Tot School: Days 1-5

I have already changed our plans! We moved into a new room and started a new plan with my preschooler so tot school is taking place there too. We are counting the days of school so I think from now on I will tell you what days we have done instead of what week or month or whatever. So these activities took place over 2 weeks but we did 5 days of school.

Our new "school room" is in our laundry room. Both girls have loved the new set up and everything is running pretty smoothly. I will post pictures of the space as soon as I know it is going to work. My tot tray method has changed a little too. I am trying to leave out as much of the same thing for the whole week as possible. I am only changing out what did not go well (too hard, too easy, etc.) and I leave the trays out where she can get them out and put them up by herself. I have had a few occurences of sneaking in while I am not looking and playing with the trays but so far it is working out well (but it has only been 5 days). I do not leave scissors, markers, glue, paint, etc out.

TOT TRAYS

Do A Dot

She loved this! I love it too because it is not as messy as regular paint.

Puzzle

She is getting so much better at puzzles!

Matching Bears

This came with our Sonlight P3/4 curriculum and both girls like these sturdy bears.

Snipping Paper

Big sister was working on some cutting, so she had to also!

Color Sort



I tried this two different ways. Sorting into the plastic cups was better than sorting on the circles. She really liked the colored popsicle sticks, I got them at the dollar tree.

Dry Erase

This is probably her favorite thing to do. I have several different boards and markers and she loves them all!

Spilt Milk art

This was an impromptu activity for big sister that Lyla got to help with. Both girls absolutely loved doing this. I used a whole container of white craft paint. We would have been making these pictures all day if we would have had enough paint! Basic directions: glob of paint in center of paper, fold in half, open and see what it looks like. We did this after reading the book "It Looked Like Spilt Milk". After all the papers were dry, I stapled them together, and we made our own Spilt Milk book. It turned out great!

FUN

I don't have any pictures, but we were able to spend more time outside thanks to a dip in the heat and humidity. We also went to a pool party (again, no pictures) and The Children's Museum of Memphis (where is my camera?).

LIFE
My preschooler (Abby, 5) has a brain tumor and is a patient at St Jude Children's Research Hospital. She was diagnosed over a year ago and despite all the doctors predictions, she is doing great. We have not had to undergo any treatment (she did have brain surgery and they removed a portion of her brain) and the tumor has remained stable (has not grown). It covers about 30% of her brain but she has no side effects (other than seizures which are controlled by medication). We travel to Memphis to St Jude every 3 months for an MRI which tells us if the tumor is growing or not. Last week we had to go back for an MRI, and thankfully, the tumor is still stable.

Lyla went with us this time and was wonderful! We usually don't take her with us because it is a time of great anxiety and it is hard to listen to all the doctors and nurses with a 5 year old and 2 year old running around. I am so glad that she was able to go. It put her sister at ease and they both had a great time together. St Jude is an incredible place and there is so much for the kids to do while there. The city of Memphis also is great and we get discounts on lots of attractions, including the Children's Museum. It makes our trip so much better!

Lyla worries about her sister and shows so much compassion for her. After the MRI, Abby was very groggy and couldn't hold her cookie, she kept dropping it. Lyla picked it up and fed it to her. She stroked her hair and talked sweet words to her. My heart melted. Lyla had to be left behind a lot during the initial diagnosis and surgery and everything that went along with it. She still seems to get left out because everyone asks about Abby wherever we go. We try not to make that difference at home, but I know that God will use this to make her a strong, compassionate person. She already is! If you want to read more about our journey, go to my other blog, Abby's Army. And please pray for my sweet girls!

That's how we did Tot School! Go check out the other entries at 1+1+1=1!

Catch Up

What a busy month! My last post was about our activity bags and all my planning. Shortly after that life got extremely busy. We had a vacation, birthday party, record heat, trips to Granny's, and a lot more going on! I will try to do a brief catch up. Both tot school and preschool were sporadic. These pictures and activities are from the past month (or longer). I have become more intentional with school lately but still not in a groove. I am beginning to think a groove may never happen for us!

