Tot School Time!

Another busy week! I hope you enjoy our learning activities; for even more, check out the Tot School blog!

I'm excited to share this because Maddie has loved doing it. I got the awesome template from RockerMom and added some counting dogs and cats (although, when we used it at the doctor's office, I used small erasers that I had in my purse). She loves putting the manipulative in the box and I love to hear her count (Blogger is just NOT cooperating with uploading the video I have of her "counting").

Maddie had her two year check up last week (yay for a good appointment!) and I brought a whole bag, full of new activities and games. This one was downloaded from here, but I can not, for the life of me, find it again. Anyway, she had to sort the M&Ms on the appropriate colored fish. It was fun and really came in handy because we let her the candy after her shots.

It's in my pile of things to be laminated, since the chocolate doesn't always melt in your mouth. :)

So, when I go shopping, I'm always picking up random odds and ends (usually because they're cheap or on clearance). I don't always know what I'm going to do with the item, but I'll stash it in my, "Waiting for Inspiration" drawer until something hits me.

Long story, I know. But, I bought these wooden pieces in the Lakeshore outlet and just recently got them out and glued magnets on the back. They're furniture pieces and she loves setting up her house. :)

Here's a better picture of the pieces. She uses them on her magnetic whiteboard. They're sturdy and fun (though I do wonder for what they were originally intended). I like how she's trying to grab it from me. Ha!

She also had a renewed interest in her magnet basket this week. It's filled with little disks and balls. I also added a wand, which was highly entertaining.

Sometimes magnets, when they snap together and make too much noise, are not so much fun.

I bought this (again, on clearance, at a teacher supply store) months and months ago and just recently got it out to show her. She loves sitting and lacing it and chose it several times this past week. I think it's really nicely made and she's able to do it pretty smoothly. I highly recommend this one.

I absolutely love reading blogs and gathering ideas; I can spend hours sifting through it all. I've recently found this amazing blog and was intrigued when I saw that she had her kids spear their grapes with toothpicks. Being as Maddie had stopped eating grapes, I thought it'd be a fun way to get her to try them again. Sure enough, it worked and she's been gobbling them down ever since. Next up will be small pieces of cheese and other finger foods. Thanks for the great idea (and a fine motor skills activity, too!)!

Maddie got to plant her first flowers in the front yard last week. She's been diligently drowning watering them ever since.

One of my favorite pictures to date. Michael was working on the sprinklers and stopped to show her how they work; she was fascinated. She later grabbed a screwdriver and went to work (I'm fairly certain I saw several very necessary pieces of plastic go flying).

This is another inspiration from RockerMom, and it sent me straight to the dollar store so that I could pick one up too. It's one of those wooden games with the pegs. She loves pushing them in the tiny holes. In this picture, she was taking them off. When she saw me get the camera, she threw a fit and refused to keep working. Oh well. She does like it.

On a (sorta) related note, she is really mastering the use of the fork. She fed herself eggs and pancakes when we went out for breakfast.

Not sure if this is a huge coincidence (or if we need to send the Magna Doodle to the MOMA), but a couple of days ago, she called me over to tell me that she drew a whale. I was shocked that, to me, it really looks like a whale! Am I crazy?! Ha! She pointed out the eyes and smile and said he was a "very happy whale." Neat, right?!

She also got her basket of tiny shells (which is plentiful, thanks to Uncle TT!) to sort in her pill container (dollar store!). She loves, loves, loves the little doors of the pill box and I like watching her categorize the shells. She told me that in one box, all the "little party hats were playin' together." :)

And finally, we had another fun play date with Miss Kylie (who is the proud owner of this much loved ball pit). I was sifting through pictures and found a shot of their very first play date together, about two years ago!

So, I think that was our week (or at least, what I could capture on camera! I recently realized that I take so many pictures everyday!). Check out the Tot School blog to see what everyone else was up to this week!

A Fun, Cheap AND Independent Toddler Activity!

My friend Lisa (who also has a Madison nearly the exact age as Maddie) emailed with an activity that her Madison likes. I immediately knew it'd be something that'd be a hit over here, and when she woke up from her nap today, she proved me right. :)

All you need are some silk flowers (I bought bunches for a dollar each and then used wire cutters to make individual "stems") and a cube or block of styrofoam. Then, let the flower arranging begin!

She was VERY proud of her creation. Lisa, thanks again for the great idea!! She sat and made creation after creation. I also can't wait to buy some of these and see how they go, too!

Tot School Time!

What a week for Tot School! We had a lot of fun learning about the letters O and P, reading Chicka Chicka, Boom Boom a million times and playing some new games.

