The Cuddle Blog is a Mummy lifestyle Blog where I share my experiences trying to bring beauty out of the chaos and my journey learning to balance all my responsibilities with motherhood. I want to connect with you because, we mums need all the support we can get. Please, say Hi!

Week 4: Around the world || 52 weeks of theme-based toddler homeschooling activities

June 14, 2019
Hello People! This is week 4 of our 52-week theme-based activities 

Here was our plan over the week;

  • Numeracy: List and count the continents in the world
  • Science:
  • Craft: Passport & Suitcase, World
  • Fine motor skills: Make a passport, where I live
  • Gross motor skills: Playground
  • Cooking:
  • Books to read: How to make an apple pie and see the world
  • Trip:
  • Screen: Continent Video
  • Music: Continent Song, He's got the whole world in his hands
  • Bible: Tower of Babel

What really happened: 
We follow our routine for the most part and this week wasn't any different.  We begin our homeschool time with circle time, we included "He's got the whole world in his hands" sing-along time.

I wasn't particularly excited about this week because I know that one will not be able to exactly explain the world to a toddler but I knew that it is important to still introduce it all to him and that is what we did!

We listed and counted the 7 continents in the world.
- Africa
- Europe
- Asia
- North America
- South America
- Australia
- Antarctica

When he is older the plan will be to create an activity that depicts a culture or anything from each of the continents.
We counted and named them! He didn't repeat after me. Lol.

Crafts! The world and me - The idea of this activity is a pictorial representation of where they are in relation to their world.
Materials
  • Blue/green cardboard
  • Paint
  • Scissors
  • Pen to label each circle
  • Stapler/Glue
Direction

  • Draw 6 cirles on a cardboard - The next circle smaller than the last one (as pictured)
  • Paint each circle to represent World - Continent - Country - State -Local Government - Home
  • Use a stapler or glue to hold it together
  • Talk about the world, continent, country, state, local government and where your home is.


My son decided to paint his truck. Expression. 

Different captions



 Book we 'read' as you know I still read books from Youtube, I've still not found a convenient way to get books that I want, till then I will do it like this till we do. The book was an interesting one, helps you see different countries and what is peculiar to each country to all form the ingredients of an apple pie. Such an adventure.

Screen time: I played him the song of the continent, find below (I didn't find the exact one we used as someone gave me) :

Bible Story/Story: We read the tower of babel showing that there are different languages all around the world.

Other things we were up to: We practices our fine motor skills with foam and water, threading (which he refused to do btw), leaves from our nature walk and some good old water play.





You see that some weeks with our best planning intentions we never really get to do so much. I hope this has been helpful.


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How to feel zero shame as a stay at home mum || The Cuddle Blog

May 27, 2019

 The decision to become a stay at home mum for most people is not a very easy decision to make. There are different reasons why women make the decision, some because they didn’t find a job, some made the conscious decision, some realised they just didn’t want to leave their child(ren) after their leave.

For whatever reason, the woman makes the decision one thing is constant with all these women, at some point or another they have felt a bit of shame for the new found status. Going from a high flying career where you are running the show, calling the shots being respected for your status and intellect to having milk stained clothes, talking only baby-language all day, organizing the home, it definitely takes a toll over time.

I have had some times in my stay at home years where I felt I didn’t measure up because I wasn’t in a regular job like everyone else & I wasn’t earning a steady income to support my family. I felt all these things inside of me, and when Nigerians (who generally don’t know how to act) hear that you are ‘taking care of your child’ they go ahead to start offering you ways to make money, telling you to look for a job or start a business and if one is still in the place of shame, you can imagine how much further the person will sink.

Why? Why do we stay at home mums feel shame when the title is involved?

