Adventures in Tot school

Quick Update

2011-03-11T13:49:00.000-05:00

A has been amazing. He recently started saying his ABC's All the way through, can count to 20 without any issues, and today recognized his name and his brothers name when I wrote them on a piece of paper. I was amazed by this and I hope he wasnt just guessing because I was pretty impressed. He has had a lack of patience and focus lately. I assume its due to the fact that its the middle of March and we just had another snow storm that closed school and kept us inside again. I think the cabin fever has been taken to a whole new level around here. I am sure once I get him out he will have more patience to sit and do school activities.

On top of all our school stuff, He is now completely potty trained! I didn't think I would would make it but now that I look back, it was actually very fast and simple.

We have done some St. Patrick Day crafts. We made shamrocks by cutting green paper and gluing it to a white shamrock and A also made a leprechaun. A is really into cutting and has mastered using scissors. He LOVES to cut up paper into very small pieces and lets just say my vacuum has been used a lot more then the normal 2 times a day.

M is still amazing me every day. He is a total parrot and copies and repeats whatever anyone says or does. He is so verbal and can be understood most of the time when he speaks. He actually did stickers this week and instead of the usual of just pulling them off and scattering them, he actually places about 4 on the paper before he started trying to eat them. He has very good hand eye ordination for 18 months. He is starting to work puzzles and understand that the pieces go in a specific spot.

Oh and M... well he uses the potty a lot and LOVES it. If I wasn't so stressed from potty training A I might move on to M who I think would be super fast but for right now he goes whenever he asks or before bath time.

Pictures to come.

Transportation

2011-02-18T22:25:00.001-05:00

So I broke out my new laminator and we are venturing into Transportation this week. With two boys, this is a theme that is always a crowd pleaser. Luckily it seems that there are many people working on the same thing so we had tons of resources.

We are still taking it slow to reduce stress (to me). We recently turned our basement into a play room so I decided to try school down there in hope that M would be a little bit more occupied and content so I could work with A.

I put together a tot pack with size sequencing, counting, pre-writing, and shadow matching.

A loved the shadow matching. He zips right through it and it doesnt seem to be much of a challenge anymore so we might have to look into something a little bit more challenging for him. Next we worked on counting cards. A has been really impatient (I am assuming its the 2 year old in him) so after we got to five, he started to loose interest. With a promise of doing a craft, he reluctantly finished all ten cards.

Our craft was a traffic light. A did really well and was able to tell what each color light meant. We also are starting to incorporate M into Tot School so here he is making his Tot School debut.

And in Here is M getting upset the glue stick, which he thought was chapstick was taken away from him.

And now he is really upset about it.

And we are ok now because mommy gave in and gave him the glue stick back. I have learned to pick my battles with this little guy and A was actually getting things accomplished so this was one battle not worth fighting.

We sang the song the Wheels on the Bus. The boys really got into it. Here is A's attempt at part of the song. I love his proud smile at the end of the video. Such a big boy.

And one of my favorite pictures... All that learning and crying over glue sticks just wore my little men out.

And of course in the mist of 20 degree weather, we have a 50 degree day so we headed outside. A was determined to play in his sandbox.

Valentines Day

2011-02-18T21:59:00.000-05:00

We are slowly getting back into a formal routine of school, While we are always learning and doing fun activities, I still have not figured out how to manage my little guy M when I am trying to work on things with A. M is my into everything baby. He waits until you turn your back and quicker then you can blink he has a chair pushed over and is climbing on the counters trying to get a snack. This makes formal school time hard and stressful.

Question for all my moms of multiple children.. Advice needed. A is 31 months and M is 18. How do/did you manage doing school. M is not content doing another activity on his own. He wants what big brother had and that's it.

Anyways we did manage to get a few activities in between M and A fighting and me swearing we were never going to do school again over and over.

I am starting to test A out to see just what he really knows. He tends to act like he cant do something and then one day will spit out stuff when he thinks no one is listening. So far I have caught him singing Row row your boat, Twinkle Twinkle little star, counting to 15, and saying his ABC's.

I printed out COAHS valentines activities and he did really well with the heart match ups. I am so glad he is patient and takes his time. This was something we really worked on when we started Tot School when he was 18 months old.

I attempted to give M popsicle sticks, straws and a few containers thinking he would love this, but he wanted nothing to do with it and A wanted to do his brothers school instead of his.

We are also working on our pre-writing skills still. this is a definite area I see A lacking in. Its not that he cant do it, its that he doesn't want to go slow and take his time. I think I am gong to have to have a lot more writing activities for him and maybe do them at night when I have daddy on hand for our other little guy.

We are also slowly starting to talk about Noah's Ark. A knows the story already but really enjoyed this activity.

So since A loves to paint and M wont even think about being left out, I decided to let them paint some hearts for Valentines day. Of course this turned into a HUGE mess, M eating paint, A yelling M was using his paint, and me swearing again we would never have school again.

A is never happy with just one project or one activity so we usually do almost all the activities I have planned in one day. A really wanted to make the Rainbow that he spotted so I set him up and explained and showed him how to take his finger and make prints in the correct rows. This did not end pretty because he was not following directions which was the whole point, so that project will be saved for another day. This again is a area he needs more work in. He does not want to be patient and listen and take his time. He just wants to do things fast and his way.

Here are a few other worksheets we also did this week. A is really good at patterns and with a little help. I am absolutely amazed at him and how far he has in the numbers and patterns area. I was afraid he would never count and now he is working his way to twenty!

So I got adventurous and put together a sensory tub with beans. We all have cabin fever so bad due to the harsh cold weather and since we had a horrible encounter with the flu earlier this month where all of us were beyond sick, I am extremely cautious of going outside right now. I bought a few packs of different dry beans, laid a blanket on the floor, held my breath and let them have at it. It was and still is a huge hit. Other then the arguing and M occasionally dumping the whole container, they do not make a huge mess. Its my, they are destroying every inch of the house and I cant take it anymore, trick. They both sit in one spot for more then 5 minutes, which allows me to quickly pick up and regain some sort of order and a little bit of my sanity back.

We baked heart cookies one afternoon. I THOUGHT it would go smoothly... I am pretty sure "what was I thinking" entered my mind about every half second. It began very easy but the minute I had to mix the dough, all craziness broke out. We eventually did get some cookies baked, leaving out anything M touched since he was eating and spitting out the dough.

So we barely survived but we survived. Its going to take some figuring out to get M happy enough to let me work with A. Next lesson Transportation.

We are still here really!!

2011-01-06T23:04:00.000-05:00

So it has been forever since my last post. We have not disappeared, we are still around. Things have just gotten crazy around here with all the holidays and it seemed that once we got knocked off our schedule, no matter what I did I could not get back on. I am just taking a deep breath and realizing that its ok and we will get back there sooner or later.

A is doing absolutely AMAZING in every aspect. He is counting like a pro, even without any structured school time. He is starting to actually connect things and numbers. I try to have him count everything, like if I give him grapes or crackers I ask him how many and to count them. Before a few weeks ago he would count but wouldn't even look at what he was supposed to be counting. Now he can connect a number to an item. A has also allowed the number 2 to rejoin he counting. For awhile he would always skip two and jump right to three. Aside from being the funniest two year old ever, his vocabulary is growing like crazy. He like I am sure every other two year old asks five million questions per hour. I (for the most part) happily answer everything I can am happy he has such a curious mind. A's imagination has exploded. He happily can play anything and loves to imagine he is a fire truck man, spaceship man, baseball player, football player, or fix it man. We are so limited on space here, I am glad he can find enough space to still pretend.

A has had issues with sleeping lately. I know its not teething because thankfully all his teeth are in. We are not sure what it is but he has been extremely difficult to get to nap and to bed at night. I have a feeling its partly because he is not getting enough energy out since we are in the middle of cold cold winter here in Michigan. I also suspect it is partly due to potty training. We are using pull-ups during sleeping but he always wakes up try. I think he is waking up at 3 or 4 a.m. because he has to go to the bathroom.

Ok so now on to potty news... A is almost completely potty trained. I say this in the lightest sense because it depends on what you consider potty trained. He has yet to tell us when he has to go but rarely has accidents during the day. Most accidents are our fault for waiting to long or when he gets excited about things. We do not use pull ups when we go out and other then one time, he has stayed dry without any accidents. #2 has been a challenge for us. He can do it and has when we bribed him with a trip to Chucky Cheese. We thought once he saw he could do it and it was not scary or hurt, he would continue to do it. No we were wrong. We have bribed the boy with everything short of a trip to Disney World, and he still refuses. I am not sure if he has figures how to tell he has to go before its to late. Oh well, that will come. I am just so proud how well he is doing all together.

M.... Oh my sweet itty bitty what a handful this one is. I think M is partly (or mostly) the reason, we have strayed from our formal school schedule. My little toddler is in anything and everything and has a temper like no other. We have attempted projects for the boys to do, and by the end, I am either yelling, sweating or wondering why I even thought I could handle them both. M for some reason is still in the phase of eating and putting things in his mouth. Crayons are just an afternoon snack to him. A never had an desire to put things in his mouth even as a baby so I am hoping this phase ends soon. He does "attempt" to follow directions for about half a second and then whatever we are going, such as painting, gets a taste test. One day I can hope that not everything looks editable to him!

On a more serious not, M has a vocabulary that A didn't have until closer to 2 years old. Many words he says are very clear and can easily be understood. He has even been known to link two words together on occasion. This advance vocabulary is a a blessing and a pain all at once. On the good side, he can easily express what he wants and show us, on the bad side, he can express what he wants and show us and what he wants is what he wants and there is no redirecting this little man. If he wants a piece of candy that is on the counter, and is told no (watch out and plug your ears) he will get a chair and push it over to get it. If he is taken off the chair (again watch out and plug your ears) he will go back and get the chair again. He does not give up or forget. Ahhh but you gotta love him, tantrums and all.

M is also using the potty and on some days more then A. M LOVES LOVES LOVES the potty and will (watch out and plug your ears) express his anger if he is not allowed in there. He has recently discovered that he controls when he can go so whenever he sits he goes. He also goes #2 without any issue at all (Thank goodness!!) A few times a week he will actually ask to sit on the potty himself. I have a feeling as soon as A is completely potty trained, M will follow right behind. Maybe we should have not let A in the bathroom and then it would have been fun when you were allowed to go in there?

My goals for this year are to slowly become less frazzled. I feel like I have been this way since Thanksgiving and despite every attempt cant get out of it. I love school time and so does A but I just have not had the energy or courage to take it back on with as much of a handful that M is. My other goal is less TV or noise in our house. Yes we are the house that had PBS on all day even when no one is watching it. The boys will play, stop and watch a minute then are off to play again. Even now as I type the TV is on even thought I am not watching it.

I hope to post more often. I am not going to put any pressure on me or stress about it if I do not get to it. I put together parts at night for extra money which takes up most of my time and the nights I dont have them, I usually watch adult shows (AKA not barney, Sesame Street, Calliou, or any other show that involves singing animals.)

So hopefully you will be seeing more posts from me soon but we are hear, we are learning, and we are growing.

Another guest blog spot

2010-11-04T14:15:00.001-04:00

I have been having the opportunity to write for another blog. I am totally loving it. Here is my second post. Check it out!

http://nickisdiapers.blogspot.com/2010/11/prefolds-pockets-and-hybrids-oh-my.html

Guest blogger for Nicki's diapers

2010-11-01T10:08:00.000-04:00

Check us out. We were guest bloggers!

http://nickisdiapers.blogspot.com/2010/11/cdaa-cloth-diaper-addicts-anonymous.html

Fire trucks, pumpkins, and Tot school oh my!

2010-10-23T00:26:00.001-04:00

So we have been so busy around here lately and I have not been in the blogging mood. We are finally getting this place in order so we can put it up for sale and it looks so good. Now we just have to keep it this way which is not easy with two little ones running around.

On a side note I feel I have to address our pictures... I have noticed most of the time my boys are not dressed or half dressed... Ok we do get dressed everyday. Most of the time we do school in the morning before we head upstairs to make beds and get ready for the day. A also dislikes pajamas most of the time and likes to sleep in his pull up so in the morning I usually do not put him in them until we get dressed. He is also potty training which helps explain the pants missing most of the time. With M, he is a terror to change and get dressed. He wants nothing to do with it so a cute little clothed bottom you get to see most of the time. Ok... so we do get dressed just in case anyone else noticed that most of my pictures my boys are missing clothing.

We have been doing a pumpkin theme this month and A is loving it. He has learned the 5 little pumpkins song so most our activities I have tired to base around that.

we made a five little pumpkin folder which I used to keep all of his worksheets

Our pumpkin craft A made for his favorite neighbor Miss Barb.

Some of our Pumpkin worksheets and activities... Thank you Confessions of a Homeschooler!

Here we were sorting pumpkins into the correct cup. Each pumpkin had a number on it. It was fun for oh about 30 seconds and then A decided it was time to put them all in one cup and mix them up... I am so glad he has so much patience (insert sarcastic tone here).

This worksheet, A had to color the 3 pumpkins and them I cut them out and he had to glue them in order, Large, Medium and small. He actually did really good but was a little confused since he was not familiar with the word or concept of "medium".

I was so excited to introduce this simple beginning pattern worksheet for A. I had no clue if patterns were even in his range of ability but he got it! I had to slow him down and repeat the pattern a few times but I was so happy that he was able to comprehend.

Here is the sweetest picture. A was so excited he completed the worksheet. I am so glad he gets proud of himself.

Here we were sorting pumpkins sizes again. A tolerated this one a little bit longer but as soon as I got up to take care of our Itty Bitty, that was the end.

