This blog is for all parents; those in the traditional workforce, those who work from home, and those who work at home. Join our conversations about balancing the needs of family with the demands of work, discovering resources and activities around Alaska, and opening a dialogue about the perks and challenges of parenthood. One of our three contributors emphasizes teen and family issues. We welcome your comments but please keep them on point and civil. Avoid personal attacks and the use of profanity.
Contributors
Erin Kirkland
Erin Kirkland writes freelance and lives in Anchorage with her husband and two boys, 14 and 3. She has covered family-related topics for newspapers, parenting magazines and the Web. Erin and her family moved to Anchorage in 2005. She'll post on Wednesdays about great activities the entire family can participate in, and enjoy, together.
Gina Romero
Gina Romero is a lifelong Alaskan who is passionate about parenting. She left Alaska for a short time to earn a degree in journalism and returned for a job at Channel 2 News. Gina produced the Channel 2 Newshour for the better part of a decade and more recently served as communications specialist at the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce. Career perspectives changed when her daughter was born in 2007, and Gina is now a mother by day and freelance writer by night. Her Monday blog posts will focus on striking a healthy balance between work and family.
Writer Heather Lende has 5 children, biological and adopted, aged 17-25 and has been married to their dad for 26 years. She also coaches high school runners. She'll try to help you with teenage, young adult, and family matters. Expect her posts on Fridays.
If you stay home with a toddler, chances are you are pressed to come up with activities to keep the little one engaged. I came up with the idea of a grab bag for my 2-year-old. I asked a retired teacher with more than 20 years under her belt for advice on what to put in the bag. Here’s what we came up with.
Build your bag around a theme or activity. Don’t buy anything! You would be very surprised what you can find around the house. For instance, I did a reptile grab bag last week. I found reptile books, toy frogs and mini-plastic snakes. I then downloaded some coloring sheets and activities from the web. A toy rattle snake consisted of toilet paper tubes filled with beans, duct tape on the ends and construction paper for decoration. The toy plastic snakes and frogs are great items for counting and to practice colors. As an activity, I took her to the Radical Reptile Demonstration at the imaginarium.
For today (Monday), I decided to build my activities around Music in the Park. I gathered up her toddler instrument set, a Wee sing CD and book, as well as books with nursery rhymes. We’ll do Music For Little Ones in the morning and then do the other activities throughout the day.
I’m finding the grab bags are a great way to keep her engaged, which helps me to focus attention on accomplishing work-related projects and tasks around the house. What are some things you do to engage your toddler?
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