  • The society: There is a linear way society has programmed the trajectory of life for most of us. Be born, go to school, get a job, grow in the job, strive for work-life balance, retire from the job, die. Once anyone tries to go against this trajectory, society makes them feel like they are doing something wrong and something to be ashamed of, however, the world we are today there is disruption in every sector and facet of life where some things that used to be looked down upon is now celebrated and I see that happening with stay at home mums too.
  • Your Spouse: Some husbands do make their wives feel less than for making the choice of taking care of their children through the early years of their life. They make snide comments, be rude, be controlling, etc because of the choice or circumstance of being a stay at home mum. This is not a very healthy environment to be in and I know it is the reality of many people, some have been forced to get jobs they absolutely hate because of it.
  • Other Mothers & People who don’t see beyond their nose: I am really not trying to be ‘insultive’ but I really couldn’t find other words to describe it. Whether knowingly or unknowingly other mothers sometimes judge stay at home mums especially the ones who have their children in school too. You get funny comments, statements from the people you think should understand the most
  • You!: You are ashamed of your status as a stay at home mum ultimately because of you. You have not sat down to define your value as you take on this role, you have not sat down to define the advantages of your sacrifice on a daily basis, you have not looked beyond yourself in the now, you have not stopped caring about what people think about your decision. You, my dear SAHM need to change that.

What can we do to feel zero shame as a SAHM?
  • Do you see the above list? Minus your spouse, stop focusing on anything they have to say, them go dey alright las las. Let’s talk about what you can do practically now;
  • For your spouse who still thinks less of your sacrifice and makes snide comments to make you feel less than? Talk! Communicate! Communicate some more till you are on the same page because it cannot work until you are on the same page.
  • Write down on a sheet of paper the value you are adding to your family. Read it every day to boost your confidence then start saying it out loud to people “I am a stay at home mum”
  • Dress up every day like you are going to work, it doesn’t have to be elaborate but it will boost your confidence.
  • Create a business card! Let the world know that you are not here to joke. Lol. Share the card when you go out and watch people marvel.
  • Create a development road map for yourself. Define your personal development goals and work at achieving it.
  • Get an income, for some people confidence, can only come when there is money, there are different ways to make money without an actual ‘job’ or business. Invest your savings, get the family to pay you a salary,
  • Find an outlet (physical, intellectual, spiritual): If your spouse has a business, run a blog or contribute content to existing websites or blogs, join a gym, volunteer in your kid's school, church, build an online presence the opportunities are endless.
  • Find an anchor: Jesus is my anchor, he gives my life meaning and a sense of purpose.
It took a while for me to shake off the shame I used to feel and not base my identity on the title “stay at home mum” and see what I was doing in the real light of what it was, a very brave and noble thing. The gratification is delayed but it is definitely worth it.

Have you ever felt shame because you are a stay at home mum? How do you introduce yourself when you are to shy to say ‘stay at home mum’?
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Homeschooling 101: Getting started with home education

May 6, 2019


One of the things that I see so much of and notice is that most homeschooling mums are former
early years teachers and because of that most of the content I have seen don’t cater to the
regular mum who just sees the need to homeschool her child(ren) for whatever reason. When
you hear “Homeschooling” we probably think it only teaching your kids Maths and English at
home but in my journey to home educate my son, I have seen that it is a whole lot more than
that. That is what I hope to shed more light on in this article;
Let’s start from the beginning, shall we?

● Know that it’s a long term commitment & find strength; For you to be reading this article
it means you have made a decision or planning to make the decision to homeschool
your child. When we make the decision we have one focus, the education of our
children and we have to keep that focus on every day because there will be hard days
and there will be days you feel like you are not doing the right thing but with the focus in
mind, it will give us the tenacity and will power to move forward. Commitment is what is
going to keep us moving forward on the days we don’t feel like it. Just like a Job, you
have to show up ‘everyday’ for your child(ren) because you understand that their
learning is important to you.

