Growing And Learning With My 1 Year Old
For the past year growing and learning with my 1 year old has been fruitful. Baby Joelle is now 16 months old and in about a week’s time, she will be turning 17 months. How time flies! I have spent the past year at home with her and only started working when she turned 1. Although she is my 3rd child but because my other two children are much older it feels like I am starting all over again.
Joelle has been meeting all developmental milestones but her walking has been slow. However, I am not too worried as she showed pre-walking skills such as holding on to furniture to walk and she holds on to our hands to walk. Hopefully, she will start walking independently soon.
Joelle attends 2 days of childcare a week since she was 7 months old and this gives me time to work. On the other days, I do various activities with her and this includes having playdates with baby friends, enjoying rhymes and songs at library rhyme time, visiting play centres for fun play and doing baby crafts.
Play dates can be quite fun especially when you get to meet other mums and Joelle gets to engage in play with other children too. She has a couple of baby friends whom she meets on a regular basis which helps to develop social skills – learning to play with someone else, sharing toys etc. Library rhyme times are really good as well, Joelle gets to meet other children there, listening to rhymes and doing actions with songs. At the library, we get to meet other mums with babies as well which helps me to set up play dates for Joelle.
Sometimes, I gather a few mums with babies and we meet at the play centre for a play. The babies get to climb the various equipment and play alongside other children. It is definitely a good way to get our babies out and about. Mums can also interact with one another and chat about their babies’ development. It is a good support system to have when you find yourself a suitable mums and bubs group.
Last but not least, I organised baby crafts activities during special occasions such as Chinese New Year, Easter, Mother’s day. I get a specialised art teacher to conduct these sessions and just get mums and bubs to gather at my home for baby craft activities and we use this opportunity to chat with one another too.
As Joelle showed interest in music and dance, I have organised to go for music and movement trial classes. It is important to recognise your child’s interests and follow up with them. I generally find that when I have an engaged child there tend to be fewer behavioural issues.
Cheers from Down under,
Adelyn
Early Childhood Trainer/Assessor (16 years)
She has been in the early childhood sector for 16 years now. She worked as a preschool teacher, senior teacher, vice-principal and principal of preschool and childcare centres in Singapore. She has experience in lecturing and training early childhood educators in Singapore, China and Australia.
