it really just continues to amaze me how children have the ability to absorb everything even without us knowing it.

The link to the printout and instructions to this activity is below. That site is a great resource for other activities as well! Have fun!

http://www.montessorimom.com/montessori-sorting-printout/?utm_source=newsletter-sorting-printout&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=S

Simplicity Parenting

I didn't technically make a New Year's resolution this year.

I guess I half forgot to and half thought it was pointless since I never really stick to them anyways :/

But as I think about it now I did make a very simple resolution at the beginning of 2010, whether I was intending it to be my New Year's resolution or not. I decided to temporarily close my Etsy shop.

I know, I know, I've built it up for so many months and business was going great and yada yada yada.

I think actually part of the problem was that business was going so well that I sort of lost focus of my first two vocations in life...that of being a wife and mother.

I needed to start my Etsy shop last year, I needed to have a creative outlet all the while being a stay-at-home mom. I needed to know I could bring in the dough on my own accord.

So I proved all those things very well.

Yes I could do it, yes I was capable.

I also proved a lot of other things.

I was a much testier person when I had deadlines to meet and orders to fulfill on time.

I let my cooking slide and lost the joy I once found in preparing healthy and yummy food for my family. I often got annoyed that I had a little person tagging at my shirt because I just had "one more thing to finish!"

So I am taking a break.

And I must say it feels...very good. :)

So after I had started to simplify my own life a little I read about a book called, "Simplicity Parenting" by Kim John Payne, M.Ed.

Perfect, I thought, I SO need to read that.

Well I am about a chapter into in and I have to say that I can already tell it is one I will have to buy very soon because I am hating the fact that I can't highlight like every other sentence in my borrowed copy!

Basically, here's the gist of it all. The author has been a school counselor and family-counselor therapist for many years and has found that the missing piece in many children's lives is simplicity. As a result so many children are suffering from anxiety, ADD, ADHD, OCD. Children are being so bombarded with toys, books, activities, that they don't have time to be children! Take out 3/4 of all they have in their life and they will be happier, less anxious, more attentive, etc.

He outlines 4 ares of life that need to be simplified: their environment, rhythm, schedules and filtering out of the adult world.

Now since I haven't read the entire book yet I can't go too much in-depth but I have to say I love what he says about a child's environment. Much of it goes along with the Montessori principles that I already love and have put into practice. He suggests only having half a dozen books on the shelf at a time. The rest can be put away and used as a sort of library to borrow from every week. Toys should be kept at a bare minimum and should be mostly limited to those items that foster creativity in a child. So think of all those toys that are supposed to "entertain" your child...pitch em. In their place put building blocks, puzzles, creative materials, construction toys, etc.

I have mostly tried to keep the amount of toys my daughter has down to a minimum anyways but I went even further in the past couple of days...I mean honestly there are so many things in our living room she hasn't touched in weeks! So off to storage they went!

The same with books too....we have SO many books I didn't know where to keep them all, plus I was going to the library once a week too, and i noticed that my daughter really was losing interest in reading all together. So out went the books. And literally, like magic i swear ( which I don't' even believe in) she was super interested in her books again.

I will definitely write more about the book when I read more....stay tuned!

Naturity Giveaway Winner!

The winner of the Organic Baby Bucket from Naturity is ...

Anonymous:

"It's super cool that they make organic nipple cream! I've not seen that before! - Amy"

Please contact me at jflborn@gmail.com by Thursday January 21st to redeem your prize.

Thanks to all who participated!!

Naturity Review + Giveaway

What a great name for a great company!

Naturity prides themselves on the organic integrity of their products, which are compromised of 99-100% certified organic ingredients. They are also a green company using only sustainable packaging. All items are contained in recycled glass or tin and orders are shipped in recycled packaging and bi-degradable packaging peanuts.

They have recently been rated "zero" toxicity in the Environmental Working Group's skin deep database.

So with no further ado let's look at the three main product lines Naturity offers!

Naturity's Organic Motherhood line is safe for you and your baby.

Products include Nipple Cream, Belly Butter & Belly Massage Oil.

There is also a Mother's gift basket including those 3 products, which would make an excellent gift.

I received Naturity's Belly Massage Oil to review and was very pleased with the product. When I was pregnant I was super cautious about what I put in and on my body for fear of hurting my growing baby, that's one of the reason's why Naturity's products excite me so much!

The Belly Massage Oil was very easy to rub on and did not leave a super oily feeling left on my skin afterwards, unlike the cocoa butter I had used during my first pregnancy. The smell of it is very pleasant smelling and actually brought me back to my childhood when we used to crack open vitamin e capsules to put on our cuts. I highly recommend the Belly oil!





Next we have Naturity's Organic Babyhood line, which is vegan friendly and nut and wheat free.

All of the Babyhood products are free of chemicals, fragrances, additives and synthetic preservatives. Naturity doesn't use any essential oils that may cause irritation. All products have been tested and are safe for baby skin.



Naturity's Organic Babyhood line includes Diaper balm, Baby Massage Oil & Baby Powder as well as a Welcome Baby Bucket including those three.

I received the Baby Massage oil to review as well and I'll repeat what I said above about the Belly oil, it was very easy to put on and didn't leave the skin feeling oily at all. As advertised this oil was fragrance free.

Last but not least we have Naturity's Body-Bath line. All products contain pure, unrefined organic ingredients gentle enough to use daily on the body or in the bath to nurture healthy skin. All products available in unscented and six herbal scents.

Products include Massage Oil, Sugar Body Scrub, Salt soak, Herbal Bath blend, and 2 gift baskets as well.

I received the Sweet orange bath salt soak to review. I was very happy to have an excuse to have to take a bath (the first one in two years since my daughter was born!)

The aroma was very pleasant, not too strong at all. It left my skin feeling smooth and moist and not in much need of lotion application afterwards like I usually do. Highly recommended!

Now of course is your favorite part!!! The giveaway!!

Naturity will generously be giveaway a Welcome Baby Bucket to one of you!

This includes Diaper Balm, Baby Massage Oil & Baby Powder.

To enter into this giveaway:

Visit Naturity and leave a comment here telling me what your favorite thing about the company is!

Additional Entries:

1. Add my Blog button to your site (leave html)

2. Tweet about this giveaway

3. Blog about this giveaway (leave html)

The winner will be picked randomly and announced on January 19, 2010!