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.
.

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

The Man Who Inspired Us to Montessori

Its was a bright sunny morning and we were headed for Blue Blocks Self-Learning Pre-School to attend the Positive Parenting Workshop. A day before this, I was wondering why in the world do I need to attend this workshop? Do I not know Enough about a small baby? I mean what if I was going to become a mother for the first time, I know what a small baby needs! obviously, a baby needs feed, good cloths and Diapers and not to forget the cuddling. See I know it all! But then when I started giving a serious thought - Why learn parenting? Do I really know enough? I burst into a cry! Only then I prayed sincerely to Allah - Oh Allah! Give me from your knowledge. I know not and you are all knower. Give me best out of this Workshop. Then with an open heart I decided to attend this workshop.

When we reached our destination, we received a warm welcome from the staff. After filling a short form we were directed to the lecture hall. It was just the right time. There we saw a short man with a gentle smile. This was pavan. His first sight made me a bit disappointed. I was hoping to see an energetic speaker who would blow up our minds with his talk on the subject. But this man was polite and calm. hugh! not so impressive anyway.

Soon the session began with what we are expecting or any question we want him to cover, followed by our introductions. Then began the real part. Mr. Pavan Goyal Started to introduce himself. He has taken the AMI intensive training in the USA for the age group of Birth – 3 years. He has observed and worked with infants and toddlers as part of his training program. He is also trained in the age group of 3 – 6 years, which has been certified by AMI Netherlands. With his training and practice he is committed to educating parents all over the country through Positive Parenting Workshops. He is also the founder of Blue Blocks Self-learning Pre-school.

After this impressive introduction he made us do a visualization technique. We sort of looked into our childhood where we found ourselves being rejected and disappointed. Then he took us through the journey of a child unfolding the developmental stages a child goes though and how can we support him in this development. He spoke about the wrong ways of parenting and bad educational techniques that are followed. His inspiring talk covered both physical and psychological needs of a child. In all we explored a whole new perception towards a child. The Montessori philosophy he spoke about was so natural and obvious that we felt our hearts getting convinced with it. Entire session we were kind of glued to our chairs. We couldn't hear enough on the subject. I wouldn't be summarizing his talk instead here is the link where you can get all the info. In all, his talk blew our minds, not in the way I was expecting but in a way that was as amazing as child psychology was. He was soft and thought provoking. He made us laugh, he made us cry. He definitely was someone who made a change.

By the end of the session I got my answer as to why this man is so polite, gentle and calm....Because he deals with children. Can there be any other way to handle this lovely creatures. When we left we had in our hearts great regard and respect towards this man who gave us hope to parenting efficiently. Even though we do mistakes raising a child but there is a way to rightly do it. We extend our wishes and thank Pavan for his good work.

May Allah guide us all to the straight path. Ameen!

Note:
For all those parents who are interested in Blue blocks Montessori School for their kids, here is the link to the school's website. You will get all necessary information.

The very own cloth book(week 27 & 28)

Our inspiration to Montessori was a Parenting workshop organized by a Montessori School (see my post on it here). One thing which was stressed on by the speaker was that we must start reading books to children once they turn six month old. It was surprising for us. When we questioned him as to what books he said any homemade book would do. Now that was tricky. There are many books available for very young children. The market is floated with all kinds of cardboard books. But the very first book has to be very special - that is what we had in mind. Although we have been reading Quran and other books to her, she dint have her own book. Finally, the idea of her first book was decided after enough browsing had been done on the subject. The idea was to make a cloth book that shows pictures of Allah's signs. Kind of like a nature's book. To make this book more of sensorial stimulation various beads and different textured cloth were used. Alas! the book was made referring to this tutorial. Its an amazing, easy to follow tutorial. Below are the pictures of the pages of the book and their descriptions:
The front cover of the book has written on it - Signs of Allah in Urdu (Fatima's mother tongue).
Allah speaks of all these in Quran.

Front cover of the book

Page1 (Day) has a yellow pompom that represents sun and blue ribbons that represents birds. 

Page2 (night) has a moon made out of silk cloth and few star shaped buttons,

Allah speaks of day and night as his signs in Quran. 