● Be on the same page with your spouse: This is a very important part of the process.
Most homeschooling families the mother is responsible for the homeschooling process,
most of it is based on the mother's philosophy of education, research on the curriculum
to use and just informs the spouse or significant other as against, both partners sitting
down to define everything involved and making the decisions together. In the situation
where he is 100% involved, he can be a sounding board for ideas, help in making the
decision for the curriculum to use, he can take your home education session
occasionally. The truth is that we all need support and isn’t it absolutely amazing when it
comes from your spouse.

● Check the Laws of your country: In Nigeria, from the research, I have done,
homeschooling is permissible, however, there are some things that need to be taken into
consideration. How long do you want to homeschool? Are you in it till university level? Or
just for primary education? Your answers to these questions will determine if you should
be ‘worried’ about the laws in Nigeria or not. I am putting in steps to find out more on the
laws but from the information I have, you can’t register for common entrance except
through a school but if it is for WAEC there is an option to register a private student. The
whole information is sketchy because all the information I have are from online sources
that are not verifiable because there are no clear standards in this country, however, I
am working on finding out more official information. In the USA there are clear laws,
requirements in each state all you have to do is search for the laws of your state to figure
out what you need to do to ensure you are doing the right thing.

● Define your education philosophy: This one is very important. I started my
homeschooling journey not thinking so much about my educational philosophy. I was
just researching curricular, schedules, worksheets etc. I discovered that I was always not
getting what I wanted and this was mainly because I hadn’t even defined my philosophy
on education. I want us to also think of our philosophy different from just choosing a
method but also looking at your overall goal as a family, for example; “I want to raise a
well-rounded child who enjoys learning, curious and is committed to the process
of lifelong learning” something along those lines. While it is good to know and be
familiar with the different educational methods out there, it is important to define your
philosophy because this will inform how you approach educating your child.

● Know the learning style: Children are different and all children do not learn in the same
way, so we can’t educate them in the same way, this is why you have to know the
learning style of your child(ren)Observe, observe, observe. For the younger kids, it’s not
like you are giving them an assessment but the purpose is to know what will be the most
effective way to achieve your learning goal. For older kids, there are different online tests
that can help with knowing their learning style. There are various types of learning styles
Visual, Aural, Kinetic, Social, Interpersonal, Logical & Verbal Read more here being
armed with the information above you can now go ahead to choose your curriculum

● Choosing a curriculum/Learning method: There are a thousand and one options out
there on the internet, both paid and free resources it can get really overwhelming
especially when you don’t have a formal education on knowing exactly what to do. But,
when you have gone through the process of defining your philosophy and defined your
child(ren)’s learning style the process of choosing the curriculum/learning method
becomes narrowed down and makes the process easier. When you do start the process,
you should be willing to trust the process.

● Routine & Planning: If you fail to plan you plan to fail. Like we mentioned earlier, we are
in this for the long haul and if we don’t create a routine and plan ahead what we are
going to do we are already setting ourselves up for failure. We have a simple routine for
homeschooling for toddlers and you can use it as a framework for your homeschooling
by tailoring it to your child(ren)’s age. You only have to create a routine once and tweak
as your child evolves, and based on your curriculum/learning method you can plan
weekly. Planning doesn’t have to be a long process, you can simplify the process and in
future articles, we would share how to do these.

I really hope that these step by step process will help you on your homeschooling journey. 

Are you a homeschooler? What will you say are the important steps for someone starting out?
Are you new on the journey? Feel free to ask questions in the comment section.

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Defining your family life as a stay-at-home mum || The Cuddle Blog

April 24, 2019



We have realised that being a stay-at-home mum is a career and over the next couple of sahm articles we would talk about how we can define all these parts of our lives to create a wholesome experience for us in our stay-at-home-mum season.

Today our focus will be on family life;

We look at how to define your family in these 4 categories;

- Define the family values: This can not be done by you alone but you can facilitate the process. Prepare your spouse and children(if they are old enough) in advance for a family meeting where you are all going to discuss what your values are and the way everyone can stick to those values. Set time aside on a Saturday or Sunday to make this happen. When you are done you will have the final list printed and posted everywhere in the house as a reminder.