We continued on our slow lesson of Creation. We are on day 6 now. A had to color a six and them place stickers on it. He also did a worksheet where he had to place his fingerprints on. He really enjoyed this.

This may not look like much but to my sweet little A, he had spelled his name. In sheer excitement he ran over to me in the kitchen yelling "mama mama, me spell A...."

A fun game we played was a color hop. I called out a color and my little jumping bean had to hop to that color.

some miscellaneous activities we did were...

"help" his little brother with his school

practice cutting

cut and paste dino number matching worksheet

We have also had many field trips over the last couple of weeks.

We had a play date at the zoo with our good friends Jessica, her two little ones, Angela and her new baby. Us mama's got to talk cloth diapers which we all do and love and the little ones, got to play.

We also attended the open house at the fire station right down the street from us. To A this was as good as Christmas morning. A LOVES anything "fire truck man".

Our township had a Halloween event for young kids at the local park. They got to walk a path and get candy, pick a pumpkin out of a pumpkin patch, and have cider and donuts. I think as Christian parents we have struggled with how much "Halloween" we allow into our children's life. As A and M get older I am realizing that they are surrounded by "Halloween" and we don't want to seclude them but edit and filter what they participate in. So for right now our take is they can dress up in nothing "dark", We avoid typical Halloween type items such as skulls, ghosts, vampires and such, and we participate is church events instead of trick or treating.

Cider Mill

Lastly on one of our nicer days, I took the boys to one of our parks. A is starting to get more daring which means this mama's heart is starting to jump out of my chest. A did really good but did get his feet caught under him while trying to go down a slide and face planted on the ground. Luckily he was ok, but that was enough for me. How am I going to survive this age!

And here was just a sweet (rare) moment between the boys.

Me do it!

2010-10-03T15:19:00.000-04:00

A is 27 months!

This past week seems to have been very busy. It seemed like we had something to do everyday. We did however manage to get some schooling is. A is very excited about school lately and asks me repeatedly "school time now, school time now mama."

I had read somewhere that learning to crab walk can help with prewriting skills because it teaching communication between the brain and your hands and also builds up strength. I don't know if this is true but we sure had fun trying. A took awhile to get it but he finally did and was so proud.

A has also been learning to spread peanut butter. He loves to help "cook" so I thought it was a good time to teach him. It really teaching his to be patient and control. These are both something this little one needs!

And of course it would not be school without some sort of worksheet. A LOVES worksheets and of course "Me do it" is a consistent phrase out if this toddlers mouth so anything he can do independently we both love. A has used glue sticks before but he is starting to understand directions and concepts of what to do. I cut out the shapes and told him to glue them in the correct leaf and he did it perfectly. He also did one with cherries and having to glue them in that basket with his daddy and loved that one too.

And here are some action shots from A at the toddler time at Gymnastics. This boy honestly ran for literally and hour straight. He wore me out just watching him.

And here is my favorite picture of the week. The boys were showing some brotherly love (no biting or crying was involved this time).

Itty Bitty Infant School - Gymnastics

2010-10-03T15:00:00.000-04:00

M is 13 months old!!

M has been going crazy trying to get out on the floor during A's gymnastics. Most of the time you can see his face plastered on the glass of the observation room. Well this past Friday M got his chance.

On Fridays, our gymnastics place has a toddler time where the little ones basically have the whole gym to themselves and they can run and play on everything. Papa came with us to help out because I was not sure if I would be able to keep an eye on both boys. They had so much fun. M loved the trampoline even though he didn't have enough weight to actually jump. He happily bounced and would climb on with the other tots who carefully bounced him. M was just so excited to be out there and get to explore.

With M we have been working on using a fork. He loves to hold one and lately he has been actually trying and getting some food on his fork or spoon. After gymnastics, we went to lunch and M thought it would be nice to help his big brother finish his pancakes. Notice M is keeping a close eye on his bothers chocolate milk... don't worry he helped himself to that next.

We have also been focusing on M's verbal skills. In the last week he has been saying so much. He can now say Juice, ball, football, hi, mama, dada, his brothers name, and a few others that he randomly will say. He can sign please. more, cookie, and eat along with shaking his head yes or no (mostly no my stubborn little guy) to tell us what he wants.

Itty Bitty Infant School

2010-09-30T00:04:00.000-04:00

M is 13 months old!

M had a very busy couple of weeks. M has been working on his sign language. He can now reluctantly say please, more and on occasion cookie. He is also working with using a spoon and getting much better at it.

M enjoyed his latch board for a brief second (literally)

M also worked with ice. He has such good hand eye coordination and was able to get most of the ice into the opening of the formula container.

I also attempted to have M do an art project that I read about on a blog. The idea was to put contact paper down sticky side up and let him place construction paper pieces on it. I don't know if it was just the project or if my contact paper was not sticky enough but M had no interest at all.

And of course we have our weekly workbox helping. This time M decided to take all the tabs off for his brother. I think M thought if all the tabs were off, mommy would think A was done and he could go play. Notice the blur in the corner of the picture. This is M running off when he noticed mommy caught him "helping" his brother.

Here M thought that the workboxes would work out much better in the middle of the living room. What would I do without my wonderful little helper (not have to pick up as much!)

And like any good boy, M decided to help mommy organize all of our pre-folds.

But M did do a lot of hard work this week. He had to open the giant fire truck floor puzzle box all by himself and dump the pieces out on the floor without any help from his brother.

Here is my favorite picture of M this week. He has such a great personality and will do anything to get people to laugh.

Who said a colander has to be used for cooking?

Climbing to new Heights

2010-09-29T23:39:00.000-04:00

These past two weeks have been busy and exciting. A started gymnastics and absolutely loves it. We have been wanting to put him in it for awhile but last week I decided it was time. His first class, he did cry when him and daddy when out there but he soon got over that and was jumping on the trampoline like a pro.

We continued our study of creation and worked on Day 5. A got to color fish and glue pictures of different types of birds on his number 5.

A is ABSOLUTELY obsessed with the moon. We have no idea why or where it came from but if he sees it he starts screaming and every night daddy has to take him outside to see it. If there is a book with a moon in the picture we are not allowed to turn the page. Since this is one of his new passions, I decided to do an art project and make a moon. I read somewhere (sorry I can't remember) to mix glue and shaving cream to create a puffy paint. A colored to moon yellow first and then he had a good time spreading the puffy paint on. After we sprinkled it with some glitter. Needless to say this was on of his favorite projects and the moon is now being displayed next to out TV per request of A.

Messy Hands!!

This is before it was completely dried. I did cut it out that evening.

A loves his worksheets and so do I. A gets very excited to use his school pencils. This week we worked on our pre-writing skills. A is getting a little better but still has a hard time focusing and slowing down. He would much rather just make a circle.

I also introduced a new worksheet to A. I wanted to see where he was at and if he could understand the concept. On the worksheet there were objects shown from different angles and you had to match them. A totally understood the concept and could match them all. He did have trouble drawing the line from one object to another so I had to help him with that.

A also got to make "Jesus Corn" anything that we do christian related, we label "Jesus" for A. This helps him connect what he is doing. I found the printable a very long time ago and came across it when trying to organize my stuff. The actual printable was two hard for A so we adapted and made our own Corn with q-tip painting.

Black - I was lost in the darkness

Red - Jesus died and shed his blood for me

White - Now I am clean and mu sins have been forgiven

Blue - I have been baptized in the Holy Spirit

Green - I am growing in my relationship with God

Yellow - I have the promise of eternal life to walk on streets of gold.

At the dollar store I had picked up these paper fish. I did not know what I was going to do with them so I just had then laying around. I decided to try a more interactive game which because of our Itty Bitty Infant M, we do not get to do very much. I put some letters that I knew A could recognize along with some shapes and numbers and we went "fishing". In theory this would have worked a lot better but A didn't seem to mind at all and even continued playing it later in the day.

The tape wasn't that sticky so A decided to just press it on the fish he wanted to catch. M Is lending a hand.

A got use his imagination a lot these past weeks. I am so amazed at the things he comes up with. A and his daddy were playing a guessing game where A had to act out something and I had to guess. A acted out a mailman and loved this. The next morning he woke up and wanted to play mailman again so we decided to make him his own mail carrier.

A asked for my brush one afternoon. When I asked what he needed it for he said he had to brush teddy's hair. I didn't think anything of it but when I walked into his room this is what I saw.

I asked him what he was doing and he said he was cutting teddy's hair. We cut A's hair at home with his daddy's clippers and he was pretending to do the same to his teddy.

And as we enter another fall in Michigan, our weather is so unpredictable. One day its 90 and the next its 60. We decided to use the nice days while we have them so we headed to the park. We do not get to go very much because its hard chasing two little ones going in two directions and with the water at our park, it makes me nervous. This particular visit was a very important one for A. He finally ventured to the top of the "big" slide on the little kids play structure.

And here is a favorite picture from this week. I had to get up and go do something so I asked A to cuddle his brother for me. He did such a good job.

What would make you think I ate the paint!

2010-09-19T23:29:00.001-04:00

The week in Itty Bitty Infant School, M got to ~~eat~~ paint. I attempted to let him do a hand print tree which ended in my strong minded, determined little man stealing the paint brush and doing his own thing.

M also got to try out his new crayons that his Aunt Anne got him for his birthday. The actual crayons lasted about 1 minute before M decided they were a snack.

M also decided to allow his brother to help him with his peg board. These rare moments do not happen ~~ever~~ often so I just sat back and enjoyed the 30 seconds of peace.

And of course it would not be a successful week if M did not help his big brother with his workboxes. This week he decided he was going to do his brothers worksheets. Its so nice when you have brothers to help you.

And to wrap up this week M decided it was time to learn to drive. Who wants to wait for mommy to take you somewhere.

Letter B, Moon, Stars, and Sun

2010-09-19T23:11:00.000-04:00

This past week A began the letter B. I decided it was time to move on when he pointed out EVERY SINGLE A we saw whenever we went anywhere. I am very excited he loves finding A's but its time to move on. The odd thing is he knows many letters. He can identify A, a, B, C, E, F, and O without a problem but only gets oddly excited to the point of screaming when he sees and A. So for now everyone in the grocery store for about 3 aisles over knows when my son sees and A.

To review the letter B, we did Balloon painting which was a huge hit. I gave A the letter B and a partially blown up balloon and let him dip it in paint. So simple but he loved it.

We also bought A he very own toddler bible with a case that he loves. He tells everyone he has his own bible and proudly carries to around. I have been making time each day before his nap for us to read a few stories from it and he is enjoying it very much and even told me the other day that Noah was in his bible. I guess he does listen when I read!

We have continued to make his creation numbers and this week we did day 4. I knew this would be exciting because A is currently OBSESSED with the moon. I had him use a cotton ball to paint the 4 black and them we used yellow pom poms for the sun, glitter for the stars and a moon sponge stamp to make moons. Again A loved this. We review each day what God made on each day and I am planning on putting it all in a binder and making his own "bible" that he can add to as he grows and does more activities.

We also attempted some fall crafts. I had A make a leaf wreath using his hand prints which he of course loved because he got to get all messy but for some reason all my paints are drying chalky looking. This is the first time I bought tempera paint from the store because we were going through so much paint so this might be normal but it seems everything he makes almost dries colorless.

A also did some hands on learning. He loves to watch his Papa come over with his tools and fix things so on this particular day A decided to fix the sit and spin zebra. You gotta love the construction hat on backwards!

Noah's Ark

2010-09-14T22:31:00.001-04:00

We are going to begin Noah's Ark soon and A really loved file folder games so here is one I have been working on. I have not tried it or put it together so let me know if something needs to be changed.

Noah's Ark File Folder

Itty Bitty Infant School

2010-09-12T21:52:00.000-04:00

M is 12.5 months

Well as normal my little M has been a very busy guy. He was out of commission for about a week due to a bee sting, teething, shots, and a cold that literally hit one right after another. It was rough on all of us and there was not much sleeping going on by anyone but we pushed through and thankfully we have all recovered with exception to the teething.

Aside from supervising his brothers Tot School, M has been busy showing brother new and exciting things. When we ventured outside M made sure his brother stayed in line and didn't venture off.

After seeing how his brother was rolling down the hill M decided it was time to show A that you could also back down the hill just like when going down stairs. M found this method much more controllable and demonstrated this for his big brother.

M also knew that mommy was very busy during the week and decided it was time to pitch in and help me out a little. During one of his brothers toddler temper tantrums, my sweet little M decided he would go ahead and change his own diaper. Thanks baby for being such a big help to mama!

So after all of that supervising, teaching, and diaper changing, M was exhausted and needed some rest. Sometimes it is so hard in Itty Bitty Infant School.

Some things M is working on in is spare time when he is not ~~tormenting~~ supervising his brother are his verbal skills. We are really working on pronouncing words and repeating. M can say his brothers name, papa, yucky, mama, dada, brooke (cousin's name), make and elephant noise, moo, and cluck for a chicken. for his non-verbal communication skills M can ~~scream his head off~~ shake his head no, point to what he wants, clap when he is proud or excited, ~~take what he wants out of his brothers hands~~ patiently wait his turn, and point to several objects such as dog, cat, elmo, and Yo Gabba Gabba characters.

M also enjoys ~~eating crayons~~ coloring and climbing on anything and everything.

Fall is here!

2010-09-12T21:11:00.000-04:00

Well the fall is here and we could not be more excited. Its so nice being able to take the boys outside anytime of day instead of at 8:00 in the morning before it gets to hot. Its has been so nice being in sweatshirts and jeans. The boys are soaking up all of the outside time and love playing in their sandbox any chance they get.

