Nonetheless, staying home means more quality time to spend with family and my thoughts and more time to spend with Kimi.

He has been reading a lot lately. The spark just started with a couple of reading/phonics apps and now that spark had already gotten bigger. He is now reading early reader books and I can see that he loves it - not always though as there are times that he detests it as I am pushing him more than I should. I try as much as I could not to impose and push hard but sometimes I cannot help but to challenge him as well and push him to his limits especially when I see how much he is developing. I bought him a few Dr Seuss books when he was starting out but since he already finished the beginner books I ordered a couple of book collections by Dr Seuss and PD Eastman to supplement. I think he is learning to love reading faster than I was anticipating. He is halfway through the book collections so I am back again researching for book sets (leaning towards Mr Men and Elephant & Piggie books this time!). It is such a shame as well that the library is closed as we could have been visiting more frequently if they had been open.

We also upgraded his bike to a bigger bike, still with training wheels as we are getting closer to warmer months and longer days. I want to explore trails that we have here nearby on our bikes and I would love to explore them with him. As of now, he is still learning to use his bike, learning how to brake and manouvre it. Baby steps!

How do I combat the guilt?

In my case, whenever I get to spend some quality with him, I make sure that my attention is always directed to him. I try to be as present as possible so that he can feel heard, appreciated and respected. I may not be physically present with him always but I always give him my all whenever I spend time with him and this allows me to be more self-aware.

I also notice that if I am well-rested, able to sleep well, read on topics that I am interested in, meditate, have some free time in the morning during weekends to catch up on my readings and online courses I joined in, I feel full and contented. I am happy. This happiness overflows to other areas of my life and this makes me a better individual and parent. This in turn benefits Kimi.

I then conclude that looking after myself and doing things that I am passionate about are not things that I should feel guilty about. I just had to own them and remind myself the reasons why I am doing them.

Our days felt a bit of a mishmash before. I also noticed that it also affected Kimi in some way. Mealtimes, naptime and bedtime were all happening in irregular times of the day and most of the time there is a struggle for us to get him to eat and sleep. I longed for a sense of regularity, for those days when I know what time of the day will he nap so that we can also get the downtime that we need to fill our cups. I wanted to also introduce something that makes sense to him. That is when I found rhythm.

Having a daily rhythm breathes in regularity to our day. Having a rhythm is not the same as having a schedule. A rhythm is not set into stone and can be changed as we see fit for our family. It is just there to serve as a guide on what a typical day on the household will look like. It is there to inform everyone especially the young child what he can expect during the day. Toddlers and young children have a strong sense of order which is why introducing a rhythm in their day would make them feel more secured.

I set out our rhythm around a few strong anchors such as mealtimes (breakfast, lunch, snacktimes and dinner), an afternoon nap, bedtime and potty times. After this, I filled out the rest of our days with activities that we usually do during the day.

One of the things that I learned in the Waldorf philosophy is the concept of breathing-in and breathing-out phases. A breathing-in phase is a period of time when you do an activity with your child and does require you to be present with him. It can be playing together, learning together, reading a book with him, eating together or any activity that would require your attention. A breathing-out phase is a period of time when he runs around and explores his environment on his own. It can be in the form of playing independently, watching ants in the balcony, flipping through pages of a book, drawing, playing an app or any activity that would not require much of your attention. During this phase, you would have an opportunity to fill your cup. The idea is to consecutively introduce a breathing-out activity after a breathing-in activity to establish a dependable pattern. Our child needs regular connection with us for them to fill their cup. The more that their cup is filled, the more that they can go and explore their environment on their own, the more that they can be independent.

I built and completed our rhythm around this idea as it made so much sense for our family.

I wanted also to involve Kimi in the process. To do this, I placed a visual flowchart* near his work table so that he can easily access it and refer to it by himself throughout the day.

Some of the apparent benefits that it had for us is that it made our day calmer and easier especially for Kimi. He is becoming more independent each day as he usually refers to the chart to help him navigate through his day. Naptime has been more regular. Even if he wakes up later in the day, he would still nap at the same time everyday. Power struggles has been reduced. As an example, last night at past 9 PM, Kimi wanted to paint but I was already tired. So instead of saying no, I placed the “painting/craft time” routine card on the chart with him standing beside me and telling him that we can do it tomorrow. He happily said yes and went back to what he was doing prior. It also made preparation for walks outside easier as he knows now the steps he needed to accomplish before we can go out eg. dress up, put his socks on, get his shoes, get his hat and put on a mask.

His bedtime is still late, it is still a struggle sometimes to invite him to eat during mealtimes but I know that rhythm is not a magic formula that once done will magically make everything go right. It is a process, a continuous work-in-progress. I am just happy that it is a process that we can do as a family.

* I bought the lovely charts and daily routine cards from The Creative Sprout.

1. Booktopia

   Booktopia has the largest database and has the cheapest books out of the bunch. This is my default online store whenever I am in search for a particular book. Books that are in their warehouses are being shipped within 2 to 3 days. They can also source books from their local and international suppliers. Because of the pandemic though, international orders are taking longer than expected. The last time I ordered something that is out-of-stock in their warehouse, it took 18 business days to arrive. Still not bad but I vowed to not order something internationally for the time being.

2. Amazon

   This is my next go-to store. Although Amazon here in Australia is not yet comparable to its US counterpart, I still love it. Most of the time, if I can’t find a book anywhere, I would be able to find it here. Amazon also either recommends titles that are closely related to the book I just searched for or other books that the customer also bought alongside the book I am searching for which is very helpful if title I want is out of stock.

3. Bookieboo

   We recently got a monthly subscription service from Brisbane-based Bookieboo. We get 2 wonderful hardcover books every month on the month’s theme which they announce on the 11th of every month (last month’s theme is “bedtime stories” and this month’s theme is “food fun” which I am excited about for Kimi). I also love the surprise that comes with it because although we know what is the theme, we won’t be knowing what books we are receiving until we open the box. I wanted to introduce some variety to Kimi’s growing library in the house so that I can expose him to different topics and I think this is the best way for us to make sure that we are getting the variation that we need. Almost every day after we received the “bedtime stories” books, Kimi is always choosing them during story time.

4. WellRead

   We also got another subscription service to complement from Northern Illawara online start-up WellRead but we are still waiting for the first box. As we wanted to stay abreast on new releases, we also took the plunge and get WellRead’s curated monthly subscription service. I think what made me decide to go for it is this promise from WellRead:

   “Expect wonderful reading experiences with vibrant colours, diverse themes, inspirational characters, stories rich in imagination and heart, and maybe even a few farts thrown in for a bit of levity - all of the things kids want from good books”

   And who does not want that?

