Its all about walking 14 month

In my last post I wrote about Fatima on her way to walking. This month she is an expert in walking and that is something she loves to do. Few months back, I happened to read in absorbent mind, the importance of letting a child walk. Maria Montessori spoke about how parents tend to become a hurdle in there own child's development. When a tiny human begins to walk on her own too little is she supported by poeple arround her. often she finds people feeling pity for her. They say '' oh poor little girl, she is unable to balance" "she might fall" '' pick her up and carry her where ever she wants to go, she has difficulty in walking" "sit down, you must be tried" "why in the world is she roaming, she still doesn't have balance". But According to Maria Montessori the more they walk the better it is. They can only gain balance if they get more opportunity to practice this skill. She also says that a two year old can walk up to two miles but his manner of walking and intention of walking is different than us. He walks, takes a pause to explore something new, then walks again. Unlike us he doesn't walk to reach to a point. He walks because he wants to walk. I particularly like this part of Absorbent mind(walking part) which just shows us the importance of walking in human life, Esp. in days where we have all means of transport and we hardly have to walk somewhere. So these days I am just letting her walk everywhere and anywhere. No more carrying. Its just that I need to get a little slow to be with her but in the end with young children, parents need to slow down in everything. Children need some extra time in doing tasks that are routine for us. They are still learning, Being patient and slowing down are must for parents of young children. The only rule I follow in this walk and walk more time is to remove every dangerous or important thing out of her reach. This minimizes the number of times i need to say a no to her as she reaches to something she is not allowed to take. Rest is to leave her on her own.
A continuous observation of Fatima had made one thing clear that she is developing a very good level of concentration - thanks to Montessori system.
It just feels so great to see one's child grow. She is understanding and executing simple commands -like get that cup or give this to someone. Soon she will be an independent girl - I feel blessed.
Story telling is an art! you might have heard this. Sure it is! I began narrating stories to Fatima when she turned 7 month old. I used to narrate her 2 simple stories in our free time. The 2 stories were "the rat and the tiger" and "the thirsty crow". I could hardly believe at that time the level of attention she pays. She listens so carefully that these two stories just became a part of our everyday routine. Each time I narrate to her I recalled memories from my childhood when my great grandmother used to do the same for us. Every evening she used to sit on her old style Indian bed with all children gathered around her, then she slowly narrates the best stories i have ever heard. We all cousins just loved this time a lot. It was such a nice experience as children of all age group get involved in this activity. Everyone has his or her demand for today's story, then she peacefully settles as to which story is today's pick. She used to narrate stories from Quran - stories of Moses, Jesus, Joseph, Abraham (peace be upon them all), of people of cave, people of the garden, and so many others. There were fantasy stories also the one's from- Arabian nights. As I recall this time, I realize this was a mixed age group activity and the real stories surely helped in imagination of the child. I still have imagination in my mind about moses(pbuh) when his mother put him into river nile in a small basket,out of fear of pharoh. The memories of story time by my great grandmother reminds me of montessori mixed age group classrooms and their stress on real stories. I wish today's grandparents take out some time to give this beautiful experience to there grandchildren. - This is how we have our story time with out books.