Tot school has been very informal for past couple of weeks. One week A was totally anti-school and wanted nothing to do with workboxes. This past week daddy went back to school and is working late nights at his other job so we are all adjusting back to a crazy schedule. We have managed sneak in some planned activities and have done lots of informal learning.

A who was totally anti-counting and anti-numbers has again showed me that just because he WONT do something doesn't mean he doesn't know how. For awhile now he has easily been able to count to 4 (when he wants to and never on command or when asked). This week since its been so crazy for all of us, he has had a lot of free play. Well the other day while playing with his puzzles (when I mean playing, I mean lining them up on the floor and hopping on top of each one. That's my A always thinking outside the box) I heard him counting. He would say 1-2-3-4, 5-6, 8-9-19. He was screaming it over and over as he hopped from one puzzle to the next. I was so amazed that he even knew the sequence and didn't mind at all that he was skipping 7. Even last night he started saying 8-9-10 in front of his dad and his dad was shocked. Just goes to show that toddlers retain a lot of information regardless if they l let you know or not.

I have been working on our printables because I am really working on writing with A. He has mastered a circles at about 1 1/2 so now we are working on control of the pencil. He is doing really well for the most part and loves tracing but lacks the patience to go slow and concentrate. A did manage to make his very own A and was so proud. Usually I help him but he did it all on his own this time.

The learning placemat was a hit with A and he wasted no time identifying the letters he knew and telling me all about the pictures on it. I have taken a different approach with A on counting and numbers. I know now he does in fact know how to count and knows the sequence of the numbers but I do not think he gets the concept of what it means. He can tell you if you have one of something or two of something but when he is asked to count something he does not understand to apply a number to an object. I have decided to just present his numbers to him with groups of objects so he can visualize how many belong. I have not pushed him to count things and just let him do it on his own time. Along with grouping on the placemat I also did an activity for him where I put each number on an index card and then used little dot stickers to show how many with that number. I had A place pom poms on each sticker. To my surprise he actually liked it for a little bit.

Out outside time is going to be coming to an end soon so as of right now we are spending as much time as we can (meaning and much as I can take before someone runs off or doesn't listen) outside. A learned how to roll down a hill the other day and thought this was very fun. He has been enjoying looking for the ducks in our nearby pond, but since its colder weather they have all went to Florida or Taco Bell as A will tell you.

And the winner is...

2010-09-11T22:10:00.002-04:00

Congratulations to the winner of the Trimsie diaper

Katie S

I will be contacting you via email so that you can receive your prize.

Thanks for all those that participated.

Learning Placemat Printable

2010-09-05T14:45:00.001-04:00

I have been working on some printables for A and M is my spare time (and by spare time I mean time I should be sleeping late at night) Here is a learning placemat that I created for A. He loves having a placemat and I thought it would be fun to personalize one he can look at and talk about while waiting for a meal. Right now I created one with the alphabet, colors, numbers and at the bottom I left a black spot for you to personalize. I have added A's name because I am working on name recognition with him right now. You can add whatever you like such as shapes or color blocks, whatever your little one is focusing on. I hope to make one more "girl" friendly with that will have to come later. Next on my to do list is to create one for M and then make some "dot dot" sheets that A absolutely loves.

as for what we have been doing in tot school, well my husband and I switched phones (I finally get to have an iphone) and all of my past weeks tot schools pictures are on the other phone so we will have to get around to that one later. I am excited for the iphone and have already downloaded some apps for the boys. The alphabet tracer is mine and A's favorite right now and he happily traced his letters (not really traced but attempted to) the whole time we were in the grocery store. Was the creator of these apps a mom who had to take toddlers to the grocery store because I don't know how I ever survived without it. With the iphone and come goldfish crackers, A would have happily shopped all day long.

Learning Placemat 1

Illness hits Tot School

2010-09-01T10:28:00.000-04:00

Sorry to the delay of posts. I have lots to post but it seems we just seem to be getting hit with something one after another. First I was having severe headaches to the point of barely getting through the day and this week we have had a bee sting, both A and M teething, colds, and shots. Needless to say we have not had much tot school the past couple of weeks but I hope tonight I will get to post what we have done. We DID manage to find a "math" activity that A will do considering his dislike towards counting and anything having to do with numbers.

Introducing Printables

2010-08-26T23:29:00.001-04:00

I have begin creating my own printables to try to customize some things for A and M. I am new to adding them to the blog so if you have any trouble please let me know. Sorry for all the moms with girls, until the Lord blesses us with a little girl (in the far far future) most printables will be boy themed. Please feel free to use them for your own personal use. Please if you feature them on your blog link back to this blog and not the actual document. Please do not sell these documents.

Basketball Pre Writing

Trimsie Diaper Giveaway

2010-08-20T11:27:00.001-04:00

With our first son A, cloth diapering was not even considered. What are we living in the 1800’s where we have to pin a diaper on a baby and hope they do not leak through? Not a chance. We we part of the 20^th century and we were going to use disposables like the rest of the world. There wasn’t even another choice was there?

Well insert friend who opened this very closed minded mama’s eyes. I thought my friend was very brave and patient to cloth diaper her sweet little one. As we talked more and got together more, I started to ask more questions. Now insert our sweet little M who we love and adore but was completley surprised by this little blessing. We were already stretching our budget with one and now we had another one on the way. This was not what we planned. We thought when we got one out of diapers, we would have another one. Two in diapers was not even a thought. Well God had another plan and here we were having another baby that would be just 13 months younger from A.

I started researching cloth diapers just on a whim and it was AMAZING. Did you know that cloth diapers are like real diapers? They are not just pins and cloth anymore. Wow, was I all wrong. As I researched more and more, I started not only looking at how easy they were to use but the cost that we would actually save. Yes it was expensive to start but just think how many times a month you are going to the store and buying a box of diapers for $20. Not only that but how many times do you go to get a diaper and its either your last one or even worse you are out? I will admit, our son has had to wear a swim diaper a couple of times while one of us ran to the store to get him some regular diapers.

Michigan were we are from is not exactly cloth friendly and has very few stored where you can actually see diapers. Our nearest store was an hour away but I made the trip to attend a seminar to get some info. Of course the store introduces you to the top brands of diapers that we all know and love like Fuzzi Bunz, Bum Genius, Thirsty, and many others.

I will be the first to admit that I am blinded by the name brands and rarely venture away from them when it comes to diapers UNTIL NOW. I came across Baby Belle’s shop on Etsy. I was reviewing her diapers and thought they looked really good. Again I do not normally venture away from the top brands of diapers because who wants to be at the grocery store and have a major blowout. I had a few friends that were having babies for the first time and wanted to cloth. They were coming to me for advice and I only could tell them what I knew. So I connected with the maker and she sent me one of her new diapers the Trimsies AIO Diaper. Let me tell you, this diaper changed my whole outlook on cloth diapering and was so amazing, I know I will be using this diaper for our next child (not anytime soon) and will also be ordering the training pants for our older son A (who is in the process of refusing to potty train).

When I got the diaper in the mail, I thought “no way is this going to fit my chunky monkey 11.5 month old. Also I noticed the “inserts” we sown right into the diaper and I thought “no way am I going to like this, I cant adjust the absorbancy and it looks so bulky.” I was SO wrong about everything. This is the most amazing diaper I have tried. One thing I disliked about cloth diapers was how bulky they always were when you had to stuff them really good. I put this on M and it was the trimest diaper I had ever seen yet I knew it was super absorbant because of all the layers. Also this tiny looking diaper fit M amazingly. He even had room to grow. I have never had a diaper fit so perfectly on either of my boys. M loved it and I have to admit he looked so adorable. She sent me Spring Green and it looked adorable on him. His little diaper butt waddled around. I loved it so much that was the first diaper I was grabbing over my other (major brand) cloth diapers and even disposable. And when I say I like easy, I mean throw in the wash and walk away because my boys are screaming at each other or someone is sitting on the other one easy. THIS IS THAT DIAPER! With the inserts sewn in, all I have to do is throw in and be done and when its time to use it, NO STUFFING, jus grab and put it on the baby who is already crawling away without a diaper on. I always thought I loved all the buttons on a Happy Heiny ( I do like Happy Heiny don’t get me wrong) but I never could get the fit just right and after adjusting the snaps a zillion time M was so agrivated he couldn’t sit still long enough to get it on. And the husband doing all those snaps, for get it. With the Trimsies diaper there are two sets of snaps but amazingly they adjust perfectly. The diaper was so perfectly made and I could tell M loved it over his other diapers. Now here comes the GREAT part. It is only $15.50 for a meduim diaper! This is less then most major cloth diapers brands and you get the added feature of no stuffing, no separating, and super absorbancy that works for days, night, and naps with a trim look.

Now for the details:

Description

Trimsies diapers are unlike the usual cloth diaper in that they fit under normal clothing! No more sizing up to accommodate that bulky fluffy bottom! The side snap closures allow you to customize the fit around babies waist and thighs to ensure a good fit.

This diaper features up to 9 thirsty layers of absorbent fabric, including 2 layers in the body, a 4 layer, quick dry sewn in soaker and a 3 layer doubler for added protection. The outer layer is waterproof 1 mil PUL in the color of your choice.

Baby Belle is a a licensed trimsies seller and that if anyone is interested in m making the diaper themselves, they can go to trimsies.com to find the pattern

Why do I love this diaper?

It is the trimest cloth I have tried and I have tried just about everything.
It looks absolutely adorable on my little guy
It is the softest material I have seen in a cloth diaper.
Baby Belle was WONDERFUL to work with with great communcation and fast shipping.
The absorbancy is amazing for such a trim diaper. My son wore it overnight and was fine.
There is room to grow. My little guy is almost 12 months old in the medium with some room to grow
The prices are wonderful

Buy it at Baby Belle. You can check all her other diapers and trainers also.

WIN IT!

Baby Belle has graciously offered my readers a chance to win a free Trimsie Diaper in the size and color of their choice.

MANDATORY ENTRY

Must include email address if not listed in profile. Each entry must be a separate comment.

Visit Baby Belle’s website and tell me what you like about this diaper and what color you like.

Extra Entries

Become a Follower of Adventures in Tot School (1 extra entry)
Follow Baby Belle on Facebook and leave a comment on their wall saying we sent you (1 extra entry)
Twitter about this giveaway and leave the link in your comment (1 entra entry)
Email this giveaway and cc it to totschooling2@hotmail.com (1 extra entry)
Add my button to your blog, and provide a URL- 3 entries
Blog about this Giveaway on your blog and provide post URL- 2 entries
Become a fan of Adventures in Tot School on Facebook

Good luck everyone! Open to U.S only. Giveaway will run until September 10th I will use random generator to pick a winner and will email the winner and announce it here on the blog. The winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be announced.

DISCLOSURE:. I received a product sample to complete this review, but did not receive any financial compensation for my post. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Facebook Page.

2010-08-19T14:36:00.001-04:00

We are moving on up and I finally created a facebook page. I love having all my favorite blogs right on my facebook page. It keeps me so updated.

Here is our facebook page. Stop by and "like" it so can see whenever we post right on your facebook page.

Adventures in Tot School

Fun Fridays

2010-08-13T23:18:00.000-04:00

It may have only been one day, but I can see my boys need a day where we just have some structured fun. We live in a small 2 bedroom condo with a small outdoor space so getting outside it not a usual occurrence around here. A has been testing him boundaries running around our building, making it almost halfway before we can catch him. he has also been running into the parking lot which we all know can only be a disaster waiting to happen. We are beginning the short sale progress and are going to be listing it in September. Please pray its a quick and easy process so we can get these boys the safe yard they deserve.

Ok enough getting off topic.

We will now be having Fun Fridays. I am going to fill A's workboxes with activities he really enjoys and fun things he likes to do. He will still have school time but it will be much more laid back. My goal is to complete the boxes throughout the day.

Fun Friday Workboxes
1. Fine Motor Skills - connect four game
2. Pre Writing - Workbook
3. File folder - Paint Brush File Folder Game from Confessions of a Homeschooler
4. Playdough
5. Art - Stamping
6. Donut Man DVD

I found this little connect four game at Michael's the other day in their $1 section. A loved it.

Stamping

Matching all the colors without any help. Ok do toddlers have this secret pack that they will not let their parent know just how smart they really are? I have never even taught A all his colors and even though he wasn't saying the names, he got them all right when sorting.

Showing Mama that Caillou is doing the game with him. Caillou is A's best friend, favorite show and goes EVERYWHERE with him.

ITTY BITTY INFANT SCHOOL- Fun Friday

M ~~taking stuff from~~ helping his brother complete his workboxes. I am still looking for some of the tabs.

"Don't worry big bother, just let me take this tab off, and there you are all done with this workbox. Now on to playing with me."

Today in incorporated an "ALL DONE" box. I was running out of room when A was complete with a box and it was all getting put in my counter so today I just took one of M's boxes since I don't think I am going to use them on a regular basis and when A is all one I have him put everything is there. I can now just empty the box at the end of the day.

Ok so like I stated above, going outside is a challenge and safety issue right now but these boys were driving me crazy so decided we were going to get in our wagon and go for a walk. We have a common area not to far and the boys have some room to run without the scare of a car so we have been going over there more often. Its also the only shaded area so I don't have to worry about the boys getting to much sun. Our deck is shady in the morning but then gets the direct sun all afternoon and is to hot to take little ones out there. We played a little and fed the ducks in a nearby pond and then A was asking to play in his sandbox. I strictly talked to him and told him he had to stay on the deck.

A playing on his slide... M not far behind except he decided to climb up the slide instead of go down... He is our little daredevil. Always climbing.

Sometime the easiest activity is the one that brings the most peace and sanity to a household.