5. Aldi

   Out of all the places that you can think of, who would expect that we can get lovely picture books from Aldi? But yes we did score some great local finds! It is not always that kids books are part of their weekly special buys but when they do, they are always, always worth a trip to Aldi.

We pack our days with endless activities and commitments. More often than not, they leave us breathless; huffing and puffing to get to the next big thing until we find ourselves stressed out and overworked and we wonder why.

We often forget to stop, to take a breath and rest. But as a parent, I had to stop and think if this perspective of the world is what I wanted for my child to see.

Although I would love for him to enjoy the nicer things in life, do I want him to grow believing that having more is the goal? Although I would love for him to develop a hobby or two, do I want to pack his days with adult-led activities such as organised sports, dance classes and music lessons after school? Would he love that or would it just be me imposing my dreams and goals to him?

I sure would not. But sadly, this is what I am seeing in our world right now. Our children are also overworked and over-scheduled. No wonder they are also stressing out and developing mental health issues that were not apparent decades ago.

We are treating them as adults. We are expecting them to have lives like ours. We are much fixated to what they will become in the future rather than who they are now. So we try to mould their schedule to this imagined, future “them”.

We often forget to see them as children and also as equals. Yes, they are half our size but it does not make them lesser than us. They are human beings that need to be listened to and respected.

Really, have we stopped lately to listen to their needs?

Maybe it is not more toys that our children need but free play, unstructured time and time with nature.

Maybe it is not an overpacked schedule that they need but a rhythm and predictability that they could hinge unto throughout their days and lives to feel secured.

Maybe it is not a plethora of choices that they need but for us to simplify and give them limited choices, especially during early years, to help them develop their own voice and not overwhelm.

To do nothing is detested. Why is that so? Why is doing nothing frowned upon? I know I do it sometimes with my child, pushing him to move from one activity to another instead of just allowing him to be.

Kim John Payne who wrote the book Simplicity Parenting said this:

If we honor the importance of unscheduled time - of kids doing nothing, but on their time and terms - then we are on our way. We’ll open up their schedules, simplify.

With the social conditioning I grew up in, I know that this would be a lifelong journey for me to undo things that were instilled in me. But not for my child, I can make him be aware early on. I am now in the pursuit of simplifying and eradicating unhealthy beliefs that were forced upon me. I do not want my child to grow up believing that having more is the ultimate goal because it is not. To develop his own sense of self and flourish through his talents are more important.

For now, we would like to invite more free pockets of time in our day; to release the pressure of being productive all the time; to simplify his environment; to let him play, enjoy and be and just soak in the wonderfulness of the nature and the world as it is.

Day by day.

Little by little.

All of these thoughts emerged while I was reading the book Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne. If you are a parent who feels overwhelmed and is feeling that your family needs simplification, contrary to what the world is telling us, then this book can help you to start and navigate through it.

This also overflowed into my son’s life. Since we were left to enjoy the world from the safety of our homes, I made it a point to build Kimi’s exposure to books as a priority. Books have the capacity to tell a story, to transport him to a different dimension, to teach him valuables lessons about life, to work the imagination and to expand his vocabulary as well as his world. And weren’t these what we needed most at that moment?

Building Kimi’s library of picture books is one of the things that I am currently obsessed with. We started with a few picture books during the winter and these were what we have grown to love:

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats is probably the picture book that I love reading to Kimi over and over again. I am sure that this is the book that Kimi loves to be read to again and again as well, as evidenced by him choosing it first over the other books laid out.

The book features Peter, an African American boy, who leads us to an adventure around his neighbourhood after the first snowfall of the season. I have incorporated exaggerations with pronunciations and small actions that Kimi can follow while we read the book which he find very amusing and enjoyable. Although we do not experience snow in this part of Australia, this book is very relatable to a young child as he can have the same sense of wonder like that of Peter’s of a seemingly new world and wanting to hold on to that magic of a new world forever.

The next book is Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd. I got this recommendation from the book The Read Aloud Family: Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections With Your Kids by Sarah Mackenzie.

Aside from it being a wonderful bedtime book, it also offers a bit of an “I Spy” game to the reader. I think that is what Kimi loves most about it. I, on the other hand, loves how the vibrant colours mix on the page. I also appreciate the alternating coloured and monochromatic pages across the book - with the coloured pages being crowded with colours and objects and overloading the senses and the black and white pages exemplifying calmness and focusing on a thing at time.

The third book is Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell which is a very straightforward book but one that is filled with surprises. I still remember quite clearly the first time Kimi and I read this book, both of us anticipating which animal would we see next every time we lift a flap.

Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek is a book filled with, you guessed it right, sheep. This book allows the reader to build-up some excitement and anticipation around the whereabouts of the green sheep and the guesswork around that “thing” the green sheep is doing at that moment. It is a subtle book about diversity.

Last but not the least is We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury. It is a nice book about a sibling’s adventure and their encounter with different challenges and scary places which they are able to overcome by facing and going through it until they found a bear which prompted them to run back home, across all the obstacles again, while being followed by the bear. In the end they hid under a duvet and vowed to not go on another bear hunt. I love how the book is filled with repetition and onomatopoeia, which are words that sound like the same words they are describing, which are very relatable for young children.

Even before I set foot in this journey, we already have a child-sized desk and chair. I bought it when Kimi was still about a year old. I got it without putting much thought into it - without thinking if my child would have a hard time pulling his self up to the chair, if he would be able to sit comfortably on it, if the soles of his feet would be able to touch the ground and if while he is sitting on it he would be able to play or doodle comfortably on the table in front of him. Nonetheless, I have not had the legs of the desk altered as Kimi is already growing into it. For the chair, it was made of plastic so I do not have much choice about it. I just vowed to myself that the next time I buy a furniture, I will be more intentional and conscientious about my choice.

After a while I added a functional, toddler kitchen for Kimi so that he would be able to independently wash his hands and get his drink from the dispenser. He is still working on both skills at this time but it greatly fills my heart with warmth whenever I see see him try and do things for himself.

As for the dining room, we initially just had a baby seat for Kimi that we propped up and strapped on a Monobloc. It was great until he was just a young toddler. But when he was already gaining more independence in his movement and gaining more weight, it became harder to just let him sit still and to carry him to his chair. I replaced it with a wooden high chair that has a foot rest that can be moved across different heights so that his knees can maintain a 90 degree angle to the foot rest and can firmly plant his feet on them. With this, he would also be able to move up and down from his chair without needing any help.

Lately, I added a low bookshelf so that he can pick any book that interests him from the shelf and also put the book back in the shelf once he is done reading.

Across the home, we also have low cube shelves for his activities, child-height drawers for his clothes and personal stuffs, mirror in the living room and in the bathroom and a potty.