learning to walk 13th month

Walking child is sure a comfort to his parents. Reaching this milestone is a sigh of relief. I am now officially a mother to a toddler. Fatima took her first steps on her b'day. Several days after this big thing she began to master this new development. She was always found standing, taking few steps, falling, getting up again and trying to walk again. After few days of  this practice she was able to take more and more steps and was falling less. This continued till end of 13th month. Only practice would help her gain balance and more control over her movements. She is still continuing to do the same activities like opening and closing of containers, putting back things, the stacking rings, etc.
This month she also had to go through a difficult phase. In the middle of this month, I had to join a school as a part time I.T. teacher for a period of one month. Three days before the joining date, I started talking to Fatima about this new change. On the first day itself, I realized how hard it is to leave your child in a creche. Several issues just popped up:
Is it right to leave a child so young(1yr) in a creche? what is the right age for crush?
how to deal if the only option you have is a non Montessori creche(esp. after having practiced and convinced about Montessori philosophy for one long year)?
how to deal with separation anxiety?
Is it right to let your child be in a new environment or leave her back home with some one she
already knows?
Am I being too possessive? Is it me who is going through separation anxiety more than my child?
The first week was terrible. I had put her in creche for first day and that eventually became the last day. On the very first day, I realized it is next to impossible to leave your child in a non Montessori environment if you are a Montessori mom. At-least a blend of Montessori and other child friendly philosophy would have satisfied me. But an anti-Montessori environment helped me decided the very first day that she definitely is not going to creche. I will not discuss here what kind of creche that was but it just made me realize the importance of a child led environment over a adult dominant environment where child is too less important. A place where only the physical needs of child are taken care of, killing his real self. Anyway the decision was made. For the rest of the month she stayed with her grandpa, who she was very much attached with. This doesn't mean we din't had to deal with separation anxiety. To be honest, I was more into separation anxiety than her. She being my first child had made me very possessive about her. I feel I cannot trust on anyone when its about her. Several articles helped me during this phase. They just convinced me to let her be big girl without me for some hours as long as the environment is familiar and friendly towards her. Few of these amazing articles are:
http://www.dailymontessori.com/self-development/children-separation-anxiety/
http://www.parenting.com/article/separation-anxiety-age-by-age
http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/feelings/sep_anxiety.html#
After following the proper goodbye routine and leaving her in a familiar environment and with a familiar person we got through this one month in peace.
This new toddlerhood bought a new difficulty with it. Seems she doesn't have time to eat. Yes! she is too busy walking! She is eating too little that fear for her health. Again few good articles help me deal with this:
http://www.babycentre.co.uk/a1008600/how-to-cope-with-feeding-a-fussy-toddler
http://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthfiles/hfile69d.stm
http://weecaremontessori.com/fussy-eaters-toddlers/
http://www.ahaparenting.com/ask-the-doctor-1/toddler-has-become-picky-eater-getting-him-to-eat-
Talking and naming things is on its way. She can very well say mum, baba(father), nanajaan(grandpa), anda(egg) and bye bye. The talks are mostly conversations kind. She speaks, expects other person to respond and then she responds and so on.
Drinking very well with glass, loves to play with water, shows interest in household works and scoping with a spoon are few more things this month.

A month in photos (weeks 45-48)

Color Bottles

first puzzle

first puzzle - circle

First puzzle - Circle, square and triangle

Stacking Rings

Drawer - open and close activity

Play Gym - A gift

Babies Book

Whose Name is my name?

Object Permanence box - Every tiny thing goes in it

Play/ Work Area

Open and Close Activity

little pompoms

4 teeth
weaning chair,place mat
BLW and montessori weaning

fruits and vegetables basket
kitchen utensils
lower kitchen drawers

Fatima's typical Day (43 & 44)

The Schedule:
Every morning she wakes up and give out a cry to let her mom, who is working in kitchen, know that she is up. After receiving greetings, Assalamualaikum (peace be on you), Fatima spends some few minutes in her mom's arms. I read somewhere that for kids 9 mins are really important, 3 after they wake up from sleep, three after returning from school, 3 minutes before they go to sleep. Anyway, later on she moves into the stroller, which is always in kitchen, and explores kitchen utensils or fruits or veggies while her mom cooks. Next its breakfast time, followed by play/work. She does all her activities one after another. When done with all that its time to move to another room to just crawl and explore. This all takes a good hour or two. She also takes a break from all her materials/ work just to watch pigeons through the window. There is this chair she pulls up to stand to look through the window. Meanwhile, she also has her snack. Then comes the nap time. After she wakes up, I let her play first till she gets hungry and then we have lunch. Then I read to her some book or we just lie down talking, story telling, rhymes,  games. She then plays while I do some work. Its nap time again. After waking up she mostly gets into the stroller, as I cook dinner, having her snack. Then dad is home, they play, exercise, talk, cuddle and all of us have dinner. After little play she goes to sleep. The schedule is a bit different when her grandpa arrives to meet her, then she plays with him. keeping up with schedule is only possible it she sleeps early, on time. Otherwise everything just gets so out of hand. Again, Weekends are a bit different. Going out, sleeping before this outing, staying up awake till late night, visiting relatives etc etc.
Activities these weeks:
On a weekend, we went to Cornish. Fatima for the first time explored grass. At first she was uncomfortable to touch it. She place her hand on grass and removed immediately and rubbed her fingers against her palm. After few attempts she got comfortable enough to crawl on it.
Open and close a box! yes this is one of her favorite activities these days. These are the boxes she is trying on:

In and out: One day I happen to notice her putting a small toy in her toy cup. She did it several times which reminded me of nesting cups. I simply grabbed these containers from kitchen and with out demonstration she did the activity. Putting the containers in and out in order.
Her place mat and new high chair, which allows her to have all her meals with family.

On her way to learning to eat with spoon.....