Recipe for happy kids and happy mama
- a few tubs,
- Large cooking spoons and ladles
- Ice (lots of it)
- Water

Fills tubs with ice and water, give kids spoons, relax and enjoy the piece and quiet while the kids play nicely together for over 45 min. Refill ice as much as needed.

A loved this so much he asked for it again in the evening when his daddy came home and the boys played out there again. M got send inside though because in the evening there is to much sun on our deck. It was wonderful for such a hot and humid day. A happily used his ladle to transfer the ice from once container to the next.

And that was our FUN FRIDAY

Itty Bitty Infant School

2010-08-13T22:41:00.000-04:00

M is 11.5 months old

I was so excited this year to incorporate our sweet little M into our school time. He is 11 months old and VERY active. I have noticed because he has an older brother, in some ways he is so much more advanced then when A was that age. And in some ways he seems so much more like a baby then A was. Whatever it is, I thought it would be easier to include him then try to balance watching him and schooling A.

So here is how our first day of Itty Bitty Infant School went.

I gave M three workboxes. Of course I was up until 2 the night before getting ready and I moved some things around our small condo to try to make a better school area (our kitchen table). I put the boys small table in the kitchen area and places M's work boxes on them. M gets up at around 6:30 and A sleeps until 7-7:30 so its we try to keep M entertained and quiet until his brother gets up. Without missing a beat, M was right in the kitchen grabbing his workboxes, trying to open them and carrying them around the house. He also was tearing apart the schedule and pulling the tabs off A's workboxes.

Let me start by saying M is the cuddliest little guy around and loves his mama but he is a difficult baby. He whines and cries ALOT. He wants constant attention and hates when I even for a second focus on anyone one or thing other then him. According to him, I was created for him and my only person in life is to cater to his every little peep... enter big brother... my other child. So you might see where this is going. Anytime I even turned away from him, he would yell or do something to get my attention.

So when we finally got to school time, I presented M with his first workbox. It was filled with his leapfrog fridge magnets. This is a usual favorite until he is told to play with it.

You can tell he wasn't entertained because he was already playing with a fork that was on the table. He lasted about 2 minutes.

So I quickly moved onto the next box when he started his grunting and trying to get out of his seat. M loves puzzles and whenever his brother brings them out, he is right there ~~stealing pieces~~ helping put it together. I gave him a puzzle he really hasn't played with hoping it would entertain him for a few moments.

And with that thought... all the pieces when on the floor. So much for puzzles.

So after about 10 minutes ( I say this very generously, more like 5) this is M...

Getting away as fast as he can. Not even 12 months old and already trying to skip school. I think I am going to have my hands full with this little guy.

Like all curious babies, he did eventually did ~~stand at my feet pulling and crying until I picked him up~~ come back. M loves crayons so I gave him an A and a couple crayons.

He was very thoughtful when using the crayons though. He knows his brother uses them all the time and he took it upon himself to make sure they were safe and if they could possibly be used for a snack if one ever got hungry while coloring.

... and the results are... Yes on them being safe, No on them being a snack, mostly because mama will take them away.

After the great crayon experiment, M wanted his brothers dot dot marker. So I let him try it.

Again... Yes dot dot markers are safe if put into mouth and No they too cannot be used as a snack because mama will take those away too.

And then he proceeded to rip his A into many little pieces and ~~eat~~ test those also, So Itty Bitty Infant School ended for the day and it was decided that M's school would not be so structured.

And it begins!!!

2010-08-13T21:57:00.000-04:00

Ok so some might think I am a little crazy but on Wednesday night, after a horrible trip to target with this kids and an overwhelming day of tantrums and whining, I decided... I am going to start school Thursday. I was totally unprepared and had nothing ready but I had to do something. I could not take it anymore. We NEEDED the structure. Austin has been acting out so much and we think its partly because of boredom. So at about 9:00 at night I got started. I planned and printed and printed. All I have to say is thank you Confessions of a Homeschooler. Without you I would of had nothing and A LOVES the activities.

As I stated in a previous post, I decided to do a daily schedule. Here is what I made. I have Austin remove each activity after we are done so he can see the progress.

In reality it seemed great but here are a few things I learned about using a schedule with young children:

1. Its fun for about the first 5 minutes

2. It doesn't matter what's on the schedule, if they don't want to do it they wont

3. This is just another thing for M. to tear apart

4. I will spend the rest of the day telling M no and searching for the pieces he took down

5. Again if they don't want to do it they wont, regardless of what the schedule says

So with this being said, I am still going to incorporate it into our daily plans but not have it be such a focus. I am sure it will work much better as A gets other and M stops tearing it apart.

We began out day with circle time. I really like this concept but have to think about it some more and figure it out. I "attempted" and with this I mean, got about two words out, to talk about our lesson on creation but A decided he just wanted to do the jumping song over and over again.

Don't let the picture fool you... there wasn't much "circle time" happening here but it was a good concept and just has to be tweaked a little bit.

After circle time was school. A was very excited although I think he thought he was going somewhere else to school. I showed him his workboxes and he eagerly looked through each one before he decided what he wanted to do. My concept was to have him pick what box he wanted to do and when he was completed he would take the labels off and put them back in the basket. He liked this and it showed him what left he had to do. This was the one idea that worked out so wonderful. It helped organized me and A loved being able to pick what he wanted to do. I plan to take a picture of them before he starts but I keep forgetting.

for day one we had:

Math: Apple seed counting sheet from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Bible: Creation day 1 craft

Spelling: Bottle cap spelling with apple worksheet from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Writing: Tracing pre writing worksheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Puzzle: Apple shape matching from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Art: Letter A with finger print ants for A's letter book

Like any toddler would, A went right for his bible drawer because there was paint in it. This is a really fun craft and I am excited to see it come together. As A worked, I briefly (come on, we all know you have to be as brief as you can be with a toddler) talked about creation for day one and how God created light and dark. This actually worked out well right now because A is very interested in dark and light. He announces what it gets dark or lights go off and tells us periodically during the day if the sun is out.

First I had him color the 1 with a black marker and then we painted it with yellow paint to represent light. After it dried I cut it out and A glued it to paper and glued a little clipart that says day 1 light and dark. I was so impressed with hi glue stick work because last year when I started, he could not do a glue stick.

Next A chose to do his shape matching puzzle from Confessions of a Homeschooler. A did so well at this activity. I was beginning to think he is a little genius but doesn't want us to know yet. After matching the shapes once A decided it was much more fun to do this...

So genius might be pushing it but he is defiantly advanced for his age.

I decided to start a letter book for Austin and we made out first one a letter A. I had him use his dot dot markers and after he was done, he made finger print ants. I was surprised he got the concept to put him finger prints next to each other but the problem was he wanted to do it outside the A. I tried explaining I was going to cut that part off but that had no effect on his decision to put all the ants outside the A.

I finally managed to get a few ants inside and we cut it out and glued it to a red and white checked paper. I will take pictures soon of this once we get a few pages.

I didn't push A and decided that 3 workboxes would be a good start to complete in the morning. If he is forced to focus to long, some crazy things can start happening so when he started mentioning playing baseball (him running back and forth across our living room swinging his bat at a pretend ball) I let him go.

In the afternoon we finished our workboxes. He loved the bottle cap spelling and without much direction, completed the word apple. I was so shocked. He kept asking to spell his name but I wasn't prepared so I will be making that an activity soon. We also did his prewriting worksheets. A loves using his new pencil and completed all 3 pages.

Now that brings us to math... Oh math how A dislikes you. Now A knows how to count. We have heard him. He counts to 3 all the time and the other day when we were in the car he was counting to 4 without any trouble at all. For some reason, he really dislikes number and counting no matter what we do. If we ask to count he refuses screaming "NO". I do not know if it just requires to much focus to count something and he doesn't like that or if he gets frustrated. Whatever it is, we will continue to do math but I am not pushing him. Needless to say, after numerous times to get him to do even one counting activity on the sheet, and several attempts to rip the sheet up, it got put away.

Awesome Oatmeal breakfast cookies

2010-08-10T10:33:00.000-04:00

Ok I don't normally post recipes because lets face it I am no betty crocker but I do a decent job coming up with stuff. I just wanted to share this recipe that I came up with because I know all of us are thrifty mamas and do not like to waste anything.

Recently the husband and I finally got on Dave Ramsey's budget. Yes we are well on our way and it feels good. This problem with the budget is that it does not favor our shared joy of going out to eat. No Dave has a strict belief of the "beans and rice" diet until debt is paid off. Well our little M who rarely doesn't have food in his mouth is not found of Dave and is wondering where all his wonderful snacks went.

So on to my recipe. I have TONS of gerber baby oatmeal because M decided that he will not eat it anymore. I knew there was something that I could do with it and since this morning we had NOTHING for breakfast, I knew I had to come up with something. A is most of the time anti breakfast which leads to major meltdowns by 9 so I wanted to come up with something he would eat.... COOKIES.

I searched online for an easy oatmeal cookie recipe and tweeked it a bit. Here is the standard recipe.

1 c. flour
1 c. butter
1 c. sugar
2 c. instant oats
1 tsp. baking soda

Here is what I did. I kept the flour, butter, and baking soda the same and added

2 c. baby oatmeal
1 egg
I shredded apple with skin
1/2 cup sugar
some cinnamon
and about 1/2 jar of baby applesauce (I used this because it doesn't have any sugar)

Mixed all together, dropped onto cookie sheet with spoon and baked at 350 for 10 min.

Lets just say these breakfast cookies were AWESOME and really healthy since baby cereal has tons of vitamins and had fresh fruit. I am sure any fruit can be added. Enjoy!

Almost there.

2010-08-10T10:14:00.000-04:00

I can't believe we are going to be starting school in 13 days. I feel so overwhelmed and excited. My wonderful husband gave me a planning day so I was able to get away and just plan plan plan. The problem with this is I have SOOOO many ideas I cant seem to focus. I was very proud of my first lapbook I made for A. While I was looking at numerous blogs I came across a great sit that had lots of activities based on the bible. I decided that I was going to base a lot of curriculum around a bible story. We are going to attempt to go somewhat in order so we are beginning with creation. With all the ideas I have, I think we could be on creation for about a month so I have to control myself or we will get nowhere fast. My plan in to start introducing A to numbers so each day we will talk about what happened that day, decorate the number, and create our own number/bible. I think I am more excited for school to start then the kids.

M I am a little stuck on. He attention span is that of a well..... 1 year old so getting him do do anything that does not involve food will be a challenge. I think I am going to just take lots of deep breaths and try to remind myself that its ok if he doesn't sit. I am a very structured person (ok I may not look like it on the outside but inside... I am as structured as they get).

Another wonderful idea I have is to get these little ones on a schedule. Anyone that has two little ones this close (a few days short of 14 months apart) knows that structure is the key to sanity.
So here is my ideal (which means it will never happen but I can dream) schedule:

Breakfast
Circle time (this is the teaching degree in me. I can dream right?)
Tot School
Snack (or 10th snack for my little M who never stops eating)
T.V. time
Puzzles or cars (hopefully a nap for M but there I go again dreaming)
Room time
Lunch (again just an extension of M's all day snacks)
Book time
NAP!!!!!!!!! (my favorite part of the day)
Tot School
Free play
Clean up for dinner

Now you might be thinking I am SO structured but I did this because it will NEVER happen like this so I figured the more structured and planned we are, the more likely something will happen from this schedule. I am going to be flexible for when we go out. I would like to have this posted with Velcro strips so that A can take off each task as we complete it but again that's my inside structure, not the outside mama with two ACTIVE boys.

We are also doing (attempting) workboxes this year. A has 6 drawers he will have activities in and M has 3 plastic containers that he will have stuff in. Some activities for M will be done with A so I will not put those in his containers like crafts (I can only see M walking around the house with a dot marker). Anything and is potentially destructive or could cost me time cleaning up, will be kept out if his boxes.

Today we are going to buy A his pencils for school. I have never seen a 2 year old so excited. I am getting him the big ones because I noticed with color pencils, he has a hard time gripping them. He keeps telling me he is getting "sils for my school". I am glad he is so excited because it has been a great incentive this morning to get him to obey (well not obey but think about obeying).

Getting Ready

2010-07-31T16:00:00.000-04:00

I am SOOOO excited for the upcoming school year. I have been preparing and getting everything ready. I am planning on starting on August 23rd, the day my husband goes back to his school. I was so reluctant to start planning but once I got started I couldn't stop.

School is going to be totally different then last year. First, my sweet little Mason will be starting Tot School. The adventures of Mason will be very interesting but it should be fun. Structure will not be the name of our game with this active 1 year old. I have so many things planned for him but just like with Austin, I will have to just go with flow to see what he is willing and able to do. Our second change is Austin will have a schedule for the day. I am going to try this to make our day flow a little better. I have noticed he does much better when his day is planned for him. Also I have decided to do work boxes with Mason and and workbox/draws with Austin. Mason will have three and Austin will have about six. I can't wait for this and think that both boys will do great with this.

Well on to more planning. I can't wait to see my little ones grow and learn this year.

Drawing with a purpose

2010-06-30T13:32:00.000-04:00

Although Tot school has formally ended for the summer, our informally learning has not ended. Austin has been into drawing circles for awhile now and for a just turned two year old, is really good at it. He loves drawing and will tell you what he drew or draw what you ask. Of course what you usually get is a circles and maybe a line, typical toddler drawing. Well yesterday Austin totally shocked me when I was getting dinner ready, I asked him to draw Caillou his absolutely favorite cartoon. He drew his typical circle and I thought it would end there as usually but he drew one eye, they the other one and a nose and a mouth. Not only did he actually make sure they were all there, they were actually in the right place. Sure it looks more like the mask from the movie Scream but this picture was identifiable to anyone. I was such a proud momma. And of course I cant wait until all the activities I can start doing with him next year not that he can actually draw with a purpose. 1+1+1 had an article awhile back on this which I read and thought, wow I cant believe these little ones are actually drawing.