I am still working on adding a low table or shelf for a hairbrush; a child stool and a full length mirror in our bedroom so that he can dress himself up; and a shelf where he can easily access his toothbrush, toothpaste and a hand towel in the bathroom.

There are still a few things that I want to add as of the moment and as Kimi grows my list keeps getting longer and longer by the day. Some of the furniture that we have now will be outgrown by him and be replaced in the future by a more suitable and more appropriate one depending on his need. But that is how it is, much like us, kids grow, and at a faster rate than us if I must say. As always, I will just be an observer, constantly adapting to his need and constantly adjusting his environment as I see fit.

I added the semi circles to widen the possibilities and iterations that he can do with his building. As of now, Kimi still needs some help in building structures using the existing rainbow stackers and the semi circles. He is a lovely assistant though, finding and passing to me the next stacker or the semi that matches the stacker. Once we are done with the structure, he would usually get either his basket of animals and his basket of wooden blocks or his basket of animals and his tray of peg dolls. He will then look for a place in the structure for each item and once found would then carefully place them there as if telling them that this is now their home.

Sometimes he will envelop the structure with his train tracks, sometimes he just leaves it as is.

Sometimes he will play with what he built but most of the time he will not. I think he is already contented to see it still standing tall. Whenever he gets a chance to, he will drop by and do a check as if making sure that everyone still has a “home”. Afterwards, he will dash back to whatever it is he was doing prior.

Sometimes it will take days before he knocks the structure down, sometimes the structure will be up just until right before he retreats to his night’s sleep.

Sometimes he does not need anything elaborate - just him laying the semis down on the table or on the carpet and placing the matching peg doll on them.

The wooden balls are great addition, as always. I do not think any child can have too much of it. It can be used for a lot of purposes and plays. As of now, Kimi is using the balls for his mini ball runs. He has a plastic ball run gifted to him when he was a baby and I can see that he is still actively using it hence the decision to indefinitely keep it out.

He can spend at least a good 30 minutes just dropping the balls here, watching them go down and collecting them so that he can do the cycle again.

Now that we have the semis to serve as platforms and bases, we are now able to do a working ball run. Sometimes, Kimi still has to nudge the balls though for them to realise their potential. After the balls take their flight, he will see them through until they reach the end of the ball run.

I know that these toys have a lot more to offer and I can’t wait to see what other creations will Kimi end up with in the future.

One of the things that I learned in this course is putting up artworks at the child’s height around the home. Aside from it being aesthetically pleasing, hanging up artwork gives a different vibe to a space. I wanted as well to expose Kimi to beautiful and realistic artworks that is why I really took note of this.

To adapt this to our home, I put up two A4 sized frames in our living room wall, one on top of each cube shelf. I was initially planning to get some nice art prints to display but found them a bit hard to find at the moment.

Although Kimi already has a designated area in our house where he can display and hang his own paintings and drawings, I temporarily opted to transfer some of his artworks here while I was still searching.

My brother recently grew an interest in watercolour painting. He is still learning his way through but his lovely paintings are exactly the breath of fresh air that I was looking for. These are his first two creations and I immediately adored them the moment I laid eyes on them. The timing could not be more perfect.

It also just amused me how technology has made it easy for him to share these to us and for us to just print them and display them here for Kimi to enjoy.

I can’t wait to see how he develops his watercolour skills and we are looking forward to him sharing his creations to us. We are grateful that we already have a constant source of artworks we can look at here in our home.

Upon joining, which I think was the 3rd week of August already, I immediately got access to the themed resources for the following month. This still gave me a lot of time to prepare the materials.

What I love most about HOKA Club is the exhaustive amount of printables and activity ideas they have for kids from ages 3 to 6. They also offer members a recommended book list, list of supplemental materials and an artist study wherein they highlight the life of a particular artist and study a number of his/her paintings. More than that they also were able to give me recommendations on how I can better present the materials for Kimi through shelf mapping.

For the month of September, the theme revolves around Community Helpers. I decided to dedicate an Ikea Kallax with 4 cubes for this theme alone.

For the printables, I decided to focus on color sorting, size sorting, categorising, counting, identifying beginning sounds and following one-liner instructions. For the books I decided to go with 3 out of the 21 recommended books by the wonderful book expert Ashley Speed. As for the supplemental materials, I decided to go with 1 out of 7 recommended. And as for the artist study, I decided to print and introduce the artworks to Kimi.

Shelf Organisation

Supplemental Materials

I bought this Melissa and Doug Joey Magnetic Pretend Play which I thought would utterly be perfect for Kimi. The recommended age for this set is said to be 3+ due to small parts. Even though Kimi has already passed the mouthing stage (almost is more accurate though because he still sometimes do it) we still make sure that there is someone supervising whenever Kimi reaches out for this activity.

I also bought him a working, child-appropriate stethoscope which I think is a better option than the plastic or wooden ones as they resemble the real ones.

Books

These are the 3 books that I chose from the bunch. I chose them because I think that they would perfectly complement the activities that I will put in the shelf and these would offer Kimi more diversity.

Due to the current lockdown restrictions here in Victoria these books took almost three weeks before they arrived! Mostly because these still have to be ordered from an overseas supplier. Now I have learned that even though there are books that I would really prefer to be put up in the shelf, I have to choose practicality for now more than anything else. I may also have to find local alternatives which I am sure Australia has plenty of. I just have to be more resourceful and more creative. I also have to keep in mind that I do not have to go all out at once as I can always reintroduce them theme in the future. Simplicity over overwhelm. Quality over quantity.

Perfect for beginner readers, National Geographic Readers: Helpers In Your Neighborhood by Shira Evans walks us through the different daily heroes kids from around the globe encounter in their neighbourhood. This book is very engaging as it shows large real-life images and simple texts. It also has a vocabulary tree in the beginning which introduces kids to keywords in two different concept groups (people and places), helping kids make the connection between the words.

Today I’m a Veterinarian by Marisa Polansky and Maxine Lee is quite a surprise. I knew that it is a board book but I did not know that it would be shaped like this making it easy to display as it can stand on its own. This book shows the young reader how a veterinarian’s week may look like as it shares snippets of his/her day. Each snippet is also accompanied by a vocabulary page which include images that would help the reader familiarise himself with items that were shown in the previous page thus helping with vocabulary expansion.

As much as I try to expose Kimi to books that only depict true-to life characters that do real-life actions, I still got him Stanley the Mailman by William Bee to allow for variation. This cute and colourful book shows Kimi how Stanley’s day, who is a mailman, may look like; the type of parcels that he delivers and the different encounters that he is having with the other characters.

The Materials In Action

Out of all the activities that are displayed in the shelf, Kimi goes time and time again with colour sorting and dressing up Joey.

