Thumbles

10/30/2026

Where do you keep all your toddler's artwork? 🎨

Here's what I do. I keep a few favourites, and the rest? I snap a photo and email it to my child's very own Gmail address. One minute out my day, no clutter, and the memory is saved forever.

The grandparents send sweet notes to it too. One day, my kids will open a whole inbox of memories.

And no pressure. I'm doing it for the years they're home with me. If I remember to add more later, I will.

I wrote up exactly how I do it, plus how to set up a child's Gmail account step by step:
https://www.thumbles.co/blog/where-to-keep-my-toddlers-artwork

Learn how to create a Gmail account for your child in about 15 minutes, plus a simple way to turn it into a memory box of crafts and milestones.

10/27/2026

How to structure your stay-at-home mom day really used to stump me by 8am.
What finally worked wasn’t a strict schedule.
It was a loose rhythm where every part of the day already has a next step, so nobody’s left scrambling, me included.

My best tip: set up tomorrow’s first activity tonight, while the house is still.
A few minutes laying out a tub of coloured rice or some paint saves a lot of morning panic.

Choose a craft or a video you thought was amazing today - the one you saved for later. Get the stuff, and set up this evening!

I wrote up a real daily rhythm, what to do when an activity flops, and how a weekly theme does the planning for us. Read the full post here: https://www.thumbles.co/blog/how-to-structure-your-stay-at-home-mom-day

Structuring your day at home with toddlers

09/09/2026

Nobody learns to sail on a calm day.
If this week has been hard, I want to remind you about something.

The hard weeks are not you failing.
You have been doing the work in the middle of a storm.

The tantrum in the shop.
The nap that never came 😓
The activity you set up that lasted four minutes before it ended in tears.

Those days you end up falling onto the couch and not moving for a few minutes until your nervous system got back to normal...

None of that means you are bad at this.
It means the water was rough... but you kept going anyway!

Your child does not need calm seas.
They need someone steady in the boat with them.
That is you, even on the days it does not feel like it.
Smooth seas never made a skilled sailor.

Rough ones did.

You are seen, and never be afraid to talk to someone when you find you need a bit of help!

09/01/2026

What a fun science experiment! Let's do it together!
First we put a popsicle stick in plain water.

It falls right over.
Every time.

Then we add dish soap and whip it up.
The water turns into thick white foam.

Now the stick stands straight up!

Here is why.
Foam is not really a liquid.
It is thousands of tiny bubbles pressed together, and they hold their shape until something pushes hard enough to move them.
So the foam can hold the stick.
Plain water cannot.

What you need:
A clear bowl or tub
Water
Dish soap
A hand mixer or whisk
Popsicle sticks

Setup time: 2 minutes.

Ask your child to guess first.
Will it stand or fall?

Then let them test it.
The guessing is the part that does the work.

More foam ideas in the comments 👇

08/28/2026

Fun kids craft using science! Make a lava lamp with water using:
*Large clear jar
*Tiny jar that can hold hot water
*Tinfoil
*Hot water
*Cold water
*Chopstick or Knife
*Food coloring
With cold water in the large container, the hot water inside rises to the top. Using a food coloring helps see the science experiment at work.
Notes:
- Use a jar tall enough to let the hot water pull out.
- Use food coloring. I tried diluted paint and it didn't work as well.
- Once most of the hot water is out, give it a gentle shake to release the rest.
✅ Adult led activity!

08/27/2026

Fun kids craft using science! Make a lava lamp with water using:
*Large clear jar
*Tiny jar that can hold hot water
*Tinfoil
*Hot water
*Cold water
*Chopstick or Knife
*Food coloring

With cold water in the large container, the hot water inside rises to the top. Using a food coloring helps see the science experiment at work.

Notes:
- Use a jar tall enough to let the hot water pull out.
- Use food coloring. I tried diluted paint and it didn't work as well.
- Once most of the hot water is out, give it a gentle shake to release the rest.
✅ Adult led activity!

08/11/2026

There is a moment, somewhere around age 3, when a child looks at a picture of a creature the size of a bus, with teeth like kitchen knives, and simply decides:
this one is mine now...

And then they're off.
They hear the names.

The big, ridiculous, tongue-tangling names.
They learn what it ate,
how it slept,

whether it could beat a T. rex in a fight (everything can, apparently).

They repeat your pronunciation.
They can listen to the same fact at breakfast, at lunch, and again in the bath, as if they have never heard anything so astonishing.
It looks like a phase but...
When a child falls this hard for dinosaurs, they aren't only collecting facts.

They're learning how to learn.
They ask questions and chase the answers.
They sort, they compare, they guess what happens next.
They hold one enormous, strange idea in their head and turn it over and over.

Researchers even have a name for it, an 'intense interest', and they've watched how it pulls a child into asking, focusing, and staying with something hard, purely because they love it.
But the best part isn't on any chart.

It's the moment a small person realises they can know something the grown-ups know.

Here's what makes dinosaurs so perfect for it.
They are huge, they are mysterious, and they were real!
A child can pour their whole heart into them and be handed something true in return.

The dinosaur is just the doorway.

What's on the other side is the discovery that falling in love with something is how you come to understand it.

Learn that once, at three, over a plastic Triceratops on the lounge floor.

What is your child's latest obsession right now?

07/13/2026

Reminder to all our parents!
We have moved
Little Roots Playroom has moved to Skool!

If you've bought any of our play guides:
→ Your invite was sent to your email
→ Click the link inside to join us on Skool
→ All your guides are waiting for you there

Didn't get your invite, or found the link had expired? No stress. We're sending invites out again today, so keep an eye on your inbox (and your spam folder). Still stuck? Pop us an email at [email protected] using the same email address you joined with, so we can match you to your account and add you right away.

If you would like to purchase our done-for-you guides, please click this link and come join us! https://www.skool.com/thumbles-4840/about

See you there!

07/13/2026

Reminder to all our parents!
We have moved
Little Roots Playroom has moved to Skool!

If you've bought any of our play guides:
→ Your invite was sent to your email
→ Click the link inside to join us on Skool
→ All your guides are waiting for you there

Didn't get your invite, or found the link had expired? No stress. We're sending invites out again today, so keep an eye on your inbox (and your spam folder). Still stuck? Pop us an email at [email protected] using the same email address you joined with, so we can match you to your account and add you right away.

If you would like to purchase our done-for-you guides, please click this link and come join us! https://www.skool.com/thumbles-4840/about

See you there!

05/06/2026

Which one is your favorite...