My wheels are also turning on having two in the fall doing Tot School. Mason will be 12 months so I want to start some activities with him. Any suggestions on how to manage two during school time? I am excited but mostly nervous on how to manage this.

Summer Time!

2010-05-24T08:34:00.000-04:00

Well our first go at Tot School was an adventure. I learned a lot about what my little monkey will do and what he will not do. I have also learned going with the flow and letting the little guy take the lead is key to success in the whole adventure. I haven't posted in awhile because we have not been doing any sit down formal school. We actually got hit with some nice weather (finally Michigan!) so we have been doing a bunch or running around and getting out as much as we can. Last week I do not think we were home very much all week.

Our little Monkey has been demonstrating this past week that things do not go in one ear and out the other when I am teaching him. When spending the day with his daddy doing some running around after church, Monkey was happy to point out letters like A and B on buildings. He has also been counting a lot and if in a good mood, will volunteer to show you just how a toddler counts...1, 2, 3, 6, 9. This seems to be his favorite sequence an all though we do correct him, I am happy that he understands he has to say numbers. He has also been caught doing 8, 9, 10.

Last night at bath time he demonstrated to his daddy that he does in fact know the alphabet and did A, B, C. Just when you think nothing is getting in that little head, they pull out all the stops and show you that its not that they don't know it, its that they don't want to show you when you ask.

Monkey has also been learning his mealtime prayer. I was doing memory verses but since his vocabulary was and still somewhat is one words, I felt that this was something that should wait a bit longer. So in replacement we have been working on our prayer. We have been saying it for a very long time but recently have been making Austin repeat us after every word so that he in actuality is saying it also. Well this past week I have been saying a few words and he has been saying a few on his own which is showing he is learning to memorize. Like most toddlers and the nanosecond patience, Austin usually will and a few extra Amen's to speed along the process if eating. The amount of additional Amen's correlates to exactly how hungry he is and in extreme cases, the prayer is said with bites of food in between every word.

The last two days, Monkey has been showing us a huge vocabulary increase and to my much excitement linking two words on his own. Since his second birthday is fast approaching, I was a little concerned that he was not attempting to do this at all but my worries are gone and suspect that each day he will increase his new communication skills.

In terms of formal school, I am thinking we are done for the year. I thinking adding anything new right now would be overload on my growing tot. I think I am going to still continue through the summer but do it very informally and do more fun activities. I am going to spend lots of time reviewing and working on the skills he is the the process of learning like counting, ABC's and tracing which is his new favorite activity.

In the fall I plan to use the workbox system to some extent. I think Austin will take to it very well and will try to start incorporating it over the summer.

Our little munchkin has been on the move and is almost 9 months now. Over the summer I plan to slowly incorporate him into Tot school so that in the fall he will formally be a member.

Elephants, Elmo, and Eyes

2010-04-27T23:05:00.000-04:00

This week we continued with the letter E. We talked more about the Earth and when asked "where do we live?" Austin will answer "Err" - translation "Earth". When asked "who made the Earth?" he will answer "God".

We did a "dot dot" letter E. Austin did awesome of making sure he filled all the circles before he used the dot markers on the rest of the paper. He is really gaining more focus and patience.

We made an Elmo so that we could talk about Eyes. Austin made this all by himself and placed the eyes, nose and mouth all by himself. He was very proud to show his daddy his "mo" when he got home.

I decided to try a new skill out today. I was not expecting much just thought I would assess where were were and to my surprise Austin did much better then I thought. I printed out tracing sheets from NO TIME FOR FLASHCARDS because they were elephant themed. Austin did the first sheet so well. Even my husband was surprised. I held his hand for the first square and he actually did the second one all by himself and the lines on the bottom. Again he showed mommy not to underestimate him.

We also used our door markers to draw on our front door. Austin LOVES this activity and so do I. We drew E pictures.

Here is our E fridge so far. Tomorrow we are heading to the library granted everyone is in a good mood.

And we are Back!!!

2010-04-22T22:05:00.002-04:00

So I guess its true when they say "when it rains it pours". We have just had a flood of distractions and medical issued that have kept us from any sort of normalcy around here. On the day of our little ones dedication, Austin came down with a very bad cold. Nothing to serious but still he was miserable and I was preparing for the baby to get a cold also since the boys do not know how to contain their germs. To my surprise our little guy remained healthy and Austin's cold cleared up within a week except for a slight dry cough. Well a couple of weeks went on and the cough turned into something very nasty. When Austin was a baby he had pneumonia and the cough sounded very similar. My husband and I went back and forth on whether or not to take him to urgent care and on that Sunday we decided to take him. They took x-rays (very traumatizing for Austin) and everything came back ok. They gave him an antibiotic and we thought we were on the road to recovery. After the x-rays, we were waiting to see the doctor. I started to feel very sick. I thought I was just all worked up from seeing Austin so upset. We had to go to my parents house to pick the baby up and it all went downhill from there. Sparing you the details, I could not keep anything down nor sleep for over 24 hours. On Monday, I was so dehydrated, I could barely stand so I had my dad come over, back me and the kids up and take us to his house. I was going to leave them there and then my mom was taking me to the hospital. I got an IV and some medicine to help my stomach. They said a very aggressive and nasty flu was going around lately and that is what I had. I was so tired so we stayed there for the day so I could rest.

Ok so we thought the worst was over. Well on the way home from my parents house Austin got sick and lost everything he ate that day. I was so worried that he would be as bad as I was and didn't want to see him in that pain. My husband and I watched him closely and gave him small amounts of jello and small amounts of liquid to keep him hydrated. By the next day he was back to normal, asking to eat everything in sight.

Ok so that should be the end right.... oh no, our dear little one started to get a cough. The cough started to progress into a very congested sound and he started throwing up his bottles because he would start coughing. I assumed it was the cold Austin had and called the doctor. We took him in right away and come to find out he had bronchitis. He was given a breathing treatment and was put on a breathing treatment at home every 4 hours. Trying to give a 7 month old a 20 minute breathing treatment with a toddler screaming because he is afraid of the machine is not an easy task, all while trying to recover yourself from the flu. Despite how I felt, I was thrown back into mommy mode and did what I had to do. Luckily within a week, I was feeling fine.

So that should be the end, everyone healthy and back to business as normal... oh no. At the doctor appointment for out little guy, our pediatrician stated she was concerned with the shape of his head but was concerned about getting him better so she would discuss that is 4 days when he was scheduled to come back for a recheck. In the meantime, he was supposed to have his tongue tie surgery that was already had to cancel once. This now was on hold until we met with the doctor again the following week. It was a long 4 days and of course I was nervous and scared since I had no details about his head. We all went back, Austin to for a follow up since he finished the antibiotics. Austin got the all clear and the baby was sounding better but she still wanted him on the breathing treatments a few times a day for 2 weeks until she saw him again. The surgery was canceled again due to his breathing. She decided to do head x-rays because she was concerned the sutures on his head had closed prematurely. We headed downstairs to get those taken care of. I am normally not a critic of how people do their job, but this person was awful with dealing with a baby. Our little guy was screaming his head off and she would not let him have his pacifier therefore I knew the x-rays were awful because he would not keep his head still. We thought this would be the end of it. Well a couple of days later, we got a call saying they wanted him to see a pediatric neurosurgeon right away. They called and set up an appointment for us that was in 2 weeks. This threw me into an absolute panic but as life goes on with a baby and a toddler, the 2 weeks flew by and the appointment came before I even knew it. I had to drive about and hour to the appointment and let me tell you, they were all wonderful with our special guy. The doctor said he didn't feel anything that seemed urgent but wanted to get his own x-rays to look at. From their office, they were sending me downtown to the children's hospital where I would get the x-rays and then meet him in his office there. I was a nervous wreck driving there. I had no idea where I was going but like a determined mama, I got us there. There were so wonderful there and so sweet and gentle with our baby. They took perfect x-rays and he barely cried. They even let him have his pacifier. The doctor reviewed them and said he looked fine and gave us the all clear. The following day we had our recheck with the pediatrician and was given the all clear there to stop the breathing treatments and to go ahead and schedule his surgery.

And in the middle of all this craziness, our little guy started crawling, pulling himself up and walking along things, so now I have to clean, sweep and vacuum about 10 times a day because with a toddler around, you can only imagine what ends up on the floor. Austin was also doing awesome potty training but because of the week I got sick, he regressed and now we are going very slowly. I just have to get everything else adjusted and back to normal before I can tackle that on again.

Ok so that is the end and that brings us back to yesterday were we just hung out and did nothing stressful since we had such a busy week. Despite all of this we actually did manage to do some sort of learning and Tot School. We did do letter D activities and green. I will go back and post those activities later.

Yesterday we started the letter E. Austin's vocabulary has really been increasing lately so his letter recognition has also increased. We made a letter E elephant. Austin has really been into elephants lately so he really enjoyed making that. We also started focusing on color recognition. He understands there are different colors and knows many of the names but when asked what color something is he usually says blue or some other random color.

Today in celebration of Earth Day, we made our letter E with an Earth theme of blue and green. Austin practiced his fine motor skills of tearing paper which he enjoyed.

We also painted our own Earth. I tried to get Austin to use more blue but he liked the green the best so his Earth lacks many oceans.

I hope to slowly get back into things. I am not going to push myself or Austin and stress us all out. First thing is getting everyone back on a routine with naps and such. I don't have a set plan for E but hope to do more activities next week.

Workboxes and apologies.

2010-03-11T09:30:00.000-05:00

First off I am sorry I have not posted anything is awhile. It seems like we have had so much going. Our little one was Dedicated to the Lord in church on Sunday and we had lots of preparing and planning for the family and friends get together after and of course the night before Austin came down with a horrible cold and was not feeling well at all. He did very well and at least made it through the dedication and was relatively good doing the party. Poor little guy just didn't feel good. This week we have takes a break from formal Tot School. With sickness taking a turn with all of us, I have not gotten my act together. We have done some informal learning of course this week but I have not taken pictures. We have had a break in the cold michigan weather so we have spent a lot of time outside. The last couple of days, it has been my turn with this awful cold. I hope to use this down time to get together stuff and get back on track for next week.

Our plan for March is to do St. Patricks day themed things, the letter D, color green, and dentist activities since Austin has his first dentist appointment at the end of the month. Hopefully I can shake this cold and pull myself together.

On a side note I am thinking of switching to the workbox system and would love input from people that have used them for their young tots. How do they work out. What works and what doesn't work. Do you put new stuff in them everyday. Our basement is almost done and I would love to start off down there with this system but do not want to invest in the items if its something I should wait until he is older. All thoughts and comments are welcome and even pictures. I am sure more mammas would love to hear and see your setup. I might even put together a special post of everyones suggestions.

Our Style - Home school Blog Hop

2010-03-11T09:20:00.000-05:00

Our Style... Hmmmm Survive the day and include some sort of learning experience?!? I have a 20 month old and a very active 6 month old that wants to crawl and get around but can't so is extremely fussy right now. I also have a small condo and with 2 active boys am quickly running out of space. Luckily we are starting to get nice weather so most of our time will be spent outside.

Our style really is changing week to week. I am learning just as much as my toddler does. What works and what doesn't. We do a lot of crafts because thats what Austin loves and I love to have all of his homemade things around the house. We basically go with the flow. We attempt Tot School everyday but if it doesn't happen we are ok with that. Sometimes it happens in the morning and other times it happens at random times throughout the day when little one is sleeping or content for the moment. So out style I would say is go with the flow/

Giveaway Winner!

2010-03-09T21:10:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the delay of posting the winner, we have had so much going on. The winner of the Go FIsh Guys DVD and CD is.......

Our Country Road

Congratulations to the winner and thank you to all that participated. I hope to have more giveaways in the future. For the winner, Please contact me here so I can get your mailing information so I can mail off your prize.

GIVEAWAY!!! Update

2010-03-03T06:53:00.000-05:00

I made some updates to my give a way rules on entering so you can get more entries. Check it it out here.

Pushing through - Week 8

2010-03-02T22:46:00.000-05:00

For some reason this week has been a struggle for us all. Its seems that I am suffering from a lack of motivation. Luckily my little tot has pushed through and has been asking for his school activities on his own. I guess this is a good sign that Austin likes what we are doing and is now used to our schedule.

Last week we had our first school date with my friend Jessica and her Daughter Maddie. They are going to be starting Tot School soon and wanted to get an idea what we do. Of course putting two toddlers in a house with lots of toys usually equals craziness and this was no exception. Austin just refers to Maddie as "girl" when I ask him about her and was a little thrown off with someone playing with his toys. All in all it was a good time and although not much school work got done, Jessica and I got to visit and both tots got to play and interact with each other.

Earlier this week Austin made his Papa a picture since he is recovering from a surgery. Austin really liked this. Unfortunately it turned into a big brown mess but Papa loved it.

Austin has been using his imagination a lot lately. I think my favorite activity is to sit and watch him play. It is amazing how kids play when they think no one is watching. This is Austin playing car with his chairs. He lined them up, pretended to buckle his seat belt and even put stuff in the seats.

We also worked with the dropper again although Austin decided to use a spoon instead.

Austin's love for gluing is growing and he enjoys the responsibility of doing it himself. Today we glued cotton down for Clouds. Austin did Awesome and gets the whole concept now of putting the glue down, placing the item on the glue, pressing it down, and actually leaving it on the paper.

