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creating a literacy rich home part 4: tips for reading with toddlers + best books for toddlers 2-3

literacy rich home, parenting

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In this creating a literacy rich home series, we’ve talked about:

I’ll share a few pre-literacy reading tips for toddlers, then share my list of 15 must-haves.

Toddlers are curious! They’re full of energy! And, they have short attention spans. So, don’t get frustrated if your toddler doesn’t want to sit for more than one or two books at a time. Build up to it. As they get older, & as you are consistent with showing them how *fun* & exciting reading is, they’re attention span will grow. My older toddler boys (3 year olds) could sit for long stretches, but when they were just barely 2 years old, they were more interested in jumping and...

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One of my most favorite places in the world is this national park. If I could live there, I would.

We were ambitious.

We would hike in the first day (about 15 miles) & camp out on the mountain. For those of you not familiar with wilderness back packing, I’ll give you a brief primer: you hike all day (until your legs feel like jello), you carry all your food, sleeping, & camping gear on your back, & then at the end of the day you sleep somewhere so remote if the bears got you, no one would know.

We had a fabulous time.

Aside from the huge mistake of bringing canned, yes *canned* food (those extra few pounds might as well have been 50 by the time we were three or four hours in on the first day), we found a camping spot next to a creek & enjoyed the seclusion, the proximity to nature,...

I can do hard things.

debt-free, frugal life, the good life, parenting

I wasn’t worried about the boys.

They’ve grown up around water and we’ve spent every summer since they were born, around and in water.

But Amalia–I had my concerns. She loves swimming, but she’s only five.

Since last summer she has insisted on swimming without help, without a flotation device. As adorable as her determination is, it doesn’t make up for the fact that when she swims it’s a quasi-doggy paddle. It looks like she’s about to sink and never come up again.

As a mother, it’s one of those, “Oh my goodness, she is going to drown,” moments, while at the same time thinking, “Look how happy & proud of herself she is!”

So last night, before Amalia’s first heat, my heart was racing.

Sure, she’d been attending swim practice for a few weeks, but she’s always had one on one help from...