I started out by digging into my enormous stash of picture books. Since I taught first and third grade, I have a huge collection and span of book choices (I think I have 8 of these blue tubs, totally filled with books). I hadn't gone through them for a few reasons, but I finally got the motivation to go through and pull some books that I know Maddie would like. She's recently fallen in love with the Froggy books and I was excited to find several (I've almost completely forgotten what I own!). I'd love to have them all in bookshelves around the house, but I think we're already at our maximum capacity for that.

This activity was a huge hit with Maddie, and I found the idea for it here (she has a great blog full of fun things). I used a toilet paper roll and gave her a basket of assorted things, such as a bouncy ball, button, cookie cutter, ect. She held the roll and then tried to put the objects through, deciding if it fit or didn't fit. We played over and over and over again.

Inspired by this great blog (I love finding new blogs to follow!), I broke out our copy of Chicka Chicka, Boom Boom and read it with Maddie. She loves it, and even had me read it when her friend Kayla was over.

Also, I found this link for a Chicka Chicka video and Maddie loves it!! Thanks to RockerMom for the link!

I also recently rediscovered this super amazing website. It is just chalk full of toddler/preschooler activities, and they also link up to books or themes. These sequencing cards were from there, and while we actually used them to count coconuts (with pompoms), it was still a fun activity.

Still in line with Chicka Chicka, I took a giant piece of paper, taped it to the kitchen floor and drew a coconut tree on it. It was ready for her when she woke up from her nap (actually, when we put her down, I told her that we'd do a fun Chicka Chicka activity when she woke up; when I went in to get her after her nap, the first thing she said was, "Chicka, Chicka time now?").

Then, we took alphabet sponges, dipped in paint, and "raced" to the top of the coconut tree. Mike got in on the action and it was super fun.

Oh, this was a birthday present and it is fabulous! It's the Melissa and Doug magnetic pattern block board and highly recommend it, as she has chosen it several times and plays independently for quite a while with it. And, we now have a toddler that requests "hexagongs" and "rapuhzoids." :)

Maddie has suddenly become fascinated with cooking and baking, and always wants to help. For dinner one night, she helped me grate the cheese. She also helped me eat most of the cheese she grated.

This is another worksheet from Making Learning Fun. Nine times out of ten, here's how our conversations go:

Maddie: Let's make a craft!

Me: Okay, what do you want to make?

Maddie: A caterpillar.

So, this site has saved me because there are so many dot art pages related to the Very Hungry Caterpillar (still one of her favorite books) and she loves doing them (with increased concentration and focus lately, too).

This was a fun, quick and easy activity that I found on this blog. I took six bells, and removed the sound from half of them (it's easy with a butter knife). Her job was to shake the bell, decide if it makes any noise and then sort them correctly. The sorting part was a little tricky (I don't think she could remember which bowl was which) but she's had a lot of interest in it.

Bad picture, but suddenly this week, she's mastered the use of tongs! Here she is sorting/tonging objects by color into the tiny ice cube tray.

For the letter P, she insisted on making an orange princess. :)

This was downloaded from this fun site and I knew she'd love it because it was reminiscent of her beloved Mr. Potato Head. And since we were learning about the letter P, I figured a pineapple head would be appropriate. :) And yes, she loved it and asked to "do it again" several times.

*Quick thing I just noticed: Maddie does wear pants/shorts, even if she isn't in any of these pictures. Ha! But, with using the potty, it's so much easier to leave those off when we're hanging around the house!

Wow, what a week! There are more pictures and activities, but Blogger and I have (yet again) begun a battle of uploading photos. Anyway, check out more awesome Tot School ideas here!

New Caterpillar Game

My parents got Maddie this really cute Very Hungry Caterpillar game. While the "real" game was too tricky for her, we had fun making up our own rules.

First, she just went through each card and we talked about what they were. We also got the book out and matched the cards to pages.
Then, I pulled out two of each card and turned it into a matching game. She really liked this, and we played it maaaaany times.

Color Matching Game

They were super excited for their new game. :) I found a set of colored, plastic cups at the dollar store and got out some popsicle sticks of the same colors.

They did such a good job of matching the sticks with the correct color cup. Mason eventually lost interest (and started throwing the sticks), but it was fun while it lasted!

A doctor, stickers and some paint chips

Poor Maddie had to make a trip the pediatrician today. :( Our appointment fell right in the middle of nap time, so I knew it'd be, um, fun. I packed some of our games (Brown Bear and Mickey Matching) and it was great! She stayed busy and even cooperated with the doctor.