We did a lot of other activities this week. While I was getting lunch together, I gave Austin his Melissa and Doug safari puzzle. When I looked over to check on him, he had the whole thing done. Of course I made a huge deal and he got embarrassed and that was the end of puzzle time.

Austin has been asking for his "dot dot" markers a lot. Whenever he asks I let him use them. It makes me so happy that he is liking our activities and starting to communicate what he wants to do.

Austin and our little one have been getting up extremely early lately. Today I was feeding our little guy and laughing because he kept dozing off while eating. Little did I know that right in front of me, Austin had also fell asleep in his chair with his snack in hand. He ended up sleeping 3 1/2 hours.

Homeschool Blog Hop #4

2010-03-02T16:11:00.000-05:00

GIVEAWAY!!!

2010-02-27T22:21:00.004-05:00

Ok This is my first giveaway and I am so excited. The Go Fish Guys and their management company sent me

You can see my review here. This DVD and CD are wonderful and and excellent addition to any family. Kids will love it and parents will be surprised they love it to. In a world where Barney and Yo Gabba Gabba is played about 50 times a day each, I love that my son is asking for "ga fes" to listen to or watch. There is no better reviewer then a toddler. Either they hate it or you watch it 50 times a day, and I am proud to announce we are wearing out ours very fast.

Ok the rules... To enter you must go to the Go Fish Guys website and let me know what other product you would be interested in.

For additional entries you can...
1. Become a follower - 2 extra entries
2. Post this giveaway on your blog and link it back here. In your comments leave the link to your post. - 4 extra entries
2. refer a new follower. Have the new follower state they were referred by you in the comments - 5 extra entries
3. Comment on your favorite Christian music CD or DVD for your little ones. - 2 extra entries
4. follow me on facebook - 3 extra entries

You may post all in one comment, if you are doing multiple entries.

The winner will be chosen on 3/7/2009. The winner will be posted to the Blog and notified via email or message to their blog. You will win both the CD and DVD

Go Fish Guys

2010-02-27T22:01:00.000-05:00

You know that feeling when you and your family are all sitting in the living room, TV off, music playing and your little one is dancing around laughing and screaming with joy? The other night, I got to experience one of those moments. It seems in a world where television, internet and cell phones rule, those special family moments become less and less frequent. Well thanks to the Go Fish Guys and their management company who have been kind enough to send me some material to review, my family gets to look forward to many more of those moments.

I was lucky enough to receive these CD's from the Go Fish Guys.

This CD take your old time favorite kid songs like "Do Your Ears Hang Low", "The Wheels on the Bus" and our personal favorite "Five Little Monkeys" and turns them into something even parents love. When I saw the song list, I was a little hesitant thinking not the same kids songs again. Boy was I wrong. My son immediately started jumping around and by the end was acting out the whole song with jumping, pretend calling the doctor, and shaking his little finger to say "no more". This is literally the BEST version of these songs I have heard and I have worked on a daycare, church class, school. Parents you will not mind listening to this CD over and over again. Although these are not christian in content, I love the idea of supporting a christian band to sing them.

These CD's are by far the BEST christian music for kids I have every heard. I found myself listening to the music in the car today when I didn't even have my tot in the car. Every song has a wonderful lesson that is put to upbeat music that just makes you and your child want to dance. My son absolutely loves this music. We have been playing it everyday and he runs around dancing and jumping. Our little one even is starting to get in on the action, getting all excited when it comes on. My personal favorite is the mom song. I don't think a mom's job can be summed up in a more perfect and fun way. We also really enjoy "My Church" which describes a child's idea of what church should be. I can not find one complaint with this group and their music and would consider it a must have for raising healthy children in the Lord. Its a great way for them to get all their wiggles out while learning important Biblical messages.

I would like to thank Go Fish Guys and their management company for bringing my family back to reality and way from all the distractions of the world. Its amazing what can happen when you turn off the cell phones, computers, and t.v. and turn up the volume on the BIBLE BOOK BOP!

Back to Business

2010-02-23T22:38:00.004-05:00

In a world where your 6 month old is teething and refuses to sleep and your toddler has learned the meaning and power of the word NO, there is little time for organization and structure in the day. The game plan... survive the day with as few meltdowns by you, the baby and the toddler as possible. My strategy... expect the worst and anything else that happens will be a welcomed surprise.

As you can tell things have been quite hectic around here. Last week John had a break from school so little was accomplished in terms of school. On Monday we were welcomed with a huge amount of snow, so it was another day off for daddy. I was determined to regain control of the house and get things back to "normal" whatever that is.

I am determined to start being more prepared for school. Easier said then done with an infant who is determined to sleep no more then 20 min. at a time during the day.

Week 7
Letter C
Color Yellow
Verse: Children obey your parents in the Lord; for this is right. Ephesians 6:1

We began by going over our verse. I can't think of a better verse for a toddler.

We followed that with our letter C and dot markers.

I attempted my firs file folder game. It came out pretty good. I will have to redo it later on when I have time but it worked well. This is where the proud mama steps in.. Austin did AWESOME! I was not even expecting him to want to touch it. I showed him how to do it first and he took over completing the whole thing. Here I thought the whole time he did not get the concept of matching. Boy was I wrong. Not only does he get it but he flew through it more then once and just to be sure I did it again today he and he did it on his own.

This week we are also working on using a cup with Austin. He is getting the concept but my baby loves to pour and this is not limited to water play as we learned this morning when a cup of cold milk got poured on our precious little one who was innocently playing in the living room. For now the cup practice will be limited to the kitchen table under high supervision.

Last night in attempts to be prepares, I stayed up late and planned and prepped several activities. I thought they would last me longer then one day but Austin wanted to do them all so we did.

We made out caterpillar C which turned out really cute. This is where i learned just how observant toddlers really are. In the middle of the project, Austin grabbed the glue and started gluing himself! He knew just what to do by watching me. I didn't even realize after that Austin had created a pattern on the caterpillar. I let him pick each color to glue on. I am sure it wasn't intentional but it sure does look nice! After the C was done, Austin still wanted to glue so I gave him a piece of paper and he used the leftover circles or "balls" as he insisted. It may not look like much but he did it 100% on his own. I was at the counter gluing on the eyes and pipe cleaners for the caterpillar. I was so proud.

Another project Austin did was make a corn on the cob. I used bubble wrap and had him paint it yellow, then i glued the husk on.

Our last project (yes we did a lot today but Austin loves projects) was a popcorn C. This was not a huge success. I guess anything with food and toddler, doesn't go as planned. Austin glued one piece down then kept insisting on eating it. Whenever he is really determined about something, he will sign and say the word almost in a way to say " I really mean it so I am going to say it two way". For every piece I glues on, he ate about 5.

Austin signing and saying "Eat"

Austin giving me a cheesy smile after each piece he ate.

We wrapped up our very productive Tot school day with counting. I go this piggy bank at a mom 2 mom sale for $2.00. It an awesome toy. It comes with large coins in different colors and sizes. It also has two settings for music and counting.

And not to forget our little one who suffered a cold shower of milk this morning. He recovered nicely and even proved he was ready for "Baby School"

Awesome find!

2010-02-20T07:52:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to share this awesome video we discovered recently. We normally watch praise baby videos which I absolutely love. They are great for bringing down the energy level and Austin loves all the animals and babies in them but I was looking for something to encourage him to dance and get his energy out. He is not really into cartoons and prefers live people.

On valentines day, after a quick lunch with my husband, we did something we have not done is about 19 months.... we went into a store just to look around. Everyone knows with toddlers, there is no browsing. You shop with a purpose. The goal is to get in and get out before your toddler starts climbing out of the cart. Well thanks to Grammy and Papa, John and I got actually enjoy a meal together and decided to run into the Christian book store.

I came across this video

The energy is very high and Austin really likes to dance to it. The songs are great too.
Superstar
Lord I Lift Your Name On High
Bible Book Bop
Stories
The Ten Commandment Boogie
The B-I-B-L-E (Backstage Remix)
Jesus Loves Me
Saved
I've Got The Joy
That Acappella Sound

I love that they actually teach lessons. I find myself leaving it on even when Austin has ventured away from the TV to do other things. I am thinking of starting our school day with a little praise session to get all our energy out. Definitely worth getting if you have an active toddler that loves to dance.

Here is the link to their site. Check it out if you get a chance! http://gofishguys.com

Mid Winter Break

2010-02-20T07:40:00.001-05:00

This week my husband had mid-winter break at his school our daily routines were thrown off. Austin was so excited to have his daddy home that I didn't make him take time out of their playing for Tot School. It was nice to have him home and we got many projects done and running around that needed to be done, but I am looking forward to getting back to out normal routine. Austin has been to bed late, up early, short or no naps and very little structure. One day while John was painting the basement, I attempted to do a structures activity with Austin and it worked for about 10 minutes.

I bought these grow capsules from Targets $1 section. Austin really liked them except they took a long time to dissolve.

we did a lot random activities whenever we could fit them in. One thing Austin enjoyed was washing the potatoes for dinner.

This week John and I have been really working with Austin on his pronunciation of words. He tends to say the beginning of a word. He has been doing really well with this so far.

Here are a few random pictures from this week.

Brotherly love! Don't worry, Austin isn't sitting on his little brother, he is sitting on the tray. This is what happens when mommy has her backed turned to dust the mantle. Our little guy was just so excited Austin was that close to him. He loves his big brother!

Next week its back to work. We are going to be starting the letter C and the color yellow. I might also start throwing in numbers here and there since Austin has started showing an interest in counting.

Home School Blog Hop

2010-02-13T17:17:00.001-05:00

I am a Christian mom to my 19 month old and 5 1/2 month old sons. I was fortunate enough to be able to stay home full time and take care of my little men. There is never a boring moment (or a spare one for that matter) with my two but I love every minute. I have a bachelors degree in education and I am putting everything I have learned to good use teaching my little one.

Week 5

2010-02-12T14:56:00.000-05:00

Valentines Week

This week we spent time away from our normal verse, letter, color format and enjoyed doing Valentines day themed projects and activities. I think Austin really enjoyed this. I know having two boys, I welcomed the opportunity to add a little pink and purple to the mix!

We did do a verse this week it was

We started off the week with some yummy french toast.

The first activity that we did was our LOVE TREE. I had everything already premade. I used foam heart stickers from Michaels so that Austin could just stick them on. Austin loves his tree and will look at it and name some things we put on it. It is very sweet, almost like he is reading it.

For lunch one day we had Hot dog Hearts

Of course we had to have some sort of water play this week so I decided to work on Austin's fine motor skills and start him using a dropper. I used one from an old medicine bottle (we have so many with two teething little ones). I showed Austin a few times what to do and he caught on really quick. He understood to squeeze to get the water out but needed help to get the water in the dropper. It was a great activity to help work those little finger muscles. After some dropper work, I gave him a baby spoon and he worked with that.

This week we also did one of Austin's new favorite activities... Baking. He now loves to help me make anything and is getting really good at being patient and waiting for the next step. Austin also gets a chance to build his vocabulary during cooking time. I have him repeat whatever he is doing. He loves to "mix mix" now and will ask before I even tell him. This week we baked heart shaped chocolate chip cookies. Austin was very sweet when putting in the flour yelling "no no" (Snow).

On Wednesday, we got hit with a big snow storm so daddy got a snow day from his school. Austin loved this and enjoyed every minute of having daddy home for the day. Of course this threw our schedule off a bit but we didn't mind. While daddy made come breakfast, Austin enjoyed the new "no" in the sink.

Instead of the library, we took advantage of our extra set of helping hand and headed over to Kiddie Klub to play. This was Austin's first time there and absolutely loved it. After Kiddie Klub we enjoyed a play date with Austin's friend Nate for some playtime in the snow.

This week we read

I had Austin use a heart stamper and paint to make hearts on a large sheet of white paper. I also had him use one of his toy cars to drive across the paper. He liked this one very much. After it dried I cut out hears in different shapes and we hung them from the ceiling. Whenever you ask Austin where his rain is, he points to the hearts.

** the heart stamper I made. We used a large foam heart sticker and stuck it to the bottom of an old film container I had. I forgot where I got this idea but it worked great.

Some other activities we did this week was work on directions and self control. Austin loves to throw and kick his Elmo soccer ball so I cleaned up the floor from our many toys and had Austin stand at one end of the rug and me at the other. I would say an action like "kick" or "throw" and them pass the ball to Austin. He enjoyed this and actually listened and followed directions. It seems simple but for him to focus and control his actions is very impressive.

Lastly we made a heart fishy and a heart piggy. Instead of putting all his crafts on the fridge, I have been displaying them around the house as decorations. He will proudly show you were something is if asked.

Not so much a pig but we tried.

Alphabet Train

2010-02-05T23:15:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post to show how I am displaying Austin's alphabet animals after he is done with that letter. They are right behind his chair at the kitchen table so every night at dinner we get to ask him about the. Its a great review and he loves showing off his work.

B is for Brobee

2010-02-05T23:12:00.000-05:00

Today was our final day with B. Tot school has been a challenge with Austin these past two weeks. Maybe because the first two weeks were awesome or maybe because he just has so much energy and its hard to keep him still. Whatever the reason, we pushed through and made some really fun projects and even learned a few things. Austin can identify the letter B but when asked what letter it is says A. Blue has been more of a challenge so I think we will be coming back to it again.

We began our day with me trying to use our new cloth letters. Unfortunately Austin had just found a new place to craw in so he was a little distracted. He did come by and show me the A and them step all over the other letters.

I started off by doing stickers. Austin really does love these but gets frustrated very fast. I tried teaching him the right grip of the stickers and he seemed to do better when I asked him to show me his pinchers. He still had trouble with the smaller stickers but enjoyed picking which stickers he wanted me to hand him.