This is how the colour sorting activity looks like. I also included subtasks within this activity such as posting smaller envelopes in the post office box (I made a slit in the post office boxes so that Kimi can slid the envelopes in) and putting the stamps on the larger envelope.

Lately, Kimi has been reaching out for Joey, the magnetic doll, quite a lot. He now prefers laying each clothing item down and completing the outfits first before dressing up Joey.

He also noticed that I am using my camera more frequently now so after he dresses up Joey he would then ask me to take out my camera and take a picture of Joey, which is why we have below images:

Whenever he dresses up Joey in his firefighter outfit, he would reach out for this vocabulary card located on top of the shelf detailing the names of each item included in a firefighter’s outfit.

I also included a post-activity with the dress-up activity by putting labels per section of the box. The clean-up process then transformed to a categorising activity as well.

Kimi also does a check-up on Joey and every member of our household every now and then using his stethoscope.

Below is another counting and posting activity. I also made a slit in the mailbox to allow Kimi to slid the letter envelopes in.

Below is a snapshot of how we are doing the activity included in the artist study. The month’s highlighted artist is Mary Cassatt and these are the 3 part cards of some of her paintings. A 3 part card includes:

1. A control card (picture + label)

2. A picture card

3. A word or label card

I initially introduce Kimi to her paintings by telling him the title of each painting using the control card. After which, we will move on to matching the control card (picture + label) with the picture card and label card. I place the control cards in one pile beside me and scatter the picture cards in front of Kimi and the word cards at the bottom of the picture cards. I then get a control card from my pile and put it in front of him. He will then find the matching picture card and label card and put them beside the control card. We will do this for the remaining control cards in the pile.

This is him flipping through the pages of one of the books.

That is it! This is all I have to share as of the moment. I chose to limit the activities that we have in the shelf and not change them within the span of a month as I wanted Kimi to really focus on and master each activity. I would only opt to replace an activity if I already see or had been informed that he already mastered it. It is more than 3 weeks now that we have the activities in the shelf and I have not changed anything yet. Maybe before this month ends I will, maybe I won’t. Let us see.

For now, I am already excitedly preparing for next month’s shelf. What is the theme you may ask. It will be all about botany.

In our case, this is where I got Kimi’s maps printable from (US States, Canadian provinces and country flags) and a plethora of CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. I will just have to pick whatever bundle I want, pay for it and download the files immediately for printing. Because of the number of choices available per topic though I usually spend most of my time looking through each of them until I find one that would get me the most bang for my buck.

I am a working mom and my spare time does not come in unlimited amounts. Instead of planning, researching for and preparing activities for my child, I want that spare time to be used instead on interacting with Kimi, playing with him and teaching him concepts. I realised I was spending more time with coming up with activities rather than with him. With that, I continued my search for an online resource that would provide me a theme/unit or scope to focus on on a regular basis and would also provide me all the printables related to that theme. I know it was a tall order but I was persistent.

I found the Hands-on Kids Activities (HOKA) Club a month ago by Welcome to Mommyhood. I think I stumbled upon it by subscribing to Katherine of I Believe In Montessori’s newsletter whom I eventually discovered from Simone of The Montessori Notebook when she mentioned this file filled with amazing, vintage biology art prints compiled by Katherine.

The HOKA Club is an online membership community wherein educators/parents are given access to themed resources per month. Each month, HOKA will provide new seasonal printables, new themed printables for thematic shelves and units, a detailed inclusive book list, a visual and hands-on artist study, special challenges and community events and monthly guide for shelf mapping. The materials are usually given every 5th of the month which are to be presented on the following month. That is very impressive. Not only was my tall order addressed but it was also reasonably priced. If you are interested to join, you can go here and join their waitlist. I think they only take in new members twice every year.

I was able to join the club last August and so far was able to try out presenting the theme this September. The theme was about community helpers and it was an instant hit for Kimi. I can say that it tremendously lessened the planning and preparation that I have to do for Kimi’s activities which is what I was after. Not only do I have more free time now to spend with my son but I am able to go back as well to blogging without compromising my son’s learning.

I am excited to show you in the next post how I presented the activities for the September theme and how do they look like in action.

I will show you the step-by-step process I took in setting up Kimi’s Montessori kitchen.

I bought the Duktig Play Kitchen from Ikea which is perfect for our purpose. It has a sizeable sink, large countertop and cabinets with shelves.

While assembling, I chose to not include the faucet that it came with. Also, I was going back and forth between not including the upper part of this kitchen but decided in the end to install it which was a good decision.

From the countertop up, this is how I first set it up:

Water Dispenser - I removed the faucet to place instead a water dispenser. I had a hard time looking for a glass dispenser here in Australia that is not too large and would fit in the small space at the back of the sink but I was happy to end up with this Kilner drinks dispenser which has a 3-litre capacity and has a valve that is so easy for my son to open and close. I also did not use the lid that it came with as the lid was not fitted with a gasket and felt a little bit wobbly. The rod was actually perfect as it prevents the dispenser from tipping over. The sideboards / base of the upper shelf were also great as they help secure the contents of the countertop.

In the morning, I fill-out the water dispenser up to 1/3 of its height which I feel is the level that I am comfortable to work with in case there will be spills (and yes, there are always spills!). As this is not a working sink, I also just take out the basin and dump the used water in the kitchen sink afterwards.

Soap Dispenser - I chose this glass soap dispenser from Ikea which is perfect for little hands and is very sturdy.

Sponge - I placed a sponge in the countertop for Kimi to use to wipe small spills on the countertop.

Cutting Board - The cutting board is actually set on top of a play stovetop. I do not see any need for the stovetop as I also wanted to impart to Kimi the knowledge that stovetops can be dangerously hot when turned on so I instead covered it with a cutting board. I am still in the process of looking for and buying a bigger cutting board so that I can completely remove the stovetop.

Tissue Box - I placed a tissue box in the top left shelf so that Kimi can just help himself when he needed a tissue.

Food Containers - I placed snacks that I am happy for him to munch on food on in food containers which I placed in the top right shelf.

As for the play microwave, I just left it there, initially thinking that we can use it as an extra cabinet but right now Kimi is using it for pretend play. Whenever someone is using the microwave, he would also rush to get a plate from his cabinet and put it inside his pretend microwave. He will make a sound and do a countdown as well before he takes out his plate.

Moving on to the bottom part:

Utensils and Plates: I put his plates on the top right shelf. I also got him a tray for his utensils.

Dustpan and Brush: I bought him a dustpan and wooden brush so that he can clean-up crumbs on the floor by himself.

Cleaning Cloths: These cleaning cloths are for bigger spills. The yellow and blue cloths are to be used for floor spills and the pink one is for countertop spills that could not be cleaned with a sponge.

