The Momma Librarian: Making time for learning

You are your child's first and best teacher. That is what I'm always telling parents in my library programs. Back when I just had one child, I would spend hours planning and writing out a lesson plan for the week for her. When we added our second child to our family, we were lucky if everyone got a bath every week. It was quite an adjustment figuring out life with two kids (I don't know how you mommas with more kiddos do it!), working full time, and keeping up with all the other life details. But I LOVE doing activities with my kids, and being the one to teach them is something is my greatest joy. So I push through and keep trying to find a system that works to juggle everything.

When it comes to learning activities with the kids, if you're like me, you get on Pinterest to look for a few ideas for your theme week, and then all of a sudden feel like you have to do ALL.THE.THINGS! It's so easy to get overwhelmed with all of the amazing and fun ideas out there. And if you're like me... very quickly it all seems like too much and you end up doing nothing! It's taken me a long time to find balance and to calm my "all or nothing" thinking. These posts are to give you a few quick ideas that you can do with little prep. Frequently I take my help from products that I can order with prime shipping from Amazon and are good to go. Learning Resources has been a Godsend! I'm a working mom who still wants to to do fun learning activities with her kids at home. But I leave the house at 7:30 every morning and don't get home until 6 p.m. The kids go to bed at 7 and then my husband and I attempt to eat dinner. And by then I'm too exhausted to cut, laminate, and glue. There's not much time left in my day before I have to go to bed and get up and do it all over again. And I don't want to spend the few days that I'm at home and not at work, prepping things. I want things to be ready to go so when I have time I can spend it having fun with my kids.

When I buy toys that I plan to use for learning activities, I try to buy things that can do double duty. Something that we can either use in different ways depending on which aged child is using it, or something that has multiple applications for all ages. Could I make something similar for free? Perhaps. But my time is worth money, too. And it could be the difference between doing something fun with my kids, or skipping it and doing nothing.

If you read my post from Camping Day 3, you saw how much I love the snapping cubes. I thought I'd share my top five toys/products that are versatile enough to give you your money's worth in uses. Let me know in the comments below what is your favorite learning toy for your kids!

Number 1: Learning Resources One To Ten Counting Cans Toy Set