Tot School {Easter}

Now that Addi is getting older I loved making a big deal about Christmas and by Christmas I mean an all out celebration.  Do I think it was perfect?  No, I look forward to centering more on Christ as she gets older and I knew I wanted to make a big deal about Easter.  She's getting older and it's been a fun week of learning.   

Addi learned her very first verse this week!!! It brought tears to my eyes {and yes I made her tell everyone}.  

"He is not hear.  He has risen!!!!" Luke 24:6  

Another things that she really excelled in this week that I wasn't sure she could do or not was finding the difference in the pictures.  She did awesome!  I've said before that sometimes I think I hold her back because I don't want to push her too hard and make her not enjoy it.  Then I pull out something like verses and finding the differences in pictures and she blows me away.  

We worked on Easter puzzles, which she loved.  Honestly, this girl is a puzzle girl.  Another thing that amazed me.

More glue of course: seperating the big and little Rs into columns and gluing them.

Easter eggs: dot markers and stickers

She worked her fine motor skills with beads + pipe cleaners, pom poms + tweezers + tea cups, and playdough.  She also pulled out the puzzles and this time I mixed two puzzles together for her to separate and then put together.  She did great! 

This is what school really looks like in our house.  Silly and feisty! 

Addi helped me make our playdough for this units playdough box.  She's really growing to love this time! While I cook over the stovetop she plays with water and "does dishes" with out even knowing it.  

Pink playgdough with cookie cutters, stamps, silicone cupcake liners and cupcake poke sticks.  You can't go wrong!  I added some more stuff to the box later that didn't go with the theme.  

Have you read the Jesus Storybook Bible? It's so amazing! I mentioned that I'm reading the parenting book Give Them Grace, one of the things that I'm learning is that every single day needs to be wrapped in the story of Jesus birth, life, death and resurrection.  We need to remind our kids that apart from God, not matter how hard we try we can do no good.  Apart from Him there is no good within us.  The Jesus Storybook Bible does a beautiful job teaching this and intertwining Jesus in even single story.  Reading the "Easter story" with Addi has been so powerful for me, probably more then her.   

We had a "big girl" moment this week.  She made her bed all by herself! Look at her proud little smile. Addi insisted that the sleeping pillows go on top of the sham pillows.  I didn't fight her, one time a friend told me don't nit pick the little things when they do chores and are young because when they're old then will think they can't do it right, so why do it.  So sweet baby girl, your pillows look beautiful! 

We were in the mood to bake, so we did!  Addi made the cake all by ourself.  The Pioneer Women's dump cake was the perfect recipe for this independent toddler.  I opened the packages and she did the rest.  She was so proud!  She was very aware of checking the timer, oven, etc.  A girl after my own heart!

Daddy and Morgan went to the Monster Jam this weekend so I printed out this awesome monster truck learning pack to keep the boys occupied and learning the morning before the races.  Which also meant less, "are we going to see monster truck?!" nagging for me.  One {of the many things} I love about the Christian homeschooling community is that even if your educating your boys about monster trucks, God is still the center and a verse with monster trucks adorning it is included:

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

-Joshua 1:9

For the printable sheets and other Easter ideas check ou my Pinterest boards here and here.

{Addileigh is 32 months old}

1+1+1=1 & The Iowa Farmer's Wife

Tot School {Planning March}

Once a month I sit down to do most of my planning and printing.  Over the past few months I've become more aware of what works and what doesn't, so it's become really quick to sit down and get it all done.  Throughout the year I'm always pinning ideas, have you ever noticed that you see some of the best ideas after the holiday or event?  Each month I try to keep things simple and follow a general format.

Each month I love printing a new cover for our notebook.  This one is a toddler version of resurrection eggs from the Happy Home Fairy, which we'll also in our lessons as Easter gets closer.  

Have you seen this idea?  Printing your Pinterest boards as lesson plans.  We'll I love it! I in fact am now making more specific boards because of it.  I can't wait to see how helpful it is this month to actually do my pins! It's so perfect for craft options.

We start out out time of learning by talking about the weather and practicing out ZooPhonics.  Usually I add one each week or two.  I'm not pushing phonics at this point, but she really enjoys them.  If she doesn't pick up on the new letter, then I don't add any more.  It's really cool to see her comprehend this though! One day she was in the bath tub and said, "Mommy, bubbles.  Buh, buh, bubbles." Just like the format of ZooPhonics.

In honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday we threw in a week or two of silly Seuss fun! There are lots of fun activities that I've been and can't wait to do, using my printed lesson plan.

Easter Basket Activity

We'll be spending a few weeks talking about Easter.  It's kind of a big deal around here! During Christmas I tried really hard to keep the focus on Jesus birth. Yes, we talked about santa, but we focused on the reason for the celebration.  That's how we want to do Easter too!  There are a lot of fun crafts and other activities I can't wait to do as well as printable sheets.

This is one of the sheets I'm excited to if Addi can do.  Sometimes I think I hold her back because I don't think she can do something (like figuring out which is different) I don't even present it to her.  But this one is a little more obvious, so I'm excited to add it to this month.  

Easter Egg Shape Matching {all others}

Oh the placed you'll go baby girl! 

Tot School {The Snowy Day}

Let's be honest.  We didn't do that much school this week, which I kind of expected.

The last two weeks were really good with school, so I figured she might not love this week as much.

She enjoyed the activities, but it just wasn't as interesting with out her mitten and animals.  

Sometimes I would just catch a glimpse of her and wonder where my baby went.  

One my favorites parts of the week was just seeing her be a little mama.

She would cuddle up with her stuffed animals and babies to read them books

This week we read The Snowy Day, worked on some great printable sheets, made tracks in playdough, made tracks in the real snow, worked on colors and shapes, and just enjoyed a lot of cuddling and reading together.  One of the things that I'm learning to love about being home with my girl is that cuddle days are ok and sometimes even better the busy day.

{Addi is 31 months old}

1+1+1 Link-Up & FIAR

Tot School {The Mitten + Valentine's}

Last week Addi loved Mitten week so much that we continued, but added more books for expand on it.  

We found some books that we're about love and Valentine's Day that included woodland creatures. 

Each week I do a calendar time including the weather, ZooPhonics card, and a weekly song.  

I found the cutest mitten song to the Farmer and the Dell.  

Addi put the animals in the mitten for each verse of the song.

Addi has been obsessed with putting money in her piggy bank lately, so we give her all our change.  

On her own she has started to line them up, count them, then deposit them into her bank.

This girl hasn't been able to get enough books lately, so we just run with it.  

If we do no other "learning activities" other then read the mountain of books {after Disney Junior} I'm ok with it. Yes, she watches cartoons in the morning.  More then I would probably want to admit, but this mama doesn't really function before 9:30AM.

Sometimes I grab the school bag and Addi tells me she doesn't want to do school, but then five minutes late she comes to me begging to do school.  I don't want to ever push learning activities on her.  Just develop a love of learning.  The last few weeks I really seen a huge difference that if I let her do something on her own, she gains so much more confidence and understand.  That includes initiating school when she's ready.  Also, I don't do school with her two or three days a week.

In honor of Valentines day we did a few heart activities and read Valentines books.  

So far she has loves Clifford Valentine and Max & Ruby the best.  

It's fun to see her actually grasp something from the book on her own.  

After we did all the Valentine's activities, we went to tell her grandparents Happy Valentine's day.

On her own she went to get each of them one of her sheets to give them. It was so cute! 

Then she only wanted one Valentine:  Daddy! 

This week I read a post about what another families reading time looked like, it was liberating! 

I don't want to sit there with my two year old and expect her to listen to ten books on end.

Yes, she loves certain books and will "read" them with me, but I want to read her longer books too.

Now I'm ok with her playing with play dough or lacing cards, she's still hearing me reading to her.

She is still hearing stories and learning more concepts and language skills.  

Sometimes she stops what she's doing to listen, other times she just quietly plays and listens.

No more struggle to keep her hands and feet still to listen to longer books. 

{Addi is 31 months old}

1+1+1 Link-Up & BFIAR

Tot School {The Mitten}

The last few months I've been reading all about literature based curriculums. 

There are dozens of great blogs highlighting their journey through literature based learning,

 but my favorites so far are Homeschool Creations, Delightful Learning and Homeschool Share.

This year I'm just working through some of the activities and packets that I have found online.

However next year I want to start doing more preschool, so the plan is to do Before Five in a Row.

This week we worked on The Mitten by Jan Brett.

A friend let us borrow her white mitten and improvised animals.

Addi loved this! She asked to read the book a million times in a row.

Then she took the book and animals to get her cousin involved.

It was the cutest thing watching them study the animals, learn their names, and take turns filling the mitten. 