Stock: We also have a shelf for his stock items such as sponge and cleaning cloth.

Hand towel: On the cabinet handle I placed this colourful hand towel from Ikea.

Rubbish bin: I also placed a rubbish bin beside the play kitchen so that he can just use this to throw his used tissues in and crumbs he swept from the floor.

That is it! These are the first things I bought to set up Kimi’s kitchen. The idea is to setup the base and just add more items that I see fit along the way.

In here, I added a hook for his apron which we are planning to use soon for baking.

I eventually added measuring spoons so that he can transfer his food from one container to another or from his container to his plate. He can also use these spoons for when we are doing baking.

And lastly, I added in mugs! Which I understand should be part of the base kitchen but I just was not sure yet if I should buy him the glass or plastic ones. I ended up buying mugs which are made from renewable plastic from Ikea.

I am still looking to add more cooking and baking tools and a metal jug soon.

I was initially thinking between setting up a play kitchen for Kimi for pretend play or a functional one and decided on the latter. We do not have much space in the house and I wanted to impart practical life skills to him such as washing hands, cleaning spills, sweeping the floor, preparing his own food, throwing rubbish in the bin etc. so setting up a functional toddler kitchen is more logical for us. Rather than resorting to pretend play, I can always just teach him how to work in the kitchen and allow him to watch and help when he wanted to as long as the activity is appropriate for his age. I will introduce him to the kitchen soon - we can start with making cookies or baking a cake. Just one step at a time and we will also get there.

At first, we bought him two small board books about animals and everyday objects. He liked it as much as he wanted to munch on it. It was so funny. Now, these books are still in rotation in our shelf. Lately, whenever these books get picked for read-aloud, he would grab the book and let me know that he will be the one to read the book to me. It is so adorable to see how the tables are gradually being turned.

I remember buying him his first ever picture book entitled The Little Lion Who Lost Her Roar by Jedda Robaard. It is about a young lion who is looking for her lost roar from unlikely places only to find out that it is within her all along. I love the message of the book as much as the flaps that are in it. I wanted to expose Kimi early on to the reality that he has a voice and that voice is unique to him. He does not have to attune it to anyone else other than his own truth. More so, he does not have to wait for an external thing or another person to validate his voice/opinion. He can be confident in his own voice. And I think this book is a subtle way of imparting the message to him. Since I bought this when Kimi was still a baby, most of the flaps are now torn. Nonetheless, I loved reading it to him.

I think we bought him his very first counting book next which features characters from Eric Carle’s books. It came with a magnetic drawing board that Kimi loves to use now to practice writing letters. I found it too massive for Kimi so I cut it in half and separated the book from the drawing board.

The first ever hardcover book I bought him was the The Flag Book by Lonely Planet Kids. I bought this as he started his huge affiliation with anything flags when he was around 2 years old which I wrote about in another blog post. It is his most beloved book and I think the book that is most used.

One day while I was browsing an online bookstore, I found this book called Kindness Makes Us Strong by Sophie Beer. The happy-looking and sunshiny cover is what has gotten me attracted to it. The illustrations are quirky and captivating. But more than that, the title is already a powerful message in itself. I want Kimi to know early on that being kind is not an act of weakness but a strength that could change the lives of those people that he meets and would definitely help to make this world a nicer place to live in.

Sophie Beer also has these two other books called Love Makes A Family and Change Starts With Us that are looks so worthy to look into.

I also love wandering around Aldi as there are times that they release nice picture books for kids for more than half the original price. I found this book collection called the The Feelings Series by Trace Moroney which is perfect for introducing him to the different emotions and feelings that we are bound to experience in this life. I picked up Kind and Love just to complement the Sophie Beer’s book that we already have. These are all perfect as I want our home to be filled with love and kindness so for these words to be scattered around our home would perfectly act as a quick reminder to be more loving and kinder as much as we can.

As you can see, his book collection is a mishmash of what our likes are and the things, concepts and values that are most important to our family. It is hard to pick books from a plethora of choices but I think knowing my family’s values and interests is a good baseline for me in coming up with a collection that we would all enjoy. I try to be intentional with what I put in our house and that includes the books that I buy for Kimi. Books for me should extend our knowledge, inspire, complement and highlight things I want to foster in our home. If the message does not ring well with me, I do not even consider it.

Now that Kimi is getting more interested with the spoken and written word, our book collection is already growing. I will constantly share with you here our book haul and the books that we thoroughly enjoy. Until then!

Whenever this particular video would come up he would then get up and dance in front of the television. Mind you, it was not even a danceable background music. Nonetheless, he would still dance as if it was a party music.

After a little while, it was not just him dancing to it anymore, I was already also dancing with him. I came to love and loathe the video at the same time. But love defeats loathe big time as I enjoy doing it with him.

I did not know yet what it was doing for him but I am glad now that I willingly did it and followed his interest.

I think it is what sparked it. Whenever we are dancing with the video, he would intently listen to each word being uttered by the voice over. This would prompt him to say what he heard. With this, I would also mutter the country name after so that he can hear it again.

After a few days or so he could already mutter the country names as close as he could.

I followed his interest by buying a book about flags. I bought this book from Lonely Planet Kids titled The Flag Book as there is a good mix of realistic images and colourful drawings inside which would get the attention of a younger child.

When the book arrived, Kimi devoured it day and night. He would say the name of the country associated with the flags that were already familiar to him and ask us to read those that he did not know. We would go through all of the country flags from cover to cover only to find ourselves back to page one afterwards.

One day, I decided to download a flag quiz app in my phone (Flags of the World Best Trivia). I just wanted to add more flag activities for Kimi. It has 10 levels and for each level the player has a string of country names that he has to identify correctly by choosing from one of the 4 flags laid out. The player is given a timeframe to answer each and is given three allowances for error.

Since Kimi could not read yet, I read out the country name for him. To our amusement, he went through Level 1 with ease. Even countries that we are not that familiar with he can amazing already identify.

Again, in a just a matter of days, he was able to go through 9 of the 10 levels! He is still working with Level 10 and I have not tried it again with him lately but I am sure the leap in knowledge would be tremendous. I am so amused with how absorbent the mind of a child is! With this, I was set to give him more exposure to flags.

From country flags, he expanded his knowledge to provincial, territories and state flags. He went through flags of the Canadian provinces and territories; and US territories and states. I made him printables of countries, the Canadian provinces and US state flags so that he can hold and touch them which could also aid the learning process.

We also used the printables for mini games that I made for Kimi. In one of the games, we would lay down all the flags on the floor, ask Kimi to find the flag for a particular state/country and then put the printable in a basket.

Another game involved lining up all the flags face down around the house, Kimi following the flags, flipping them face up, identifying the flags and putting them in a tray.