Day and night (Page 1 & 2)

Page3 has clouds made out of towel cloth and few beads as rain.
Page4 has a tree made out of green color cloth ball and brown ribbons.

Rain and tree (Page 3& 4)

Page5 shows water(blue wrinkled cloth), pearls and ship (felt cloth).
Page6 shows mountains

Ship and mountains(Page 5 & 6)

 Page7 Fruits(old dinning table cloth made out of rexine)
Page8 small book with few pages(buckram cloth) and cloth feather pen(this tutorial)

Fruits, book and feathered pen (Page 7 & 8)

Page9 flowers and leaves (velvet cloth)
Page10 camel

Flower, leaves and camel (Page 9 & 10)

 Back cover of the book

Back cover

All of these were made out of the scrap cloths available at home.

Her response to book, when introduced:
Excited to hold it
She liked the sun most.
Was busy with it for more than half hour

Qualities of Good Parent

As humans we must all admit that none of us is perfect. We are designed to fail, then learn then succeed then fail again in something else then learn again, success again and the cycle continues. Learning never ends. As life moves on, it puts us into new roles, gives us tougher challenges. Key is not to stop learning from our failures and these new challenges, that seem so tough and impossible in the very beginning.There are few things which we must posses to keep this learning cycle healthy and productive. One of these is observation. When things go out of our hand or we see a challenge that too big for us to handle then just one deep breath is what is required. Losing our mind in such situations will only help us lose a good learning opportunity. Take a step back, relax, take a deep breath and just observe things as they happen. This opens up our mind to see the reality, to see where the problem lies and to know the solution. This would be my advice to any new parent. Perhaps the biggest challenge in the world is to have in your arms a small, little human being who is so fragile, so dependent, so adorable and above everything whose only medium of communication is crying. If you are a parent and you really wish to help this little baby of yours all you need to be is a good observer. Gradually you will find your self understanding every cry and move of your child.

These little humans who have great powers seek only our help in getting through. They surely are not some beings who must be looked down upon. Unknowingly we do not respect these beings and their needs. What we need to understand is that they deserve respect not less than anyone of us. Its just that they are different and see things differently. Responding to the cries of your child in a respectful way will make you develop a unique bond with her. These responses must be encapsulated with patience and warmth and the driving factor should be your 'want' to understand. Children often do things which violate a lot of rules in this adult driven world. For ex: a toddler making mess out of food or a teenager resisting to participate in chores. But what we need to know is that they learn by changing their environment or by breaking rules. They always are trying to see if the rules can be molded or changed. In such situations, a parent must politely and firmly establish the rules back. A good way is to involve the older children in setting the rules. This will make them realize that you value them and they are old enough to be the part of the decisions. Additional advantage is that they are less likely to break the rules they have set themselves.

A good parent is someone with courage. Panicking in tough situations will only panic your child more. Responding difficulties with courage and confidence will teach your child a lesson which will help her through out her life. Complaining difficulties and hardships will make your child timid. She will not know the great art of dealing with problems. Every human is surrounded with problems and hardships designed specifically for each one of us. But there are only few who take the right approach to deal with them. Next time a problem pops up just try to identify what new thing life wants to teach you. Face it gracefully with all confidence that if this problem is given to you, you and only you have the potential to face it and deal with it. Remember your child sees you as a role model. With that said, here is my simple advice to parents out there: BE WHAT YOU WANT YOUR CHILD TO BE.

Why To Have Babies?

There can be thousand reasons of not having a baby, count another thousand for having one. Everyone have there own reasons. Some say "babies are cute". Others say - "I love kids" or "I want a heir" or "My husband/Wife wants to have one" or "I want to experience how it is to be a parent". Some are candid "When every one has a baby why shouldn't I?". Yes! there are others who want someone, there very own, to be there when they get old. Are these reasons valid enough? Is this what Prophet Zechariah (Zakariyah in Arabic), peace be upon him, asked for an offspring? Allah mentions of him in Quran, asking for an offspring:

This is a mention of the Mercy of your Lord to His slave Zakariyah. When he called out his Lord (Allah) - a call in secret, saying: "My Lord! Indeed my bones have grown feeble, and gray hair has spread on my head, and I have never been unblest in my invocation to You, O my Lord! And Verily! I fear my relatives after me, since my wife is barren. So give me from Yourself an heir, - who shall inherit me, and inherit also the posterity of Jacob (inheritance of the religious knowledge and Prophethood, not the wealth, etc.) And make him, my Lord, one with whom You are Well-pleased!" (Quran: 19:2-4).

