Tot School – Week 4 (and 5 and 6)!

- Adam is 31 months old -

This “week” of Tot School has actually been over the course of 3 weeks. We went on a vacation and then the following week was spent trying to tackle the mounds of laundry, put my house back in order, and dealing with post-vacation nap craziness. The next week was spent reading 4 books and researching for hours on the internet on how to get my baby to SLEEP! She is now 5 months old and has never slept through the night (well, once) and 5 months of having my sleep interrupted has really caught up with me. I was in no mood for planning and carrying out fun activities for Adam. In fact, I could barely manage to function! Sad to say Adam watched a lot of movies and TV last week as I tried to figure out what “plan” worked for me and then trying to implement it. I did manage to do a few things to wrap up our “week” of Yellow Ball and I’m generally feeling hopeful that the plan I have put together to sleep train Abby will work and I will be able to FINALLY get a good night’s sleep and therefore have more energy and motivation….I hope!

With all that said, here is what we have done over the past 3 weeks. We read the book Yellow Ball by Molly Bang (it is out of print but I found it at my library) and used ideas from the book Before Five in a Row and printables from Homeschool Share.

We used yellow Do-a-Dot Markers to make yellow circles (balls) and to practice dotting in the circles of the “Y is for Yellow” page from Confessions of a Homeschooler

We put together a “What is Yellow?” flag book. He got to choose which yellow coloring tool to use (marker, mini marker, crayons, colored pencil) and then he helped me glue the flag pages into the book.I was impressed how he colored the butter, knife, and little pad of butter. It’s so fun seeing how he is growing and changing!
We used a round sponge to make yellow circles (again, balls). I thought he’d like this more but he lost interest pretty quickly. I even asked if he wanted to use different colors but he just wanted to move on to something else.
For a Family Home Evening Daddy told him the story of Jesus calming the storm. In Yellow Ball the ball drifts out to sea and gets caught in a terrible storm. We explained that when we feel afraid, like the Disciples felt, we can pray to Heavenly Father for comfort and peace. He loves to tell us the Bible story now!For our treat that night, we made round sugar cookies with yellow frosting to look like….yellow balls of course!

One of Adam’s favorite activities was playing outside with a yellow ball. We played catch, rolled it, threw in the air, and bounced it.
For Tot School activities he painted, did stickers, built castles and towers with Mega Bloks, and built more castles and towers and Wal-Marts with wood blocks.
I laminated a set of ABC picture cards and used our LeapFrog ABC Magnets to match them up. This was another printable from Confessions of a Homeschooler….LOVE her site!
We have spent lots of time outside and lots of time in the kiddie pool. This particular time he was very enthralled with transfer water from measuring spoons to measure cups, and then pouring it out onto the grass.

Even though it took us 3 weeks to complete, it was a great week of Tot School!

Check out 1+1+1=1 to see what other moms tots are doing!

Driving Naked

I’m pretty sure it’s against the law to drive naked!

I came across these pictures while I was organizing my picture files and laughed out loud at naked Adam driving a car!  Don’t worry…he did have a diaper on!

This was at our friends, the Chugg’s, house after the kids had gotten soaked playing in a pool during a BBQ.  The other almost naked boys are twins John and Bennett who are only a month older than Adam.

Visiting Aunt DeeDee!!

The main reason we went to St. George was to visit my sister, Danielle.  She is living in a residential center, going through a program that will hopefully change her life.  She has been there since September and has taken her sweet time in progressing and deciding to really embrace the program or not.  My parents have seen her twice before now and both times she begged to come home.  In an answer to many, many prayers, she has really turned a corner in the past month.  She knows she needs to be there and is committed to finishing the program, no matter how long it takes (which will probably be quite a while….she probably won’t be home for Christmas). 

She wanted us to go to meet her group and it was a really neat experience.  The girls talked about how they have seen her change and how she went from sulking alone in the corner to being funny, engaged, and good friends with many of the girls.  I loved hearing from several girls that they consider her their best friend!  It was like my sister was back!  The girls asked us questions and one that really touched me was a girl that asked my parents if the decision to send Danielle away was hard or not.  I could just see it in her eyes that she was wondering if her parents were happy to send her away or if they struggled with the decision.  I don’t know her circumstances, but my parents tearfully told them that it was the hardest decision they have ever made.  Another girl asked my brother Heath and I how we felt when she left and I struggled to get the words out about how heartbreaking it was to know that she would miss out on so much of Adam’s life.  They are best buddies and she has missed so much.  Danielle loves babies and is wonderful with them so I also struggled knowing she wouldn’t get to hold and love Abigail as a newborn.  I left her group feeling for the first time in 9 months that there was hope for my sister.  If she can make it through this trial, she will lead such a wonderful life full of service and caring.  She loves animals, children, and people like her with mental health issues and those “on the outside”.  She really has the potential to be a powerful force for good in the world.

Anyway….here are a bunch of pictures.  We only got to spend a few hours in the morning and again in the afternoon over 2 days, but Adam and Abby only saw her during the mornings.  Nat was wonderful and took them back to the house for naps so that the rest of us could play games and chat.  We had a blast playing together!

 

These are the paintings that Adam made for her birthday present.  Her birthday was just a few days before our visit.

 

Danielle has taken up crocheting and made this blanket for Adam and one for Abby.  She is so talented!  

Of course she was wonderful with Abby…..although Adam kept her pretty distracted! :)

 

Now that she is progressing in the program, she should have more opportunities for visits in the future so we’re excited that it won’t be another 9 months before we get to see her again!

