Quick Update

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

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

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.

Week Four

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

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

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

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!