How did you go about planning out your family? Did you want to have a big family or just a few children? How has the planning translated to now? In this episode we get into some of Erinn and Ashley’s personal decisions and opinions when creating their families. 

Some things we talk about in this episode:

* Whats the best age gap in between kids? Research says 4 years for optimal development.

• Why Erinn and Ashley choose the amount of kids they did? Erinn has 2 and Ashley has 1.

• What did we envision for our lives in regards to marriage and children? Ashley’s vision changed drastically over the years and Erinn stuck to her plan! 

• What is a good age to start having kids? It has changed over time —  it used to be younger ages were ideal and now we see a cultural shift in waiting until we are older. 

• Personal Family dynamics when we were younger? Ashley was raised by a single mom, has one younger sister (2 years apart), and moved often. Erinn was raised by married parents, has one older sister (2 years apart), and lived in the same house for her entire childhood. 

Join us on this chat and discover some of the behind the scenes to Erinn and Ashley’s lives!

We live in a very materialistic world and with that comes buying lots and lots of toys for our children (I have a problem with this too!). When thinking about toys, we want to make sure that we are engaging our children in open-ended toys. We want them to be active participants in the engagement with the toy, where they can use their imagination and be creative. This means that there should be no batteries, no screens, and a minimal amount of toys. Infants can be overstimulated and overwhelmed with toys that light up, sing, dance, and have screens. It is too much for them. Research has found that children who are given more technological toys in their beginning years have a decreased imagination, shortened attention spans, lacking in social skills, and decrease in creativity.  We want our children to thrive, so give away the light up toys and grab something like this for your kiddos:

• Books
• Dramatic play; dress up, kitchen, work bench
• Wooden blocks; foam, cardboard
• Puzzles
• Magnatiles
• Sensory Experiences; play dough, finger painting, kinetic sand
• Light Table
• Toy Trains; Building tracks
• Doodle Board
• Bubbles
• Scooter
• Board Games; Cooperative Games (Peaceable Kingdom makes some great ones!)
• Real Tools
• Cardboard Box
• Instruments/ Music
• Legos

If a toy is labeled as an “educational toy” really check it out and make sure that it is allowing your child the freedom to express themselves. Toys are there to be used as a tool, not something that entertains us. Remember playing with toys should be fun and filled with imagination!

Get a peek into our top toy list right before the holiday time! Listen to this quick Mini Mama opinion episode that shares the extra names we didn't use for our roommates as well as a top 5 list of toys we recommend for your roommates! This is a quick episode but tune in next week for the full episode about toys and learn why we chose the toys as top tier!