Tot School Nov. 30-Dec. 5

E is 23 months old

E had a great week of tot school this past week. It has been SO COLD and snowy here, I have just wanted to hibernate inside, and that means we need lots of activities to occupy E so I'm not tempted to plop her in front of the tv.


Tot Trays/Learning Toys:

I went with a new method this week for our tot trays. I still don't have a good space for them, and they live on top of the piano when we are not using them. So when it's time for school, I put them all on the floor. Then I have E choose the one she wants to work with and carry it (with help) over to the rug. When we are finished, E puts away all her materials and I help her carry it back to the rest of the trays and put it away.

This week's new tray, and a smash hit, was the water transfering. We used a sponge, and I showed her how to let the sponge soak up the water from one bowl and squeeze it into the other bowl. There were a few spills, but I gave her a dishcloth and had her clean up the mess herself. We did this one every day, and it was so much fun, she requested it from her grandma on Saturday as well!
Counting things that go with markers:

Playdough!
I found this puzzle at Target the other day. E actually likes it better than a lot of her wooden puzzles. Once she saw what to do, it was pretty easy for her. The puzzle comes with 20 matches, I split them up into sets of 5.

Blocks! Mommy made a "block train," and E had fun destroying it!

Our red shape sorter is a perpetual hit:


Alphabet/Reading Basket:

We revisited letter A this week to make a letter A Advent wreath for the fridge:

Our reading basket included many Christmas and winter books this week. I will put up the list next week, as they will stay the same until Christmas.


Arts and Crafts:

Along with the fridge letter Advent wreath we made, we also got started on our toilet paper roll Advent wreath. One of E's tot trays for the week was to rip up a sheet of green construction paper. This was harder for her than I thought. I think the paper was too heavy for her to rip easily.

We also wrote our letter to Santa, and colored him a picture!

Pictures of the Week:

We did some imagination play with all E's toys, putting them all into a parade.

Then E took one of her cars and led the parade with a "vroom, vroom!"

To see what others are doing in tot school, visit Carissa's blog here.

Letter A is for Advent

I can't seem to find an inexpensive Advent wreath anywhere! I am having a hard time even finding purple candles! So to celebrate the season of Advent this year, E and I are doing a couple of crafts. First, we needed a new fridge letter, since our Triangle T has been up since before Thanksgiving, so we made this cute Advent wreath with letter A's as the candles. I don't have in progress shots for this one, a final product photo will have to work for ya!

I had E color 3 letter A's purple (I helped a little, she wanted to color her hands and face instead), and one letter A pink. Well, sort of, I didn't have a pink washable marker, so she colored red over an A on pink paper. Having washable markers at this point is ESSENTIAL.

E colored a green oval with red and green and brown (her choices!) for our wreath.

While she napped, I cut out all the pieces, and when she woke up, she helped me glue them all down on a piece of black construction paper.

Then, I cut out a "flame" from yellow craft foam and double-stick taped it to the first letter A "candle." I guess, since it's Sunday, I need to get another candle "lit!"

Craft Corner: Advent Calendar

I love Advent calendars! We had one when I was little that was a chimney with Santa coming down it. Inside the chimney were little boxes, one for each day. And inside each box was a fun activity my mother had planned for us all to do together. I am so excited about sharing this tradition with E. My only problem is that I have no Advent calendar! Well, it was a problem. I remedied it last night.

I saw these beautiful Christmas countdown envelopes at Blue Cricket Design, and I thought they would be just perfect for what I want. Something simple, beautiful, and that I already have the supplies for!

Here's my version. Instead of using library envelopes, I just cut the flaps off some regular letter envelopes I had laying around.

Each envelope contains a note with something fun for our family to do together. E was so excited to pull the note out of the envelope this morning and have me read it.

Once we discover what our Advent activity is for the day, I hang the notes on a string in our dining room. It looks a little silly now with just two, but once we get a few more, it will start looking really cool, I promise!

What do you do to help celebrate the Advent season?

Wordless Wednesday

A Letter to Santa
(ok, there are words in this one, but it's still a picture, right?)

Tot School: Nov. 16-20

E is 22 months

Ahh, finally another Tot School post. We were traveling all week last week, and didn't do much in the way of anything. So these activities are what we did the week before Thanksgiving.

Field Trip:
We started the week off with a field trip to a local children's museum. E had an absolute blast. She was mad when we had to leave!

We read dinosaur stories in a dinosaur cave,
Dressed up like pirates,
Tap danced to some music,
Milked a "cow,"
And colored on a chalk wheel. Just to name a few!

Tot Trays/Learning Toys:
Later in the week we worked with our tot trays.

E always loves it when the pasta comes out. She worked with the smaller pasta this week.
I finally got one of these shape sorters with the rods. E thought it was pretty cool. I gave her one shape to start, and then mixed up two different shapes for her to sort out. We worked on colors, shapes, and big and small. These toys are great!
I pulled the stacking cups out of the bath again for E to work with, she's getting much better figuring out which one goes where.
E made a sticker picture with Sesame Street characters at the beach. I guess it was wishful thinking with the snow we got that week.
She also worked with her cookie jar shape sorter. This one frustrates her from time to time. I think it's harder because the shapes are on the side instead of on top like some of her other shape sorters.
Opening lids. This was a new activity for E and she got very frustrated when I wouldn't help her. I showed her how and gave it back. Eventually, she figured it out. She was especially frustrated when she couldn't get the Cheerios out!

Open Ended Art:
The theme for the week was corn. I didn't have any corn, so we did bubble wrap painting and I cut it out to look like corn. You can see my post about it here.

Photo of the Week:

"shopping" for toys

Open-Ended Art: Corn

This week, we did a semi-open-ended art project. The theme was corn, and I didn't really have much on hand to work with. I also didn't feel like running out to the store for supplies, so we worked with what we had.

I have been waiting to pull out my bubble wrap and try using that for painting. I saw on Pink and Green Mama's blog that they did bubble wrap Indian corn, and I thought that would be perfect for this week!

First, we did a dry run of what I wanted E to do, without the paint.
Then we used red, yellow, and mixed up some orange paint for our bubble wrap. She painted the bubbly side, and then we pressed it down on the paper.
E still wasn't done painting, so she painted another picture while we waited for the bubble wrap print to dry.
Once it was dry, I cut it out in corn shapes, and E helped me glue some "husks" onto the corn.

This was a fun project, and I'll definitely be using bubble wrap again. In fact, I washed it off and saved it for next time!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are leaving tomorrow for a relaxing week's vacation for Thanksgiving. I thought I would leave you with a list of things I am thankful for.

I am thankful for . . . . .

My little munchkin, who is truly the light of my life.


Target - 'nuf said.


My mother and grandmothers, strong women who give me someone to look up to.


Quiet time to sit and read or knit or sew.


Good friends who make doing "kid stuff" even more enjoyable.


My faith, my God, and my Church community.


All the wonderful blogs I read and follow - I get such great ideas for activities to try from you all.


My family, near and far.


A job I enjoy.


Good health to appreciate all these things.



See you all next week! Watch out, Kansas, here we come!