Tot School – Weeks 6 and 7

- Adam is 32 months old -

It took us 2 weeks to complete our reading of “Goodnight Moon” because we took a couple days off for trips to the library, park, and then both kids wound up with a nasty cold. And we had to skip a couple activities. But, that’s the beauty of Before Five in a Row, you can do whatever you want, at whatever pace you want!

I loved “Goodnight Moon” when I was kid and Adam has loved it since he was a baby. Our board book version is nicely worn and chewed on and now we have a nice, new, big version of this book to enjoy.

To go along with the book, we….

Colored and pasted a little book of “Hey Diddle Diddle”. Adam can now “read” it himself because he has picture cues to help him remember the rhyme.

We ate “a bowl full of mush”, aka oatmeal, for breakfast. Adam LOVED this and requested “a bowl full of mush” for 3 days straight!
We read a mini ABC book with letters and pictures relating back to “Goodnight Moon”.

“What color was the balloon?”Adam colored the balloons to match the outline I did, and then correctly remembered that “in the great green room there was a telephone, and a RED balloon”.

“A Pair of Mittens”Adam used his hand prints to make “mittens”

We also searched for shapes in the illustrations and talked about how the word “great” can mean “good” but it can also mean “big” and that when the book says, “In the great green room…” it means it is a “big” green room.

For our Tot School activities we played with blocks…a lot!

Adam did a shape matching file folder game that I made from the blog Home Grown Hearts. He knows all the names of the shapes except square and sometimes oval.

Cutting and sawing play doh with a craft stick (tongue depressor)

Matching pictures with the Garanimals Memory Game

We colored with the Toy Story magic color thingys (his Nana gave it to him and I can’t remember what they are called!)

We went for a walk around our neighborhood and he practiced riding his Strider Bike. I love this bike! It is pedal-less so kids (even toddlers) use their feet like a push toy and learn to steer and balance before ever having to coordinate pedaling. The theory is that they won’t need training wheels when they move to an actual bike because they will have already mastered the hardest part of riding a bike…balancing. He is getting fast and if I remind him, he’ll lift his feet up and glide for a few seconds. It looks like fun!

Coloring. I’m trying to figure out how to teach him how to correctly hold markers, crayons, etc. I try to move his fingers into place but he switches back to random holds pretty quickly. Any suggestions?

One day we went to the park. This park has a great playground with lots of big, shady trees and it has a winding river and ducks! What more could you ask for?

Finger painting…which led to using a brush to get all the corners of the tray nice and covered. I love the tongue sticking out in concentration! He did this for 45 minutes and chatted the whole time about spiders and fences and other random things.

This was probably Adam’s favorite activity. He used scissors for the first time! These are little spring-loaded scissors, but I found them kind of hard to maneuver so I’m going to try out some others to see if they are easier to handle.

While cutting some pieces he emphatically said, “Get off piece!” when he was frustrated that he couldn’t move the scissors as well as he wanted to. I had to maneuver the paper for him as he snipped.

With all the little scraps he cut, I came up with the idea to have him glue them down (yes, that seems obvious, but I hadn’t thought about it prior to the cutting activity! I’m learning here! :) ). This was an even bigger hit than the cutting because he got to use real white glue for the first time!

While squeezing out a dot of glue he said, “I’m doing mustard. Stick the bread on the mustard!” and he stuck a piece of paper down.

Seeing how much he loved squeezing out the “mustard”, I picked up a few more at Wal-Mart for .25 each. I have a feeling we’ll be going through a lot of glue!

Sorry for the picture overload! I really love planning and carrying out Tot School and Before Five in a Row. Some days are better than others but when I do make the effort to sit with him and do these easy, simple activities, it always amazes me how funny and smart he is! I just sit and laugh at the funny things that come out of his mouth!

To see more Moms doing Tot School, check out the blog, 1+1+1=1!

Abby’s First Haircut

Abby had some pretty gnarly hair going on so I decided it was time for a trim! I HATE cutting my babies hair for the first time, but she had long hair growing out of the middle of the back of her head and shorter hair underneath. She also had long hair on the side and is nearly bald all through the middle where her head has grown. And to my dismay, it appears to be growing in a lot lighter! I was dreaming of a pretty, dark haired little girl! I’m sure she’ll still be pretty if she has light brown hair though! :)

Before

After

I’ve since trimmed up the sides a little more.

I attempted to put her hair in an elastic but it just makes her bald spots look even balder!

On a side note, I started mixing in some bananas or pears with her rice cereal and it’s a big hit! Next up is sweet potatoes, squash, or carrots! Yummy!!

