Resource Library

After years of working in childhood education and having many growing families ask me for parent resources, including literature and developmentally appropriate product recommendations for children, I’ve compiled this ever-expanding list in the hopes of helping.

By using the links below to purchase items, you also help support
Blue Leaf School™.

Products for School

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This is the sole sunscreen we use at Blue Leaf, voted on by our community of families. We kindly ask each parent provides the school with a bottle of Babo Sunscreen.

These make for a smooth rest time with lots of adorable designs, a blanket sown on, a pillow and a pocket for a lovey.

We’ve used other rain suits here at Blue Leaf and they never quite seem to hold up. I recommend buying a size up as both the wrists and ankles have velcro so one can get  at least two rain seasons out of them.

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I love these as a teacher and a parent. The daycare name tags pack comes with labels that can be put on clothes, a water bottle, lunch box, or anything you’re hoping your child will keep track of.

This water bottle is both durable and easy to clean without a million parts!

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These honey bear straw cups feature a safety lid, are perfect for water, juice, and smoothies, and include a set of 3 cups and 6 straws, and a cleaner for easy, what we hope to be spill-proof use.

Warm Gear

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Yes! These mitten clips should absolutely be the first item under warm gear! 🙂 

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Who doesn’t love a great base layer?! 100% Merino wool! Yes please.

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Waterproof and handled the day to day of my kids running, dragging their toes, and using the boots to break on the snow sled! Rainy days? Bring em on!

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Warm socks. My kids get a set of these every holiday season. Great socks for keeping my kids little toes and feet warm.

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Possibly the coolest mittens I’ve ever seen… The long Snowstopper extended cuff is great for children.

Potty Learning

This book is wonderful in helping prepare a child in the world of toilet learning.

At Blue Leaf and at home we have had great succcess with this chair especially since it has a higher front area.

These are a great rain pant option for children who are potty learning, saving you the hassle of removing an entire rain suit.

This allows for extra support as your child is in tranisition from the potty to using the toilet.

Infant Products

This is a well loved product in our house. The adjustable chair means it can grow with your child. Babies can sit at the table with the family, and toddlers can climb into the seat on their own. 

This is my go to baby gift. We used it with our own babies as well.

Easily swap the seat for a bassinet, or turn it into a double stroller for when you need to push two.
This stroller sorta does it all. The bassinet feature allows the baby to enjoy a stroll without being propped into a sitting position and no more waking your little one just because you’re back home. Unhook the basinet and carry them inside, sound asleep.

I love how long the ties are so that the cap can be pulled off or slipped down over the eyes.

A great split between developing oral motor skills needed for speech and keeping the floor clean.

Love the large round handles for gripping! They are great for gross motor skills and for baby learning to eat with utensils.

This diaper pail is recommended to all my friends as well as used in Blue Leaf. The pail opens and shuts easily, and allows us to use compostable bags for the bamboo diapers.

Love this for my babies since you can control from an app and turn it into an “Ok to wake” light. We also use it as a sound machine for rest time at Blue Leaf.

Help promote autonomy and independence with this soft and safe cup.

Our children often ask us to make the “rainbows dance.” These are hung in the windows at Blue Leaf and cast beautiful color rays throughout the classroom in the afternoon light.

One of the best teethers I’ve found. The shape helps get to the hard to reach back teeth.

Made from all natural materials, this sensory ball helps with gross motor skills, visual stimulation and social development.

Books For Parents

R.I.E.®

A practical and enlightening guide to the RIE® approach.

Great resource for parents of new babies and infants, as well as applying the Educaring® principles in group care settings.

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This is by far the most recommended book to our Toddler Parents! The Toddler Years is your go-to guide for navigating life with little ones to help you feel confident and supported through every challenge.

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Janet Lansbury, inspired by Magda Gerber, shares practical, respectful parenting insights to help you nurture confident, independent kids while deepening your connection with them.

Janet Lansbury’s most popular articles about how respectful parenting practices can be applied to benefit both parents and children

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This collection offers a unique perspective on caring for infants, providing valuable insights for parents, caregivers, educators, and anyone involved in supporting the well-being of young children.

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Getting babies to sleep can feel like choosing between extremes, but the Compassionate Sleep Solution offers a gentle, realistic approach to help your baby sleep while feeling safe and secure.

Outdoor Education

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How to Raise a Wild Child, offers practical tips to help parents and caregivers reconnect kids with nature for healthier, happier development.

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This thought-provoking exploration by Swedish-American mom Linda Åkeson McGurk compares the nature-focused parenting of Scandinavia to American practices, discovering how outdoor play and environmental education can lead to healthier, happier kids.

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In this eye-opening book, pediatric occupational therapist Angela Hanscom emphasizes the importance of outdoor play and movement for children’s cognitive and physical development, offering practical strategies to help kids grow into healthy, balanced, and resilient adults.

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Sharon Lovejoy’s Trowel & Error offers 12 fun and simple garden projects for parents and kids to grow together, featuring easy plans, activities, and crafts, all illustrated with her charming watercolors.

Other Book Recommendations

A great read for learning to communicate with children respectfully and effectively.

Great read for learning how to turn challenging moments into moments of connection.

An excellent resource for parents of multiple children to create an open and communicative family, and to help squash quarreling between siblings.

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Trusted guide for parents and educators, offering insights from Waldorf education to support children’s natural development from birth to age six, with updated advice on discipline, learning, and more.

This book explains the core elements of each theorist’s work and the ways these elements impact and support interactions with babies, including the topics of bonding, feeding practices, separation anxiety, and stranger anxiety.

