Tot School (Christmas and What Not)

**J is 30 months old**

I love doing Tot School with J! We are very laid back and so far I don't really plan anything. I keep a lot of things visible to J and let him lead when it's time to do some focused learning-play. Thanks for stopping by!


Playing with Blocks































J picked his alphabet blocks to play with today. First he was lining them all up together in a square shape on the floor. Then he brought them to the window shelf and was stacking them. As he put on block on top of the other, he'd say the name of the object inside. He'd see how high he could stack them until they fell over. Sometimes, he just knocked them over himself.


Pal Zone













































This week we read a book called Mouse Paints. Our teacher Birch covered up all the tables with white paper and the kids got to paint. We used shaving cream and red, yellow and blue paint. J had such a great time blending and mixing the colors together with a craft stick. He and one other girl were the last ones to leave the activity. Birch started cleaning up so I was telling J it was time to finish, but Birch let them keep going. He said there are usually 1 or 2 kids who get so into the activity and the sensory experience of it that he just lets them go. So J stayed a bit longer. He had fun painting his hands and then mixing the colors with his fingers too.


Christmas Sensory Bin









































































We made a trip out to the crafts store so I could get a sensory bin together with a Christmas theme. Some of the things in it were mini Christmas trees, wreaths, presents, ornaments, jingle bells all in a cute Christmas box. J liked digging in to the box and seeing what he could find. At first, he played with the stickers just pulling them off the page. Then he discovered the mini presents. He came running to me with some Styrofoam and I saw that he learned how to unwrap these tiny little gifts! You'll see the picture where I caught him doing it and then the next picture he had a sinister laugh when he found out I wasn't mad.



Water Play































One morning J got asked if he could put his toys in the sink. That was fine with me, so I helped him pick out toys that were water-friendly. He did this in the past with beads, but I think he liked this even more. He liked trying to predict what would float and then loved narrating what was happening as he placed different things in the water. Then he got a shovel so he could stir and he wanted me to stir a bit too.


Blowing Bubbles

















We worked a little bit with learning how to blow bubbles. In the past, J has been more interested in chasing and popping the bubbles, but today he did work on blowing them. It took him a few times, but then he was getting the hang of it.


Titus Mom's Group













































This is a group that meets at my church. Every other week, we have a play group that meets in the gym in the fall and winter. It is a great time for moms to meet and talk and J loves playing with all the different toys everyone brings to share. Not only is it hard for J to share what he's playing with at the play group, but it's hard for him to see others playing with his toys that we bring to the group. To help with that, a bit ago I started having him pick out with me the toys that he would feel comfortable sharing. Today he was really excited about the things he wanted to share and he knew what he wanted to keep at home. He fell in love with a race car helmet and wore it the majority of the time. It was good to see him on the big wheel too, as we don't have many riding toys for him to play on.


Advent Calendar































I saw dozens of different Advent calendars on various blogs but I didn't get around to making my own. Instead, a friend gave us a chocolate Advent calendar which is the kind we opened when I was a kid. To add to the experience, I found a downloadable Advent Celebration book from a blog I follow called Holy Experience. I read each day's one during my quiet time, then when daddy gets home we talk about the verse of the day, the meaning behind it and how it relates to the coming of Jesus and then J opens his Advent door on the calendar. One day, he was more interested in The Little Drummer Boy book by Kristina Rodanas. Each page has the words to the song of the Little Drummer Boy with beautiful illustrations. I sang the song while describing what was happening in the pictures, telling the story to J.



Christmas Tree Matching Game from Musings of Me













































I am finally doing more printables and it's great to see J enjoy them. This was a good matching test for J. The Christmas tree patterns were pretty similar and once J got started he did miss a couple. I would point them out and he'd put them in the right place. I took a little video of him since it was so cute the little commentary he had while he was playing.






Magazine Picture Collage













































While I was reading my Parents magazine, I had the idea to cut out some of the cute kid-related pictures and have J make a collage. I wanted to try some new activities and give him the chance to work on using the glue stick. This was a great activity for him and I actually had a lot of fun putting it together and then seeing which pictures he liked best. By the end, he knew to put the glue on the back of the picture. In the beginning, he was putting the pictures on top of one another, but then he was following my instructions and learned to space them out across the page. He loved naming the objects and talking about them as he placed them across the page. I love how in the last picture he looks so satisfied with his work. We will definitely do this one again.



