Frances Reid Clothing

A friend posted about this line on her blog and it's too cute not to share. Happy holidays!

Holiday Shopping for your Sprouts!

December is RIGHT around the corner and it's time for the little ones to start asking santa for their dream gifts. There are some great local stores to pick up the perfect gift for babies through tweens. Here are some of our picks:


Tweed Baby Outfitters is located in Edgehill Village and feels like a little magical cottage full of adorable clothes, toys and trinkets perfect for baby and mom.

615.627.8290 - info@tweedbabyoutfitters.com 
edgehill village - 1200 villa place suite 110 - nashville

Popo Cool Kids Stuff is located in the Hill Center and is closing Dec. 31st! So get in there for 20% off everything. They have some adorable books and toys and much more.

Snap Kids Nashville is also in the Hill center and has the hippest clothes and accessories for babies up to tweens.

Check out a friend's BLOG for an adorable round up of gifts that are hard to pass up! You might see some of these in Smart Sprouts after the Holidays...

Happy Holidays and thanks for reading! 

Bonus for any blog readers and Smart Sprouts clients: We will be offering gift certificates for 20% off bunches of 5, 10 or 20 hours during the month of December for our anniversary/holiday special! Be sure to check our website or stop by to pick one up!

IKEA toys for Education

It's not secret that IKEA is our favorite store around here. We have several giant stuffed animals that are some of our most popular toys. This big, soft elephant lives at Smart Sprouts and is one of my favorites. IKEA has a program set up to donate $1 to UNICEF for every soft toy sold so that children all over the world can have access to quality education.


So if you are in a city with an IKEA be sure to pick some up this holiday season or purchase a soft toy or two online. Your little one will love their snuggly buddy and you can feel good about helping children worldwide.


Thanks for reading!
Ann

Baby Bargain Mondays

I am an Amazon fanatic and got an email this morning about their "Baby Bargain Mondays". There are some fantastic deals and I can't say enough about signing up for "Amazon Mom" and auto shipping things like diapers, wipes, paper towels, or anything else that you use up regularly. You can always cancel or adjust the shipping schedule and you get a great markdown for subscribing.


Check it out Here!

Just for fun...

Top 10 times to use Smart Sprouts for drop in care:
1. Doctor's Appointment
2. Hair Appointment (especially at Shine Salon!)
3. Big Kids have an activity at school where bringing little brother/sister(s) is not the best idea
4. Adults only breakfast/lunch/meeting
5. Babysitter cancels
6. A much needed date night (last Friday of every month we extend hours until 9pm!)
7. Lunch date with a friend. Drop the kids and head next door to Food Company or Crow's Nest Green Hills for a quick bite
8. Running errands
9. Working out at Pure Barre, Willow Pilates, the Y or personal training in Green Hills
10. Because sometimes Mom just needs a BREAK!

Homework Club

We are very excited to offer an after hours "homework club" for 4th-12th graders at Smart Sprouts. I have tutored for almost 10 years and have been setting up Vanderbilt students as tutors for local families for over 2 years. There are so many smart, qualified and professional students, grad students and recent graduates of Vanderbilt and other local colleges in the area. I have always enjoyed matching students with the perfect tutor to help them stay organized, get their work done, prepare for tests, or just spend some extra time on subjects that they aren't confident in. 


Homework Club will take place from 6-9pm at the Smart Sprouts location: 
2209 Bandywood Drive, Suite D


Many schools in the area offer study hall after school, but our homework club is much different. There will be a highly qualified tutor to every 3-4 students to answer questions, track students' progress, and to create a fun but studious learning environment. Our later hours allow for kids to finish up their activities and athletic practices and to stop in for 30 minutes or up to 3 full hours to complete their work, projects, or test prep. 


Many tutoring centers have students work on center-based materials, complete diagnostic tests or set up meetings with parents. Although some students require this kind of focus we simply address the work that students actually need to accomplish in their classes. Students can work from test prep books during homework club (for school admissions testing for all ages) and seek help for any tough questions. We can also administer practice tests and score them so that students have an idea of how they'll do in testing and what to work on.


We hope to create a place where students are excited to work with their knowledgable and energetic tutors so that getting homework done becomes easy on both students and their parents. 


Homework Club will have a limited number of spots available per semester and reservations are suggested so that we can have tutors available that are qualified for each student's needs. 


