Ideas for 2 year old

Our family has now moved back to the States and we have bought a house. We're in transition right now, staying with relatives while we close on the house, but we're getting there. We move in shortly before Norah's 2nd birthday. I'm looking forward to settling in and being able to focus a little more on some intentional activities with her.

Even though I'm with her every day, in all the busyness of visiting family, moving, and taking care of details, I've really missed our time together one on one at home. Still she is growing in leaps and bounds and she is learning so much through all the people she's been with. I'm thankful she is learning all the time!

I've been jotting down ideas for the fall. I picked up the book Before Five in a Row at a consignment shop. It looks good and has great ideas for using children's books as themes. I will probably use some of the ideas, but right now I'm leaning towards an idea I had a few months ago, of using one of Norah's children's Bibles as our "curriculum." We would read a story each day for a week or more, depending on how much we want to do with it. I would pick out different lessons from the story and then do activities based on each, but reinforcing the Bible story each day. I'm getting excited, and even while I read the stories to her at night I'm getting tons of ideas.

Something I did get from Before Five in a Row is the idea that what's most important in the toddler years is freedom to play, enjoy nature, and the closeness between the toddler and parent. I'm still excited about planning some activities for Norah, but I feel like I've learned over the past few months that I don't need to stress so much about teaching her "school" or rushing her. This season of her life is so short, and I want to just provide an environment for her where she is learning naturally, and making lots of happy memories - like I had when I was a child. I want to enjoy these quiet toddler days. She is changing so much, and I want to hang on to each moment with her.

That being said, I'm starting to plan a few things and a loose daily schedule (because I know if there's no schedule, no boundaries, she and I go a little crazy!), but I'm also going to be flexible with it.