Tot School–“We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”

- Adam is 40 months old -

We finally actually did something for Tot School this week!  I started doing a Circle Time in the morning when I was ready to start Tot School and it really helped to focus my attention (not theirs…I’m the one lacking focus lately!) on purposefully playing and learning with Adam and Abby.  See this post all about it!

We are winding down our ‘study’ of books from the Before Five in a Row manual.  I only have one more left!  I’m fighting the urge to begin a Letter of the Week theme with Adam.  It’s just so much work!  But Adam really loves when I have things planned for him to do.  Which I’m worrying has turned him into a little robot who can’t think of anything to do on his own.  Any suggestions?  I want him to be able to play with anything and everything but he’s always asking me what to do and it’s driving me crazy!  I want to foster creativity and freedom but it’s not going too well.  Is there such a thing as a child who just likes and needs direction?  I suppose I really shouldn’t complain about that huh? :)

This week we read “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” by Michael Rosen.  It’s the classic story about a Dad and his kids going on a bear hunt and coming across all kinds of things that they can’t go over and can’t go under, so they have to go through it.  Adam really loved this book and now we reenact the story all the time on our own!

We watched a funny video on YouTube of the author reciting the book.  Here is the link.  On the page where they are wading through the river, they are each carrying their shoes, except for the baby who is riding on Dad’s shoulder.  I asked Adam why he thought they took of their shoes and then why the baby still had her shoes on.  It’s fun to watch him think about things!  Activities and ideas came from the Before Five in a Row manual and Homeschool Share.

Coloring/Patterns
He would only color one of the 3 strips.

Painting with “Mud”
We had chocolate pudding for our Monday night treat and the next day the kids painted with it!  Here Adam is “squelching and squerching” in the “mud”

“Yummy!”

I made a felt board and felt pieces to place as we went through the story.  Adam loved using this so I think I’ll be making more felt story pieces in the future.

Story Sequencing
Adam did pretty well remember the order of the story.
(see Abby’s feet on the right side….she is making school time VERY difficult!)

“Hooing and Wooing”
Adam’s favorite part of the story, the snowstorm that goes “hooo wooo”!

Counting Bears

Other things we did during the week:

Handwriting Without Tears
He did two pages where he worked on coloring and his crayon grip.

24-piece number puzzle.
He got frustrated and gave up right after this picture.

Kumon: Let’s Color! Workbook

I don’t know what got into him but he colored a lot this week!

After he colored the first page, I encouraged him to color small things in the picture instead of all over it.
Then he colored each of these ducks.  After the first one, he asked how to turn the duck back to white.  I explained that once he colored it, it was that color forever.  Then we had a nice talk about how we only color on paper because if he colored on the floor or the wall, they would be colored forever too and Mom and Dad would not be happy about that! :)  After that, with every duck he colored he said, “Ohp, now this duck is _____ forever!”

Adam’s First Drawing!
I encouraged him to draw a person and suggested he start with a circle for a head.  He then knew right where to put eyes, a nose, and a mouth.  Body parts….not so much!  He made me label them….including the pee-pee.  Such a boy! :)

He used several kinds of stickers this week, these ones are 7-Eleven labels (Daddy works for corporate 7-Eleven).  First he counted them and then asked me to write names on them and he stuck them in a coloring book.  This is the order he had me write them:  Adam, Abby, Mommy, Daddy, Nana, Papa, Grandma Great, Grandpa Great.  I guess that is is line-up of favorite people!

He had a lot of fun with our Garanimals memory game from Wal-mart. 

Playing Starfall.com and a matching game on my iPad.
He does either of these at least once a day.  It’s a good place to stick him when I’m trying to get Abby down for a nap!  I try to get him to have equal screen time between Angry Birds and educational games!

That was our week!  Busy, but good.

Teeny Tot School–Week 5

- Abby is 14 months old -

Tot School with Abby is completely random and unorganized.  Oh well.  She makes doing Tot School with her big brother very difficult, but he needs it and loves it so we plow ahead.  I tried pulling out many different activities for her to keep her occupied but this is what usually happens:

She played with pom-poms and liked putting them into cups and then dumping them out.

She colored!
This is the first time I’ve given her crayons and paper to color with and she loved it!

She loves to sit at Adam’s table.

And climb on it.  Look at that look she’s giving me!  Stinker.

Pretending to color on Adam’s picture.
Notice what a genius she is…she’s using the matching marker!
Coincidence, I’m sure.

Counting Bears

She spent quite a bit of time stacking the cups in and out.

 

While Adam and I were playing a memory game on his table, she was happily putting cards away for us.