I tried having Austin put pipe cleaners in a spice container and this was so easy for him that he was done is less then a minute and ready to move on.

Because I have been so unprepared lately I had to think of something quick while I got our craft ready. I handed Austin a bowl of ice and an empty egg carton and showed him how to put one ice cube in each slot. He of course wanted to pour the bowl in, but after a few "no just one at a time" he was patient enough and happily filled each slot. He really liked this and played with it for about 10 minutes. Not bad for an activity on the fly.

Ok all you parents who have been victims to the Yo Gabba Gabba craze sweeping through our young tots. We could not finish up B without making our Brobee. Austin loved this activity and since he tried to watch about 100 episodes a day of this, he was super excited to make this. This activity can also be done with Barney (Austin's second love) but I have not done that one yet.

We finished our morning with a snack of Blue jello

Here is our finished B Fridge.

Next week we are taking a break from our normal routine and are going to be doing all Valentine themed projects and activities.

Week Four- Thursday

2010-02-04T23:22:00.000-05:00

Today we all had cabin fever. These Michigan winters can really take a toll on you. Even though it is extremely hard to take both boys out since Austin is at the age where he wants to run, even when told to stop, I knew he needed to get some energy out, before he totally destroyed the house. So today for school, I quickly bundled up both boys (not having time to put very warm clothes on myself) and headed outside for the brief but wonderful hour of sunny skies we had. Austin needless to say, loved it and could not stop moving. We have several small hills around our condo complex and Austin was determined to conquer them. I took this opportunity to reenforce the concept of up and down. He caught on quickly and would state to me up or down, whichever he was doing. After running up and down for about 30 minutes, we headed for a walk around our building. I had Austin identify several things like trees and birds. He happily stated "tee" for each tree or large bush we passed and "no" at each small pile of snow we came across. Austin would have stayed out there all day but unfortunately I was very cold and our poor little ones cheeks were cold and rosy despite being bundled up and wrapped in two blankets. So with a kicking a screaming Austin in hand, we headed inside.

Our sweet little one, taking a nap during our walk.

On a side note, today we got an awesome addition to our Tot School tools. They are cloth letters. I can not wait to use them and Austin already was excited to identify the A. Thanks Aunt Anne!!

Week four = Wednesday

2010-02-03T23:34:00.000-05:00

Austin is 19 months old!!

Well we have changed names. It seems to suite us much more since we are new to home schooling. Everyday is filled with challenges and adventures but we are having fun doing it!

Today normally is our library day but my sweet angels decided to sleep in this morning so instead of rushing and trying to get out of the house, we decided to so school at home.

Austin started the day by doing a dot B. He loves these but likes to put the cap back on the dot marker the most.

After I gave Austin some pasta and a pipe cleaner. I showed him how to lace it on and he actually did it. i was very surprised because he has not been interested in any activity like this at all. He was entertained until he filled the pipe cleaner up and then was handing me the tray saying "done"

We made a hand butterfly. I just bought some foam stickers (Michael's has all of their foam stickers for only $4.99 right now!!) and Austin had been eyeing them all morning so we decorated our butterfly with these. Austin is still having trouble figuring out how to stick things on paper without it getting stick to his fingers.

I also tried getting Austin to color a B on dark paper with chalk but he did not want to even try this at all. He did use a sharpie pen for a few minutes to color on it while I was getting other things ready.

Lastly we did our big B. Austin was very excited and ran around me in circles the whole time i was getting it ready. Once it was done he wasted no time getting his cars and new love his Thomas train to drive around on it. The one issue we had this time was that after he was done playing, he began to pull it up. This was my mistake because when we were all done with out A, I had him help me pull it up and throw it away, do in his mind he was just cleaning up. Oh well, at least he was picking up something!

Here is a picture of our Fridge right now from all his projects.

Week Four

2010-02-02T23:00:00.000-05:00

Monday

I had a lot of activities planned for school time today. We started by playing with play dough. This was Austin's request. I decided to add a little twist to his normal play. I cut up a straw and showed him how to stick in in the dough. He really liked this. This worked his fine motor skills along with some patience that he desperately needs to improve. Like always he request I make some balls so we started putting the straws in them. This really worked on his control.

After play dough We make our letter B Bee. Austin did AWESOME at the gluing this time. I placed a line of glue and Austin placed the paper. As you can see he did very well. I didn't help on any of the stripes.

Just as we were finishing up the our bee, our little man woke up and was demanding to be fed so i set Austin up to practice his spooning rice crispies. Austin has excellent spooning skills but lacks the patience and control. This activity is perfect to strengthen these skills

Later in the day Austin and I baked homemade bread and talked about our verse, Jesus is the bread of life. The bread was so yummy and we both enjoyed having it for a snack after nap time.

Tuesday

Austin had a PAPA day. Our little one had and ENT appointment in the morning so no school for Austin. Instead he got to hang out with his papa and eat ice cream, popcorn, applesauce and lots of other yummy treats.

Week Three- Thursday and Friday

2010-02-02T21:44:00.003-05:00

Sorry for the delay in posting. It has been kinda crazy in our toddler world.

On Thursday we has somewhat of a light day. Our little one has not been very cooperative during school time.

Austin really enjoys the toilet paper roll painting so we stuck with our sports theme and he made "basketballs" on a hoop. He did really well when I told him to put them on the net.

Austin also colored with markers. He turned this activity into putting all the caps back on the markers over and over again.

After markers Austin and I did a really cool project that his daddy loves. Austin and I make a U of M football helmet. I had saved a milk jug and while searching for ideas, I can across a bike helmet. I them came of with this idea. It turned our really cute. Austin did all the blue and I went back and did the rest. The only problem I hope to perfect is that the paint flakes off.

Austin also took some time to do his puzzle. He is getting much better at it!

On Friday, Austin had a field trip to Elmo's Green Thumb

Austin loved this a sat through the whole thing. He got very excited when he saw Cookie Monster. Austin also enjoyed popcorn for the first time.

Week Three - Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday

2010-01-27T21:40:00.002-05:00

Letter: B
Color: Blue
Verse: I am the bread of life - John 6:48

This week is a challenging on already. Both of my little men are teething and letting me know they are not happy. Austin is not interested in learning so we are having shorter Tot School time and just doing activities through out the day when he seems like he will be interested.

On Monday I began with introducing our verse and our song. Austin likes this song because it has lots of clapping in it. Although Austin can not memorize the verse. I do state it to him several times a day and we sing our song every morning during breakfast.

Austin did his bingo marker dot letter B. He still loves these so I let him do as many as he wants.

Austin also practiced cutting his blue play dough. I tried making a letter B out of it but Austin just wanted to squish whatever I was making.

Austin has an absolute obsession with water and our sink. I figured what better time them to him play at the sink in water and bubbles. Austin had a blast and was not happy when the "wawa" had to go bye bye.

I love this picture. His smock reminds me of a hospital gown with his little diaper showing.

I decided did a very good job putting the ponpoms in container. This kept him busy for about 10 minutes.

Later when little brother was taking a brief nap, I decided to do some imagination play. I am trying to do things out of my comfort zone in hopes to expose Austin to many things. We built a fort or tried to at least. I have to admit i am not the best fort builder but Austin was very proud of his mommy's attempt to build him a "ort"

Austin has some issues with the big bath tub so I wanted to start doing some activities in there for him to become more comfortable. I mixed together shaving cream bath paint and let him go at it. He liked it at first but for a boy, doesn't really like to get his hands dirty so it didn't last as long as I would have expected. He did have fun showing his daddy his "artwork" later that night when he took a bath.

** Note this CAN stain your shower. When I rinsed it off, the grout was a little stained. I sprayed some cleaner on it and left it and it was perfectly clean when I went back. I just wanted state this incase someone does this activity.

Tuesday proved to be a very difficult day. Both boys were in awful moods. I was so excited about all the activities I had stayed up late to create for Austin and he just reminded me when a toddler is not in the mood, it doesn't matter what you have for them.

I tried something new for Tot School with Austin, since our little one was sleeping, I decided to try doing school on the living room floor. I thought maybe Austin would be more active. Well it just taught me that he is not ready for that much freedom and does much better at the kitchen table.

I began by trying to get him to play this cool game I created. Again the boy is OBSESSED with any type of sports ball, so i created a little glove and 4 "balls" with the stuff we have learned on them. he purpose was for Austin to go get whatever ball I asked for and place it in the glove. He did get the concept because he did it once but that was it. Oh well... at least I have it ready for when he is older and more patient.

Next we made a football. Austin actually sat for this one and new right away to "pat,pat" the pieces after he put them on so they stick. Again his interest lasted all of a few minutes.

Austin is still working on the whole sticker thing. He really tries hard but just cant get it. Putting them on paper is also hard. He hasn't figured out how to hold them and gets upset when they stick to his fingers.

I tried another activity with him that again showed his patience and attention span are not ready for very structured activities. I made 4 basketball flashcards and asked Austin to get me a certain letter. My hopes are to have him start matching these as we get more and more letters. I am sure they will be a hit later on (when we are not teething).

To keep with our letter, I created a baseball bat B for Austin to make. I was very proud that I came up with this on my own (if someone else has it out there, i am sorry I just had this idea on my own). Austin loved the little baseballs and kept trying to hit them with the bat I made. He was interested in gluing about 2 of the pieces and them decided it was more fun to put them back in the bag. It did turn out cute though and he looks at the fridge and yells "BALLLLLL"

We did manage to read a lot of books ( I will list these later). I pulled out a new set of books because i was tired of reading the same ones over and over again. I tried to ask Austin questions throughout the book and he was not having it. If I asked a question of where something was, he would grab the book and throw it.

So needless to say I am not sure if anything was absorbed today during school. Austin was very anti-learning but we made it.

Today is Library Wednesday and Austin is very excited. He loves the choo choo they have there. Maybe one day soon, we will actually sit down and read a book there.

Today I have also taken on another challenge....No TV today at all. I have noticed that Austin has become very interested in the TV lately. He screams for "GA, GA" (Yo Gabba Gabba) all day long and will just sit and watch it. Although the show is very educational, we have been having trouble getting him to go to bed at night because he wanted to watch more of it. So today I am not going to turn the TV on at all. Hopefully it works out well and we all survive!

Week Two- Friday

2010-01-22T23:56:00.004-05:00

Today was a light day. I am trying to get my little one on a better schedule so we are having to devote more time to that. We did manage to get some school in though. Again Austin wanted to pour his chocolate sports balls into containers so he did that while I set up our activity. I did try to get him to color and do stickers for an A book but he pushed that away.

Activity - Floor Letter A- My husband had told me awhile ago that when kids walk the shape of letters, it helps them be able to recognize them and eventually write them. I had forgotten about this until last night when I observed Austin following a circle pattern we have on our rug.

All I did was use construction paper and tape together a large A. Right when Austin saw it he screamed A. Such a proud momma I am. Of course I could not find my phone and our camera was dead so I didnt get any pictures until the end when Austin was board of the activity.

I did have Austin walk the letter a few times. He thought this was very fun as he chanted "walk walk". After I showed him how to drive his little car on the letter. This kept him busy long enough for me to find my phone he had hidden and get a quick picture.

Austin was very proud of our A and since I was busy with his brother, I didn't pick it up. I just placed the rug back down. Later that night, Austin proudly pulled the rug up to show his daddy the letter A and how he could walk and drive his car on it. My husband did get some pictures and a video so I will add those soon.

Next week we are going to begin the letter B and color blue. When doing the painting activity the other day, when I asked Austin to dip in blue, he got it right each time, so I am pretty sure he already knows that color. I also asked Austin the other day at the library to find the letter B and he also did that. I am not sure where he is getting this knowledge but its there. He is a little sponge that absorbs EVERYTHING!

Week Two - Thursday

2010-01-21T22:08:00.003-05:00

Today was a learning experience for me. I learned that Austin is going to turn everything into a pouring activity and he will only use bingo markers now to "color". I have learned gluing activities hold him attention for about 2 seconds, and when he is done, he will demonstrate that by either tearing something up or throwing everything on the floor. I guess I had a little of Tot School myself today.

Our activities today were....

Activity #1 - A Collage. I had everything pre-cut and ready to go. I spread a bunch of glue on the paper in hopes Austin would want to put the pictures on. He did do a few but was more interested in "patting" them down after I put them on.

Activity #2 - I had Austin identify the A in his name. He did this without hesitation I tried to have him simply color his name but he kept saying "dot dot" which is what we say when we use the bingo markers.

Activity #3 - This activity was supposed to be for next week when we study the letter B but Austin saw it and basically threw himself on the ground, so I brought it out. It actually kept him busy for about 20 minutes. I bought at the dollar store these little chocolate sports balls. My intent was for Austin to count them and he watched and repeated me, but when I asked him to do it, he started pouring them from one container to the next. What can I say, the boy LOVES to pour! I did manage to get him to take one at a time and place it into a water bottle. He liked this and it taught him patience, control, and a little thinking because the footballs had to be turned a certain way to fit.

Activity #4 - Painting a large A. Last week we took a trip out to Ikea and got this great easel for $15. It has a chalk board on one side and dry erase board on the other. It also has a spot for a large roll of paper to paint on.

This is how I presented the paint to Austin. I had an egg carton I was saving and I cut two spaces out. It worked great and there was no messy paint anywhere. I started introducing blue today and was surprised when I would ask Austin to dip his brush in a certain color, he got it right every time!

