Wordless Wednesday: Our Valentine's Day

Valentine's themed sensory bin, crafts, breakfast for dinner and dessert oh my!

 ***My first lemon meringue pie. The hubby's favorite. Originally he asked for one for Christmas dessert, at the time I informed him there was no way I was making a meringue without a kitchen aid. And as soon as I had a kitchen aid, I'd make him his pie. Since he fulfilled my ultimate gift wish at Christmas, I made good on my promise. ***

Tot School: Winter Sensory Bin

G is 22 Months

We took a break from tot school this week. Intentionally. I needed to gather my thoughts and wrap my head around somethings. I'll probably share more about where I think we're headed with tot school later this week. But having a 'free' week was super nice, and I think I'll be extending it into this week. Last week was to gather my thoughts, this week is to start acting on them. We'll see where it goes from there.

For our post this week I'm just going to share our winter sensory bin, which we've had out all month. I just haven't gotten around to adding it to any posts. Considering we'll be switching it in February...I figured this was as good a time as any to share.

Showing me an 'ice block'.

Our bin was pretty sparse. I was lucky enough to hit Hobby Lobby *right* after the holidays and grabbed some holiday craft supplies, on major clearance, that would work with a winter theme. But that is where my luck ended. Considering we're in the south, within days of 2012 beginning all I could find was Valentine's Day, Mardi Gras and Easter (yes, Easter!).

But that just means that the sensory bin for those themes will be awesome, cause I've had lots of time to prepare & stock up.

Despite how few things were in this bin, G had lots of fun with it.

Especially sorting out all the pieces.

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Wordless Wednesday: Happy Giants Fans!

Tot School: C

This Weeks Letter: C
Focus Words: Cat, Car & Cookie
G is 21 Months Old

C Week was a pretty fun, easy week.
Though I think I put too much pressure on myself trying to plan awesome activities every week. I still struggle having to shift from mommy mode to work at home mode. Adding tot school on top of it, can sometimes be too much.
Though I never put pressure on G, so I am thankful for the weeks that she doesn't seem to be that into the activities either. I'm sure she wouldn't notice if we stopped doing so much. Though the days she's not challenged, you can tell when evening rolls around. She's wired, antsy & whine-y.
Over the next few weeks I might be re-evaluating how we 'do school' again. Bear with me. That's what's great about this though, is I can do that.
She's not even 2, I think I need to go easy on myself here. Knowing come spring time I may have to return to full-time, go to the office, work has me really pressuring myself to cram in as much as I can. Though in turn that makes me tired, grouchy and doubt what I do. But this really has nothing to do with C week, I just took the opportunity of having every one's attention to vent & process some thoughts. ;)

Here's our week!!!!

Coloring the Cat in her Letter C Printables

From 1+1+1=1

Decorating the C, for our C is for Cat art project

The Finished Product

Driving Cars through some bubbles

We were going to use shaving cream, but I didn't realize that Daddy bought the gel stuff.

She's been obsessed with "bubbles, bubbles" in her bath. I figured it would work.

Oddly enough she spent more time fretting over the bubbles being on her hands & on the cars, than actually driving the cars through the bubbles.

Play dough time with Daddy is a FAVORITE right now.

And of course, to finish off the week, we made COOKIES!

Letter C cookies, to be exact

To make these, I just used my donut cutter to make o's and cut one of the ends off.

Mommy's Favorite Shot of the Week

This girl loves her some Giants football!!!

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Wordless Wednesday - At the Park

Tot School: B

Letter B Week!
Focus Words: Butterfly, Ball & Banana
G is 21 Months
The good news, we touched on all of our focus words and completed all the activities I'd hoped to! The bad news, Tot School was nothing like it normally was because G's Grandma was visiting this week. (So a good reason to slack a little bit.) With the new attention around, G didn't really focus on her printable book much. But, with having another person here to talk to her vocabulary JUMPED this past week. She now gives a go at sentences. (Usually starting with "more" and ending with "please". Love it!!!)

When I sat down to do this post I found out I didn't get many shots this week. In fact I have none from the last day when our focus word was Banana. Which is just as well, because she really wasn't feeling any type of structure that day. (So maybe, on an unconscious level, I didn't want proof of our half hearted attempt.)

Working on her tot book,

 Letter B Printables from 1+1+1=1

Our letter B craft was an ink blot butterfly.

In hindsight I really should have not used white "B"s on an off white paper. I ended up going back over the "B"s with a black marker after the paint dried. I, however, did not get a picture of the finished product.

I came across the idea for "Ball Painting" here.

This was our rendition:

Please, please, I beg you...Don't judge me by my ensemble

I really think she cared more for just dunking the balls in all the different color paint.

It was messy fun.

My Favorite Shot This Week

The camera really wasn't out much. I LOVED having my mommie visit, but it completely threw me off of the norm. Most of the pictures I took, were before she arrived. That just happens to be when I captured this little gem:

Using her truck to haul raisins. Duh. Isn't that how everyone transports their dried fruit?

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Tot School: A

This Week's Theme: A

Focus Words: Ant & Apple

 G is 21 Months 

                                                                                                                                           


Oh it's so hard to come back from vacation, but I was super excited to start in on the Alphabet with G. The goal here is to do Tot School 3 days a week, and get out of the house 2 days a week.  Each tot school day we'll focus on one of the focus words. (Go figure!) Will it always happen, no way! But goals are good.

I probably did not do A any justice this week. We only had school 2 days this week, and I was also trying to figure out the best approach. Luckily, A is a letter she already says and can identify 75% of the time. So no harm done.

The best advice I gave myself before officially deciding to start the alphabet, is though G may be tall for her age & certainly act 2 sometimes, she is still just shy of 2. My main goal here is exposure. Seeing the letters, hearing the sounds they make, etc. Every week I don't expect her to identify & say each word. As she gets older, we'll get into much more hard hitting alphabet work. ;)

Here's our short week!

1+1+1=1 is such a valuable resource to me. I borrowed her idea of the work book and put the Letter Printables in page protectors & then placed them all in her "school binder". We're also using 1+1+1=1's Tot School's Printables.  This way G can get more than one use out of each page.
(Not to mention the organization factor that this Mommy LOVES.)

Here she's trying to color in the A.

Using pipe cleaners to make a Letter A.

Enjoying one of her Christmas presents, Melissa & Doug Wooden Animal Nesting Blocks.

Our art project this week was "A is for Ant"........

I did not have any black paint, and G was anxious to get her craft on, so I didn't have time to make black paint. We made red ants.

Snack Time!

G spreading peanut butter on her apples.

Our invention to stick with the "A" theme...Ants on a Hill

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