Treasure basket- how to peacefully engage your infant (week 41 & 42)

Its been long since I had made any materials for Fatima, and all this time the treasure baskets where a saver. I cannot emphasize enough on importance of Montessori treasure baskets, specially for moms who really want to engage their little infant for a long time. Montessori treasure basket is traditionally a large wooden basket which has 50-100 items in it. These items are regular household items like brushes, small utensils or kitchen tools, soft toys, varying fabric based materials, rattles/sound bottles, balls, or anything that can be explored by your little infant. The items must be safe i.e. no sharp corners or no choking hazard. Making this basket is really inexpensive and effortless. One advantage, besides exploring, is that treasure baskets keeps y
our baby engaged for like ages. Now there are versions of this traditional Montessori basket like theme baskets or basket with less items (5-20 items). The theme baskets hold items of one particular category like: kitchen items, color bottles, fruits/veggies (real or toy), smelling bottles, soft toys, different fabrics etc. To present this basket sit facing towards the infant, keep the basket in between and slowly take out an item, explore it and return it to the basket. Repeat this with another item and then invite the child to do so. once the child is engaged move your self slowly from the place and let him explore. When finished, return each item to the basket one at a time and keep the basket at its place.
We made a treasure basket for Fatima before (see here), it was kind of a theme basket. Now we have these two baskets for her:
This is a all in one basket. It has some lids, a book, a sensorial ball, a wooden spatula, a wooden bowl with knob lid, a small cup, a teether, some sound bottles, two little rubber teddies, some disks.

This is a gift she received form her aunt. Its a beautiful wood and crochet basket with a hidden section in it. There are some plastic toys (a gift). She loves this basket so much. Fun part for her is to first use the knob to open the lid then to put all toys out and then open the inner section.

One newly introduced basket holds color bottles. I have replaced the object permanence box (OPB) with this basket. She was least interested in OPB, removing it for time being was really needed. The color bottles are just some bottles filled with different food colors.

In my next post I shall be covering a whole lot of things....Insha Allah!

I got a tooth! (Week 39 &40)

Itchy ears and biting behavior, finally the first tooth has cut through those sore gums. After a week of diarrhea and high fever, Fatima got her brand new tiny tooth. Before I write anything else, my apologies for a delayed post. A teething child is so much in need of attention! She was like almost drained. Now that everything is fine its worth talking about how to deal with a teething baby?
My first recommendation would be the teething beads. All I read about these beads is when they make contact with skin they release some oils which tend to sooth the teething pain. Trust me it works! Next thing you want is some ear drops. I have till date not found a one that works..anyway next on the list is some teethers... wooden, rubber and cloth are best.
That is it about teething for now...

Weaning Weaning...I mean is that easy. In our case its easy if it is with hand but with a spoon? oh! let me explain this: Fatima started weaning long back. like at about 5 months old. Since then we offered her a lot of variety of food..Chapatis, other breads, vegetables, fruits, puffed rice, cookies, toast etc etc. She can feed her self with any of these..but when it comes to purees and cereal...dreading. When a puree or cereal is fed to her with spoon (obviously!) she is just interested in eating and once full she refuses to take more and that's it. She never tried to take away that spoon instead she would put her hands in the bowl! Not knowing how to encourage her to wean with spoon, I went surfing online for the matter. One suggestion I liked most was to give her a spoon of her own and keep feeding her. Eventually she might take interest. So these days we have her a spoon and she holds it tight putting it some times in her mouth. She has not, till date, tried to put it in the bowl. I'm really looking forward for ideas on how to encourage an infant to wean with a spoon.

Little more more on weaning: Homemade or Ready made Baby food? This was a big deal. In India there are people on both sides. For a long time we kept offering Fatima just home made food but now she gets ready made food at dinner time. I think a combination of homemade and ready made meals are best...at least this is what I heard from most of the moms. For more on Baby food visit weaning page.

These days she is busy with her two treasure baskets and some time with object permanence box.