Week Two - Tuesday and Wednesday

2010-01-20T21:14:00.005-05:00

The last couple of days has been rough. I have had a horrible double ear infection so taking care of the boys was very stressful. We did manage to get some Tot school in but when Austin got frustrated, I did not have the energy to try to keep him there, so Tuesday was a light day.

Activity #1 - Apple Painting

I decided to have Austin paint using an apple as a stamp. I saw on a website to stick a fork in it so it was easier for your tot to hold on to. Austin loved stamping and even did it so much he pushed the fork right through the apple! I plan to cut an apple shape out of the paper but have not gotten around to it yet.

Activity #2 - Sorting

I attempted sorting again with Austin. He either does not get it or has no interest in it. He, like most activities, just wanted to pour. I think my plan is to present this activity to him once a week.

Library Wednesday

Today we went to our wonderful Library. Again Austin had no interest in the books but ran around like a madman playing on all of the toys and making the train go. We discovered the activity center which is basically a huge enclosed playroom with tons of educational toys and puzzles. Austin liked this room very much.

Since I was feeling better this afternoon, I decided to get a little adventurous and let Austin practice pouring water in the living room. My thought was "its only water right?" He actually did very good until the end when he decided to start pouring water on himself. He must have known it was bath night.

My future plans are to finish up the letter A and red this week. I have a couple more projects I hope Austin will do like an A collage and then putting together an A book with some of his crafts he made. The next two weeks are B and Blue. This is going to very fun since he is obsessed with balls. I have so many ideas we might have to take longer the 2 weeks or I will at least post them incase someone else wants to use them.

Week Two - Monday

2010-01-18T23:47:00.003-05:00

After a great week, we are continuing with the same theme. As of right now I am going to be doing each letter, color, and verse for two weeks just to make sure Austin really grasps the concepts.

Today I began a little different. I laid each activity out on the table and let Austin chose which one he wanted to do. Since I don't have "tot trays" yet, this was how I improvised. It seemed to work well but was distracting to my little guy who just wanted to keep moving to the next activity. I think I might just present him one and if he likes it, then we will do it, if not just move on.

Activity #1 - Dot A.

I have seen this activity for dot painting but was unable to find a website with all he worksheets so I created this on myself. Austin LOVED it. The kid could not have been happier and kept saying "dot, dot" every time he dotted the paper. I showed him once what to do and I was so happy and surprised when he actually got the concept. He lost interest about halfway through but the dots he did were very good. I used bingo stampers and they worked great!

Activity #2 - Reading our books.

I have not themed our books yet, because I kinds just take Austin's lead. He is very particular with what books he likes at a particular time, so as long as he is enjoying books, we read what he wants.

Austin's current favorite books are :

1. No More Diapers

2. Ernies big Mess

3. Barney goes to the fair

4. Goodnight Moon

5. Barnyard Dance

Activity #3 - Practice Pouring with Rice Crispies

Austin LOVES to pour. He loves to play with water and pour it from one container to the next. The problem with water it it ends up all over everything like my floor and him so I decided to try to get him to use other types of textures to pour. This activity kept him busy for a good amount of time. I just gave him different size containers and he went at it.

Activity # 4- Alligator A - I found this activity on No Time for Flash Cards. I am working on the concept of gluing and actually leaving it on the paper with Austin. He has not quite gotten it yet and will try to peel it off right away. He did try and even got a few teeth on. My plain is to make a different animal for each letter and them display them all.

Activity #5 - Sorting pompons. I gave Austin a mixture of blue and red ones then placed one in a separate bowl. I showed Austin what to do and he refused so we do not have any pictures. Hopefully we will do this another day.

I have many more activities planned but might make it a light week due to me having another double ear infection. We will see how the week goes.

Praise Report

Today I decided to test Austin out on how well he knew the letter A. I found a few things around the house that had a capital A and asked him to show me the A and to my surprise he got it right every time. I was such a proud mama!

Day 5- End of first week!

2010-01-15T23:16:00.004-05:00

Today was the last day of our first week of Tot school and I can't even express how much I am enjoying this one on one time with Austin. I love teaching I love watching him explore new things.

Today my little tot was in a "special" mood so getting him to focus or sit was not very easy. He didn't last very long on any of he activities but we still managed to have some fun. Austin began by asking for his color box, while I got some things together he played with his playdough until he was done and then he started throwing it on the floor. We then moved onto out book which Austin decided he did not want to look at and kept closing it on me saying done. So I brought out the paint which is always a huge hit. I was hesitant about this painting activity because I was not sure if Austin would understand what I wanted him to do. We are working in being focused which I think is one area he lacks in. To my surprise, Austin loved it. He got the hang of it right away and for the most part he did not try to paint himself or anything other then the paper.

Austin really likes stickers so we are working on him learning to take them off the paper himself. The little guy tried his hardest today but just couldn't get the hang of it. Oh well we will keep practicing. It is also interesting to see him place each sticker over them next. Unless directed on were to put them, he likes them all in one spot.

Today since Austin was not very focused, I brought out a puzzle by Melissa and Doug that he has had for awhile. It has safari animals on it and I thought he would need tons of directions but he didn't. He was able to match right where the animals went and even got a few correctly in its slot. I first would hand Austin a puzzle piece, stating what each animal was, then asked him to repeat it. After that I asked him to hand me specific pieces which he did relatively well at. Another activity I did with the puzzle is take two pieces and place them in front of Austin and have me a specific piece. This is where I noticed he needs more practice at focusing as he just wanted to hand me a piece to get on with what we were doing and wasn't really listening to what I was asking. After that we had some free play and Austin happily danced him animals around saying "walk walk".

When the animals started flying across the room, we decided to call it a day and rate this as a very successful first week of Tot School!

Day 4 - Field Trip

2010-01-14T22:14:00.004-05:00

Today we took our first field trip. Austin got to visit the library for the first time and he LOVED it. We will definitely be going back there weekly. The library we attended has so many things for little ones to play on, that Austin just ran around from one thing to the next. He did manage to pick up a book or two but that was not his first interest. After the library we headed to Burger King for lunch and little playing (mommy loves anything where Austin can get his energy out). After lunch We visited the used book store and picked out a bunch of new books that we can use during our Tot School. Overall it was a very fun and exciting day.

Day 3

2010-01-13T21:57:00.003-05:00

Color: Red

Letter: A

Verse: Keep me as the apple of your eye Psalm 17:8

Today was a little unstructured as expected with an 18 month old toddler and a 4 month old baby. The key to tot school, I am finding out is to go with the flow and follow Austin's lead.

Today my plan was to venture away from our color and focus more on the letter along with some fine motor skills so I can really assess just what Austin needs to work on. Well Austin had other plans and as I was getting breakfast together, he kept asking for his color box. I was excited he actually wanted to play with it without my presenting it to him so while I made eggs he sat in his chair and played with his box and of course his playdough. While I was cooking and Austin was playing we went over our memory verse and sang our song. Austin is really starting to like the song and was even pointing to his eye on occasion like he saw me doing.

After a brief break to clean up and get Mason settled down, I set up our first activity which I had seen on many blogs. I thought Austin would love to use the tongs to pick up the cotton balls since he is always pulling stuff out of our drawers. The activity did not go as I planned but was still a huge success. The tongs I had were to big for Austin and he was not ready to use them yet. He tried but found it much easier to just scoop them up with his hands. I gave him a big spoon and and showed him how to scoop them up from one bowl and into another. Again he tried and did not have the patience for this. He loves to pour so that is what he did.

This is how I set the activity up for Austin

Austin attempting to use the tongs.

Austin pouring the cotton balls from one bowl to another.

His was of letting me know he was done with the activity.

After this activity, I took Austin back to the table. I find he is much more focused and willing to work when contained at the table. I has seen on many sites people having their tots use large lacing beads, well this mama doesn't have the money so made a fun alternative and Austin loved it. I simply made paper rings and used our paper towel holder for him to practice putting them on. I also gave him a shoe lace but he had no interest in that at all.

After the activities, Austin and I made an Ant. I thought he was going to love the glue stick and he did but not for gluing. He kept trying to put it on his face. Gluing is not his thing yet and he really wasn't into this activity.

Austin made his ant "march" around as we sang "The ants go marching".

That was enough for Austin and as I have learned, when he is done, he is done. I did ask him later in the day what letter was on a book and he said A, so either he guessed right, or he is learning something. Either way we are having fun and Austin is learning patience by sitting and doing structured activities, and my fridge is filled with cute art projects!

Tot School Day 2

2010-01-12T21:29:00.003-05:00

Color: Red

Letter: A

Verse: Keep me as the apple of your eye Psalm 17:8

We began our day a little early today. Both boys got up very early and Mason luckily took a nap so I jumped on the opportunity to not be interrupted so we began at 8:15 today. After a breakfast of red pancakes, Austin happily took his seat in the kitchen for "cool" as he would say.

I began with the memory verse. Austin again was happy to point out the apple and eye, and repeat a few words but was very uninterested today in singing. I skipped the color box today and just presented Austin with the playdough. I gathered up some of his kitchen toys like a play knife and pot and showed him what he could do with it. He liked to cut it in half. I also made "balls" for Austin and he loved to squish them in his hands. Up until this point he didn't want to work with the playdough but now he loves it. I can see this in our daily routine.

After the playdough, I presented Austin with his shape sorter he got for Christmas. I would present him with two shapes and ask him to hand me the red one. He got it right a few times but was very uninterested in this activity as I learned when he started throwing the shapes across the room! Oh well, maybe another day.

Showing me the red block. (before he threw it)

I quickly moved on to painting which is an all time favorite of Austin's. I gave him a cotton ball (which he was afraid to touch at first) and showed him how to dip it in paint and place it in the plate. He did very well with this until he decided he wanted to make handprints. I just took his lead and handed him another letter A and kept applying paint to his hand. After he was done with that I gave him some stickers that he had spotted the day before and let him place them on the letter A. He loved this. He had a hard time getting them off his fingers but he tried.

Cotton Painting

Finished "apple"

Putting stickers on his A after he made handprints.

Finished A

When he decided he was done with the stickers, we read a book about how God created the earth. He was very uninterested and kept shutting the book telling me "done". He did manage to point out a few animals and name a few sounds like his sweet, quiet lion roar.

I wanted Austin to work more with the cotton balls as a sensory activity since he was hesitant to touch them. I gave him 3 different containers, a toilet paper roll, empty formula container and a baby food jar. I demonstrated placing the cotton balls into each container. He happily played with this for about 5 minutes until he decided school was over and he wanted down. He lasted 45 minutes today and was a very good boy. Right on cue with Austin being done, Mason woke up and our day began!

Dumping the cotton from the baby jar into the formula container

A moment of discovery when he picked up the tube and the cotton balls the he placed in there were gone. He didn't see them fall out the bottom. It was very sweet and he looked for them.

Tomorrow I think we are going to take a break from the color red and focus on the letter A. I would like to make Austin an A book for future use.

Day 1 - Success

2010-01-11T12:54:00.003-05:00

Austin - 18 months

I am not normally going to post everyday but we had such a good day I thought I would share what we have done. Austin amazed me and flew through everything. Tomorrow I am going to have to have more activities planned.

We began the day with Austin dancing around the living room. I knew that if I wanted him to sit then he would need to get some energy out, so while I fed Mason, he listened to music and entertained me.

After a yummy breakfast of RED oatmeal and dancing, we started school at 9:00. With Mason happily swinging and watching Praise Baby, Austin and I took a seat at the kitchen table. I began with our bible verse. He repeated a few words but soon got mad that I wouldn't let him destroy the paper.

Mason during school time

Austin loved putting some red sprinkles in his oatmeal.

Enjoying his oatmeal

Reading his bible verse. He liked to point out the apple and eye when he was asked. We also sang a song with the verse that Austin happily swayed along to and "sang" back.

After singing and going over our verse a few times, I introduced Austin to his color box. This is a a box where I have gathered some of his toys along with some new items all that are red. He saw me putting it together the night before and couldn't wait to get his hands on it. I let him explore the box on his own and just kept telling him the items were the color red asking him to repeat read a few times.

Exploring his red color box

Austin liked the play dough the best. This was something new I put in there. He didn't want to play with it but liked to take it out and put it back in its container.

After the color box we did our craft. Austin painted dots on a letter A with red paint. I don't have any pictures of this being done due to the fact of an 18 month old with paint is not a good combination if not directed every second. Here is the finished product. I added the green leaves and stems to make them apples to go along with our verse.

After our project we worked on fine motor skills which I learned Austin is a pro at already. He loved the activity though. Austin took spaghetti noodles and placed them into the holes of an empty spice container

After the fine motor skills practice, we practiced our letter A on Austin's magnadoodle, which he just wanted to draw. We then read a book together and Austin actually sat through the whole thing. He happily identified objects like cats and dogs throughout the book. By this time it was almost 10 and Mason was not having fun anymore. So while I tried to get him to nap, Austin enjoyed some red jello for a snack.

Unfortunalty Austin was unsupervised during the jello eating and while it all did get in him mouth, his whole face and hands are stained red! Oh well we had a great time at Tot School.

As soon as we were done, he ran over the couch like he had such a hard day. Gotta love the red stained face!

Tot School Begins

2010-01-11T00:05:00.001-05:00

After much thought and prayer I have decided to start Tot school with Austin. I found the concept after talking to a good friend that homeschools her children. I decided to start looking to activities that I can do with Austin now to give him a little more structure during the day. After tons and tons of research, I have decided on the layout I am going to use. I am sure the will change a million times but for now I am going to follow a 2 week schedule and have a letter, color and memory verse. I plan to post detailed lessons and pictures each week of what activities we have done.

Week 1 and 2

Letter: A

Color: Red

Verse: Psalm 17:8 - Keep me the apple of your eye