This is what I have to look forward to! Adam gagged on EVERYTHING for the first month or so!

Tot School - Week 5

- Adam is 31 months old -

This week we read Angus Lost by Marjorie Flack as our book for Before Five in a Row. The story is about a little Scottie dog who is bored with the “same old things” and decides to go on an adventure. He quickly learns that he’d rather be home and quite likes the “same old things”.

After we read it the first time, we talked about how it’s ok to be curious like Angus, but that Adam needs to ask Mommy before exploring outside alone. He agreed that he didn’t want to get lost like Angus.

We’ve been learning new signs and reviewing ones he knows with each book (I just keep forgetting to to write it down here). The signs this week were all a review of ones he knows: dog, car, snow, and wind.

For activities to go along with our book, Adam played with a little Angus dog and reenacted the scene when Angus has to hide in a cave to wait out a snow storm.

We checked out a book from the library all about dogs and talked about the different breeds. I taught him that Nana and Papa’s dogs are K.C. Rio the Labrador and Zoe the Minpin (Miniature Pinscher).

He pretended to be a dog.

He colored different dogs and helped staple a little flap book together.

He attempted to do this file folder game where he sorts dogs by long legs and short legs (in the story, Angus meets a Collie who’s legs are longer than his so he can’t keep up as they run down the road). He had more fun pulling the velcro off than sorting.

We attempted to play a Dog Lotto game but this was after he’d been out all morning in the sun and was tired and grouchy so it didn’t go over very well.
I’d like to say that I planned this, but he was tired one afternoon so I let him watch a movie. I encouraged him to choose Lady and the Tramp because he had never seen it and I was tired of Cars and Toy Story. When Jock the Scottish Terrier came on I was thrilled to point out that he was a dog like Angus! Too bad I can’t take credit for smartly tying in a movie with our book! :)

We also read Angus and the Ducks and Angus and the Cat which are also by Marjorie Flack. I like being able to tie in other books that relate to the book we are focusing on!

Other Tot School activities weren’t very thought out this week. My fault. I’m still struggling with a baby who needs lots of help going to sleep. Thankfully the past couple of days have been better so I’m hoping we’ll make it through!

One morning as I was fighting with Abby to go to sleep, I was grateful that Adam was quiet somewhere but a bit worried about the silence. After about 30 minutes, I finally got her to sleep and when I went to find Adam, he was downstairs doing his pattern blocks all by himself! He had gotten them out and was happily doing “Top School” by himself. So cute!

A neighbor recently gave me a few toys that her kids had outgrown and among them is was a little game called Puppy Pals Bingo. You take turns drawing cards that either have a color, shape, or pattern on them and then you see if you have the matching dog house on your game board. He LOVES this game! He gets annoyed after a few minutes of playing by the rules, but that doesn’t stop him from asking to play this over and over again. Thanks Stacey for the great new Tot Toy!

My little sister Annie was playing in a soccer tournament at the park that is just a mile from our house so we went to a game on Thursday and a game on Friday. Adam loves going to Annie’s soccer games. He just roams around, eating snacks, and playing with other kids. It’s so nice to be outside even if it is HOT!

Annie is in the blue

Nice throw!

There were some tractor/huge lawn mowers nearby and Adam had just had to climb up and pretend to drive. This kid loves machines!

I am trying to get organized and finally made a complete list of all my art supplies, manipulatives, games, and anything else Tot School related. Now I can actually plan out what I’ll put in his toy trays each day and mark off when we do each thing to avoid always going to the same things over and over again.

Head over to 1+1+1=1 for links to other blogs doing Tot School!

A Little Bit of Abby

Abby is 5 1/2 months old already! It seems like the in the past 2 weeks she has grown and changed so much! She's turning into a smiley, chubby baby and is no longer my newborn. :(

She is getting really good at sitting up! She lasts on her own for a while unless she gets excited and flops over.

Last night was the first night we tried rice cereal.


She seemed to enjoy it until she decided she was starving and wanted a bottle and not this weird new mush. This is her saying, "Where's my REAL food???"


After a bottle, she was much happier to finish her cereal.


Abby totally loves her saucer. She was very interested in sucking on her seat this particular day.

Update on my sister

I am really not in the mood to talk about this, but I figured I should give an update since I posted this just 10 days ago. My sister decied to use her new "adultness", having just turned 18, and check herself out of her program. So she's home. Well, she was. I have no idea what the future will hold, but for those of you out there who know her, and know my parents, we could sure use your prayers.

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.