And if any student requires some extra attention we also offer packages of one-one-one tutoring hours that can be scheduled to fit the family's needs.


There will most likely be a deal for homework club and tutoring coming up soon so keep your eyes open! 


Thanks for reading,


Ann

Child and Infant CPR Class

At Smart Sprouts we require our staff to have CPR certification before working with small children. I've also talked to parents who have expressed interest in being certified. So we have decided to have a class taught by a pediatric nurse on location at Smart Sprouts for employees, potential Smart Smarts endorsed sitters and any interested parents. 


The class will be held here on Saturday, August 27th from 2:30-4:30pm.

If we have more than 10 people taking the class it will be $30 per person. We will max out at 30 people. Please call or email to reserve a space if you are interested!

615.712.6217

SmartSprouts@gmail.com

Thanks for reading,

Ann

Blog Love

I don't know about you but I could literally get lost in the Blog world for hours on end. Here are a few of my favorites:


Enjoying this new blog by 2 Nashville moms of 2 beautiful little baby girls. Today they have some great ideas for what to do this weekend.


Nashville Moms Blog
*Check out the "links we love" section for other adorable baby related blogs.

Always love this Blog from Tweed Baby Outfitter's creator, Maggie, for great new products, DIY ideas and more. 


Tweed Blog

Another one of my favorite's is Little Green Notebook. The author, Jenny, is an interior designer and a mom and always has inspirational posts of easy DIY projects and she just has great taste in general. Her posts on her girls rooms are adorable. 


Little Green Notebook

Last but not least is my personal favorite but probably because it's family. I grew up in Northern California and my siblings and parents still live there. I check my sister's blog daily for updates on my sweet nieces so I don't feel like I'm missing too much. 


Baby Heff

Happy weekend and thanks for reading,


Ann

A new project

This week I started a new job. No, I am not leaving Smart Sprouts or cutting back on my hours of reading to, playing with, feeding, and chasing after our little sprouts. I am taking a few hours a week in the early mornings, afternoons or weekends to spend time as the Program Coordinator of the Child Studies Masters Program at Peabody College at Vanderbilt. I graduated from this program in May of 2009 with my M.Ed. of Education in Child Studies and I had such a wonderful experience. The director of the program, Vicki Harris, was such an incredible advisor and friend to me and I am so excited that she has asked me to help her in this role. I will be spending time working in recruitment for new students, connecting with alumni, setting up meaningful field placements for students, and making sure the program is the best that it can be. 


I am most excited about diving back into the world of research. There is never enough time in my week to keep up on current research although it is one of the things that I really love to do. Now that I will be getting paid to do this I can continue to learn more about the best ways to support early learning and development. I hope to implement this new research at Smart Sprouts in our everyday play and watch all of our little sprouts learn and grow. 


Thanks for reading,
Ann

Elephant Finger Puppet

This is a fast and easy craft we've been doing at Smart Sprouts lately for campers. Every kid loves to color and this elephant craft can be adjusted to almost every age. The little ones can color all over them with crayons, older kids can draw with more detail in colored pencils and if you're brave and have an easy to clean work station kids of all ages can paint them. 

Right click on this image to save it as a PDF. Then print it full sized on a piece of regular computer paper. You can cut around the edges and let kids color or paint to their heart's content. When they are finished cut out the hole where the elephant's trunk should be and show your little sprout how to stick your finger through to make his trunk. 

We paired this craft with books about zoo animals. Here are some of our favorites:

Little Giraffe finger puppet book is a favorite of many of our 2-3 year olds. Mom controls little giraffe's head through the back of the book while your little one tries to help giraffe find "something blue". 


There is also a puppy, duck, crab, mouse, ladybug, cow, polar bear, bunny, snowman, butterfly, lamb, bee, panda, bat, tiger, kitten, lion, turkey and fish version in this series.



We also love Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann.


This one is great for all ages and we've found so many learning activities that can go along with this book. 


We love finding simple (and easy-to-clean-up-after) activities that will keep our little sprouts engaged and learning throughout the day.


Enjoy!




Thanks for reading,
Ann

Language, Social Skills and Cognition

Early language and cognition have always been fascinating to me and are what drew me to the study of child development in the first place. I have always been interested in how children begin to comprehend the world around them, learn to speak their first words, and build the foundation for reading and learning.  