Zechariah, peace be upon him , asked for an offspring for nothing but to pass his knowledge to future generations. He feared if he dies people might deviate from the path of almighty and follow Satan. What a good reason to have a baby! On the other hand, we ask for babies so that we can fulfill our not so worthy desires. Nevertheless, we forget the huge responsibility coming to us along with our babies. To carry out this responsibility in the most productive way, Lets discuss a whole new perspective of looking at them...

A baby (your's or someone else's) is nothing but a smaller version of a complete human being. To this little human being, everyone around is a role model. According to there little understanding, they believe whatever these big and confident humans do is correct and they couldn't wait to imitate these incredible beings around them. They are but a complete human being, with little understanding of right and wrong. As we have better understanding of right and wrong it is therefore our job to protect them from getting exploited. We must do so as the world deserves good humans. As parents we can at least make this contribution. We must correct our intentions of having a baby and must feel the big responsibility before we are ready to parent a tiny human. The intention of Zechariah, peace be upon him, was to make a positive contribution and so should be our intention.

Next time you look at a baby remind yourself that you have a chance to do some good to the world you live in.

Sit and Explore (week 25 & 26)

Fatima is Comfortably able to sit without support. This gave her a chance to sit and explore and work with some materials.
A Cardboard Box with a ball to put in and take out: (a way towards learning object permanence)

A tin box with balls, rattles and teething beads. The sound as she bangs the materials against the tin box helps her learn cause and effect.

The tin box lid that holds all her teethers and ribbons.

These presentation is inspired by the idea of Montessori treasure basket. Mostly in India we have the steel ware which is offered to these young infant. Here we are using the empty cookies tin box.

The excitement and focus she shows towards these materials is so adorable. Its worth watching her "I'm so busy" kind of expression. 

Looking forward to introduce more treasures.....

Living Montessori(Week 23 and 24)

It's been six Months! Alhamdulillah. Today I wish to speak about what I meant by living Montessori. As parents, all of us pay lots of attention to our children's needs. But mostly we end up attending to the physical needs - food, shelter, hygiene. Often we miss out an important part of human need - the psychology. Montessori system stresses on understanding the child psychology. The way to meet this need is simply by observing your child and responding in a proper way. In this post I will speak of how have we lived Montessori so far. Fatima is a child who suffered bad colic right from 3rd week of birth till end of 12th week. Handling such a child would have been a lot miserable. There were days were we could hardly sleep or rest. We continuously had to see her in pain and frustration. Only thing that encouraged me not to be impatient and freak out was that I couldn't risk exposing her to any negatives. The Montessori believe in being gentle and polite help me a lot to sooth and comfort her in tough times. Montessori system made me more patient towards her. We made a lot of materials for her but there were days when she resisted all of these. As soon as she started teething she was never comfortable with any of her hand materials.  In situations like this I reminded my self the Montessori principle - respect the child. Fatima has always been a very social child. luckily we had an opportunity to provide her this kind of environment - an environment that satisfies the need of the child. Respecting the Montessori believe in movement we have never used a crib or play pen sort of stuff which would restrict her motion. Agreeing with the Montessori believe in natural stuff over plastic commercial toys, Fatima had minimal exposure to plastic stuff. She have toys and mobiles made out of natural materials - wood, rubber, cloth, glass, steel and beads. She started weaning when she was ready for it not when I was ready for it, which apparently was before she turned six months. As far as the massage and bathing is concerned, it is something which should be enjoyable and soothing for the child rather than been harsh or hard on child. Indians believe so much in massage and bathing but we must admit few of us go to extremes. Rigorous massage or hot baths are something which must be avoided. A massage should be soothing and comforting. The warmth of the bathing water must relax your child not burn her. At first when I used to bath her, she cried so much. I thought she was afraid of water but one fine day it turned out the water was a bit hot for her. Since that day to this day she just loves bathing - Follow your child. As we are approaching towards the sensitive period of toileting (12-18 months according to Montessori), Fatima has started to use her cloth diapers again, along side the disposable ones. I must admit it was difficult for me to keep her always in cloth diapers which is the old Indian way. So I decided to keep her in disposables for quite few months and then slowly get in the cloth diapers. I will gradually increase the time she will be in the cloth diapers. I am sure this will help me during the sensitive period. Although I want to try out the Indian way of early toilet training, I will make sure not to be pushy. Things are turning out simple and obvious and enjoyable. Thanks to Montessori approach.