We also did a game out of categorising the countries by continents.

Lately, we organised the country flags by continent so these past few weeks Kimi would just pick a set of flags from his stash, identify from which continent these flags are, pick up the flags one by one and lay down the flags on his table. I bet we would still come up with more games relating to flags in the future.

He is also working now on learning about French overseas areas; Dutch territories; and UK overseas territories and subnational flags. He is already familiar with most of them and is alongside learning about international flags such as The United Nations, Red Cross, Olympics Rings, European Union and Arab League.

We haven’t even covered flags of Brazil’s states, Japanese perfectures, German regions and Russian republics. And as we go deeper, the more I realise that we still have a lot to learn and discover.

Out of all the topics he was and currently exposed with, Kimi always gravitates towards flags. He has an unmistakeable affiliation with them. When he wakes up in the morning, flags would be the first activity that he will think of doing. It does not matter if the learning is through his printables, his flag book, a flag video from Youtube or a quick search with me on the internet. He would surely pick flags among anything else. He treats it as his work as of the moment.

We have already touched base with geography and though he already knows where the continents are in the map, he still does not show interest in knowing where the countries are situated. I am still constantly researching and thinking of ways we can still expand on the flags topic. If you have any ideas, I would be very happy to know more about it.

For now, I see that he is still interested in his flag-related activities. Truthfully, I feel that the activities are not necessary and are just supplementary for him. I do not need to pique his interest, his interest is already there, mightily present and fervent. Sometimes I do think that it is me who is pushing to give him more activities, more exposure, more variation, more of this and that when all he wants to do is to sit with his flags book and flip through the pages. I know that he would already be contented and happy with us curled up together with his book, in admiration of the pages and in anticipation of what amazing thing about this wonderful world of flags we would come to discover next.

My mind was already playing scenarios that were not serving me! The vision of walls being drawn, carpets being spilled on with paints, play dough getting munched on etc. The horror! I was very fixated on the possible mess that having these materials will create that I did not see the fun and joy that Kimi is missing from doing art.

One morning, I just decided to drop the worries I had and got him a play dough set.

Yes, messes were made, play dough crumbs were tried to be eaten and the colour of the dough transferred to the carpet a bit but it was not that bad, not as bad as I expected it to be. I just consistently told Kimi what he needs to do so that he knows what is acceptable or not and so that both of us would be happy in the process. I also bought a splat mat for the next session.

The second time we played with his play dough set, it was better. And the more we played with it the experience got funner, nicer and calmer.

With this, I decided to buy him more art materials. I settled on a simple watercolour set, brushes and a drawing paper roll from Ikea. I also bought a set of paint sticks. I was so excited to show them to him.

That night when I got home I showed him immediately the materials, he was so excited to see the wonderful colours. After we had our dinner, we immediately tried the paint sticks. The colours were magnificent, they looked so silky and so smooth!

The next day we opened the watercolour set I bought for him. I do not know much about watercolour but I just started to teach him what I know. We needed some water so I showed him how to fill the plastic cups with water. We needed paper to paint on so I showed him that we need to cut a sheet of paper from the drawing roll. I remembered I had a masking tape somewhere in the house so I scrambled to find it as well. We laid down the splat mat, taped the paper on the mat and then asked Kimi to pick a brush. He picked up all the brushes at once so I had to repeat once more what I said. He was still holding all of them so I told him that I will get the brushes from him. He gave them to me, I picked two to serve as choices and asked him again to pick one. He picked one for himself while saying “Bebe” and he pointed to the brush that I was holding. He said “Nanay” which means mother in Tagalog. It was for me!

I showed him how to carefully dip the brush in the cup of water, tap the excess water on the rim of the cup and cover the tip of the brush with enough paint. He followed suit, copying whatever movements I was doing. I asked him to continue by himself but he wanted both of us to do it so I sat back and paint along with him.

Almost everyday after that, Kimi is painting. If not learning about the flags, I would see him drawing and painting away. Sometimes it would just be for a couple of minutes, most of the time it would be way longer than that.

As the day progressed his fondness for it grew. Most of the time he would already prepare everything: take out the paint sticks from the box where we store the art materials, get the drawing paper roll, get the watercolour palette, brushes, spray bottle, masking tapes and lay down the splat mat. If there is water in his drink dispenser he would already do the extra step of filling the cups with water. After everything is done and in its place, he would then ask me to cut some paper and tape the paper on the mat.

Lyra ferby, Stockmar crayons, IKEA Mala watercolour, Little Brian paint sticks

Doing art is therapeutic but I now also appreciate the preparation and clean-up. I also see Kimi enjoying the process. I love seeing how he is developing, integrating steps that he knows, experimenting with strokes, colours and different brushes. It is such a joy to just observe him during moments like this.

After he is finished with his drawing or painting, he would exclaim “Done!”. I can hear the excitement from his voice and see the excitement from his movement as he walks to the small hallway that connects our bedrooms, turns on the light in the hallway anticipating the process of adding his creation to the designated artwork display.

After the watercolour, the Stockmar wax crayons came and after the crayons, the Lyra Ferby coloured pencils followed. We also bought a ream of A4 sized cartridge paper for drawing, a set of pastel-coloured masking tapes to act as frames for his paintings plastered on our white walls, a spray bottle and a scissor for future craft works.

Our art and craft materials are now growing, his artwork folder getting thicker and I know that this is not the end of it. I wanted to turn the balcony to an art studio. Maybe we will put up an easel or maybe a Raskog trolley filled with pots of paint, new brushes and jumbo droppers. Maybe we will just buy another splat mat for the outdoors and move the art materials in the balcony whenever the weather is nice outside. There are no definite plans yet. But until then, we are more than happy to stay and do art indoors.

This goes well with my mindset now about minimalism. It is not anymore about not acquiring toys but minimizing acquisition of toys by intentionally buying toys that would stand the test of time and would grow with him.

So the question now is what toys are the best for open-ended play?

We are constantly bombarded with a huge variety of options and I know that it can be overwhelming to sit in the middle of it all. I will try my best to give you some idea by sharing what worked for us so far.

Animals

Toy animals are so perfect for small-world play. I was initially considering to get wooden toy animals (eg. Ostheimer, Holztiger) for Kimi but ended up not pushing through with it as the details of the plastic counterpart are still unbeatable. It also made sense to just add on to Kimi’s first set of plastic toy animals which my gave dad to him. I am going back and forth among Schleich, Safari and CollectA but I would not mind trying other brands such as Papo, Mojo and Bullyland if our preferred animal is not available from our preferred brands.

Other than for playing, we also use it for learning purposes such as for identifying animal names and for matching them with the animals featured in our wall world map.