Tot School
Lyla is 28 months old

Lyla has been very cooperative with her activities. Our only conflict is that she wants to do whatever her sister is doing and vice versa. So I try to find similar activities for her that she will be successful at. Here is the run down on her tot trays:

small spaces with a pringles can (mini) and chenille sticks


sorting with pom poms and star ice cube tray


beading


sorting, I got these animal erasers and tray at Dollar Tree, the tray had a busy pattern on the bottom so I taped some pink paper down


color file folder game, I made this when I was in grad school, all children love it

Lyla knows most of her colors, some still trick her up though

sticking toothpicks in a styrofoam circle, found the toothpicks and sytrofoam at Dollar Tree

Abby did this activity too but I tried to encourage her to make patterns or shapes with her toothpicks

matching objects to pictures, these are actually patterning cards that I found in a Scholastic book order ages ago, she likes to use it for matching


Preschool
Abby is 5 years old

Abby has been more defiant with her activities. She doesn't like to use the materials the way they should be, she wants to make up her own. I like that she is creative but I also want her to learn to follow directions. I usually have to make a deal that if she will do it "right" first, she can play with it any way she wants after. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Here is what Abby has been working on.

Raising Rock Stars Preschool, she loves reciting the memory verses


"cooking" with a recipe book

Lyla was in on the cooking too!

sorting colors and shades with paint chips, found here


counting cards, found here


a puzzle she completed with very little help


pom pom game, huge hit, found here


see and spell she got for her birthday


patterning, found here, she isn't a huge fan of pattern activities but she really liked this one


measuring activity, found here, she did not enjoy this at all

She didn't enjoy it because it was too easy for her. I am going to make her a game where she actually uses a measuring tape. I will save this for Lyla to use soon.

ABC train puzzle, she got this for her birthday, everyone had fun with it

I had Lyla find the pictures I named and Abby had to find the letters I called out. Lots of running and giggling went along with this.

farmers market game, found here, this sparked her imagination and she played farmer's market all day with our play food


popcorn sensory activity, made a huge mess, my blood pressure went through the roof, the girls loved it


Heat
Our area has been under heat advisories for weeks. It does not cool off, even at night. It is hard to keep little ones cooped up for so long but I think we dealt with it fairly well. A few things we did to burn off energy included:

ribbon dancing


ballet, I found a ballet video for her birthday and both girls love to do "ballet class". It is called Baby Ballet. I highly recommend it.


Life
Abby turned five this month. She wanted a ballerina birthday. I had so much fun planning and hosting this party. It was in my mom's garage and it couldn't have went any better. She loved it.


We also went on vacation this month. Branson, Missouri is close to home so we took the girls for a long weekend. It was extremely hot but we still had a great time.


That wraps up the last month (plus some) at our house. We have started a new routine in a new room this week. Can't wait to share the details with you next week!

I am linking up to the Preschool Corner at Homeschool Creations and Tot School at 1+1+1=1. Go see what other kiddos are up to!

Activities for Preschooler and Toddler

I wrote last week about activity bags that I had been making for both of my girls, age 4 (almost 5) and 2. I was inspired by this post at My Delicious Ambiguity, these posts at Walking by the Way, and this website which has books you can purchase to make your own preschool activity bags. I wanted an easy way to just grab an activity and not have to search for the components. My mother in law usually keeps the girls one day a week (she is on summer vacation) so I have used that time to get my bags all put together. I keep the items in gallon ziploc bags and put those bags in canvas bags that I plan to label. I still haven't decided if I will use workboxes for my preschooler and tot trays for my toddler or just fill their bags for the week and let them have them in the canvas bag, still figuring that one out.

I also made a few actvities that both of my girls have enjoyed, just in different ways. They don't fit in ziploc bags but can be stored in the canvas bags. Thought I would share since they were inexpensive and easy to make.


I got the inspiration for these fish at Counting Coconuts. I don't sew, but my grandmother does and she offered to make these for us. They were supposed to have embellishments on them that they could count but my grandma wouldn't do it-she was afraid they would pull them off and get choked! Both girls have enjoyed the game this week as is but you could add the embellishments, felt numbers, or paper clip on whatever skill you are wanting to work on. You can also work on colors this way.


I don't live anywhere near a Target but actually got the chance to go this week and picked up these small foam shapes in the dollar bin. I then used an oatmeal container to store them in, wrapped it in pretty scrapbook paper, and cut the lid like a shape sorter. My 2 year old likes to do the shape sorter while I work with my preschooler on other skills. We have used them so far to practice patterning and following complex directions (give me 2 yellow circles and 1 blue square). It has also been used as a basketball game!


I have had the idea for this in my head for a long time. Making Learning Fun has instructions for clank cans and I have always wanted to make one. I have been saving the metal juice lids for a long time and finally decided to make my own clank can. I wanted one that both girls could play with so I got ABC stickers at Target dollar bin and put them on the juice lids. I wrapped a baby formula container with scrapbook paper, cut a slit in the lid, and let the girls play. My toddler stayed occupied with this for a long time and my preschooler had a blast looking at all the letters and putting them in. This is really open ended-you can put anything you want on the lids-pictures, colors, ABCs, numbers, etc. I left the back of the lid empty for now, I can't decide if I want to do phonics and put a picture to go with the letter or do the lowercase letter on the back. I only have 18 lids right now, so that is why the whole alphabet isn't there.


