B is for Brobee

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 = Wednesday

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

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!