Tot School - “Ask Mr. Bear”

– Adam is 34 months old –

We spent this week reading a cute little story called Ask Mr. Bear by Marjorie Flack.

The story is about a boy named Danny who goes on a hunt to find something to give his mother for her birthday. He asks several animals who all suggest things they can give Danny to give to his mother (an egg, milk and cream, etc.) but Danny says his mother already has all those things. Finally, the cow suggests he go see Mr. Bear in the woods. Mr. Bears whispers a secret to Danny and Danny runs home to give his mother a Big Birthday Bear Hug!

We used the Before Five in a Row manual along with printables from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ for activities to go along with Ask Mr. Bear. Here’s what we did.

Adam colored a birthday cake
(even though you can’t see it in this picture)

We made a birthday cake for our Family Home Evening treat on Monday night! Of course we had to sing the Happy Birthday song (to Adam obviously) and he blew out the candle. It’s good practice for his 3rd birthday in 2 months!
Adam matched the animal to the sound it makes
On another day, he matched the gift to the animal who suggested it. I had to help him remember a few of them.

He then carefully put the animal cards into the animal pocket and the gift cards into the gift pockets. He insisted on doing it himself and it was a bit tricky….which is good! He concentrated hard to maneuver the cards just right to slip them into their holders.

I made this little barn “game” and Adam slipped the cards into the back pocket and then named the letter in the window and opened the barn doors to reveal the animal. He mainly just played with a few of the cards and pretended to put the animals to bed in the “barn house” and then wake them up in the morning. I wanted him to name more letters and animals but he wasn’t in the mood.

Our little action song this week was the Hug Your Bear song. It is to the tune of Row, Row, Row, Your Boat and goes:

Hug, hug, hug, your bear,
Squeeze him very tight.
Hold him high,
Watch him fly,
Then hug with all your might.

This is Adam watching his bear fly!

Our signs for the week were to review bear, walk, and run and to learn chicken, cow, and sheep.

This is Adam asking me what the signs were on his flash cards (just like I ask him each day). He’s showing me how to sign “walk”.

We also read the following books I picked up at the library to go along with our main book:

A Birthday for Bear by Bonny Becker
How About a Hug? by Nancy Carlson
Hug a Bug by Eileen Spinelli
Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present by Charlotte Zolotow

For other Tot School activities Adam had lots of fun finger painting.
He scooped beads with a spoon into an ice cube tray and another day he scooped them into little bowls. He LOVES these beads and asks for them almost daily. Unfortunately, they end up all over the floor!He also scooped beads into his dump truck and then dumped them back into the bowl.

He did number matching and letter matching file folder games….kind of. He lost interest VERY quickly.

Adam was a little off this week and resisted our Tot School time so we didn’t do as much as I would’ve liked. Hopefully he’ll be more into it next week!

Check the Tot School posts on 1+1+1=1 for more great ideas!

Piggy Tails

Abigail has long hair on the sides, top, and bottom of her head.  Sadly, not so much on the back of her head….although it is coming in!  I thought I’d try out a new hairdo today….pig tails!  Her hair sticks straight out of her head, but I still thinks it’s cute!  Her Daddy thinks she looks funny but what does he know? :)

2 Dumbos and a Raincoat

Just because they are cute….
Adam pulled one of my dirty shirts out of the hamper and declared that it was his raincoat. He wore it around ALL MORNING! At one point he was playing with his baby doll (he’s very good at feeding, burping, and wiping spit-up off his baby) and out of the blue he said, “I’m the doctor. I changed into the doctor”. A few minutes later he said, “I’m a Dad. I changed into a Dad.”

I’m really loving his imagination lately!

5 Roomies + 4 Husbands = 9 Kids!

I have a great set of roommates from one of my years at BYU!  We are scattered around and don’t get the chance to all get together very often but this week we did and it was FUN!

Here’s the 5 of us
Katie, me, Heather, Shar, and Lisa

I attempted to get pictures of the kids.  Here’s the line-up:

The Kids
Spencer & Blake (Shar), Lexie (Katie), Dallin (Heather), and Adam (me)Blake is almost 5 and is the odd man out, but the other 4 were all born within 3 1/2 months of each other, Adam being the youngest.

The Babies
Brynlee (Katie), Luke (Shar), Susie (Heather), and Abby (me)The babies were all born within 5 weeks of each other!  Abby being the oldest.

All 9 kids!

Lisa isn’t married YET but she declared herself the Aunt to all these kids.  I sure love my roomies and miss the ones who don’t live close!

Tot School - “The Carrot Seed”

- Adam is 33 months old -

We took this week off of Tot School because I just couldn’t seem to get my act together, but last week we read “The Carrot Seed'” by Ruth Krauss. It is a very simple story about a little boy who plants a carrot and faithfully weeds and waters even though his family keeps telling him that the carrot won’t come up. Sure enough….it does come up!

We also read “Carrot Soup” by John Segal and “The Enormous Carrot” by Vladimir Vagin that I picked up at our library. Both of these books are great! Adam continues to request them both for most naptime/bedtime readings.