Object permanence box (week 37 & 38)

There is so much movement these days. Even after having prepared the whole house for an crawling infant nothing ever seems enough. Fatima is mostly found in corners of the rooms looking for I Don't know what. But this doesn't bother me a lot. I know she needs her space to grow. A little adjustments here and there are fine and so natural. Preparing a house for infant isn't that difficult. trust me! You just need to take a round of your house and follow these simple tips:
1. Make note of all the materials you want to keep in her reach and the materials you want a keep away.
2. Fix place of all your 'Don't touch' materials in upper most cabinets, wardrobe, high tables or in cupboards. These materials can be: your mobile phones, laptops, iron, medicines, any expensive or dangerous stuff. This will avoid most of the running, snatching and havoc.
3. Place all the materials you want her to explore, in her reach. These can be her toys, learning materials, cushions, her blanket, any save furniture she can pull up and stand against, healthy and non messy snack (separately on a table) and other save home equipment.
4. Hide your dustbins and slippers.
5. Arrange some space on floor: Infants need space for movement. Small or big just arrange some tidy area where your child can crawl, move and play. This area must be uninterrupted or least interrupted.
6. Pay particular attention to corners: keep them neat and tidy.
7. Keep your wash room child save or better lock it up each time not in use.

This kind of arrangement will allow you to help your child enjoy her need for movement and will also reduce the number of times you need to stop her or say no, creating a positive environment.
Once you are done with all this, relax and see your child content and happy.
This week Fatima was introduced with Object permanence box. This is not the regular Montessori box. One of my uncles made it for Fatima. He used a very thick foam board to make it. And then he covered it with non toxic cello tape.

If you want to make it on your own, you can use eaither foam board, empty shoe box, or a desk. Below are the pictures for reference:

When introduced, she watched the demo carefully and soon got busy with it. At first I really doubted: can she do this? after the demo I saw her moving the ball slowly between her fingers and top of the box, finally put it through the hole. Even though she doesn't pick this material very often, expecting her to do so in near future.

Talking to your infant.....language

What do you want to talk about with your child? Trust me there is so much....
Often when we talk to our child we end up commenting, judging, scolding and telling them what not to do. But do we really have the talk like talk with our child? think again! I guess you have no for an answer. Let's explore some thing about language and infants. Now if that sounds crazy to you i must stress that these little ones are really sensitive to language...its just their response which is different. Each time you say something to an infant you feel as if your words are going in some void. They never seem to grasp anything.
When taking to infants its particularly important that you first make an eye contact with the child. Infants have so much around them to concentrate on, plus they understand very little of the verbal language, its the non-verbal language with which they mostly understand your point. Begin your talk with first attracting them towards you...simply call out there name in a different pitched voice. Now when they look at you make direct eye contact and start your talk. When your child is listing to you, she pays attention to your body language, movement of lips and gestures more than the words...of course. Keeping mild and clam tone, relevant and peaceful gestures will help your child calm down and listen carefully. In addition, never use bad or baby words to make your child understand something. Always be gentle and soothing, repetition is one of the key points you would never want to forget.
Now, coming to what the talk should be about? The talk can be describing what you are doing now like: Mommy is changing the diaper or Mommy is massaging your leg, foot, toe....You can also talk about what others are doing, like, dad is reading newspaper or brother eating a snack. Do not intent to teach vocabulary to an infant rather just describe as to what is going on. Next talk about her! tell her that she is doing well these days, she is growing and learning different things or she is wearing a nice dress. Then you can talk about your day, your plans and anything general. Infants like to get attention from their parents. They get fussy or disturbed if everyone is busy, paying no attention to them, even if all of their physical needs are met. They need someone to talk, someone to attend them. Giving at least half hour each day of this undisturbed and individual attention will calm down even the most fussy infant. During this half hour apart from all talking described above, try reading a short story, a short poem/ song, recite any religious verses or prayers or play a small game (look for infant games here). Before introducing new ones, repeating the same story, song, prayer and game for a period of 2-3 weeks is a good idea.
Recently, when I met a Montessori teacher and asked her why is that my daughter cries so much when I am trying to put her to bed. After she turned three months old, we have set her sleep routine and all was fine till she turned 7 months old and now she doesn't go to bed easily. On hearing this the Montessori teacher gave a simple solution: talk to her. We did the same. Since that day she doesn't make any fuss for going to bed unless she is unwell.
An half hour talk will save your whole day!

Crawling Masha Allah! (week 35 and 36)

The much awaited act of crawling has begun.
In my last post, I mentioned Fatima was on her way to crawling and now she crawls! No its not that simple. Allow me to narrate you her crawling story....
Three weeks back, when Fatima was scooting backwards in commando position hoping she would reach her toys which were lying exactly in front of her, she was only getting more away from them. As she moved away she yelled and shouted, getting frustrated. I dint knew what to do and was only left with encouraging her and telling her that she will soon know how to crawl and that she must keep practicing. This scooting backwards lasted for a good two and half weeks.
In the middle of all this we had to travel with a family who had a crawling infant. The two days spent in the journey made everything so obvious. Fatima saw this little girl crawling in front of her....what a good lesson! First time she saw this infant crawling in front of her she paused to see carefully as to what is going on.
When we returned back home she was no more moving backwards, she used to pause on all fours moving in neither direction. Two days latter she crawled for the first time to reach up to her little cousin's bracelet.
At first there were little baby crawling steps. She used to move slowly and carefully. Now she crawls everywhere and with so much confidence.
If you are looking for ways to encourage your baby to crawl, My recommendation is this: Its time to visit a family with a crawling infant. No other lesson would be more promising. Babies tend to learn as they see things happening around. Show your baby a real crawling infant (not a video of course) and that will be all.
I have to go catch her up....

