Fun With the World Map Magnetic

Jonah got this magnetic world map for Christmas from his grandparents, and it has been a lot of fun for him! I highly recommend this to any kid who is big enough not to put small pieces in their mouth. (The package said it's for kids 7+, but I don't see why wait, if the kid is interested in learning.) Our map is in Finnish but I found it also in English here. (It's located in England, I don't know if anyone sells them in the USA.)

Sally, on the other hand, is running out of activities to do since everything seems to go in her mouth. Her first watercolor session was very brief for that very reason. Activity suggestions for busy toddlers are welcome.

Cooking Together

Confession: I'm a lazy cook and I get discouraged easily when things don't go the way I expected. Another excuse reason for not cooking "real food" everyday is that I simply have no time from the kids. I'm caught in the middle of a 4-year-old who loves to learn new things and getting more responsibility, and a 1,5-year-old who is... well, quite busy climbing all of the time. Most of the time I spend pulling her down from walls, curtains, tables and chairs. If I am desperate, I buckle her in her high chair for a minute so I can get something done, but that only means she will scream the whole time she's in it, since she hates being restrained (needless to say, we don't travel in the car with her very much either).

What encourages me to cook more, though, is Jonah, who is a wonderful helper. He made meatballs with me the other day, and at bed time as I asked for his high and low points of the day, for a high point he said without a doubt, "cooking with you mom!". These things are more important to kids than we think.