Activities these weeks:
She is able to sit without support for good few mins.
Enjoying new foods and tastes.
Playing  and learning from little cousins.

From now on I will be posting regularly. Lovely six months!

Montessori Inspired Infant Mobiles - Let Me See!

When talking about a newborn's vision, it is proven that they can see the contrasts, mostly black and white. A newborn is able to see just 8-12 inches during first few weeks. To help improve this vision, we can hang some sensible mobiles. Before getting into what mobiles, lets look at some key points on mobiles, like how to hang, where to hang, which one is best at what stage and more.

History of Mobiles
When traced back, the history of mobiles in India is almost 60-80 years back. Back in time then, grand mothers used to make lovely flowers or decorative birds out of cloth to be hung on infant's crib (cribs were pretty huge then). Off course, mobiles in Montessori system also have a long back history.

Why Hang a Mobile?
Vision is one of the five inputs which are taken by human body. I am talking about five senses. Your newborn explores this big world with these five senses, one of which is Vision. Mobiles not only improves your baby's vision but they also are a source of information. Sensible Mobiles means sensible information. Next big advantage of a mobile is to help baby develop concentration. By connecting to the mobile hung, the baby actually learns to focus. At first baby may not be able to connect for long time, but remember, even if the baby is able to connect for 5 minutes its a big deal. All that matters is how focused is she during this connection. Apart from this, mobiles also allow the baby to have a goal. Yes! the are something which baby wants to reach out for. This has two benefits: learning to work towards goal and encouraging movement. Movement is so much responsible for brain development - see here.

Where to Hang a Mobile?
The best place to hang any mobile is that place where your baby is more active. It can be any place where you put your baby while she is awake. You must choose a place that suits your home and comfort. This place can be in the same room where she sleeps or could be some other room. Keeping this place separate from her bed will just give her the idea that sleeping area and playing area are different. An additional benefit is that you need not remove the mobile each time she needs to sleep.

How to Hang a mobile?
Initially when your baby is too young (3 or 4 weeks old), Mobiles are to be hung at distance of 12 inches (30 cm). Later on you can increase this distance depending on what kind of mobile it is (bating or visual). You could buy a mobile hanger or you can use the ceiling hook or you can use any other feasible method. I would be discussing on various hangers in my Infant mobile series (Next posts in line). Stay connected!

What Mobile?
Depending on the age of your baby there are various options available. I particularly found the Montessori Mobiles to be very sensible and worth trying. In this post, I shall be providing a gross Idea of these mobiles. Then, in later posts, I will deal with each one them separately, in detail, exploring various options for each one of them.

Visual Mobiles:
Hangings : Black and White pictures
First Mobile: The Munari Mobile (Weeks 3-6)

Second Mobile: Octahedron Mobile (Weeks 5-8)
Third Mobile: Gobbi Mobile (Weeks 7-10)
Fourth Mobile: Dancer Mobile (Weeks 8-12)
Fifth Mobile: Butterflies/ humming birds/ whale Mobile (Weeks 10-16)

Bating Mobiles
First Mobile: Bell on Ribbon (12-16)
Second Mobile: Ring on Ribbon (12-16)
Third Mobile: Primary Colors Mobile (12-18)
Fourth Mobile: Musical Mobile (16-20)

Weaning begins....um mm yummy! (week 21 & 22)

Fatima have started weaning. She has been showing the' ready to eat signs' - interest in food, producing more saliva, doubled birth weight. She is weaning only one time each day. We are not using the Montessori specific weaning chair and table. She is getting her food in the traditional Indian way - eating on floor. To help her sit, we support her with pillows. She is enjoying this much awaited experience. She begins her meal with Bismillah (In the name of Allah)and finishes it with Alhamdulillah (Thanks be to Allah). Off-course I say these on her behalf until she is able to say it her self. Below are the pictures of her weaning bowl, spoon and glass. All in Steel - totally Indian.

