Hi everybody! Melissa here from CloudMom.com. I got a great set of questions from a mom the other day which
are basically about how to bridge the gap when you have a baby who's around two
and another child who's around five and you're trying to entertain them, trying
to play with them, trying to do things that are great for them intellectually,
physically, developmentally. Here's what she has to say in her own words and I'll
give you guys my take on it and I would love yours because a lot of people have
this age gap of two children who are two or three years apart and it's very hard
to take care of them both at the same time. So here's what this mother has to
say. Hey CloudMom! It's me again. I've sent you a message before. It's been a while. I
have some new questions. I currently am watching a five-year-old and a two and a
half year old and my daughter is two. It seems like the older the kids get, the
less I know what I'm doing, what I should be doing. We've all been there. I could
desperately use some advice. I feel like I resort to having the kids just watch
TV or a movie and I don't want that. I really don't know how to raise my
two-year-old when it's just the two of us. Help please.
Ruthie Squires and Ruthie I've seen your name so many times over these years.
It's so nice to see you back here on CloudMom and you know what? How great and
how honest and so many of us have dealt with these similar issues because it's
really hard to take care of kids all day long. It's draining, it's exhausting
physically, mentally, you know, in all ways, emotionally. You're sort of fried and you
know I think the occasional movie or TV show is fine. I think that's fine. We all
grew up with that. We're all fine, but I agree. I don't think you want that
to be the bulk of what you're doing. So here's some ideas and again, easier said
than done, but I think there are, you know, some good things to think about as you
go into your day. Your two-year-old should be engaging in a lot of creative
play and a lot of play with things that are called manipulatives. You know, blocks,
play-doh, things where your child can use her hands. Melissa and Doug blocks
are terrific, play-doh is great. Things like Mr. Potato Man, scribbling with a
pencil, finger-painting if you can put up with the mess. Things like that that your
child can do, you know, at least once or twice a day sitting with you at the
table. Just getting in the process of using their hands and starting to
develop their fine motor skills. That's very important for a baby of that age of
two year olds. What I recommend, and I grew up with a mother who's a chatterbox, and you guys
know I'm a chatterbox because you've seen me all the time up here on my
website and on YouTube just chattering away, is really, even if you're a quiet
person, get in the habit of narrating what you do and using as much vocabulary
as possible. There have been a lot of studies that say that children who grow
up around the most words become the most intelligent and actually children who
don't hear a lot of words suffer for that. So seriously, I mean, it seems a bit
weird and you're gonna get really tired and even thirsty, but if you're making
dinner, don't just put your kid in front of the movie and make dinner. Put your
kid in the kitchen and say okay I'm making dinner. I'm taking out the carrots.
I'm peeling the carrots with the carrot peeler. Now I'm going to slice the
carrots. Oh I made 20 carrot slices. Let's count them. Give your kid the carrot
slices and let them play with it in a bowl. Narrate what you do. Now I'm taking
a shower. Now I'm putting on my dress. Now I'm putting on my earrings. Now I'm
brushing my hair with my comb. Narrate what you do as much as possible. Bring your
child into that experience and talk to them all day long with plenty of hugs
and plenty of kisses. And, you know, plenty of physical affection. But you really
just want to talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. That's the best thing for kids. Now you
want to try to do these activities at home and then you want to get outside.
Have the baby on the jungle gym, have the baby in the sandbox. The good old sandbox.
It's a big mess but it's great for kids. They're independent, they're playing,
they're being creative, they're using their hands or using their bodies.
There's a reason why this is such a classic place
for kids. Get outside and you know I think that's an easier place for moms to
be with babies this age. You know, pack up a lunch, head out for the morning, you
know, and hopefully you'll meet some other people and you'll feel more
connected and it's really great for your kids and it's great for you, too. And your
kids are developing all the physical, you know, strength and skills and
coordination that they need to by being in the playground or in the park. Now
with the five-year-old you're really dealing with maybe some more advanced
toys we loved Magna Tiles, Lincoln Logs, Legos are phenomenal. You can either
follow the instructions on the Lego or you can have the child, you know, do their
own things with the Legos. Those are really great things to do. You can be
starting to draw, there can be coloring books, sticker books, and your child might
be starting to recognize words and looking at reading. I think their reading
here is really important. Stories like the Berenstain Bears,
Curious George. Go to the library hour with your child. Bring those kids into
the library, sit there, and just read books for an hour.
Let them go around, let them pull out books, let them throw down books. Make
sure they love books. If your child becomes a reader, your child's gonna be
smart. I guarantee it. Honestly your child is
going to be smart, your child is going to go to college, your child is going to
have a good job. Readers, readers, readers. We all want those. It's just like
too much a thing of the past now with all these phones and iPads. I'm sorry.
So anyway, try to develop that habit of loving books, of having great
associations with being with mommy in the library. Take out a bunch of books
every week for that five year old and tell yourself you're going to read them
by the end of the week. Okay. Playtime, I mean I would get down there
with all the kids. Do, you know, a train set. Do the Magna Tiles. Try to have
somehow, you know a building activity where like everybody can be involved in
it at once. And then I would do a fun bath. You know, a fun bath with plenty of
toys where you can have those sticky letters that you stick along the bathtub
so they start to learn their letters. Those are terrific.
You just have to make sure you clean them properly and that's you know a wonderful
way to sort of end the day and that kills another half an hour and it's great
for the kids. In the summer, put the floaties on that baby, try to sign your
five-year-old up for some group swim lessons, get those kids in the water so
that they get used to swimming really young and that's also amazing for them.
It's one of the best forms of exercise using every muscle in their body and the
coordination is so good, the strength. It's great for their back, it's great for
their legs, and, you know, you can hopefully be sitting by the sidelines
maybe even getting something of a tan if you're lucky.
So anyway, not one single piece of this advice I just gave is easy for anybody
to do. If you have help, if you have a mom, if you have a sister-in-law, if you have
a friend who's willing to help out, pull them in too. You're gonna need breaks. None
of this is, you know, relaxing but I think this is really you know these are good
things to be doing with your kids every day and if you do these things you know
I think they're really going to benefit tremendously from them. So anyway, thank
you so much for writing in. Please let me know how it's going. I really appreciate
it and I will see you back soon on CloudMom.