I am still in the process of completing our toy animals buy-list. Hopefully we would be able to complete them soon.

Balls

We love the versatility of a ball. We can use it either indoors or outdoors. Balls are so perfect for Kimi right now to release his overflowing energy. He kicks them, throws them and plays catch with me with them. Kimi has these types of balls: a few soccer balls, a rubber ball, a plastic ball, a globe stress ball and a few small balls that he usually use when doing ball runs. We are expecting to add more wooden balls (as he only have one) for Kimi to play with soon!

Vehicles

Kimi has only a few small wooden vehicles (train, car and bus) which came with his train track set and a few monster trucks but these are already enough to keep him busy. He usually wheels them around the room, wheeling them on top of our shelves, sofa and table. He sometimes make a ramp or slide so that he can let his toy vehicles fly or slide. He also puts his toy animals in his monster truck to act as passengers.

Train Tracks or Any Kind of Track

As much as Kimi loves to disconnect the pieces of his train tracks he also loves to put them back together and make his own. He usually wheels his wooden vehicles in the track first and then let them eventually move outside.

Lego/Duplo

Duplo is the first building set that Kimi had. He was initially gifted a Duplo set by a family friend which we later on expanded by buying him a bigger set. It was an instant hit for him. He was able to play with it for hours! He was building tall vehicles, playing with his creation for a little while and taking them down only to find him again building another vehicle that suited him. Nonetheless, his interest on it dwindled a bit lately possibly because of the presence of other activities that are getting more of his attention. With this, I recently took out the Duplo from the shelf and stored it hoping that if I present it again in the next few weeks he will gravitate towards it.

Playsilks

Playsilks are wonderful as they can be used for dress-ups, small-word play and pretend play. If I have to be honest, he did not use his playsilks (bought him green and blue) immediately after having them. I tried showing him small world play setups that use playsilks but I was not getting any interest from him still. It took some months before he warmed up to it. I did not do anything actually, I just left the playsilks in the shelf. One day, upon seeing superman in one of the videos he was watching, he asked my mom to put the blue playsilk on him as a cape. He has been using it more frequently ever since!

Balance Board

I wanted Kimi to have more opportunity to use and develop his gross motor skills. I initially wanted to buy a slide for him but then realised the impracticality and absurdness of it as we do not have a large space in the house to begin with. So when I discovered balance board I immediately researched more about it and found it perfect for our situation. Toddlers have a lot of energy. They crave for a variety of movement. My son likes to run, climb and jump a lot. The outdoors should have been a perfect stage for him to do all these but due to the pandemic, we are mostly stuck at home. And a home with not much moving space can be limiting for these types of movement.

Kimi is using the balance board to jump, balance, hop and slide on. He also uses it as a ramp for his vehicles and as a cave for his toy animals. I think there is still a lot more that he can do with it and I am so excited to see how this will grow with him in the coming years.

Wooden Blocks

I bought a wooden blocks set when Kimi was around 29 months old but he only showed some interest with it days ago (31 months old). I can see that he is not into building with wooden blocks yet but at least I can see that he is already playing with them and trying to stack them.

I also bought him a Grimms rainbow stacker but he also does not use it that much yet. I will give an update in a future blog post if I already saw him getting more interested in them.

Below are other types of open-ended toys that I wanted to get for Kimi soon:

Peg Dolls

I have lately seen Kimi playing with his printables. He sometimes play with them as if they are interacting and talking with one other. That is why instead of forbidding him to not play with his printables and constantly reminding him that printables are not for playing but for learning, I decided to get him some peg dolls to play with. The reason I got the peg dolls instead of dolls or movie character toys is so that he is not limited to what they are made to be. Peg dolls can be anything he wants them to be which are perfect for role playing. Role playing encourages a child to use his imagination and develop his creativity.

Loose Parts

A tray filled with loose parts is something I want to build-up for Kimi as well. I love the idea that loose parts can let him create endless patterns and designs and build worlds to play with. It can also let him plan, set an agenda of his play and explore his own ideas which all foster independence and risk-taking.

I know that this list will be a dynamic one but for now I think these are enough for Kimi’s needs. For now, I will just let him play with the toys he has at the moment, allow him to be creative and practice resourcefulness if the situation demands it and just continue to observe and adjust his materials as I (and our budget) see fit.

This is the first setup I did of Kimi’s shelves. I did this roughly 2 months ago when I started reading about the different teaching methods (eg. Montessori, Waldorf) It is not much but the effect that organising his shelves had on me was tremendous. I felt very happy and pleased with this!

Starting from left to right, top to bottom, I will walk you through the toys and activities I placed here.

CUBE 1: Cube 1 has 4 different wooden puzzle boards and 1 plastic cube puzzle. All of the pieces are placed in a reusable drawstring bag. I did this because Kimi already find these puzzles easy. So instead of buying new puzzles immediately, whenever Kimi wanted to do the puzzles, I just pull out all of the puzzle boards, lay them down on the floor, ask him to pick a piece in the drawstring bag and he will then place the piece in the right place.

CUBE 2: During this time, Kimi only has two sets of toy animals. One set is these zoo animals and the second set is his dinosaurs which was in storage when I took this picture. At the back of the zoo animals are his monster trucks which he plays quite a lot.

CUBE 3: Play dough was the only art material that he had when I took this. As you can see, since I was just starting out, I did not have proper containers for them yet. I just reused the green bucket I got from his set of sand tools to hold his play dough tools (which were all on the playmat in this photo) and I placed the play dough tubs in this carton inset where the play dough originally came in.

CUBE 4: Lego/Duplo blocks; CUBE 5: Small wooden blocks and a shape sorter; CUBE 6: Books

The gray storage box on the floor held his stuffed toys.

This is two weeks after the first shelf setup I did.

I removed my books on top to make this shelf solely dedicated for Kimi’s activities. I also removed the 2 red doors of the cubes at the rightmost and removed as well the things that were inside them to make way for these 2 gray containers that hold Kimi’s stuffed toys and battery-operated toys. I also bought containers and baskets.

I also added in some art materials and a train track.

CUBE 1: These are the magnetic wooden blocks that came with his wooden blocks set. I set up the cute, wooden sea creatures on top of his blue play silk as if they are in water and also to give him some inspiration on how he can expand the use of his play silks. To tell you the truth, he did not like the setup at all! Lesson learned for me!

CUBE 2: I transferred the wooden blocks that was in Cube 5 before to these 2 gray containers. I also retained the white, plastic top from the carton container so that he can still sort the wooden blocks.

CUBE 3: I am trying to expand his art materials so I bought a watercolor set for Kimi and some oil paint sticks.