The little glass takes all her attention. She is on her way to learn to drink from it.
week 22
There is a lot of sitting with support. Even though she knows how to roll over she never is interested in doing so. She neither likes to be on her tummy but sitting is something she is always ready for. Quite play on her back and supported sitting is something she is totally into these days. Based on our observations we do not insist her to be on tummy rather we help her to sit.
See my posts on weaning here.

The pompom mania (19th and 20th week)

19th week:
This week, Fatima is introduced to a new mobile, the ring mobile. It was a small wooden cloth frame tied to a ribbon. You can tie any wooden bracelet or bangle to a ribbon.

The ring mobile

Fatima is suffering from sore gums. She has got cold and itchy ears. Even though she is not comfortable with any of her teethers except cloth and her hands, she wants to bite everything in her sight. This has created a lot of fuss. She tried biting the bell mobile and the ring mobile but nothing could sooth those sore gums. She starts crying every time she bites on any of these. So  there are less display of Mobiles for sometime now.

20th:
Even though there is less display of mobiles, I made one again. Pompoms are our latest crush. They are so lovely looking and fun to play with. Luckily there are some very very easy ways to make our own pompoms. I followed one of these methods to make a primary color mobile for Fatima. Have a look at it! She was excited to see it and off-course wanted to take hold of it. But I'm saving this mobile for later use. These pompoms will make a good toy when she starts sitting.
Look for How to make pompoms the easy way here (mini pompom with fork), here (just using your hands) and here (the disk method).

Her developments by end of fifth month:
Good hold of neck (almost 80%)
Turning head towards noise.
Able to sit with support
Sore Gums but no teeth yet
Good hand eye coordination
Rolling to side and on tummy sometimes
Stretching out hand and grasping objects

Primary color mobile (pompoms)

A visit to baby Shop (week 17 &week 18)

17th:
Her Talking is on peak. She just can't stop talking to everyone and everything around. Fatima is particularly attracted to her cousin Haroon (age 2.8). Can you believe she actually shouts loudly to call him. When he is around and in her sight, she is calm - no wonder children know their peer.
She has started rolling to side - My baby is growing! Her sleep pattern which was set during her 13th week continued.  We are still using the bell and bird mobile. She is finally able to bat on her bell mobile intentionally. My observation whenever she is introduced with a mobile is this:

1. First time she sees any new mobile, she stretches out her arms and lays them straight on her side.
2. next she starts talking to the mobile.
3. Sometime later you can see her fingers moving, while her hands still on ground, as though she was trying to grasp something.
4. Then comes the unintentional hitting.
5. Next are the unsuccessful attempts to grasp it.

It's fun watching her play.

18th:
Despite of reminding myself so many times that my intention is to make Montessori and parenting easy and feasible and that I am not going to shop, just to inspire others to make things at home, I couldn't resist a visit to a local baby shop. All I wanted to buy was a wooden ring teether. The shop looked glamours from outside. It is one of the best shops in my area. But what was my experience? what did I see?
I was so much disappointed to see that everything in the baby shop was in plastic. All toys, games, chair table set, teethers, everything except a single brand rubber teether and wooden blocks! There was not a single toy in clay or cloth or wood - surprising in a country like India.
India is a country of diverse cultures, colors, rhythms and traditions. It is so bad that we have lost our own colors and traditions (not the insensible ones off course).  We have turned so plastic - No feel, No sense. Its heart breaking that we are not providing our children the real stuff. We returned with heavy hearts and a rubber teether!
See my post on  toys here.