I’m excited to share our Mommy & Me jar with all of you! Before we dive in, I want to share with you the backstory of how this little diddy came to be!
In 2021, my girl (age 3 at the time) became a big sister to not one, but two brothers! In 2022, Mommy became her teacher as we started a journey in homeschool. What do both of these events have to do with this jar? I found myself trying to protect time to just be her mom, not her teacher, and not with divided attention amongst her brothers and her. Yes, the latter is just a part of life, but I was searching for a creative and special way we could protect our time together AT HOME…those dreams of having “special field trips together with my big girl” just haven’t been a reality…and just who stays with brothers during this time? Yeah, not really an option.
A mom friend posted about an afternoon makeover she had with her six year old, and I had *all the questions*. It turns out she has a similar thing she does in her home with her oldest: a jar of activities to do with mom- and I LOVED IT!
That night I search for a glass jar to my liking, and the next day my daughter and I sat down during the boys’ afternoon nap and brainstormed ideas we could do together at home. She was all about it!
I wrote our ideas down on colored paper, ready for our jar!
I then prepped our jar…you know, to make it pretty 😉
I thought FOR SURE she’d want pink added to it, but we ended up going with gold. Yep, she’s my child. I used gold spray paint and painted only half of the jar with the help of painters tape to create a straight line around the jar.
When it was dry, I added some crinkle-cut filler to the bottom of the jar to beef it up a little, then added all of our idea strips we had come up with together the day before. We were almost ready for this beauty, but we wanted to add more…
So, our first activity involving our Mommy & Me jar was painting it together. We used acrylic paint, but in hindsight, I probably would have used paint markers. I had only one in my stash, and it worked much better. It’s ok though, because we did it together, so therefore it’s pretty perfectly unperfect if you ask me!
Lastly, I added gobs of ribbons and strings to make it super fun and special! I really love the mix of textures and of course, some had glitter.
So how does it work? Well, on afternoons when I’m caught up on everything urgent and brothers are napping, my daughter can pick what we’ll do together, just her and me, during their nap. It’s always a surprise. (I just make sure if she picks something like baking that I have something in my back pocket, so I know we have the ingredients on hand.) Some of the ideas in our jar include baking, painting, new hair ‘dos, a board game, making popcorn, etc. We love some stove-top popcorn around here!
No, it won’t happen every afternoon, but if I can get one or two times a week of just some good quality time with her doing something fun, it’s so worth it!
I’m sure we’ll alter some ideas and add some ideas once the weather turns and as her interests change. Time is precious, friends!
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