Baby Signing Time
Even though she loves Baby Signing Time and asks for it several times a day by signing and saying “beh-bee”, her attention span is about 5 minutes.  But Adam is re-learning all the signs he knew as a toddler and loves it!

Abby participated in Adam’s “mud” painting (chocolate pudding) that we did while reading “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” this week.

She loved using a paintbrush…..

Not so much her hands!

Cute Brother and Sister working.

Just for fun….this is the first time I’ve let her on the counter while using the mixer.  She was fascinated!  Notice Adam’s careful grip on her leg.  He’s already such a great, protective, big brother.

Circle Time

In an effort to give us a better routine, and let’s face it, to help me be more motivated to actually do Tot School with my kids, we’ve started doing Circle Time each morning.  The kids are loving it!

We start with a fun song like “Do as I’m Doing”, “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”, or “Old McDonald” and/or a finger play, and then have a prayer.  I am looking for a Bible or Book of Mormon picture book that we can read a story from following our prayer.  I have one in mind but any suggestions would be much appreciated!

We then do our calendar
I got this pocket calendar from Oriental Trading.
Adam counts up to the current date and then finds the number from the cards I put on the bottom row.  I’m hoping this will help him learn to count past 12 (he currently gets to 12 and then inserts random ‘teen’ numbers)

Then we do our Morning Board.  I got the idea and printables from 1+1+1=1 and Confessions of a Homeschooler.  I used a foam board and removeable adhesive squares to mount the laminated pieces and then used rings for the top 2 pieces so I could flip them over to save space (great idea from Carisa at 1+1+1=1!)

Here is a close-up of the first 2 pages.  We sing songs for all of these and Adam changes out the day of the week card.  He has loved learning these songs!

The other pages hiding underneath the top ones.
We don’t sing the month song every day, maybe just twice a week or so.

This is Adam’s favorite part…the weather!  He hops up on his bed to look out his window and then sticks up the corresponding card.  By the way, the card pieces are stuck on with velcro circles.

On the bottom I have a sheet protector that I trimmed down a little and filled with the Primary songs for this year.  We sing this one song every day and will keep at it until I feel he has really mastered the song and then I’ll switch it to the next one.  I want my kids to really know these wonderful songs and to build their testimonies from them.  Plus, he’ll be the kid in the Primary program blurting out every song from heart!
(and he has pretty good pitch for a 3 year old boy if I do say so myself!) :)

So there you have it!  This only takes us about 5 minutes and then we’re off to do whatever I have (or don’t have) planned for Tot School.  Once I get a scripture stories book, it’ll take a few more minutes but I can’t think of a better way to start our day!

First Park Day of the Season

Last Friday was a glorious Spring day!  It was in the mid 60’s and we had a great time at the park.  Sadly, today it’s in the 30’s and snowing.  Gotta love Utah.

This was Abby’s first trip to the park as a “big kid” and she was in heaven!  My timid boy was constantly wanting my near him and my fearless girl was running like a mad woman in all directions.  I was exhausted trying to keep up with her!

She did LOTS of climbing

And lots of sliding.  She even went down by herself!

Adam on a “rollercoaster”

They were both so happy to be out digging and getting dirty

Look at how big she looks!  I swear she will walk for miles if I let her.  She just happily clomps around with no real regard to where I am or who’s in her way.

The park was really crowded so we didn’t get to swing but if this Mother Nature ever decides it really is Spring, we’ll be back.  This is also the “duck park”, as we call it, and I have a feeling Abby will love the ducks!

And so it Begins….the Chore Chart!

I decided that at 3 1/4 years old, Adam was old enough for a chore chart!  I can remember many a chore chart or system instituted by my parents that lasted oh, all of 3 weeks.  However, they tried.  And I did learn that importance of work along the way.

I fantasize about the day when my kids are old enough to actually contribute to the running of this house.  What a glorious day that will be!  So I figure if I start really young, maybe, just maybe, I can minimize the griping and whining and flat out refusing that I know is probably inevitable when it comes to doing chores.  Not to mention, I figured it was time Adam learned how to do a few things on his own.

I got the idea for this chart from Confessions of a Homeschooler (I know, big surprise….but I LOVE her site!).  She had cards you could download but I wanted to customize them so I made them all myself and then laminated them.  I bought this pocket chart from Amazon and although it’s bulky, it is double-sided so I can use it for a bunch of other little learning activities, or even put Abby’s chore chart on the back in a few years.