This is a toddler activity I made. I found an elephant shape online and used it as a template to cut out different types of scrapbook paper. You could make this into a file folder game or just leave it as is. I think these elephants are so pretty!


Here is a picture of the contents of my toddler's activity bag.


Here is a picture of the preschooler's activity bag. All of this is split between several bags by category: letters and phonics, numbers and counting, patterning and visual discrimination, and just for fun!

Several of these activities came from Making Learning Fun, some from Along the Way, a few from Carisa at 1+1+1, and a few from ChildCareLand.

I have really enjoyed making these things and seeing them get so much enjoyment out of them makes the time commitment worth it. I hope this is as helpful as I think it will be when baby sister gets here in October! I still have a list of activities I would like to make and add more to it almost daily. There are some really creative people out there in the blogosphere!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tot School Planning

I can't believe it has been a month since I posted anything on this blog. I have been in super planning mode, not just for tot school and preschool but in preparation for baby, which we found out will be another girl!

I spent probably a week nesting-cleaning out, washing baby stuff, organizing, etc. Then I spent a week recovering from all that work! During that time we decided for sure that we will homeschool the girls. I just know that is what God wants for our family. We have already encountered some resistance but I am trying to not let it get me down. If I am following God's will, then I am doing what is right and it will be blessed by Him.

I was inspired by this post from My Delicious Ambiguity about toddler busy bag activities. My wheels started turning and I thought it might be a good way to organize our tot school activities, especially for use when I have a newborn to take care of. So I got busy making gallon ziploc baggie filled activities for Lyla. I printed some activities from Making Learning Fun and used some of Carisa's tot book activities as well. I have a long list of other things to make for her "busy bag", most of which includes my grandma (a sewing wiz). I am still a little unsure how exactly I want to use this. I have been thinking of just using the bag as storage and placing the items on trays as usual or filling the bag with activities for a week at a time and letting her play with (and clean up) to her little heart's desire. I am also thinking about incorporating blanket training in this but I think trial and error will determine what works best. I am just using plain canvas bags for now. I will jazz them up once I determine what will work. I am also contemplating moving our bookshelf with the trays out into the living area so their supplies are accessible all the time. I am worried about the mess as neither of my girls have learned how to pick up after theirselves (completely my fault) but it would be helpful once baby comes if I can successfully train them to do one activity at a time and clean up after each activity. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated!

Preschool Planning

I can't believe it has been a month since I posted anything on this blog. I have been in super planning mode, not just for preschool but in preparation for baby, which we found out will be another girl!

I spent probably a week nesting-cleaning out, washing baby stuff, organizing, etc. Then I spent a week recovering from all that work! During that time we decided for sure that we will homeschool the girls. I just know that is what God wants for our family. We have already encountered some resistance but I am trying to not let it get me down. If I am following God's will, then I am doing what is right and it will be blessed by Him.

I prayed really hard about whether to start kindergarten, what curriculum to use, and just what homeschooling means for our family. Since we will be adding to our family in just a few months I decided that starting kindergarten would not be good for us. I decided to stick with preschool activities. This way we can get adjusted to our new baby sister and it gives me time to figure out what works for our family. I also have lots of life skills to work on with the girls before formal "kindergarten" begins. Abby is not good at cleaning up after herself and obeying immediately and Lyla needs to be potty trained and lose her pacifier. I just feel like kindergarten, life skills, and new baby would be too much for me!

I really had a hard time choosing curriculum, especially since I am looking ahead to kindergarten. I finally decided on three different ones that I have combined.
1. Raising Rock Stars Preschool Curriculum: I love everything about this! We have already done two weeks of this and I just loved it and so did the girls. I love the memory verses, worksheets, easy readers, power point slides, etc.

2. Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve: This was a last minute addition. I subscribe to this blog and just love it. She announced last week that she had just completed a new preschool curriculum and I just had to have it. It is $45 but I think it is going to be worth every penny. It is a letter of the week type of curriculum, similar to RRSP, but she includes activities, recipes, and service projects to go along with each letter. She has memory verses for each letter but I am sticking with RRSP for the memory verses. I think the two of them put together is an incredible preschool curriculum. We haven't used it yet but I can't wait to start it next week.

3. Sonlight P3/4: At first I was just going to stick to this as our only curriculum but there just wasn't enough there for a almost 5 year old. P4/5 was more than I wanted to do, so I went with P3/4 and added the other stuff I mentioned. I love the books and some of the suggested activities are really good. It has a wide variety of books so the girls will learn some geography, science, Bible, history, and poetry.

