Pearl’s Picks: Toot and Puddle Series by Hollie Hobbie

Toot and Puddle are some of my favorite characters from children's books and that's saying a lot. They're up there beside Frog and Toad and Curious George. In fact, I'm surprised that they aren't more popular and that I had to stumble upon them by accident (at the library of course) to discover them. Toot and Puddle are the…

On Mommy Shaming: Judge Less, Support Instead

A few weeks back I learned of the Victoria Beckham and Hilary Duff internet blow up over their Instagram photos of them kissing their children on the mouths. I'm not here to rant on whether they should or should not be doing that and that's the point of this entry. In my adult career as a…

How to Make the Best Baby-Safe Play Dough in 10 minutes

This stuff is incredible. You can make a ton of it for cheap in almost any color that food coloring comes in. It's also edible. Sure, it's not a great snack, but it's perfectly fine if your baby has a few bites. The natural ingredients will be a lot gentler to their tummies than the store…

Busy Girl Life Hack: Homemade Salads Packed for the Workweek

I'm not one of those people that are organized by default. I'm famous for misplacing keys, wallets, dropping phones in toilets and, most recently, the snow. But this is one life hack that makes my Monday-Friday, 9-5 job, as unusual as it is, so much better. Packed salad lunches = happy week. Every week I vary the salad…

8 Songs To Sing That Fussy Baby to Sleep (and none of them are by Raffi)

     The first time I couldn't get a fussy 3-month-old to stop crying threw me into a full panic. I'd gone through a checklist of all the most likely reasons he was fussy and texted his mother, sure that it was something catastrophic. A pro mother of three, she texted a simple "He's probably just tired. Try putting…

Pearl’s Picks: Amy Wilson Sanger’s World Snacks Series

When you're a city nanny, you spend a lot of time at the library. The Boston Public Library was the nation's first library established in 1848 and is one of the most visited sites in the city for its sheer beauty. The number of branches here also make it difficult to walk a child home without them asking to…

Playgroup Fun: Rainbow Spaghetti Party

Rainbow spaghetti is probably one of my favorite group activities. I first did it when I was teaching a baby art class right before I started caregiving Pearl. There's something just so whimsical and delightful about a huge batch of vivid rainbow spaghetti. What usually happens is the kids come in and stare at it in…

Why Reggio Emilia?

I keep seeing the term Reggio-inspired. What does that mean? The term Reggio-inspired is a hot topic on the Internet, particularly among early childhood educators. The Reggio Emilia Approach is a unique school of thought that originated in Italy in response to Mussolini's dictatorship. A group of mothers and children decided to found their own school by creating…

Playgroup Idea: Cardboard Playhouse

  This house has been through a lot. When I had only been working with Pearl for a few weeks her parents had received a huge package. I had no clue what was in it but the minute they came home I asked, “Could I….have that box?” I tried to hide my bated breath. The thing…

Veggie Stamps: Print Making For Toddlers

Pearl is one of those "clean hands kids". You know, the kind that can't stand to have mud, yogurt, mashed bananas, and sometimes even paint on her hands without a stop-everything-you're-doing "oh nooooo" moment. That's where stamps come to the rescue! These stamps are ultra cool because you can find them anywhere, they're natural, and very…