There is a “Morning” line and an “Evening” line and when Adam has completed a chore, he flips the card over.  At the end of the night, if he’s done every chore, then he puts a sticker on his “Reward” card.  Once he fills up 6 squares, he gets to choose something from his prize box that is full of dollar store items.  There are also some “Saturday Extras” like washing windows, dusting, sweeping, folding laundry, etc. and I think I’ll have him choose 2 of those to do while we are cleaning the house on Saturdays.  Of course all his chores always get done because they are things like ‘get dressed’ and ‘brush your teeth’ but it’s a start right?

He also has a “I Stayed Dry All Day!” card that I keep turning over until the end of the day.  If he’s kept his underwear completely dry, he gets a Dum-Dum after breakfast the next day.  It worked for the first time yesterday!  He normally doesn’t have full-blown accidents, but his undies are usually damp all day and I want him to learn to not wait so long to go to the bathroom.

As most 3-year olds would be, he is really exited about it and can’t wait to do his chores every day.  I don’t know how long the enthusiasm will last, but I really want to teach him the value of working together as a family to keep our home tidy and clean so that the Spirit can be here with us.

The only draw back to this is that it takes 3 times as long for him to get ready in the morning! :)

My Sunshine

I was changing Abby’s diaper in her room today while Adam was apparently playing in my room.  Through the baby monitor he heard me singing the song, “You Are My Sunshine” to Abby.  When I came out of her room we had this conversation:

Adam: “Mom, am I your sunshine?”
Me:  (laughing) “Yes, Adam you are my sunshine”
Adam:  “Do I make you happy?”
Me:  “Yep, you make me happy!”
Adam: “When skies are gray?”

How blessed I am to have such a cute little guy to brighten my days!

Abby’s Eyes….(and me bearing my soul)

Abby’s eyes are a mystery to me.  Some times they look blue/grey.  Sometimes they just look grey.  But on St. Patrick’s Day, when she was wearing green, they looked a little green!  That shouldn’t surprise me because Nat’s eyes look green when he wears green. 
If you look closely, she has brown flecks in her eyes which is kind of cool!

There’s no mistaking this boy’s eye color! 
Sometimes I wish Abby got the blue eyes too.  I feel horrible about that and I don’t want her growing up being envious of her brother so I will be conscious of how I talk about it.  Sometimes when the light hits Adam just right, his eyes are gorgeous and I feel bad that I don’t feel that way about Abby.  I want to erase that last paragraph because I sound like a horribly petty mother!  While I’m being honest, are there any other moms out there who compare their kids without meaning to or wanting to?  I always figured I’ve love each of my children exactly the same and I’d never compare them, but it’s hard!  They are different.  How can I expect to love them the same?  Sometimes I feel like my first love was Adam (aside from Nat of course, but a child is different) so I’m learning to love someone else for who they are.  For instance, Abby is being defiant lately and I’m having a hard time because Adam is rarely that way, even during “the terrible twos” so she is driving me crazy and I don’t like the fact that I don’t like her some times.  She’s only 13 months old for goodness sake!  I think having an abnormally good natured child, (for the most part, he definitely has his moments!!), first has caused me to feel resentful towards a more fiesty, independent child.  And really, I have no idea who Abby is yet.  But that scares me.  What if I don’t like my own child?  What if I’m forever comparing her to her brother?  Why on earth am I verbalizing this to my family and friends?? :)

This post really was going to just be about Abby’s eyes….I have no idea where all the deep-seeded feelings came from!  Maybe because she has started yelling and screaming and throwing fits and I find myself wanting to lock myself in my room to get away from the sound.  Or the realization this morning that if she doesn’t want to take a cup of milk from me, she WILL NOT do it.  Until I leave the cup on the coffee table for her to sip at as she sees fit.  Then she will drink the stinkin’ cup of milk.  But because I want her to?  No way.  Or maybe because a very dear friend has a 3 year old who scares the living daylight out of me because I see her struggle almost daily to handle her and I’m so scared that that will be my future.

Any words of wisdom?  Please??  In the meantime, I will go to bed and hope that tomorrow will be better.  We’re going to a little “Bug Bash” play date so that should be fun!

A SMALL Taste of Spring

I love this picture!

Last Friday was kind of warm outside so the reward for behaving in the chapel while I practiced the organ was that Adam could ride his bike around the church for a while.  Abby loved walking!  She did a full lap and then I pushed her in the stroller for a while and then she did another lap and a half!  She thought the trees were pretty neat and would squeal and shriek and point at them as we walked.

I handed her this stick and she carried it around for a long time.

After dinner we took a walk around our neighborhood and played on the playground for the first in months.  Adam was in heaven!

She was so funny trying to climb up the slide. 
She was yelling when she wasn’t getting anywhere on the slippery slide!

I am more than ready for Spring to be here!