Here are a few articles to help with the process:
Article 1
Article 2

It is important to note that the values will continue to evolve over time and this is a new addition, you or your kids may not instantly get it but the values will be imbibed by constantly reinforcing it which is why everyone must be involved in the process.

- Define the family goals: We set individual goals, career goals, financial goals etc but do we remember to set the family goals? What do we want to achieve as a family? It is important that the family has something they are working on together this helps to increase the bond and gives you a sense of direction as a family.
Here are a few articles to help you get started;

Article 1
Article 2

- Define how your family runs: You take some time to define how your family will run;

Here are some questions to answer to define this; 

  1. Will you get domestic help?
  2. When will your kids wake up? 
  3. If you have domestic help, how will they conduct themselves (e.g no phones while they work, deep clean every month, change bedsheet every week, cobwebs, no dishes overnight,  etc.) 
  4. How do we go to market? When do we go to the market (weekly, monthly), How do we store food?
  5. What is the monthly budget to keep the home running?  

- Schedules & Routines: A routine something you do every day and a schedule is a documentation of how your day will go. This is one of my favourites, creating routines and schedules. Children thrive on routines and it is important that we put our kids in a routine if we haven't already and stick with it. You'd see how much happier they will be. Your routine will be different based on what you decide to do, for example, my routine with my son as a homeschooling mum will be different from a mum who has her child in school. The most important thing is to incorporate all the aspects of your life into it and stick with it.

Here are a few articles to help
Article 1

Having a schedule for everything you want to do each day is also important especially when you stay at home, it feels like the work never ends and there is a tendency to continue without putting the breaks in, it also helps you to be productive and keep track of all your activities. Here is how I create a weekly schedule that I follow;

  • Every Sunday I take some time out to plan my week and review my last week. 
  • I think through and also based on commitment define where we are going. E.g Events, swimming class, mummy & me class etc. 
  • After putting in a journal (I use Power planner) you can also insert into your google calendar or download a scheduling app which will send you reminders. 
  • Follow through! 

Are you a stay-at-home mum? How do you define your family life?

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Week 3: My Family || 52 weeks of theme-based toddler homeschooling activities

April 17, 2019

Hello People! This is week 3 of our 52-week theme-based activities 

Here was our plan over the week;

  • Numeracy: Count family members/ Count stairs
  • Science: Sensory Bin with passport photographs of everyone and identify
  • Craft: House with figures of everyone who lives in it / Family Tree /
  • Fine motor skills: Colour drop, Hanging clothes/socks
  • Gross motor skills: Playground
  • Cooking: Setting table, bake a cookie for the family
  • Books to read: (I found that the book I wanted to read was showing same-sex families - I don't want to read that to my child)
  • Trip: Cousins House
  • Screen: Family Song
  • Music: Finger family song
  • Bible: Jacob - watching the story or telling the story of Jacob

What happened: 


  • We did our circle time and included the ant marching song and more songs we learned at ALC.


  • We counted family members, counted the slabs when we go for our walks and I noticed that he is now interested in counting even without me prompting him, so I just encourage him. He skips '6' and has the cutest '7' Lol. 


  • We did the sensory activities then I realise that we don't have passport photographs of everyone, so we just did scooping and everything ended on the floor.  The idea is to bury each member of the family's passport photograph and have them identify who it is. For older children, you can put a separate paper with boxes labeling mummy, daddy etc and have them put the right passport in the right box.