Christmas Tree Shape Identification from 1+1+1=1































This is a game where you put the large shape picture with the Christmas tree that has that matching ornament shape on it. I wasn't sure how J would do with this since the ornament shapes are fairly small. This was very easy for him so he did it pretty quickly, but then he cleared them off and did it a couple more times too. We took some time going through each shape to see if he could name them. He's gotten better at identifying his shapes, as he knew all of them here except for the rectangle and pentagon.




Dumping and Sorting































I was organizing our Tot School area and putting small things into little jars. J found a couple jars and asked if he could dump them out. One was marbles and one was black stones. I had no problem with this and could see it turning into a sorting activity. So I had him dump them into his dump truck. Then he dumped them onto the floor and had fun with that part. Next, I guided him in sorting the marbles and the stones putting them back into the jars. At first, he just grabbed handfuls and was shoving them in willy nilly. It took me a few times of giving the instructions to him and he started sorting them into the right jars and was really excited about it. Then he got to dump them back out again.





See the fun things other moms are doing at the Weekly Wrap Up, another place I link up.

Tiny Talk Tuesday (Thanksgiving Plus More)

**J is 30 months old**

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Tiny Talk Tuesday is a way to share the fun and interesting things our kids are saying. I love joining up for this blog carnival at Not Before 7. Click her button above to see what kind of Tiny Talk has been overhead in the homes of others!

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WOW! I must have been busy last week because I missed doing my Tiny Talk post!!! So this one still has some of the Thanksgiving related snippets.


I found a Thanksgiving printable with leaves that say "I give thanks for _____." I had no idea if this would be something J would be into and understand. I introduced it by explaining again about Thanksgiving and the reason we celebrate. I said, "J what do you give thanks for?" He didn't even hesitate, and right away he said, "I give thanks for God." I had a few more leaves and each time I asked he said something else like "I give thanks for Mommy, J and Daddy"; I give thanks for Uncle Ro Ro and Kelly." This was so sweet!


We had been talking about things we were thankful for, one of the things was he was thankful for Mr. Potato Head. That made me laugh. Then he did something interesting. He got the Mr. Potato Head container and started pulling out the pieces one by one. As he did, he would say "God made glasses. God made a smiley face, God made arms....he named all the parts as he took them out saying God made them. Sweet.


One night we were getting J prepared that it was bedtime, picking up toys, picking out a book, etc. I thought he was ready until he said, "It's not time to go to bed. It's time to go to Uncle Ro Ro's house!" Apparently, I had been talking about Thanksgiving a lot so he got it in his head that it was NOW instead of LATER that we were going down to Uncle Ro Ro's. I explained to him that he had to sleep tonight and have one more day and then we'd go to Uncle Ro Ro's. He was sad and it brought a few tears.


One morning we were going to our play group. Daddy asked J, so what are you doing today? He said, "We're going to Pal Zone. That's where I'll see other boys and girls and have to share. I'm going to cry."

Later that same day, I was preparing J that we were going to the YMCA. He enters their nursery while L and I work out. I tell him in advance so he knows we'll be apart. He said several times, "I'm going to miss you while I'm in child watch, mommy!" Mommy, I'll miss you." He got into child watch and right away started crying. I told him, I know you'll miss me but I'll be back soon. He stopped crying pretty quickly and says, "I was crying." Like he was doing a little reflecting on his emotions.

One morning after daddy went to work, J said something about "his special friend". I asked him who his special friend was and he said, "My daddy. I miss my special friend. Where'd my daddy go?"

Thanks for stopping by!

What My Child is Reading

I found a great blog hop that highlights the current books we are reading with our kids. J and I don't usually focus on a theme. We go to the library often and I just pick books that he would be interested in that also have a good message or lesson.

Click the link below to see what others are reading!

