LB's new toilet learning area

Little Bean has shown little interest in using the potty. For the past few months I've had the potty in the bathroom and tried to coax him into using it. I've tried getting him to sit on it, fully clothed, to read a book. I've tried getting him to sit on it while I use the toilet. I've tried reading him cute kids books on potty training. So far, the best response was him sitting on there, with pants on, for a couple of minutes. However, the most common response was a near-tantrum. I decided to treat it the same way I treated brushing his teeth. If trying to get him to do it was going to end with an upset, crying child who comes to hate the task, it's better to forget it and let him come back to it when he's ready. I was reminded to follow the child.

Little Bean hated me trying to help him brush his teeth. He would get worked up to the point of hysterics. I gave up and just let him do it himself. His diet is very low in sugar so I figured that it wasn't too bad to just let it be for a while. Sure enough, a few months ago, he started that phase where kids love to copy everything that Mum and Dad does. Suddenly, he's following me to the bathroom, watching me brush and asking for his toothbrush. He even wanted me to help him finish job properly. I must admit, I did a happy dance. On the hard days, it's the small victories like this one that remind us to hang in there.

Back to the potty. Last week, out of the blue, Little Bean sits on the potty while I went to the toilet. And yes, I did another happy dance. Through out the day, he continued to follow me to the bathroom and sit on the potty. Albeit, this is all with pants on but it was progress. The next day, he let me take his nappy off when he went to the potty. So far, he's only staying on there for a few minutes at a time and hasn't actually done a wee or poo yet. I decided that the couple of books by the potty wasn't going to cut it anymore and decided to make a proper toilet area for him.

I put a shelf beside the potty to hold pull-up nappies, wipes, toys, books and plastic bags for stinky nappies. I also added a small washing basket for soiled clothes and a non-slip mat under the potty. We usually use a modern cloth diaper with press studs but it's not practical for toilet learning so I've switched to pull-up disposables for now. I have lots of training pants but he's not ready for them yet. Recently, he's been wearing a lot of summer bodysuits (onsies) as he had really bad eczema on our last trip to Australia and we had to buy bodysuits for him so he couldn't scratch his tummy and back. Between starting toilet learning and his eczema clearing up, I've switched him back to t-shirts and shorts with an elastic waistband. He still needs help pulling his nappy and shorts up and down, but he's improving every day.

Animal theme activities - week 1

This is actually a post about what we started doing three weeks ago. Since our return from holidays in Australia, I just haven't found the time to post any new blogs. There has been crappy internet service, an intermittent access to Blogger and the hassle of trying to get Little Bean settled in at home again.  Then I sprained an ankle and got the sore throat from Hell; a totally miserable combination. Add to that, all the Vietnamese New Year holiday preparations, work functions, visitors and the required visits to family. Honestly, I am SO, SO over it. I can't wait for normality to be restored and for life to go back to our regular, slightly boring, but reassuringly familiar routine.

We're having a month-long theme of animals and the sounds they make. We're focusing mainly on the farm and household animals that he see sees regularly, as well as the most common African and jungle animals he sees on TV and in books.

Our journey began with lots of singing and dancing. Little Bean is a huge fan of The Wiggles and we have several of their DVDs. We've watched, sang to and danced along with lots of their songs about animals such as The Monkey Dance, Ponies, Uncle Noah's Ark and Captain Feathersword Fell Asleep on His Pirate Ship.  I have to tell you, I've been getting a pretty good workout dancing along with the DVDs. Who needs aerobics when you have a toddler who loves The Wiggles? We've also been watching New MacDonald's Farm and Play School DVDs.

We've been singing animal songs like Old MacDonald Had a Farm and Five Little Ducks using our plastic animals and bath tub duckies. Here is a copy of our free printable lyrics for Five Little Ducks. 

I bought some Kinetic Sand from Online Toys Australia at Christmas time and we finally got it out to make an animal sensory tub. It is really weird stuff. It's almost like it crawls along. I think it's kind of creepy. I put some small plastic African animals, spoons and small bowls in the tub along with 2kg of sand. Little Bean loves to go out to the balcony to play with it at least once or twice a day. I've been burying animals for him to find and helping him mould the sand with the bowls. But mostly, he loves scooping and pouring the sand.

I bought this Build-A-Garden set online from Modern Teaching Aids. This is one of my favourite online stores for Montessori and homeschool materials. The dowels are designed to fit into a base and the beads can be threaded on to make a garden with flowers and bugs. We're only using the dowels and bug beads at the moment for a smaller scale threading activity.

 We bought this push-along duck toy in Australia from our local pharmacy. Little Bean broke the duck's beak off five minutes after we got home. He loves the noise it makes.

Little Bean was given these cute ladybird and monster Pillow Pets by his aunties. He loves snuggling up on his new floor bed with them. I plan to put them in his old toddler bed and turn it into a reading nook. More on that project in my next post.

 I got these gorgeous Melissa & Doug jumbo knob puzzles from Modern Teaching Aids.
We've also been using the pieces for vocabulary practice, singing Old McDonald Had a Farm and imaginative play.

 Little Bean loves to throws things at the moment, so I'm trying to channel it by putting out this basket of soft balls. The four smaller balls are actually really dense pompoms I got from Kmart  in a pack for a few dollars.

 Little Bean's Daddy gave him this super snuggly teddy bear a few months ago and he's really taken to it. This month, Big Bear got his own bed, clothes, nappy and sippy cup. Little Bean has been resistant to sitting on the potty so I'm hoping that Big Bear can help us by swapping his nappy for training pants and going on the potty too.

What we're reading this week

This week I took Little Bean, my niece and my nephew to our local library. They have so many great holiday activities on at the moment. And they're free. Even better. Some of the activities include a chicken hatchery, Lego club, book making workshops, story telling, baby rhyme time, Summer fun at the museum and musical comedy shows. There will also be appearances by popular authors and book characters.  We're going to see an exhibition and talk on birds of prey, which features live animals.

Here's what we're reading this week. At first, I didn't intend on a theme but ended up coming across a couple of cute toilet training books for kids at the supermarket that I couldn't resist buying. One of them even has a button that makes the sound of a toilet flushing. So I thought the Nappy Duck & Potty Pig  book and Toot book would also make a good addition to the start of our toilet training journey.

These are some sensory books with textured panels to touch and feel. Some also have flaps to lift. Little Bean loves these kinds of books at the moment.

I couldn't resist this pack with The Very Hungry Caterpillar book and puppet. Little Bean has spent a large chunk of the week running around wearing it. This is one of my all-time favourite books.

I am a huge Mem Fox fan and this book is fabulous. I love the silly rhymes and pictures. It's such a fun book to read aloud.

This is book all about farts. It's really funny and a sure fire hit with small boys.

These are a couple of books that Little Bean picked. He likes the freaky realistic eyes in Nat the Cat. They kind of creep me out.