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Drawing from Waldorf Principles, this book offers a compassionate guide to nurturing young children from birth to seven, emphasizing the importance of a loving environment for healthy emotional, physical, and intellectual growth.

This book provides insight into the world of raising boys.

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Dr. Elaine Aron, known for her work on high sensitivity, offers a compassionate guide for parents of sensitive kids, helping you understand your child’s unique traits and how to support them in thriving emotionally, socially, and academically.

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Dr. Mona Delahooke’s Brain-Body Parenting offers a fresh approach to managing challenging behaviors by focusing on the biology behind them, helping parents build stronger connections and support their child’s emotional growth.

Books For Children

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Beautifully illustrated, interactive book that helps young children understand and express their emotions, from happiness to anger, with charming text and a unique die-cut heart that guides them through each feeling.

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Each feeling corresponds to a color, helping gain self-awareness and peace. Perfect for teaching kids about emotions, colors, and self-expression.

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In this enchanting story, two children search for their jump rope. With beautiful illustrations and lyrical text, it gently shows that the extraordinary can often be found in the most familiar places, if you know where to look.

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Interactive board book for babies and toddlers, featuring playful rhyming text and peek-a-boo cutouts that keep little ones guessing and giggling. Great read-aloud for early readers.

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Mr. Rogers doing his thing to teach kids about making friends!

A fun, sweet, and playful book full of words and pictures your baby can repeat and recognize.

I love how this book teaches consent to the youngest reader!

This is one of those beautiful books that emotionally moves me every time I read it.

We’re all waiting for something and this book illustrates patience and friendship.

Love and all it’s diversity through beautiful examples of art.

A beautful showing of the San Francisco Bay area and the children get so excited about the boats.

It’s never too early to promote messages of love, inclusion, diversity, and a positive self-image.

Everything we see is determined by the light. This book is a beautiful and age-appropriate exploration of color, light and self.

Sometimes, we just need someone to listen. The Rabbit Listened teaches empathy and how to be a good ally to help others heal.

Books For Siblings

One of my favorite things about this book, is that it expresses it’s okay to have a lot of feelings about the new baby. This is just one of the million reasons why I love this book!

A realistic perspective about what will change when new baby arrives.

A beautiful celebration of the first child. This is one of those books that causes me to cry everytime I read it.

This book helped prepare our first for becoming an older sibling. 

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Help your child understand the feelings of change and growing love when welcoming a new sibling.

Practical Life

Kids love to help and these real children’s garden tools allow them to do so! These can be seen in use year round at Blue Leaf.

This set is wonderful as it gives children a safe way to help with food prep while simultaneously teaching them cutting skills, progressing from the wooden chopper to the metal.

Our children love helping on the many projects around the house! This wheel barrow has come in quite handy, from collecting leaves they rake to moving dirt and raw materials around the yard.

You can make this just the right height for little hands to help clean up. We use it often around Blue Leaf especially when hemp seeds or rice is served.

Toys

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Pure Beeswax and Soy Wax, safe for kids 1+ with 7 vibrant, washable colors, and easy-to-grip design. Eco-friendly and non-toxic, they come in a recyclable tin with a unique rock-based wrapper, perfect for sparking creativity during bathtime.

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This MAGNA-TILES set includes unique pieces like windows, stairs, and wheeled chassis, promoting creativity and motor skills. It’s a durable, STEAM-certified toy.

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Our kids have used these to build fancy mobile homes and while we don’t recommend it, they’ve supported our kids using them as skates.

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These are relaxing for the kids and parents alike. And it’ll help save you some paper… The Original Buddha Board lets you create mindful, water-based art that fades away, promoting relaxation and creativity.

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Grimm’s Seven Friends in 7 Bowls set includes 7 colorful wooden peg dolls and matching cups for sorting, stacking, and counting, all made with non-toxic materials and handcrafted in Germany.

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Such a fun set of arched stacking blocks. The children balance them and build all sorts of amazing kinetic sculptures with this Grimms rainbow stacker.

These are some of the most versatile open ended toys not to mention how beautifuly made they are!

These lightweight foam shapes have been a personal favorite of our kids. From gross motor skills as young babies, to builidng forts and trucks, the foam shapes have lasted the test of time and provide an outlet of play for children of all ages.

They say that when a child is dysregulated that one should, “just add water.” Adding these to any water play will be fun for years to come. Our children also will use these with color mixing tabs to hold bath time experiments.

Add this to the measuring cups and your child will be delighted in the bath or the water sensory table!

Bees wax is soft and nontoxic. These are the crayons that we use here at Blue Leaf.

We loves these toy animals at Blue Leaf and our home. Our children still play with them as they can accompany so many other open ended toys!

We really like our Schleich animals. You can’t go wrong with these!

Children always come back to this toy! Great for practicing fine motor skills.

These wood beads are great for your baby’s first grasping.

Who doesn’t love a Brio train set? Providing kids with hours of creative play, designing railroads tracks and immersing themselves in play.

Tons of ways these clips can be utilized with a little imaginative play.

Sometimes, our favorite toys are actually found in the home and kitchen section. The children love playing with this silicone top.

Travel With Children

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Tagu blocks are a great open ended magnetic toy that keeps on giving!

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Hours of STEM toys for travel? Yes please! My children loved attaching these to the headrest on road trips (or any magnetic surface). They built everything from insects with movable parts to little homes and flowers.

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This Lunch pail is a great magnetic container that is excellent for traveling with magnetic Tagu Blocks and the Clixo Rainbow pack.

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This compact colored pencil set is simply beautiful!

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Great for art, reading, activities or eating. Pack one of these trays and you’re kids will be have an instant table wherever they’re seated. This greatly reduced my need to constantly be turning around when we drove halfway across the country!