CUBE 4: The Lego/Duplo is still here; CUBE 5: A sound puzzle and a magnifying glass; CUBE 6: Dinosaurs

I initially thought that setting up a shelf is a one-time thing but as time progressed, I discovered that it is a continuous process. Setting up a shelf requires a lot of planning and observing. Observing what activity is your child interested in, what kinds of movement he make? What does he usually look at?

Does she dance when there is music playing?

Does he stop when he hears something?

Does she like to post things?

Does he like to climb, jump, run or slide?

Does she try to spell out all the words she sees?

Does he sing?

Does she examine minute details?

Does he doodle whenever he sees a moist glass?

Is she trying to help whenever you are doing your laundry, vacuuming, cleaning, folding your laundry or cooking?

Does he like to build things?

If you said yes to any of those or completely said yes to all of the above, it is now our job as parents to translate those observations to activities where our child can exercise these movements and to prepare the environment to assist these interests.

There is no definite timeframe as well of how long do the toys need to be out in the shelf. Some of Kimi’s toys are out for just a few days while some of them are out for more than a month now. There are also times where I thought that he will enjoy an activity but then found them untouched or dumped on the floor.

It really depends. I just need to always keep my eyes open, sit with my child if possible, connect with him and observe as much as I can. It also helps to jot down ideas and observations that pop up in a notebook or in my phone so that I won’t find myself scrambling for that idea when the need arises.

I am sure that it would be overwhelming especially if you are new to this. I was in the same position months ago and I still get overwhelmed. As I built a plan and observed more, my confidence in the process also grew. I promise you that it gets easier, especially if I see my child having fun with what I have prepared. It is totally worth it.

I will be posting regularly here improvements with our shelf organisation and toy rotation! Excited to share with you some updates soon!

These are the few baby steps I took that made such a huge change in our house:

Decluttering

Decluttering is the first rational step I took in this journey. Kimi did not have a lot of toys to begin with but I still felt like we have so much clutter in the house.

It was because everything was just thrown in storage boxes making it hard for us to find the toys that he wants to play with. And most of the time, if he needed something from the box and he was not able to find what he was looking for by rummaging through it, he would end up dumping all the contents of the box on the floor which created more chaos. Add to this the fact that his broken toys and tattered books were mixed in the pile as well.

I liked Marie Kondo’s advice of keeping only those items that spark joy.

So that is what I did.

• I threw away all the toys that are broken,

• Put books that are already tattered in a permanent storage as I do not have the heart to throw books away,

• Put away puzzles that have missing pieces (I put them in a permanent storage),

• Stored materials/activities that are age-inappropriate (already too easy or still too hard for him to do)

• Stored some redundant toys

This step immediately created a change in the look and feel of the house. Doing this also gave me an idea what category of toys we already have.

Listing toys/materials by category

If decluttering gave me an idea of what we do have, listing all of his toys/materials by category then gave me an idea of what toys he still do not have.

This is a huge help if you do not want to fall in the trap of the bad habit of accumulating toys just for the sake of it, and of adding/buying toys senselessly in the future.

This list then formed as a basis for planning and prioritising the type of toys that we will be buying for Kimi in the future.

Giving a designated place for everything

The next step is to designate a place or a container for each type of materials that he has.

I figured that if I have a place for everything then it would not be much of a stress to put away toys at the end of the day.

It would also be easier for me to teach Kimi how and where to put-away his toys if all of them has their own designated places.

Toy Rotating

Toy rotation is something new to me and has been one of those aspect of the Montessori method that really appealed to me.

I initially thought that all of Kimi’s toys should be out, displayed on the shelves or placed in easily accessible containers/baskets at any given time.

But giving kids lots of choices can make them feel overwhelmed and this can also lead to a lack of focus.

So from the pile of toys that had not been removed through the decluttering process, I then pick and display one or two toys from each category and temporarily keep everything else out of sight.

By only keeping a handful of toys and materials out, I noticed that they are getting a lot more plays and love from Kimi.

Researching and looking for local suppliers of toys that resonate with you and your kid

Out of the steps that I took, this one is the most fun as well as the most overwhelming for me to do because of the variety of choices we have in the market. Before this, I would stay away from wooden toys just because they are so expensive but now I do get why wooden toys are priced the way they do. It is because most of the wooden toys out there encourage open-ended play and toys that do encourage this type of play get a lot more use and do stand the test of time. They are also harder to break and if ever they get broken they are much easier to be mended.

Despite this, I still kept most of Kimi’s plastic toys as they have been given by important people in our lives. I placed the battery-operated toys in one shelf box and then I place one or two plastic toys out at a time.

Removing the Safety Fence

When Kimi was a baby, we put up a safety fence between our kitchen and living room. We do not have that big of a space but we considered it a necessity to put one up when Kimi was still transitioning back and forth between crawling and learning how to walk.

But now that he has a lot more energy to use up and because we are still wary of letting him go out and play outside because of the pandemic, I decided to remove the safety fence to make his play area bigger.

Other than the last step, I think these are all processes that I need to do consciously and in a constant basis if we want to build an environment that would support Kimi’s development and love for learning. I will show you in the next posts what I have done so far in preparing Kimi’s environment.

I was in the pursuit of having lesser things. I did not want any clutter. Our apartment should only be bathed with neutral colors like those images found in the magazine and Pinterest. I want our house to be picture-perfect.

Thinking about it now it was so unreasonable. And because of the irrationality of my logic and the pursuit for perfection, our apartment was then devoid of character and individuality.

This thinking overflowed to other areas of my life including that of my son’s.

I really had believed that buying him toys equated to more clutter so I ended up not buying him toys that often. Most of his toys are gifts from relatives, family friends and my husband. But then when he was almost 30 months old, I noticed that he had been spending more time in front of the TV watching YouTube. It also did not help that the whole world is currently in the middle of a pandemic and is forced to go into lockdown since usually experiences in the outside world beat any other toys that you can have. This bothered me so much that I became so fixated on finding a way to divert his attention away from the television. There is so much for him to do, learn and explore even inside the home.

And then it hit me, maybe I have it all wrong.

Maybe it is me who brought this upon him.

Maybe clutter is fine. Maybe toys are fine. Maybe I can still practice minimalism without having to declutter endlessly until we only have the bare necessities.

So I started from there looking for toys that are timeless. Toys that he still can play 3 years from now, 8 years from now. And through my incessant reading of blogs and articles about classic and timeless toys I came across this phrase that always stood-out - open-ended play.

And from that single phrase, everything changed. A whole universe of things and inspiration about child-rearing opened to me. I also want my son to have a beautiful and lovely childhood.

I am no expert. I am still learning. I am also growing as a parent and individual alongside Kimi and I think that’s what make this so fun and worthwhile. And with this, I am sharing here with you our journey.