After observing young children in different settings throughout my time as a student, researcher, and childcare provider I have also become more and more interested in children's social development. I've enjoyed watching and learning about the ways that they learn to play and interact with others and how this changes with age. 

When children are young the transformation that they go through month by month is incredible. I am still amazed by the incredible differences I see in an 18 month old versus a 2-year-old and a 2-year-old versus a 3-year-old. Children picks things up so quickly and their little personalities come out in their actions and abilities. I can't imagine how quickly this passes by for a parent watching their own little one!

At Smart Sprouts we try to use research to guide us in supporting children's cognitive and social development. This is a great quick reference chart for some basic milestones that we can work on at every age:

All kids are different and develop at their own pace, but these are some general guidelines that help us to adjust our expectations and teaching tools to certain ages. There is nothing more exciting than when we see our smart sprouts reach a new level of development even if it's as simple as stringing together new words. And we love to provide an environment where kids can learn and grow through play.

*This chart came from The Mayo Clinic website.

Pinterest

Have you heard of Pinterest?


I like to think of it as the lazy girl's guide to the best of blogs, shopping, DIY projects, home decor ideas, recipes, and so much more. When you sign up (request an invite first) you get a "pin it" button on your favorites bar and anytime you find a photo of something you love online you "pin" that photo to your profile and choose a category for it. Then you have all of your "pin boards" full of great ideas with sources attached. It's sort of like an online version of a binder full of magazine clip outs, but without the hassle of sorting through pages and trying to remember where you found them.


The best part of pinterest is that you share your boards with friends and follow their boards as well. So you don't have to do all that web surfing yourself! You can simply sit back and watch the pins go up and then "repin" anything that you like. 


The ideas, crafts, DIY projects, recipes, gifts, decor ideas and clothing/accessories for kids are endless. I have already found so many great summer camp projects and snacks for Smart Sprouts. Here is a glimpse of the Smart Sprouts pin board:

This is a Smart Sprouts board through my personal account. I'm waiting on my invite for a Smart Sprouts account where I can create boards for crafts, research, snacks, decor and more all about kids. 


Here are a couple of my most recent and favorite finds:

Superglue pennies to the bottom of shoes for homemade tap shoes!

When I saw this 'pin' I had to 'repin' and when I clicked on the source I found this amazing list of New Uses for Old Things, Kids Edition from Real Simple.


This a great example of how 'pins' lead to finding more great ideas on the web that I would never find myself. Now I know that baking soda and WD-40 both work for cleaning crayon off of walls, a pillow case can be turned into an adorable art smock, and that cupcake liners can double as popsicle stick drip-catchers.


And this is an adorable idea for an Eric Carle themed lunch box:
(Although it might only happen on the first day of school but on any normal day it looks a little ambitious...)

This may seem like the ultimate online time waster (and yes, at first you will spend WAY too much time on it). But, I like to think that pinterest actually cuts down on the time I might spend flipping through magazines, blog surfing and googling things likes recipes only to be disappointed. Pinterest brings together the best of the web and allows you to not only save these ideas in an organized way but gives an easy way to track back to the actual recipe/DIY instructions/store/website etc. 


Ready, set, pin!


Thanks for reading,
Ann

Tweed Baby Outfitters and StyleBlueprint Blog

Our favorite children's store and our favorite Nashville style blog are pairing up today to offer a great deal! StyleBlueprint is a local blog written by two moms who keep up on beauty, health, restaurants, local talent, art, design, fashion and more. They were the first to write about us in this post (and I am eternally grateful).
Tweed Baby Outfitters is an incredibly cute children's boutique located in Edgehill Village. The owner, Maggie has hand picked the best selection of baby and toddler clothes, shoes, toys, and accessories to fill her shop. And FYI their custom gift wrap is incredibly cute and will make you look like a DIY gift wrapping genius.

If you are looking for a unique baby gift or something fun for your little sprout be sure to scoop up this deal: $25 for $50 worth of merchandise! 

*Side Note: Tweed posted some pics on their facebook page of some musical instruments they now carry and they have a guitar that looks JUST like the ones we have at Smart Sprouts. Kids LOVE these guitars and we haven't found them anywhere else...






