Wordless Wednesday

Tot School: Not so much

Week 3 of Tot School. G is 17 months.

This week was supposed to be blue week.

G & I even went through her toys & books and pulled out all the blue things.

I made sure to include Good Night Ocean and Good Night Lake. We have 2 trips planned in the next couple weeks - camping & visiting friends near the ocean.
But then our life got a little crazy. (You can read about our week on my other blog.)
We didn't get much further with blue week.

This week turned into enjoying family time & relaxing on our camping trip. G impressed me with all the things she could do that I had no clue she could.

Swinging on the big kid swing. She'll even pump her legs once or twice.

Drinking from a mug.

Looking like a camper who had just woken up to a morning brew of coffee.

We'll get back into the swing of things & blue week by the end of this coming week.



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Wordless Wednesday

Tot School: Red Week Continues!

This is our 2nd week of Tot School. G is almost 17 months old. (on Wednesday!)

Completely irrelevant to what we did this week, I am so glad that I chose to do colors first. With our busy-ness of moving, camping next weekend & going out of town Labor Day weekend this is such an easy "subject" to do on the go!

I dyed some pasta red.

G has had fun scooping the pasta out, pouring it into containers, dumping it back into the big bowl (or even on the floor). This has been a life saver during dinner prep too!

I know it looks like a measly amount, but just keep tuning in. I'm sure you'll be able to figure out what I'm doing after not too long.

We also finger painted. Homemade finger paint even. (Water+flour+food coloring = finger paint!)

It's edible too, just ask G, she tried it!

And very easy to clean up.

Even if you forget that some got on the edge of the high chair & it dried before you could wipe it off.

We continued to play with the red basket. During our last play time she liked to take everything out of the basket one by one, hold it up and wait for me to say "Red Block...Red Duplo...Red Elmo"

There are also some You Tube videos that we watch.
Only one or two a day, but she enjoys them a lot. To the point that she's asking to watch them A LOT. I don't need a You Tube addict on my hands, so I'll have to nip that in the butt.

We've been mostly watching these phonics, numbers & colors videos. I can even sing the butterfly color song now, all by myself. (Even at work, with no toddler in sight!)

My favorite right now is the 10 Little Numbers video. G has started counting along with it. In my opinion, there is nothing cuter than a beginner talker saying "phree".



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Tot School: Red Week

This was our first week of Tot School. G is 16 months old.
It's RED week!

I combed through the house and pulled together all of the red toys, books, etc and made her "red basket".

I absolutely love that Tyson is getting involved with this.

Even if that means playing with the red bucket turned into a "toss the red block" game.

I even wore red for the occasion.

(It was totally not planned. That's my frumpy, Monday work day blahs, Lumberjack shirt.)

She colored with her red crayon.

(Yes. We only have one red crayon. And it was broken by the end of the week, and she spent much of her time just trying to put the crayon back together. I really need to get to the store and get some more supplies!)

Towards the end of week she was starting to mimick the sound of saying "red". Not really clear enough for me to announce "FIRST WEEK OF TOT SCHOOL AND SHE SAID RED!" But I was impressed, none the less. :)

We didn't really get the chance to do any activities, so I'm officially extending Red Week...YAY!

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Tot School

***cross posted with The Wally Homestead ***

As I’m learning to let go of the big things in life, I’m also learning that I need to have little projects or events that I can have some control over. One of those things I really want to focus on is introducing G to the world around her.

I started to get the idea to do some "home preschool" while we were in Mississippi for Tyson's training. Really, I believe that this will be more beneficial in the respect that the both of us will need the mental stimulation.  (And something for me to have a little control over and PLAN!)

I came across this wonderful site, Tot School. They have tons of printables & other goodies, but what I like most is that it encourages learning through purposeful play. There's also a weekly link up to share with other mom’s who are working with their little ones at home.

This is a perfect tool for me, because being the planner that I am - my original idea for school with G started out much more grand and structured than should be realistic for a 1 year old. (Complete with curriculum & lesson plans. I guess the 7 year old in me still wants to be a 1st grade teacher.)

Now that I've been brought back down to earth, I think we'll start off with purposeful play focusing on colors and go from there.  (Changing themes, and as she requires different stimulation & challenges we'll evolve from there.)

And now that I realize this is something that doesn’t have to require as much planning as I originally thought, we’ll start before the move. It’ll only be a day or two a week for now (it has to fit in between work & packing & enjoying summer activities), but I’m excited to get something started with Miss G.

Welcome All

***This was cross-posted with The Wally Homestead***

So why another blog you ask?

Seeing how I want to start focusing on creating a homestead, without an actual homestead, on that other blog of mine...I decided to create a separate space for our adventures with Miss G.

I might cross post here & there....but I am totally a Type A person when it comes to keeping things in their separate & organized spaces.

So why the name?
This new blog is called Munchkin Doodles because we call G Munchkin Doodle (or just Doodle, or Doodlebug, or Ham Steak, but that's irrelevant...). And we're hoping that some day we'll have more than one munchkin and they will potentially be creating doodles all over my walls, floors & furniture...I decided to just go with it & make it a blog title.

So there you have it. Another blog for only 3 people to read. Wahoo!