Flowering Baby, LLC

How many of you have at least one little one scampering around your feet as you homeschool the older ones? We have one of those, and it is often a challenge to keep her happily engaged in an activity while we work. Those toddler attention spans are pretty short too! So I find myself constantly zipping back and forth between my school-agers and baby girl, in an (often futile) attempt to amuse her.

Imagine my delight when I first heard of the company Flowering Baby. Started by a teacher and her mother, this program was created for infants up to 5 year olds. My curiosity was piqued, and I enthusiastically delved into the One to Two Year old program .

 

 

 

 

I really liked the organization of the program as a whole, and for each age group as well. Included in the first pages are lists of  the books and materials that will be used for the entire year. I like this because I can tack it up and see at a glance what I'll be needing as I prepare for upcoming activities.
But then there are also shorter lists for each month of the program. You may like that if the larger one leaves you feeling a little overwhelmed.

The  program is broken up into 12 months starting with, well, 12 months. Logical, right? The month's lessons are then made up of 24 days. As a quick aside, a great feature of  Flowering Baby is that it allows you to begin wherever you're baby is at regarding their skill level, so you can skim through the activities, see where your child best fits in, and start there. Each month will feature several books, as well as a classical composer.

 I know that I don't need to say this again, but I will. Those little toddler attention spans are short! Fortunately, being educators themselves, the creators of this curriculum provide lessons that are short and sweet, with a fun activity or two, a nursery rhyme or song to sing with your little one, followed by a time to listen to some classical music.

Let me tell you what a daily lesson might look like. Our 1st day found baby girl and I looking at our faces in a mirror and identifying the facial features, which she loved, as she had just mastered the word "eye"! Next, I drew a simple portrait of baby on paper, so she could practice identifying some more. Now, I thought my picture was alright, but I had to question myself a bit when my 7 year old came in the room, looked at the picture, and said, "Wow, you're sooo good! You draw like a 6 year old!" Hmmph!  I don't think it's too bad...;)

Anyway...we then sang Itsy Bitsy Spider,and then listened to Mozart for 15 minutes or so. Our story for this week was Gingerbread Baby.

Throughout the month, certain skills are focused on, for example, identifying body parts, learning to cooperate while being dressed, standing, walking on a line (if your child is not doing these already), animal sounds, etc...

As you progress through the program, the activities increase in their challenge. And while there are the lists of items to gather, I found it to be nicely open ended. Some featured books were ones that we already own, some were available at the library, and some I purchased. But you can feel free to substitute titles to make this work for you. The same goes for the materials. Some activities involve painting, and we did...but then I also used some of those Crayola markers that only work on the special paper.
An activity that calls for pouring seeds or rice would not be good for us as baby girl puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. Instead, we practiced pouring with cups in the bathtub. She had a blast!

We are now on the 15th month, and I'm finding it to be a very enjoyable and flexible program. My school-agers even love to be involved. They want to be there for every storytime and art project, and enthusiastically help me prepare lessons. Our family gives Flowering Baby two thumbs up!


We've liked it so much in fact, that I've been checking out the next level:
Two to Three Year old program.
This section is laid out pretty much like the first program. A list of the year's materials is provided up front. Then, the year is again divided into the months and days, beginning with month 25.
As you might expect, the activities get a little bigger and even more exciting for the budding preschooler.

Each day will feature an activity for Language and Math. There are also fun things to do with lessons for the music, song, story, color, and shape of the day. Then there is an "other" activity, that may be a snack, craft or game. I look forward to getting there!

Sound like a program that you might be interested in? How about a little something extra to sweeten the deal? The vendor is offering a 10% discount on the website if you enter Blog10 when ordering.


Flowering Baby, LLC
http://www.floweringbaby.com/
Program: One to Two
Ages: Birth to Five
Prices: (these are downloadable programs):  Birth to One - $30.00
             One to Two - $30.00
             Two to Three - $30.00
             Three to Four - $38.00
              Four to Five - $38.00
              Entire 5 years curriculum - $132.00



Disclaimer: I received a free download of the  Flowering Baby birth through five years program in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

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