Disappearing Desmond, Anna Alter
This book is really precious. Desmond has a knack for hiding and blending into the surroundings and not being noticed by others .... until he meets a little bunny named Gloria who spots him right away wherever he is. He finds himself coming out of hiding to play with Gloria and they do all sorts of neat things together. Then Desmond finds another little one who also likes to hide and starts bringing him out. It is a sweet book with a message about friendship. I saw this book on one of the blogs I visited during the book blog hops, but for the life of me I can't find out where it came from :( I wanted to give some credit for our inspiration to pick it up.



The Little Drummer Boy (musical book), David Mead
The story of the Little Drummer Boy has always been special to me. I am touched by the simplicity of his gift to the baby Jesus, using his own gift of playing the drums. So when I saw this book in a post on a blog I follow (The Iowa Farmer's Wife) I knew I wanted to get it for J. I did not read the story beforehand to know that this is an all-new version with a new song too. At first, I was disappointed but then after about the 10th time the song was played and my son was loving it, the song has really grown on me. The story is pretty similar in that the boy gets to use his gift of drumming to calm the baby Jesus. This is a nice Christmas book.



O Little Town of Bethlehem; A Pageant of Lights (musical book), David Mead
This is another Christmas favorite that I found when buying the Little Drummer musical board book. (I got both of them for around $4 a piece including shipping.) We have been reading this almost every night now and J loves the music and how the book lights up. On the last page after the story part, they have the entire song and I always sing it to him. Daddy was reading it to him one night and was just reading the words on that last page and J insisted that he sing it!



The Pine Tree Parable, Liz Curtis Higgs
This book is from the same author who wrote The Pumpkin Parable from an earlier post I did. I love how these books have a bible verse to go with each page of the book. I feel like as we read, these tiny seeds of God's word are being planted in his heart. It reminds me of Isaiah5 5:11: So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. This is a touching story about giving to others and being a blessing to those who are in need. It centers around a family that owns a farm and they sell Christmas trees. The focus is on one special pine tree that the mother wants their family to enjoy year after year so they put a "Not For Sale" sign on it. Until the year when the tree is fully grown and just splendid and a very poor family comes that really can only afford a tiny little broken tree yet their sweet little girl falls in love with the giant pine tree. The farmer's wife ends up deciding to give this family the tree and blesses them without having to purchase it. A wonderful lesson on giving to others.



The Scarecrow and the Spider, Todd Aaron Smith
I have had this book on hold at the library since way before Thanksgiving and it finally came. Even though we're moving into winter, this book has such a wonderful lesson that I am holding onto it for a bit. This is the story about a sweet scarecrow that is a little bit odd looking so he finds it hard to make friends. He ends up wandering and meeting this sweet little spider and they form a friendship. The author uses this friendship to illustrate how God is our ultimate friend and when some little boys threaten to pull apart the scarecrow, again we learn how God is watching over us and the little spider is used to scare the kids away.



Time for Bed Elephant Small, Sally Grindley
This is the perfect little bedtime book for my little guy. It used to be that all I had to do was say, "It's time for night night" and J would get his blankie and nuk and we'd head upstairs together to start our bedtime routine. Nowadays, he doesn't want to go to sleep and says, "I'm not going night night." The blessing is he doesn't throw a tantrum or anything, he just states that like a fact. Eventually, I'm able to get him to pick out the special books he wants to read for bed and that helps get him moving. So this book is perfect in that this little elephant doesn't want to go to bed. During the process of his mom finding his blankie, reading him a story and tucking him in, he falls fast asleep.



The Tiny Seed
I read the summary of this book and knew this would be a good learning tool. J has been afraid of the wind lately (yes, the wind). One time when I asked him why he was afraid, he said he didn't want to blow away. And he was serious! This book has been great for working on the idea that God made the wind for a reason and there is a useful purpose for everything. So I used this book to highlight the good things about the wind. Like how the blowing and blowing of the wind sets free little seeds so they can blow away and land in a place where they can go on to become new flowers, new plants and new trees. He liked this book and I enjoyed its illustrations. He seemed responsive to what I'm trying to teach in it too.



Want more book reading fun? Click below to visit the other book blog carnivals where I enjoy linking up:

Tot School "Lite"

**J is 30 months old**

I love doing Tot School with J! We are very laid back and so far I don't really plan anything. I keep a lot of things visible to J and let him lead when it's time to do some focused learning-play. Thanks for stopping by!