To round out our preschool experience, I have made several preschool activities in a bag (and toddler ones too for Lyla). Most of the activities came from Making Learning Fun and then some are homemade. Most focus on pre-reading and pre-math skills. I have a list of other things I would like to make as I gather the supplies. It is basically the same as what I was putting on the trays, but these are in gallon ziploc baggies with all necessary components included. I thought she could grab a tray and a baggie and work to her little hearts desire. I am still trying to figure out exactly how I want to use these. I thought about doing the workbox system, similar to Carisa's, but I don't really have the funds to buy anything else. I also thought about having a canvas bag with the activities for the week and she can choose what she wants to do, when she wants. I read somewhere about blanket training (for babies) but thought this might be good for her too. I thought of having her do activities on a blanket and when she was done, putting away her bag and blanket. I might do some trial and error in this area to see what works best.

My main goal is to have all of this up and running fairly smoothly before baby comes so it won't be so difficult trying to do this with a newborn. We'll see. If any of you have suggestions, please feel free to leave me a comment.

Tot School-Week 2

It was not the most productive week for us. I am 21 weeks pregnant and not feeling well much of the week. I tried to stick to my plans as much as possible but some days just didn't go well. I'll try again next week! Here's what we did accomplish!

We did some spooning of beads into different size cups. I used a measuring spoon and some pinch cups from Pampered Chef. She loved this!


I got out the velcro food and let her cut to her little heart's desire! I was going to have her match the halves back together but she got bored before we got to that.


I hid some small firemen and policemen in a tupperware box of popcorn kernels. We got these red, white, and blue popcorn kernels for a Christmas present and they did not pop well so I dumped them in a box, hid the men, and let her dig. It made a huge mess, mainly because big sister just had to play too!


We did transferring pom poms again but this time I gave her an ice cube tray. She did good at first with only putting one in a hole but by the end she was stuffing them all in one!


I let her hammer golf tees in a styrofoam block with a toy hammer. She didn't like the hammer (?) but would push them with her finger. She loved this and so did big sister (who used the hammer). I got this idea from Delightful Learning, I think.


Everyone's favorite activity this week was farm animal sounds bingo. I have had this game forever and got it out this week for both girls. My older daughter and I used the game cards and Lyla used the toy farm animals. When the animal sound came on I would ask Lyla to find that animal. They got the biggest kick out of those animal sounds!


That's all we did this week. She was much more cooperative and "stable" this week but I was careful in choosing activities that I knew she would like. And we didn't do the trays every day since I didn't feel well. Overall a good week though!

Raising Rock Stars Preschool-Tt

This week was a little hectic. I am 21 weeks pregnant and didn't feel well for most of the week. I had a hard time getting motivated to "do school". Hopefully, next week will be better!

RAISING ROCK STARS
We continued our RRSPS curriculum with letter Tt. We did the Power Point slideshow this week and both of my girls loved it! They don't get to use the computer much so it was a real treat for them.

OTHER ACTIVITIES
While baby sister was doing tot trays, Abby worked on this clothespin number match game from childcareland.com

We also did an ABC safari from makinglearningfun.com, apple patterning from makinglearningfun.com, and rhyming memory match.

Everyone's favorite activity this week was farm sounds bingo. I got this set at Wal Mart several years ago and had never used it. The girls got a huge kick out of the animal sounds, especially the donkey!

LIFE
I have been very proud of Abby this week. She has been such a good helper around the house, something she is not usually known for. She helped hang up laundry, sweep, vacuum, and unload the dishwasher. We are really trying to encourage this with lots of praise and hugs and kisses!

She has also been a big helper to her baby sister. Again, we are trying to encourage her to be kind and share and use sweet words with her baby sister, even when it is hard. I have overheard her "inviting" Lyla to play with her several times this week. It makes me so proud!

On a different note, I have art boxes for each of the girls with basic supplies, crayons, stickers, etc. and they can get them out anytime they want as long as they clean up after themselves. Abby got her art box out one day this week and made this paper bag puppet. Then she put on a puppet show for me! It was so funny!


MISSIONS
My plan was to do a missions activity with Abby every week but I fell short this week. One day we were watching the news and it was about India. Abby said, "We saw India on a map last week!" So we got the map out and looked at India. Then last night while watching some news coverage of the World Cup we brought out the map and showed her where South Africa is. I have been looking for missions activities for preschoolers and came across some neat things that I will share as we do them. I really have a strong desire to give my girls a heart for missions!

That's it, that was our week! Hope you had a great one!