And, I'm not trying to question God's will, but I am really, really hoping that Maddie and I start feeling better soon. Having both of us sick (and up, off and on all night) has been exhausting. Hopefully, Maddie will perk up soon and we can get back to our normal life. :-/

Imagine Maddie's excitement when we found Diego stickers at the dollar store! She just about flipped out of the cart. Lol. She had fun today, putting the stickers all over the paper (and then peeling them all off and sticking them on the couch, the window, the fireplace...).

This is a pretty bad picture, but our new game is with paint chips. From the paint store, I picked up two sheets of each color. I cut the first sheet into rectangles and glued them on mini clothespins (much easier for Maddie to manage). Her job is to match the correct color on the corresponding block. Figuring out the clip AND trying to match it was too much, but when I asked her to tell me where to clip them, she had fun. The colors are SO similar that she had to look really closely to see where it went.

Some Fun, New Things

I put this together tonight, and I'm excited for Maddie to wake up in the morning and try it out (and by "morning," I'm hoping that she sleeps in until 8:30 again). :) I found this fun bag in my wrapping paper supplies and chose objects to place inside. Her "job" will be to reach in, and without looking, try to name the object, using only her sense of touch. I put a bell, ball, feather, rock, snake and flower inside (all words that she can relatively say). We'll see how it goes; I hope she likes it.

For months, I've been collecting miniatures that I can use to make phonics pouches for Maddie. I know I have a long way to go, but it's fun to keep my eye out for tiny objects to use (and Mom, I'm putting you in charge of finding little things too; I know you'll come up with some great ideas!).

And lastly, tomorrow's art project is ready to go. Maddie's friend, Nicholas, is coming to play with her tomorrow, and I decided that they should both make something fun. You'll have to check back to see what these turn out to be... :)

Valentine's Cookies

I'd made this a couple of months ago, but got it out again yesterday. She has to match tiny items to the correct color (there are frogs, buttons and pompoms but she only has eyes for the frogs). When we first did it, she didn't quite "get" it, but yesterday, she did a really good job!

We were so busy this morning, making Valentine's Day cookies. She was totally disgusted by the frosting (fine with me, since you know that I only eat the frosting) but LOVED shaking sprinkles on the tops. I love that as she gets older, we get to share so many fun things together.

*Wait, I need to add that she INSISTED on putting dried macaroni on the tops of several cookies. Those that we REALLY love will receive those cookies. Lol.
And, just a random "bonus" shot of the back of her hair. I washed it this morning and just let it dry "wild style" and this is the result. I had a head full of ringlets when I was little, and while her hair isn't like that, it certainly has it's own curl pattern! :)

Fishing (again) and a Birthday Party (unrelated events) :)

Ahhh, another use for the Cricut (which no, I don't own, but thankfully have about 8 friends that do and they just about own every single cartridge, between them). I cut out a bunch of fish, laminated them and then stuck a paperclip through the eye. We put them in the pool (AKA, on the rug) and went fishing.

Check out the look on her face when she caught TWO fish at once! Lol. This was a fun way to practice her colors. Oh, and on a side note, while we were "fishing," she ran to the pantry and insisted on eating Goldfish. So clever, this one. :)

Today was Zachary's 2nd birthday party. We had a blast. Kathy has this pond in her backyard that the kids are always SO interested in. When we have playdates there in the summer, it's filled with water but today it was dry, thus turning it into a jungle gym. Oh, and Maddie isn't wearing shoes because the bounce house was inflated and she was in and out of it.

I need a better camera. I'd love one (just throwing that out there, since the quality of this shot is so awful). Anyway, they were all SO sad when we closed the back door and they had to stay inside. Maddie quickly bounced back by "helping" Zachary open all of his gifts. :)

Letter Fishing

I know, I've been on a blogging kick lately. :) We've been busy with new activities and I'm always excited to share them here. So, as always, thanks for looking.

I bought this fishing pole at Lakeshore and to play, we just turned over her magnetic letters. It was hard for her at first to hold the pole steady, but then she figured out how to hold the string and keep it still. When she'd "catch" a letter, she'd say the name and then put it on the white board.

She was telling me the letter that she "caught." These past few days, I feel like Maddie is looking different, in a more grown-up way. It probably also helps that she's saying a lot more words and "talking" to me more. Anyway, this was a REALLY fun activity that I'm sure we'll be doing frequently.

Morning Fun

This is her new game that I made today. She has to squeeze the clips (which we did hand-over-hand) and clip them on the correct color. She concentrated SO hard! When she got it on the cardboard, she'd say "I dih iiit!" I think that means, "I did it!" :)

I know I've shown these before, but she really loves the shadow matching cards. I need to make some more. I have some magnetic letters that I want to trace for her, too.

Mickey Mouse color matching is always a hit. I've been noticing that everytime I get out the camera recently, she gets such an attitude and starts acting silly. Grrr!