Poppins’ Papers
Notes from a most-loved Nanny
How sneaky, you found my blog. This is a small, unorganized collection of information, whether fun stories or advice from my time as a professional nanny for Navy Seal families. I hope you find something fun, but I love your curiosity for clicking something playfully.
Creativity Starts Here
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Unbox Adventure
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Creativity Starts Here ~ Unbox Adventure ~
It is the truth universally acknowledged…
that a child, whether in possession of a good fortune or not, will always be in want of… cardboard. I do not know what makes this material so magical. In fact, throughout my 20+ years of caring for children, no matter how many families, cardboard never let me down. We could spend hours decorating the box with crayons or markers, securing large pieces to the stairs for a slide, or using their kitchen step stool as a base for some crazy creations (with a mini slide over the steps, of course). We could come home to our favorite castle or a pirate cove. The possibilities were limitless, and our designs only grew. It not only sparked their imagination, but also strengthened their ability to create, build, and adapt. If the door broke or the castle fell, we needed to discover a new alternative to secure or mend it. How do we attach a slide to the side for the princess's easy escape, or a tower for the archer to stand guard? Bring out a giant box or two and see what you and your children can do!
The bubbles
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The bubbles ~
By far the best tool in any mother’s or nanny’s toolbox is… bubbles! Our most standard version is with a bubble wand or bubble machine, which is good fun for a couple of minutes, but I’ve found that it fizzles out pretty quickly. The demands of “more bubbles!” and the appeal of popping the same-sized bubbles over and over become boring for both parties involved. I’m not even going to mention the giant bubbles with a pool and foam noodle. It’s messy, you have to be outside, and there is a lot of setup. So allow me to introduce my not-sponsored friend, Olay ribbons. Probably not the best ingredients, but if it’s just for bubbles, it’s far less toxic than most body washes and toys nowadays. This method of bubbles is simple. You just need the soap, a bowl of water, and a flat, waterproof surface, like a granite (marble or quartz) countertop, glass table, or plastic sheet. The video will explain the proportions best, but this always amounts to an hour or two of everyone playing with bubbles. As long as the surface or hand is soapy, you can catch bubbles, throw bubbles to each other, pull them apart, put bubbles inside bubbles, and so much more. I recommend for ages 3 and up since littles have a hard time making the bubbles, or they have a tendency to either taste the bubbles or rub their eyes. (Not fun, but it is fun for them to just pop them when they’re really little). Depending on how well you shape your hand and the consistency of soap to water, bubbles can come out in all different sizes. Everyone wants to pop the enormous ones, which adds to the fun. Watch the video and have fun trying this out with your little ones!
Wrap Up a Rainy Day
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Wrap Up a Rainy Day ~
Probably one of my better ideas, and it amounts to hours… (lots of hours if you can handle it)… is bubble wrap. I like to set it up before they come home from school for the surprise. A roll of this stuff costs anywhere from $20 to $40 dollars at Lowes or Home Depot, which is a small price to pay for the amount of fun. Depending on your floors (if carpet, then skip this step), take painter’s tape and put down a strip or two where you want the aisle of bubbles to start. Then, with duct tape, secure the beginning of the bubble roll (bubble side up) to the floor where you put down the painter’s tape (this helps to not leave sticky residue and makes cleanup easier). Continue this in whatever maze or pattern you like. Put on some fun music and the kids will run up and down forever. The girls and I enjoyed chasing each other like Pac-Man, and with the boys, it eventually led to bubble wrapping them for wrestling and bouncing off one another. We left it for days of giggles and stomping, and we still didn’t manage to pop all of the bubbles.
Forts Forever
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Forts Forever ~
We all know that kids love forts, but I’ve found that they cannot be premade. Pop-up tents, those giant cushion blocks, or playhouses do not have the same effect as a mismatched, wacky fort made out of stuff from around the house. Don’t get me wrong, those giant fort cushions can be used, but you also need a sheet, couch cushions, a random box, a chair, possibly a broom, and the coffee table. The crazier the better, and the more well-loved the fort will be. I do not know why, but I don’t argue with what works. We can bring glowsticks in and watch a movie before bedtime or stash our favorite toys and books in the fort during the day. Building forts together also helps them understand how to design and build their own, which improves their creativity. Grab some random stuff and see what wild forts you can create!
The Fall Game
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The Fall Game ~
Much like cats, children have a fascination with watching things fall down from different heights. Luckily, this activity is way more fun than “the drop game.” The best thing for this is a staircase. If you don’t have stairs, then maybe a hill, an angled driveway, the front steps to the house, or the back of the couch will work. We would take Hot Wheels tracks or cardboard and make a long ramp going halfway down the stairs with a jump at the end. So, whether we were racing cars or dropping toys down the slide, we could watch them fly. At the bottom of the stairs, I’d put different bins that we would try to aim for, much like skee-ball. Again, they can do this for hours, and it tires them out pretty well. I hope whatever ramp you make is wild fun too!
Fan Their Imagination
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Fan Their Imagination ~
Creativity is drastically declining, and with Ai, video games, and in some cases, school, it won’t improve unless we foster it in our own households. For instance, my friend told me one day how fascinated her new baby was with the ceiling fan in their house and that she would stare at it all day. This is not unheard of since ceiling fans probably offer the highest contrast in color to the ceiling, and they spin. However, I couldn’t help but think how much of a failed opportunity that was. Why let her be transfixed by the same exact object doing the same exact thing every day? Paint the fan, put stars on it, heck, hang toys from it! At least it would offer a new dimension or inquisitiveness to a familiar shape. How can we expect children to dream and create when we are happy to let them stare at a fan? I’m not saying everything needs to be decorated and crazy, but there are so many opportunities in our day-to-day that offer a chance for us to be creative and foster that in our children.