Mini-Vacation to St. George

We took a 5-day vacation to St. George to visit my sister and also to have some family time.  We stayed in a house owned by one of my Dad’s friends and in the backyard was a large hot tub that when turned off, was quiet refreshing in the 100 degree heat.  We spent a lot of time out there swimming and Adam loved it!  It was great because he could walk along the ledge and play without needing us to hold him all the time like he’d need in a real pool.   

I think Adam’s favorite part was shooting the squirt guns!  He and Nat had lots of fun shooting each other, then shooting me, and then Adam spent a lot of time watering the plants, the rocks, the sky, etc.

Abby was pretty “blah” about the water.  She did get excited and splash a few times but then just liked sucking on her tasty chlorine fingers.

Cute brother and sister! 
Poor Abby.
On Sunday we went to visit the grounds and visitor’s center of the St. George temple.  Every time we drove around the area, and Adam caught a glimpse of the temple, he’d say, "Look!  There’s the temple!  It’s so pretty!”
Too bad neither child is looking in the general direction of the camera!

Touching the temple.
One of the goals in our stake this year is that every child physically touches the temple to feel the spirit and power that is there.

I have always loves the St. George temple!  The bright white against the blue sky, green trees, and red rock is breathtaking!

Other than swimming and visiting the temple, the rest of the trip consisted of sleeping, playing Wii, watching movies, and eating!  It’s so nice spending time together as a family.  Even if it means loads of laundry and a crazy house upon returning home! :)

SO Excited!!

We are leaving today to go visit my sister Danielle! We haven't seen her in over 9 months and I can't wait! For those who don't know, she is in a residential center in Southern Utah getting the help she needs to conquer her issues and learn to lead a happy and healthy life. She turned 18 on Sunday so we are praying that she will choose to stay and finish the program, now that she is able to choose for herself to leave or not.

She left in September so she missed Adam's 2nd birthday, Christmas, and all of Abby's little life. I can't wait for her to meet Abby and I'm even more excited for her to see how much Adam has changed in 9 months. She was always so wonderful with him and he just adores her! He prays for her every night and is constantly talking about her, even though he hasn't seen her for so long. We only get to spend a few hours with her on Thursday and Friday but we will treasure them!

Stay tuned for lots of pictures of Adam and Abby with their Aunt DeeDee (and me with my baby sister)!!

This was the last day we saw her before she left. She didn't know she was leaving, but I did. It was so bittersweet watching her play and love on Adam. It broke my heart (and still does) that she has missed so much of his life. Have I mentioned how excited I am for our trip???

Tot School – Week 3

- Adam is 30 months -

The book we read this week was Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? by Nancy White Carlstrom. Adam loved it! I also checked out several other “Jesse Bear” titles and he loved all of those as well. Using the ideas in Before Five in a Row and Homeschool Share we….

Colored a red shirt and blue pants just like what Jesse Bear chooses to wear that day. I laid out a variety of colored pencils and asked Adam to find the red one and then the blue one. I thought he might revolt and want to color them whatever color (which would’ve been fine) but he happily chose to match it to what Jesse Bear was wearing.

Later, he colored them green as well. :)

He told me that he colored the buttons red. I’m noticing that he is beginning to color more with a purpose rather than just scribbling all over the page.

We made a “B” book (B for bear) and he used a glue stick to glue on other thing that started with “B”. He was a big fan of the glue stick!

In the book, Jesse Bear eats lunch (a very healthy lunch) so as we talked about the different healthy foods, Adam glued them onto a picture of a plate.

The hit of the week was this Melissa and Doug puzzle. I saw it on Amazon and knew I had to get it before we read Jesse Bear. He has played with this puzzle every day since I introduced it!

For our Tot School activities (you can learn more about Tot School and get lots of ideas from the blog 1+1+1=1) we did…

Aquatic Animals dominoes. He matched up all the jelly fish and then had fun lining the dominoes up.

Lots of play-doh.

He told me that this was a rainbow. How clever!

I want to work on number recognition a little, so I thought this would be a fun way to learn the numbers and also practice counting. I had to help him with this, although he chose to sort them into separate colors by himself.

After we counted, he wanted to sort the rest of the beads into colors but soon realized he didn’t have a space for black, blue, or orange so I got out the ice cube tray. He spent FOREVER sorted beads! He’d get them all sorted, then transfer them back into the egg carton, then back into the ice cube tray. He keeps asking to do it again so I think it’ll be an option again next week.

Hot or Cold? File Folder Game (from www.filefolderfun.com). He needed some help in the beginning to know what to do and also for me to explain some of the cards like volcano and igloo.

Another highlight of the week was swimming! I think I’ll be filling up this little pool many more times in the next couple of months!

I’m really enjoying doing Tot School and Before Five in a Row with Adam. I think the best part is the conversations we have while he’s coloring, gluing, or playing. He’s pretty hilarious with all the things he imagines and talks about.

Next up….Yellow Ball by Molly Bang (this book is out of print but I found it at my library).

Bouncy Fun!

A couple days ago we met up with my friend Katie and her girls Lexie and Brynlee, who are the same ages as Adam and Abby. We went to a bouncy place and Adam and Lexie had a blast! They didn’t really interact with each other much, but had lots of fun being independent and “big”. They just ran around while we watch or took care of the babies.

These were about the only times they were together in the same spot. Both Katie and I were amazed at how fearless they both were. Just a few months ago, Adam was scared to climb up the ladders and go down the big slides!

The Babies