Tot School Gifts!

I want to share some new things that Little Guy received for Christmas that will make some appearances in Tot School.  I had created an Amazon wish list for him and included things that would be helpful!  (We took the last two weeks off from Tot School for traveling and family time.  We started again yesterday, so check back next Tuesday to see what we have been up to!)

Santa Claus left him two tweezers in his stocking.  I am excited to have these, as they will fit his hands and make it possible for us to do some new fine motor activities.

Trying out the tweezers on some pom-poms.

Little Guy got his first set of pattern blocks.  They are wooden with pattern cards to go with them.  I can't wait to try these out with him!

Look how the pattern blocks stack!

I can copy the picture!

A gift he will grow in to is upper case letter stamps.  These will be great as we begin working on letter recognition.  I will start using them to practice his name.  I had a set similar to this in my kindergarten classroom and the students enjoyed using them for a variety of purposes, so I know we will be able to use these for years to come!

I really like my green stamp pad!

He also received stacker pegs and a pegboard.  The pegs come in several colors, so we can use them for sorting, stacking, copying patterns, counting, and the list goes on!

Filling in the holes on the peg board.

Look how tall my tower is!

He also received a set of wooden magnetic numbers.  Since they are magnetic, they will stick to cupcake pans and cookie sheets, which will be helpful when practicing counting and recognizing numbers.

Playing with my new numbers.

I received a silicon ice cube tray with extra large holes.  Since we have an ice machine, I am already picturing how we can use it for one-to-one correspondence (I think the tweezers will come in quite handy with this)! 

What gifts did you receive that will be incorporated into Tot School?

Weekly Cleaning

As a stay at home mom (or as a person with a house to take care of), there seems to always be something to clean or straighten or wash or organize or...you get the picture.  To help me stay on top of my cleaning, I am working on a weekly cleaning schedule.  The start of a new year seems like a good time to solidify some good habits (or maybe even start them!).  While I am not the best housekeeper, I do like my house to look nice and put together, so having a schedule helps me to stay on top of the tasks.  I started out using the home management calendar from JustMommies, but found I needed to personalize the tasks based on my preferences and house.

There are things that get done everyday (like doing dishes) and things that happen once a week (like mopping).  I prefer not to do laundry everyday, but when it seems like I have a lot I wash all our clothes in one or two days. Most of my weekday tasks happen while Little Guy is napping (I don't really want him to help clean the bathroom yet).  The exception is vacuuming.  I don't like to vacuum upstairs while he is sleeping, and he actually really enjoys vacuuming! 

So, here is my cleaning plan!

Note: I know that blogging is not cleaning!  I decided to add it onto my list to give myself permission to work on my blog.  I shifted cleaning tasks away from Tuesday so they still get done, without me feeling guilty about the time I spend on the computer!

How do you organize your cleaning?

12 from 2013

Happy New Year!

Here are 12 of my favorite photos from 2013!

January- Snow day from school!

February- Bundled up to play outside!

March- What's in this egg?

April- Dressed up for Auntie L's wedding!

May- Family vacation to Hawaii!

June- Working in the garden!

July- Riding my new bike!

August- Working on Granddaddy A's bike at Speed Week!

September- Checking out the hot air balloons!

October- My first pony ride!

November- Enjoying the first snowfall!

December- Reading with Mommy on Christmas!

Praying for a wonderful 2014!

Tot School- Christmas Activities Week 3

Merry Christmas!  I know this is about a week late, but now it is all ready for next year!  We had a fun time with this last set of Christmas themed tot trays!  This week several of our trays had a nativity theme.  Little Guy is 30 months old.

This first tray was the biggest hit!  Little Guy had to spoon the bells from one bowl to the other using an ice cream scoop.  Simple to set up and so much fun!  He came back to this activity every day, and would do it multiple times in a row.

The bell goes here now.

The next activity was coloring a set of Nativity themed printables from 3 Dinosaurs.  Little Guy did not choose to do this activity.  Oh well, now I have them for next year!

We have not done much with stamps, so the next tray was fun.  I pulled out some Christmas stamps and made some cards out of colored paper.  Little Guy stamped to his little heart's content!  He enjoyed this activity as well!

Make sure to get lots of paint!

The felt numbers came from an idea on Pinterest from The Pleasantest Thing.  We did not play the game, but Little Guy simply had to put the correct number of stickers on each number.

1 sticker.

Practicing counting to 5!

 I found more foam shapes from the dollar section at Target, this time in the shape of ornaments, so of course we made a threading activity.  Little Guy liked them so much that we hung them in one of our windows.

Pulling the shoelace through.

 What set of trays would be complete without some cutting practice?  Little Guy enjoyed gluing them on paper when he finished cutting the pictures apart.  This was cutting practice from the Nativity pack at 3 Dinosaurs.

Is this enough glue?

 Little Guy also practiced more sorting with different sizes of baby Jesus from the Nativity pack at 3 Dinosaurs.

This is a medium baby Jesus.

 For the next tray, I traced some of my small Christmas cookie cutters on white paper and then cut out the shapes.  I glued them onto a piece of red cardstock and Little Guy had to match the cookie cutter to the shape.  He resisted doing this activity for the first couple of days, but when he actually did it he seemed to enjoy it.  Kirstylee did a similar activity for Halloween at Moms Have Questions Too. 

I think this shape matches.

 The final tray was almost always the first one that he chose.  Using an angel from the Nativity pack at 3 Dinosaurs, Little Guy had to put one chocolate chip in each circle to practice one-to-one correspondence.  Of course, when he was done he could eat a few chocolate chips.

One chocolate chip in each circle.

 I hope you had a wonderful Christmas season!