May Favorites + Preparing for Preschool
Hey there, I’m Kayla! I’m a licensed therapist in Minnesota as well as a mom of an almost-three year old. Here are some of the activities, items, and resources that I’ve been enjoying this past month!
Please note that some of the items may include affiliate links, meaning I get a small commission if you use the link to purchase the item yourself. Know that I’m only recommending items that I actually use and love!
Mental Health
More hobbies, less social media: I’ve been continuing my recent focus of reducing my time on social media and increasing my time engaging in hobbies that I enjoy. Springtime makes this easy for me, as there is an abundance of gardening activities for me to “dig in” to! Wish me luck on successfully growing tomatoes this year- and figuring out a better solution to the squirrels around me who are relentless! I’ve also continued to do a lot of crocheting (I’ll share about my newest project below!) and have found this to be the best activity for me in the evenings when I’m winding down from the day.
Parenthood
Personalized party-favors!
Next month my little kiddo turns 3! Each year we have a small & chill birthday party with family, and this year per her request, she’ll be having a princess/dragon themed party. As I’ve been having fun crocheting amigurumis (stuffed animals), I’ve been making some adorable little dragons as party favors for her cousins. Premier Parfait, which is where I bought the yarn for these, has a free pattern for this cute dragon that’s pretty easy to follow if you’ve done an amigurumi or two before.
Transitioning to preschool
As she turns 3, we’ll also be transitioning to pre-school, which feels like such a big transition! I’ve been lucky enough to be able to work part-time since becoming a mom, and with our more limited childcare needs we were able to have a nanny for the past couple years. This worked really well for us as our daughter struggled with childcare transitions as a baby, and we were so grateful to have had such a wonderful nanny who could be so patient with her throughout the earlier seasons of separation anxiety.
In convenient timing, our nanny is about to have her own babies and will be staying home with them- which aligns well as we were thinking of transitioning into preschool around when our daughter turned 3. Thankfully, she has a much easier time with childcare transitions and rocked the “intro day” at her new daycare/preschool. I’m looking forward to having some more time to dedicate to work as well as see our kiddo learn and grow in a new environment! Here are a few ways we prepped her for this new childcare transition:
We talked to her often about what her time at preschool will be like. We told her about the schedule and activities as well as all of the fun things that she has to look forward to.
We played “school”. She loves imaginative play, so we let her take the lead on playing school as a way to think about her new routine in a fun way.
We did a lot of preparation about meeting new friends at school. We talked to her about how there will be other kids at preschool and ways that she might play with them when she’s there. As she tends to be a bit more shy and slow to warm up, we also talked about how it is okay if she feels shy or overstimulated at times. We talked about how she can go play on her own when she needs, and how over time she will warm up more and feel more comfortable with it. It seems like this worked well as after her introductory day, she was saying to me “At first I was a little shy, but then I warmed up to my new friends!”.
We’re going to ease into it as needed. For her intro day, I told her teacher to let me know if she’s having a hard day and that I can pick her up early so that she can ease into it feeling more positive. Thankfully, she actually had a great day and we could barely get her to leave at the end of the day! But, I’m making sure that I’m extra available for the first week in case she needs some shorter days as she’s easing into it.
Lifestyle
I recently got a gel manicure and pedicure with my sister to freshen up for spring. And while I love getting my nails done and supporting a local nail salon, it’s just not an easy thing to add into my schedule or budget (which is why I get my nails done maybe once a year). Usually, I have natural nails or will go for my simple manicurist active shine for a light touch- but I was curious about an actual gel set for when I want to do something a little fancier that isn’t going to chip off in one day. So, I got the Olive and June gel set and love it! It took a little practice to get the hang of it (I’m glad it comes with some good instructions), but it works super well and now I’m excited to be able to have some fun nails a bit more often!
Looking for more recommendations?
I’ve got a list of several of my favorite items for mental health, parenthood, and lifestyle over at my ShopMy account. Again, a few (not all) of these are affiliate links, but they’re all my tried and true recommendations!