Happy shopping and thanks for reading,
Ann

Sippy Cups, Storage, Slides, Snotty noses, and Sanitization

Here at Smart Sprouts our playspace sees up to 12 kids at a time and has taken some serious playtime beat downs by up to 21 kids in a day (our all time max so far!). Our toys, structures and products have to be built to last and to be easily cleaned. I have recommended the best products to many of our moms and I've made a list of the day to day things we can't live without:
*Side Note: If any products can be found on Amazon I will always link there. We are Amazon junkies! Heard of Amazon mom? Sign up and you can order products (at discounted prices) and set a schedule of delivery you don't have to think twice about. Diapers and wipes can come on a schedule of your choosing and are delivered to your door. It doesn't get much better than that!


Sippy Cups:


These cups are the best for us. Screw tops (minimizes leaking and childproof for toddlers' favorite game of take-apart), easy to clean, you won't stress out about leaving one at the playground because they are about 50 cents a pop, and our favorite feature is the range of colors to use for different kiddos. 




Storage:


IKEA, IKEA, IKEA. If you've ever walked into our space you'll notice it looks a bit like an IKEA showroom with some Melissa and Doug + Plan Toys thrown in. IKEA has a line called Trofast that comes in white and wood and we used those pieces to create our front desk and storage for toys/shoes/diaper bags. I can't say enough about how sturdy and practical these pieces are for kids. You can buy bins in a range of colors (white, blue, green, pink, red) and at the end of the day when the playroom is torn up it's as simple as tossing the blocks in one bin, puzzle pieces in another, etc. and the room looks cleaned up and put together. Plus the pieces are so affordable and have a glossy finish that is incredibly easy to wipe down. 


Sorry Nashville friends but the closest IKEA is in Atlanta. It took a suburban and a 12 foot U-Haul to get everything we needed (with another 2 trips later on). There is a company in Nashville called moderNash who does IKEA buying and has a retail store with some items they keep in stock. 


Slides:

This slide is definitely a favorite for kids of all ages at Smart Sprouts. It has a fun little crawl space underneath, a wheel for steering the "ship" to faraway lands, an easy to climb ladder and a slide that is fast enough for the big kids but safe enough for little ones. Also one full side is chalkboard!


This slide is by CedarWorks and is called the Rhapsody Solo. It came in pieces but was easy to assemble and pretty affordable for the price-per-play we've gotten out of it. Another great option for an indoor slide is their "Rhapsody Soloette" for $195. It doesn't have the underneath level but looks like it would be just as fun and take up less space. I can say this thing is STURDY. It is also easy to wipe down and clean and we haven't had too many head bumps or falls so in general it's very safe for all ages (our ages are 1-6). 


Snotty Noses:


Teething, allergies, and more produce little runny noses that never seem to stop. It feels like cruel and unusual punishment to rub a little red nose with yet another dry tissue. Answer? Boogie Wipes. 



Boogie Wipes are natural saline based wipes that are soft and gentle on noses. They can also tackle food smeared faces and hands in one wipe. We buy them in this giant canister and go through them like you wouldn't believe. They are also green and purple...our signature colors. It's a win win!


Sanitization:


This hand sanitizer stays on the counter and gets used all day long. It is alcohol free, kid safe, leaves a citrus-herb fresh smell and makes hands soft instead of dry. 


It comes in a foam, spray bottles and on-the-go wipes. It also claims "4X more uses per oz. than alcohol gel" and I have to agree. We have had a hard time getting through the bottles and we use it many many times a day.








Do you have a favorite product that you can't live without? We'd love to hear!


More posts to come on toys that have held up to hours and hours (and hours) of playtime as well as research on separation anxiety and more.


Thanks for reading!
Ann

Here comes the blog

Hi, I'm Ann. This blog was born out of my business, Smart Sprouts Drop In Playcare and Tutoring. I studied child development at Vanderbilt University and then received my Masters of Education in Child Studies at Vanderbilt's Peabody College.  I opened Smart Sprouts in December 2010 following in the footsteps of my entrepreneurial sister who started Brilliant Babies  (among other businesses) in my hometown of Menlo Park, California. 


Despite not having any children (yet) I am fascinated by them and have had a crash course in parenting over the past 8 months while chasing 1-6 year olds around for 9 hours a day. I also have seven smart and beautiful nieces who entertain and amaze me on a regular basis. 


I am inspired to write about research, crafts, products, activities, ideas and more that pertain to young children. I hope to share some of what I find and know about kids with our clients and any parents who enjoy blog surfing as much as I do! Please feel free to comment or ask questions through the blog or my contact email: SmartSprouts@gmail.com.


Thanks for reading, 
Ann