Well this is the first time it's happened to me -- my computer crashed!!! I am so thankful that I backed up the computer for just the second time on 11/13 so I was able to restore my computer from that date. BUT that means I lost some of my pictures from this week. We ended up having a really light Tot School week so I probably didn't lose too many pictures. We did a lot of errands and had a few scheduled play activities that kept us on the go. You'll notice J is wearing his green jammies in many of the photos. He actually wore these two separate days during the week when he was adamant he wanted to wear them and I think they're cute so I didn't mind.

Some of the things we did this week:

Playing at Pal Zone


























































Pal Zone is a community play group we've been part of for over a year and a half yet I've never taken any pictures of our play time there. I really love this group because it's very diverse. Many of the people who come are originally from other countries so J gets to interact with children from different cultural backgrounds. There is open play time with zillions of toys then we gather in another room for circle time with songs, a story and a craft. One great activity is where we sing a song where each child learns to say their name and then pick up their name tag and place it on a felt board while we sing and clap for them. The story and craft go together and J gets to learn how to use glue, scissors, pipe cleaner activities and many others. We go once a week and really benefit from this group.


Watching Mark Schultz, Worship DVD





























One afternoon, J really wanted to watch a "worship movie". I explained that we can sing worship from our CD but I didn't have any worship movies. But then I remembered my husband had won a CD from his men's group that had a DVD of a live worship performance. The artist was Mark Schultz whose songs include "Back in His Arms Again" and "He's My Son". It was fun watching this together and singing some of the songs.


Story Time at the Library



























This is another activity we have enjoyed, going to our local library for their story hour. Every other month, they have a session a week for 4 weeks at a time. They pick a theme like today's was bears and then they have a craft to go with it. Today's craft was making a bear's cave surrounded with snow and the bear hiding in his cave. J and I worked together to use the glue bottle and stick them on.


Making Christmas Cookies, A Play Date


























































I haven't got started on an Advent calendar and I haven't done my Christmas decorating, so I have really been wanting to do something related to Christmas. Today I got all the fixins for sugar cookie decorating and invited my friend so our sons could do this together. I haven't done many cooking activities with J so I knew this would be interesting. We didn't really know what we were in for, but I was glad we were doing this together. We each had our own bowl letting our sons help mix and use the cookie cutters (sorry, we had our hands full and I didn't get pictures of that part) but never imagined how tricky this can be with a not-yet-2 year old and 2-1/2 year old. My friend remembers her mom used to make the cookies and the kids decorated and we laughed at how much easier that would have been. We couldn't move fast enough to stop little hands from tossing flour and grabbing sprinkles and frosting. There was plenty of clean up, but it was well worth it. The boys loved making as much as eating and we had fun fellowship together enjoying this activity with our kids.

Pom Pom Sorting






























We started out this activity with the idea that j would sort them into the ice cube tray. Then he got the idea he wanted to switch to playdoh. Before we could do playdoh, I told him we needed to clean up. He was super excited about putting the pom poms away in the container so that became a little activity in itself!

Playdoh















J did a little with the Playdoh. On my wish list is a set of Playdoh tools, but in the meantime I have to improvise. I got out a small rolling pin so J could play with that, but he wasn't really into it. I then found a highlighter and he loved the pressing the lid and seeing the designs it made. I also found a set of dice and when he pressed it into the Playdoh you could actually see the number design.


Books
Disappearing Desmond
The Little Drummer Boy (musical book)
O Little Town of Bethlehem (musical book)
The Pine Tree Parable
The Scarecrow and the Spider
Time for Bed Elephant Small
The Tiny Seed


Movies
Little Einsteins; The Christmas Wish

Dinosaur Train; Dinosaurs in the Snow
I just had to post a video of J while he was watching this DVD. He went bananas over a song called "The Night Train" and had daddy and I play it for him literally 10 times or more so he could dance to it. I took a short video of him moving and grooving to the song. I love watching kids dance!







Music
Veggie Tales; 25 Favorite Toddler Songs
Songs Kids Love to Sing; 25 Sunday School Songs

See the fun things other moms are doing at the Weekly Wrap Up, another place I link up.