For sign language practice this week, we reviewed carrot, water, mom, and dad and learned brother and boy.

Our rhymes and songs for the week were “Ten Little Carrots” (to the tune of “Ten Little Indians”) and the following little finger play:

I planted little carrot seeds,
They were very, very small.
But day by day they grew and grew
And grew to be THIS TALL!”

Using the guide in Before Five in a Row and printables from www.homeschoolshare.com, Adam put carrots in order of size and glued them into a little book

He played with this little paper carrot, pulling it out of the “ground”

He colored a “C is for…” page

And practiced counting and number recognition with our Carrot Math Mat that I used when we read “The Little Rabbit”
Adam had fun free fainting with orange and green tempura paint
I showed him how to make a mirror image by painting on one side of the page and then folding it in half. He did not appreciate me trying to limit where he could paint! But, I think he enjoyed seeing how to make a copy….he’d rather just be able to paint all over the page!
A fun activity we did was help Nana (my Mom) pull carrots out of her garden!
The harvest
For our Family Home Evening dessert, we made carrot cake! Yum!

For other Tot School activities, Adam had fun playing with play-doh. This particular time he cut pieces of with a craft stick…

…and dumped them into a can
Little Sister getting in on the action

(notice the underwear….we attempted potty training for a couple hours but after 4 accidents and NO successes, I gave up. I don’t think his brain is making the connection between feeling the need to go, and getting to the potty. Twice he peed within a minute of getting his undies back on after sitting on the potty for 5 or 10 minutes. I know he wasn’t doing it on purpose so I guess we’ll try again in a couple months)

We played our Puppy Pals Bingo game
Which quickly turned in to Adam declaring the cards were “tickets” and putting them into his bulldozer for a “trip”.
And finally, Adam had fun doing a shape matching file folder game. He did it correctly once, then a few more times where he’d put the wrong shape down, wait for me to say, “That doesn’t match!”, laugh, and then put it on the correct spot. Silly kid.

Check out 1+1+1=1 for more Tot School ideas!

Little Trouble Maker

The other day while Adam was napping and I was doing dishes, Abby was happily entertaining herself by pulling wipe after wipe out of the container.  She was having so much fun that I just sat and watched her.  She’s so cute.  

“Good Morning Abigail!”
(well, “good afternoon” since this was after a nap)

Again….she’s so cute!

Middle-of-the-Day Baths….what fun

I’m guessing all you Moms out there know what this means in the middle of the day… Stupid poop-squishing exersaucer.
And yes, I washed my baby with Dawn rather than hauling her upstairs for a “real” bath.  I was desperate.

On a side note…do you think she looks like me?

Tot School – the easy/short version

- Adam is 33 months old -

I didn’t do a Before Five in a Row book this week because we spent Labor Day hanging out at my parents’ house and Friday we had planned on going to the State Fair, but sadly, it fell through. I didn’t want to cram everything into just a few days so we just did a few regular Tot School-type activities.

Having fun together at Nana & Papa’s house on Labor Day

Cutting and Gluing

I’m frustrated with both sets of scissors I’ve tried for him. It seems really hard to work both of them and because they are safety scissors, they don’t cut very well. I’m thinking about getting regular scissors, just in a child’s size. Of course that worries me that he will cut his fingers, his sister’s hair or any number of things around the house, but I want him to be happy practicing his cutting skills and right now, he hates it.

This is a number chart I got from Confessions of a Homeschooler and Adam put stickers in each square. We worked on numbers but other than number 1, he said 5 for all the others. It was also good fine motor practice getting the little stickers off the sheet. Doing each row in matching colors was totally his idea.

I adapted this color wheel from one that another blogger sent to me. The object was to clip the corresponding clothespin onto the wheel (I colored the ends of the clothespins with markers). I had no idea pinching clothespins would be so hard for him! Aside from having a hard time physically pinching them, he kept trying to put the other end on the wheel. It took lots of guidance and help from me. I want to do this activity often because I think he needs some development of his fine motor skills. We’ve been trying to get him to hold up 2 fingers to show his age forever and he still really struggles doing anything other than 1 finger. Maybe it’s normal…I don’t know. I also see him struggle with some of the ASL signs I’m teaching him because he can’t get his fingers to work. Anyway, I’m going to put an emphasis on all kinds of fun fine motor skill activities in the future.

After the frustration with finishing clipping the clothespins onto the color wheel, we had fun clipping them onto our clothes!

We used wooden blocks and wooden beads to build “cities”

Adam is becoming quite imaginative and loves to make things up. After building cities for a while, all of a sudden he was using the blocks and beads to make popcorn in a popcorn machine. I suggested we add butter and salt and he suggested pepper (which of course made us sneeze ‘cause that’s what pepper does). Before I knew it, there were lots and lots of flies and bugs flying around so he had to get the cleaner and spray them (but not the butterflies because we like butterflies). Then we were back to making popcorn. It was a crazy 45 minutes of playing and was so fun! I’m thinking that some dress-up costumes are in order for his November birthday and/or Christmas. Any ideas for inexpensive, fun boy dress-ups? Other than a cape because that’s the only idea I’ve got right now! :)

Not really Tot School related, (well I guess everything is Tot School related actually) but I loved this picture of Daddy reading to Abby and Adam before bed.

