Holistic Mommy

My, my, my it's been a late night with her. So, I'm just going to post a poem - my favorite poem. I always get a bit of a lump in my throat when I read it. The poem, "The Hundred Languages of Children" was written by Loris Malaguzzi, founder of the 'Reggio Emilia' approach to childcare. My brain is too mushy tonight to explain this approach well enough but, I've found a site that explains it fabulously: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggio_Emilia_approach I had the opportunity to work with an educator who was learning about this approach and practising it in her classroom. It was the most amazing experience I've ever had working in childcare. The children were so stimulated, curious - they were little scientists! Our role as teachers was basically that of facilitator. We observed, recorded, and documented their play and provided whatever it was they needed to take it a step further. Projects could go from a few days to over a month. It is absolutely ...

We've finally gone in and set up an education fund for our baby. We sure wish we had education funds because we're still paying off student loans! I think she's going to be an engineer. She's so pensive... She'll be bouncing up and down in her jolly jumper, getting huge air then all of a sudden she'll stop. She'll look up at the spring and other parts above her as if she's thinking, "hmm, how does this work, what are the physics behind this, how can I make it better?" Even in the Exersaucer she be springing up and down, then suddenly stop as she turns her focus to all the gadgets thinking, "how does this all go together, what do each of these parts do?" When she was in the womb, we swore she was going to be a soccer player, or a dancer, or a Ninja! She was always active - all the way to the end. On day one she lifted her head and on day eight she did four pushups on Grandpa's chest! Who knows what she will become. But, I can't...

I just finished round three of trying to get my baby to nap in the crib. Since she's started crawling, I'll hear her wake up and run in to find her flipped over onto all floors happily crawling around the bed. I've been propping pillows all around her to keep her in the middle but, as of yesterday, these are just more obstacles she's learned to overcome! I've decided our mattress is going on the floor but until my hubby gets home tomorrow to move the bed, I've decided the crib is the safest. Oh the crib... Who invented the crib? I mean really, what is the history of the crib? And at what point did we, as a species, go from sleeping on a dirt floor together as a family, to deciding this is dangerous practice and babies need to be in their own beds (in their own rooms nonetheless) or we'll risk rolling over them? I understand that our society has come a long way from sleeping on the ground and have moved into big beds with comfy mattresses but, what about th...

My little girl started crawling this week! For the past month she has gotten herself up into the crawling position, rocking herself back and forth, pushing up onto her tippy-toes, and moving herself backwards. She would get stuck in corners and under furniture. But, as funny as this stage was, I just wanted her to crawl! We were visiting friends this weekend and promised them that she was going to crawl. This weekend was going into the baby book! Then one evening, we were all hanging out in the living room and baby was on the floor. She was full of energy so I put her slipper just in front of her and sure enough out reached her hand, fingers spread and ready to grab. I brought the slipper back a little farther and forward slid her knees, one by one. Her other hand reached out and onto the floor. It was cheers all around as my baby had just made her first crawling step! I continued holding the slipper just out of her reach as she slowly and cautiously she began to crawl across the floo...

Hello! Let me introduce myself. I am a licensed Early Childhood Educator gone stay-at-home mom. My _______ and I have an 8 month old baby. Together, we take a natural approach to parenting. Although he was a little, err...a lot, skeptical about this approach at first, through lengthy discussions, research, talking with other parents who share the same philosophy, experience, and seeing the positive effects it's had on our daughter, I am happy to say he now gets it! When we have a question, I'll often close my eyes and imagine, "what did we do before cribs, Tylenol, and Exersaucers?" And then we'll go from there. This approach has gotten us through many situations quite successfully. We have been told time and time again about how content, secure and just plain amazing our little one is. Some people say we're lucky; I like to take more credit for it :) I have created this blog not only to document the joys of parenting but also to vent the frustration I feel...