The Montessori Inspired Mobiles - all about mobiles

This post will speak about the Montessori mobile's, how to make them and other easy alternatives for these mobiles.
The Munari Mobile:
It is a black and white mobile that appeals an infant's vision. Read here for more information and here for tutorial. Another tutorial over here.
As this mobile seems a bit difficult to make, I recommend making out mobiles that are black and white in color. The simple ones severs the best. You must not over burden the baby with complicated designs and patterns. Few simple ones that I liked are:


Simple tutorial and free printable are available here.

The Octahedron mobile:
You can find best information and tutorial for this mobile here. Making this mobile is simple and fun.

The Gobbi mobile:
Info on this mobile here and tutorial here. Check out my post here for more ideas on this.

The Bell mobile:
Some practical info here.

The Ring mobile:
Visit my post here

Butterflies/ Humming Bird/ Whales mobile:

You can find some amazing bird mobile ideas below:

1. This is pretty simple. Just draw/ print the template from here and go ahead.
2. A fun and economical cloth bird mobile tutorial here (I recommend using any available scrap cloth.)
3. If your interested in some sewing:

• A simple yet good cloth bird mobile here
• A complex yet adorable cloth bird mobile here

See here and buy here .


Primary colors mobile:
Buy here and my version here.
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These weeks...(week 33 and 34)

I have absolutely no idea what to write today. These two weeks Fatima had little new indoor activities. We have been traveling a lot and she have been a part of our journey, sometimes silently sometime joyfully, observing. When at home she had her treasure basket, her new board book and almost anything and everything available in her reach to play and learn from.
She is on her way to crawl....hoping soon she will be crawling all around.
She loved it so much at the two holy mosques. I was afraid if she would get disturb with the crowd there but she convinced me on more time...she like people.
We are more focused these days about her nutrition and weaning related stuff. My post on Baby Food here.
Looking forward to some new activities....

what are you playing with? (week 31&32)

With the end of eight month Fatima's Physical development is not disappointing. She is able to move from sitting to crawling position. Even though she dont crawl technically but she scoots backward in the commando position. Rolling over and mini push ups is her way these days. Pulling up and standing is something she wants to do all the time. There is so much movement that she hardly stays still. She is got a new book of her own, a board book with pictures of birds in it. This is not a vocabulary lesson, its just that she shows interest in books.

Check out these amazing new toys in her toy section:

These are actually the models of auto mobiles sold by the company my husband works with. These are elegant and so metallic. She spends quality time playing and exploring these metal toys.

This week she enjoyed cooled breeze from red sea- just getting close to nature.

Babbling continues... (Week 29 & 30)

Papers are of a great attraction to infants and toddlers. The ripping, turning and crushing sound of papers is so much tempting. Fatima has always been looking for papers to play with. We dreaded that she would eat them off while play, so they were kept away from her. But now we give papers to play after observing her so much love towards them. Yes! she did try to eat them away. Under supervision, she plays with a papers for like ages.

There are some new treasures added to her treasure basket. These are little bottles and a tiny cushion. Looking forward to what else can get in..

She is joining us in family breakfast and lunches. It is great time to make her see others eating and to imitate them. She has her own little plate and few pieces of chapati (flat bread) to take her lessons. Even though she is turned 7 months old, she never really showed interest in feeding her self during her meals. So we thought she must get an opportunity to practice weaning. Chapati and other finger foods are best to work with. Other fun stuff can be Murmure (puffed rice) and different kind of breads. Puffed rice are best to work on that pincer grasp. Likewise mashed food is great to encourage sensorial stimulation. Though playing with food must be avoided there can be a little sensorial work.

Puffed Rice

Babbling continues...there are lots of sounds......dadada, mamama, bababa,nanana..... and so many others.

There was also some audio addition this week...3 tiny sound shakers, one filled with rice, second with  sugar and the third one with black gram.

Sound Bottles