I used to be really proud of my parenting. Not in a smug, “I’m better than you” way, but in a self-satisfied, “I’m better at this than I thought I was going to be” way. Then things changed. My mum got ill and died, my husband lost his job, I went from SAHM who works an hour a day to WAHM who works every possible moment trying to keep food on the table. Somewhere in all that, I lost the ‘fun’ in my parenting.
My children knew what waterbeads and shaving cream and gloop were. They had themed activity days where we decorated the lounge like a scene from the Lorax, or Charlie and Lola came to tea. Parenting was a lot more fun back then. My children had little to no screen time, and we all just got on really well.
The problem I have found in trying to get them back, is I feel like I don’t know how. I feel like big gestures take up time, energy and money I don’t have, and little gestures are swept away in a sea of too much else going on.
I reached for the craft drawer the other day to try and see what I could do to fix all this, and found it to not only be in a chaotic state, but we have no basics – no ice lolly sticks, no googly eyes, no scrap bits of paper, no shaving cream or cheap food colourings for painting in the bath. Nope. In the words of Pink… “This used to be a fun house” but hopefully we don’t have to burn it down just yet.
Instead, I’m going to try out something new. Sort of. I used to follow Hands On As We Grow, back when this was a fun house, so when I saw that she now offers weekly activity plans for preschoolers – I figure I’ll start with my young one, as she’s missed out the most – that are simple, easy to follow, and don’t require much equipment or set up time, I decided I need to give it a go – back to basics, and forward from there.
That’s what happened last time. This ‘don’t know which way is up’ mama became pretty good at it starting small and allowing my imagination to grow with that of my babies. So I figure the same can happen again.
Bring it on.
One of the things that drew me to this programme was the talk about accountability. I know that being accountable makes it easier to stick to it, and there’s only benefits to be had both for my small person, our relationship, and with it our daily interactions and by association my feelings towards my parenting.
The weekly activity plans come in:
- DISCOVER: Weekly Activity Plans for One Year Olds
- PLAY: Weekly Activity Plans for Two Year Olds
- ENGAGE: Weekly Activity Plans for Preschoolers
- LEARN: Weekly Learning Activity Plans for Preschoolers
- THE TODDLER YEARS: Bundle DISCOVER and PLAY together!
- THE PRESCHOOL YEARS: Bundle ENGAGE and LEARN together!
- THE EARLY YEARS SET: Bundle all 4 eBooks to be set for all the early years!
You can also see a PREVIEW OF THE EBOOKS here.