Check out other Tot School posts over at Carisa’s blog 1+1+1=1!

We Still Remember

Today I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Layton Utah Music Workshop that was put on by all the stakes in Layton, Utah.  There were classes all day to choose from and I was richly blessed by attending.  The keynote speaker at the opening session was the former director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Craig Jessop.  What a wonderful, funny, and humble man!

In his talk, he told the story of what happened with the Choir on September 11, 2001.  They were scheduled to perform in the Tabernacle and when he heard about the attacks, he called President Hinckley and asked what he should do.  President Hinckley said he would speak with the brethren and get back with him.  He called 30 minutes later and asked if they could perform a memorial concert.  Brother Jessop said he only had one answer when speaking with the Prophet and that was, “Yes, of course President”.  :)  So, they pulled together a memorial concert and performed it that night.  Brother Jessop said that as the choir sang “America the Beautiful” he could see tears streaming down the faces of the choir members and he didn’t know how on earth they were actually singing as well as they were, other than they obviously had angels helping them.  I guess they normally conclude their concerts with “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” but felt it was too ‘upbeat’ for such a time so they skipped it.  When they had performed their last number, nobody in the congregation moved.  After several minutes of silence, President Hinckley motioned for Brother Jessop and whispered to him, “Do the Battle Hymn”.  So they did.  When they finished singing, nobody moved.  They then decided to sing “God Be With You Til We Meet Again” and finally, people started to leave, but hung around Temple Square hugging, weeping, and consoling each other.

As Brother Jessop was telling this story, I saw many, many people around me wiping their eyes.  Even 9 years later, I know the memories of the events of 9/11 are still tender on the hearts of the American people.  I clearly remember being in my first semester of college.  I heard the news story of the first plane crash on my way to my first class.  At that time, everyone thought it was a freak accident.  While walking to my next class about an hour later people were gathered around the TVs in the building and I stopped to watch the reports of the second plane.  It was then that I realized something was terribly wrong.  They announced that classes were cancelled and I drove home listening to news radio and then sat in front of my TV all day and into the night.  And to learn about the Pentagon and Flight 93….it was overwhelming.  The images of the planes going into the towers, the people jumping out of windows, the people running from the dust cloud as it rushed down the streets, the dirty faces of the rescuers and normal people like me.  Most of all, I remember the feeling the next day.  A spirit of camaraderie and togetherness like I’ve never felt before.

I love this country.  My heart breaks for the families of those who were killed.  I am so proud and honored to call America my home and pray that we will move in the direction that makes the Lord happy so that we can continue to receive the blessings of this great land.

After seeing all the people who were clearly touched today while remembering this anniversary, it has reminded me that we will never forget and never stop fighting for what we know is right.

God Bless America.

Being a Mom

I saw this poem on another blog today and it made me all teary-eyed. Especially the line about holding a sleeping baby just because you don't want to put her down. That happens to me quite frequently, last night being the most recent. Abby goes to bed at 7:30 but then I get her up to feed her again t 10:30 so that she will then sleep the rest of the night. She only partially wakes up for that feeding and then I rock her as I burp her. Last night I rocked her much longer than I should have (getting to bed too late for my own good) but I just couldn't put her down. She turned 7 months yesterday and I was pondering on how fast 7 months can go by. It's hard to even remember her being the tiny, 5 lb. 12 oz. newborn I gave birth to 7 months ago. It's really not fair how fast they change! My heart was so full of gratitude for the blessings of my two children. They are perfect in my eyes and I'll be forever grateful to my Heavenly Father for entrusting them to me.

So, for all my Mommy friends out there....enjoy this little poem!

Before You Were a Mom

Before you were a Mom,

you never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.

You didn't worry whether or not your plants were poisonous.

You never thought about immunizations.

Before you were a Mom,

you had never been puked on.

Pooped on.

Spit up on.

Peed on.

You had complete control of your mind and your thoughts.

You slept all night.

Before you were a Mom,

you never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests.

Or give shots.

You never looked into teary eyes and cried.

You never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.

You never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before you were a Mom,

you never held a sleeping baby just because you didn't want to put her down.

You never felt your heart break into a million pieces when you couldn't stop the hurt.

You never knew that something so small could affect your life so much.

You never knew that you could love someone so much.

You never knew you would love being a Mom.

Before you were a Mom,

you didn't know the feeling of having your heart outside your body.

You didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.

You didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.

You didn't know that something so small could make you feel so important and happy.

Before you were a Mom,

you had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.

You had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.

You didn't know you were capable of feeling so much,

before you were a Mom.
-Anonymous