  • What we did for setting the table was just try to eat at a table a much as possible but he still loves running around and we need to keep doing this. We couldn't bake, I didn't get time to shop for it and I felt really bad but I will still incorporate it into another week. 
Sponge and water transfer

Materials:
* Tray
* 2 bowls
* Sponge
Water was everywhere
Directions
* Place the bowls on the tray
*Add water into one of the bowls and put in the sponge
* Let them transfer the water into the other bowl by squeezing. You can add some colour to the water to make it more fun

Hanging cloth Activities (Fine motor skills)
* Where you can tie a string from one end to another in your kids' height 
* A string 
* Pegs 
* Kids clothes, socks 


Directions 
Depending on your kid's age you can put the clothes on the line and ask them to just put the pegs or they put the clothes and pegs altogether. 

I set this up in my living room tying one end of the string to the base of my tv and the other end on a chair. My son got frustrated when the peg wasn't going on it and just kept pulling it, and I got frustrated too and just packed it all up and I was done for the day. 

We did a science experiment at ALC

Materials needed
* Baking soda
* A cup (transparent)
* Colour
* vinegar 

           
Put baking soda and the colour in the cup
Add the vinegar 

What happens is there is a chemical reaction that causes it to erupt and there are bubbles, do it in different colours and it is fun to watch for the children. 
We somehow ended under the car looking for a football



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Week 2: Me & My Home|| 52 weeks of theme-based toddler homeschooling activities

April 10, 2019


Hello People! This is week 2 of our 52-week theme-based activities 

Here was our plan over the week;

  • Numeracy: Count how many rooms, stairs, count everything countable in the home
  • Science: Where do I do what?
  • Craft: House with figures of everyone who lives in it.
  • Fine motor skills:
  • Gross motor skills: Playground, run, jump
  • Cooking:
  • Books to read: In a people house
  • Trip: Explore our neighbourhood, Talk about how to get 'home'
  • Screen:
  • Music:
  • Bible:

What really happened;

This week was a difficult one for me because I was really really exhausted and busy trying to deliver a job to a client but I took some time to go through what we planned. We did our circle time throughout the week and I was just trying to make it to the next day with all the tantrums I was dealing with. 

Our routine is very simple like I have shared in a previous post, after circle time we went ahead to look into all the rooms we have, counted it and talked about what we do in each room. 

e.g
Sitting room 
Guest room
Toilet etc. 

We counted the rooms(numeracy). We did this a couple of times during the week. Note that I don't quiz him to know if he 'got' it or not because that is not the goal. We just continue using the terms we have introduced which will already be in our daily conversations. (Vocabulary Building)

We 'read' in a people house and I loved it, it shows different things that are in the house and I just intentionally mentioned it, chair, window, table, tv, fan etc. are all the things you find in your house. Something along those lines.


As always we explored our neighbourhood, talked about our house. 
Holding a almond fruit

Activities we did - 

House with figures of everyone living in it - Which we also used for the next week theme "My Family" 


What you need
* Cardboard
* Scissors 
* Glue 
* Pencil or marker or pen
* Paint & brush (optional but fun)

Directions

* Cut out a rectangle 
* Fold the top into 2 to make a 'roof' (Triangle) - See Picture
* Use scissors to cut a line below the triangle fold but don't cut it all the way through, you are trying to form a door. - see picture 
* On another cardboard draw out the people in your home in stick figures or if you are an artist go all out. (if your kids are older they can do the drawing themselves. 
* Cut out the drawing
* Glue the drawing to the 'house' inside the 'door' 
* You can go ahead to paint it - we used foam for ours.







My 2-year-old could only put the glue behind the family and use the foam to paint. We now went ahead to talk about daddy, mummy and him! You can talk about names here, occupation, age and random facts about each person in the family. The age and interest of the child matters as to what information they will get. 






We went to ALC for our weekly mother and son class and the highlight for us was the sensory play

What you need
*Ice 
*Paint
*Shaving foam 

Directions
* Put the shaving foam and paint on the ice and watch it melt. 
Simple. 
You can use different colours, on different ice cubes and watch it melt. It forms beautiful patterns. That is the exciting part. 
That's pretty much what we were up to. 
Next Theme: My Family

What are you going to try out?




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