Babbling Babies and Toddler Talk

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Here in the Edspire household we are busy testing two activity packs from children’s charity, I Can. Babbling Babies and Toddler Talk are activity cards for parents giving them a wide range of ideas, actiivities, games and songs to use with their children to build upon their language development.

As a primary school teacher specialising in literacy I was keen to review the packs and test them out with my own children.

Language is so important for young children. Communication is vital for the whole family and I think it is fantastic that I Can are taking positive action to help families help their children to read, speak and understand more. To enable them to communicate clearly with one another from a very young age.

Esther and William are 19 months old now and I think that their vocabulary is advanced for their age. They have excellent understanding, can follow multi part instructions, can construct very simple phrases and sentences and have a wide range of words, verbs and nouns. Much of this language skill is supported by their ability to sign using BSL.

So, what are these activity packs from I Can and how can they be used?

Babbling Babies

Babbling Babies

I Can explains in the instruction booklet for this first activity pack that learning to talk relies on developing skills in key areas: Playing and Interacting; Learning to Listen; Learning and Understanding New Words; Expressing Myself and Exploring and Developing.

The pack contains 30 cards, covering the key areas mentioned above, and it is suggested that they can be used to create a 6 week programme for your little one with a new activity to try each day. This method as a teacher appeals to me but you may find that you would rather use the cards randomly and you may choose no to use them all. The activities are not linked or progressive and can be tackled in any order.

Beautifully Illustrated Cards

I Can suggest that you put half an hour aside for these activities and do so when baby is in a playful mood.

I have tried some adhoc activities with Esther and William for the purposes of this inital review. When we return from holiday next week we are going to start a six week programme that I am going to plan using the activities provided on the cards. I am going to write about our plans, activities and progress here on the blog.

Timetable

As I read through these activities I was very reassured as a mummy to find that many of them I do already. And I am sure that you do too!

Do you play Peek A Boo with your little one? Then you are playing with them, interacting with them, communicating with them and helping them to develop their language.

Peek-a-boo is a fantastic game to play wherever you are. When changing nappies, hide behind a clean nappy and pop out. Peek-a-boo helps Baby feel special, building your relationship together.

Buggy Boo!

What I love about these activity packs from I Can is that the activity cards are differentiated by age. So for Peek-a-Boo, for example, there are three levels of play to try. The advised age ranges are 0-6 months, 6-12 months and 12-18 months. But use your mummy intuition. You will know when your baby is ready to move on.

Differentiation

Another common activity used for the Babbling Babies pack is Tower Building. Again there are three suggested levels of language to use whilst building towers with your baby and they also recommend a song set to the tune of William’s favourite, Wind the Bobbin’ Up.

Build the tower up, build the tower up
Up, up, nice and tall
Knock it down again, knock it down again
Crash, bash, watch it fall.

Talking About Towers

There is also an activity card to help parents explore different materials with their baby through messy play. The card gives differentiated ideas not only for what to do but also for what to say to help build baby’s language development.

We had great fun playing with pasta the other day.

Pasta Play

There are so many wonderful activity ideas in these two packs from I Can, Babbling Babies and Toddler Talk. We have not yet had time to explore them all but we will and we would love to share our progress with you.

If you would like to try these activity cards for yourself to give you ideas for structuring learning and development with your little ones they are available to buy from I Can online. Each pack costs £12.99 plus p&p in hardback and £7.99 in paperback and I would say are well worth the money for providing ideas, inspiration and structure to your play and development activities.

We are still busy testing and reviewing our activity packs so please do follow our progress as we create a language rich environment in our home.

We were sent one of each pack, Babbling Babies and Toddler Talk, for the purposes of this and subsequent reviews.

Bump Watch: 31 Weeks Today!

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Today I am 31 weeks pregnant.

When Esther and William reached 31 weeks gestation they were allowed to wear clothes for the very first time. They were almost four weeks old.

I cannot help but make comparisons. In a way it is comforting knowing that Matilda May is getting stronger by the day just as Esther and William did in their incubators. By this time they were out of NICU and into SCBU. If Matilda were born now she would hopefully escape the horror of NICU and go straight into SCBU, with the radio playing and not quite so many beeps.

Already her bone marrow is producing red blood cells meaning that she would not need to be given blood as Esther and William were at the beginning.

If we manage to hold on for one more week her lungs will be mature and she should be able to breathe on her own when born, perhaps with oxygen, but without the need for CPAP.

I am hoping that we will go all the way now or at least to 37 weeks.

If we can get to 37 weeks then we might be able to give birth in our local midwife led unit rather than on the labour ward and I like the idea of that. I am tempted by a water birth and I am keen to get home to Esther and William as soon as I possibly can.

But there is still a way to go yet before we think about that.

I am struggling a bit with pain between my legs at the end of each day. I think it is pressure as baby is head down and quite low. I am also rushing around with the twins all day and so I really feel it when I come to sit down at night. And it is when I get up again that I really feel the stiff pain, the pressure down there.

I am also suffering from restless legs in the evening which is so annoying. I keep eating bananas for potassium but it does not seem to be doing much good.

I had a letter from my doctors’ surgery today asking me to book a telephone consultation about my 28 week blood tests. After chatting with some lovely ladies on Twitter I am guessing that I may be slightly anaemic and so have started taking some iron tablets today. I am hoping they might help my wriggly restless legs too!

This week I have been outside a lot with Esther and William as the weather has been positively balmy. It has really made me feel excited about Matilda’s arrival and how we might spend our time in the upcoming summer months. Our garden backs on to a beautiful village green so we do not have to go far at all to get out for a picnic and a play. We have spent a lot of time at Leeds Castle this week which is again somewhere nice and easy that I will be able to take all three. Especially now that I will be able to wear Matilda in my bright summery orange BabaSling!

On Monday David and I are taking Esther and William for a four day break at Center Parcs. We are going to Elveden Forest and staying in an Executive Lodge. I am really excited about going swimming each day and about taking Esther and William to some organised activities. We have booked soft play, messy play, a music session and Play Doh! I can’t wait to see how they react to going to the different classes. And will be so much easier than at home as Daddy will be there too!

On Friday we travel from Suffolk to the Isle of Wight for a 3 day antenatal break with media midwife Nikki Khan. I am really excited about getting some professional advice about labour and birth. I feel quite anxious about it as Esther and William’s birth was such a blur. I want to know what I am doing this time.

So we’ve a lovely week ahead and time to really be together as a family of four before Matilda comes along and makes us five.

9 weeks to go. Single digit countdown.

Keep growing stronger Matilda May. We really cannot wait to meet you. Esther keeps pulling up my top to see if there really is a baby there. I don’t think she is convinced but she is a baby helper in training. William too. I just know they are going to adore you. We all are. We love you already Matilda May x

059/366 Bar!

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Here is my poorly girl, wrapped up warm in Mummy’s fleece, too poorly for anything but Mr Tumble and a bar! A banana and date fruit bar – the perfect remedy for any ailment in Esther’s eyes.