Music Playdate

I feel like our playdates just keep getting better and better!  This was definitely another favorite of mine.  I think this is because, thanks to great planning by Lauren, it ran amazingly smooth.  The gathering started in Lauren's huge backyard.  We set up a bunch of blankets so we could all sit in a large circle.  (In the future we need to remember to use thick, stiff blankets only.  Thin sheets caused the toddlers to trip easily.)  Everyone brought lots of instruments for the kids and we dumped them all in the middle of the blanket for the them to explore.

After giving the kids some time to explore and choose an instrument, we moved on to song and dance time.  We simply went around the circle and let people chose any song they wanted and let them lead the group in song.  We did songs with dance moves, repeating, and simple directions.  We even had some of our older kids feature some of the the songs they knew!  SO CUTE!
Here is a great shot of Suzanne and Lauren excitedly performing a dance song they knew:

Here is another of my favorite shots.  We did the Hokey Pokey and I really wonder if the moms were having more fun than the kids!

Halfway through we were interrupted by a sudden shower, so we were forced inside, but the party didn't stop!  We sang some more inside and the kids all played.  This was a great play date where both the kids AND moms had lots of fun!

Baby Signing Time - First Run

Since we are a group of moms who would prefer to minimize the amount of money we spend on activities with our children, sign language classes are a bit out of our budget. However, that doesn't mean we don't wish to explore exposing our little ones to a few signs. We have the whole Baby Signing Time kit that includes all four dvds, cds, books, and flash cards, so I figured I should share with my friends.

Anyway, since this was one of our first official Moms who PLAY activities, we ended up having a huge crowd of women including a lot of new faces. Therefore, we did spend a lot of time mingling and snacking. Oh yeah, about the snacks! Our gracious host, Carolyn put out a wonderful spread for us moms and definitely set the bar pretty high in that area.

We also took some time out to do a mini ice breaker during our introductions. During this ice breaker, we briefly (at least we tried to) discussed what we did before we became a mom along with what we miss. There are a ton of teacher/educators amongst us mommies.

Okay, back to the signing. We managed to squeeze in the video and pass around the flash cards and book. I'm sure we didn't all absorb a ton of the information, but I'm going to address a few things that I know about sign language.

Your child may not begin to sign back to you before the age of 6 months, but, the sooner you start the better.  This way, you yourself master different signs and your child will have all the repetition necessary to learn. Signing appears to be about follow through and consistency. So, the more you do it, the more likely your child is going to pick it up quickly.

It is recommended that you start with a few signs at a time and use ones that you are able to sign on a daily basis. Like milk, mommy, daddy, more, diaper, etc. I found this website to be extremely helpful in finding first time signs without having to spend any money.  You could also Google some YouTube videos that could be helpful.

So, hopefully this becomes a regular play date for us playful mommies and our little ones start signing in no time. We have are next session already set up. Although we are now limiting attendance to six moms this time around.

SIGN OF THE DAY TO PRACTICE: BANANA