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- Thursday

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

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.