Each day we worked on a few printables, which is fun to see her so proud of her accomplishments.

We had some sparkly white playdough, so we used her little animals to print and make tracks.

I have a confession to make: Addi got this awesome reusable sticker pad for her birthday...

seven months ago! And I just now opened them for her to play with.

Yep, I have a little bit of sticker-phobia.  I kept picturing tangled sticker clings and tears.

Now I'm glad I waited a little while because she loved dressing up the little girls.

We printed out two little pictures of all the animals, so she would find the matches.
Then she would take the figures and match them up.
One night we were a little stir crazy, so we headed to Goodwill.
We may have got my new favorite book and Hedgie Loves to Read.
It's another book by Jan Brett, so it was a prefect little book to go along with our mitten week.

 Through out all our learning time she had this little puppy {Zeke} wrapped in a blanket and on her lap. 

It was the cutest thing and it just reminds me of why I want to homeschool.

Not only to teach my daughter the fundamentals of learning, but also to teach her the love of a relationship with her heavenly Father and the deep sense of compassion.

Watching her love of learning makes me so excited to be bless to teach her! 

{Addi is 31 months old}

1+1+1=1 Link Up & FIAR

Tot School {Christmas}

We're been doing various Christmas activities on and off.  

I updated my notebook with Christmas printables so we could quickly pull those out.

Earlier in the month I also made a list of things I wanted to do with the kids:

*See the decorations at the mall

*Decorate cookies

*Go look at Christmas lights

*Candy Cane Hunt

*Christmas play dough

*Lots of Christmas crafts

*Truth in the Tinsel printable ornaments

*Make our own nativity

*Indoor swimming party

*Christmas {snowman & candy cane} pizza

*And anything else along the way

Personally I like having a list of simple ideas that I can quickly do at any time with the kids.

Then when we have a few extra minutes I can pull out my notebook or do a fun activity.

Our quick go to activities are our playdough box and the printable ornaments.

One of our first activities was an indoor swimming party.  

Addi loved it! And she looks too old.

We also have lots of printables in the notebook to pull out and simple crafts ready to go.  

This one is construction paper, glue, and cotton balls. 

All three kids loved it {2 & 4 year olds}.

A Day in the Life

Maybe you've noticed that sometimes there is a little girl in my photos {other then Addi}.

Two days a week I nanny for a friend, so those are usually the days I do more activities.

She's four and Addi is two, so sometime it's hard to find an activity that they both love.

Play dough is our go to activity! 

They both love it! 

Sometimes they create the same thing, like this pumpkin pie sessions, but something Maddie does more complex pie crust crimping while Addi counts the pumpkins going into the pie.

Every single Monday we do play dough because they both love it and this mama can have a simple Monday where I just don't have to over think what we're going to do.

Usually I nanny Monday and Wednesday, but with Thanksgiving our schedule changed. 

So we got to do lots of different activities on Tuesday with Maddie.

First we met friends for breakfast {4 kids + 2 post sickness moms = lots of fun!}

Then we went to our libraries story time {a favorite of ours}.

We squeezed in a quick vacuum the car session and drive thru coffee for mama.

And wrapped up our nannying morning with a trip to the gymnastics center.

We had a blast! I seriously love busy days because it makes them go by so quick.

However I love those long, slow cuddle days when it's just me and my girl.

On our way to get coffee Miss Maddie exclaimed, 

"I love everything in the world {long pause} except yellow slow!"

The beginning of that statement didn't even phase me because she loves everything, 

but I died laughing when the second part was the tagline.  

Of all things, yellow pee.  Why not brussel sprouts or lima beans? 

Oh sweet Maddie, you always give me a big smile and a good laugh.

Music Class

Last week we had to miss the very first music class our public library had to offer! 

My little sick baby need to be seen by a doctor.

She ended up having a really bad double ear infection.

We finally made it to the second classes, but it wasn't as big of a hit with Addi as I expected.

She wanted to participate, but she was super shy and stayed in my lap the whole time. 

Once in a while she would try venturing away, but always came back in tears.

It tipped me off to the fact that her ear infection hadn't been healed.

Now we're on round two of meds and hopefully by the next music class she'll be better.

The tiny little smile peaking through that sick girls face says she will!

Tot School {Preparation}

Once a month I do a BIG print sessions to prepare my notebook.

Through out the year I save packets on my computer by seasons so they're easy to find. 

When it's print day I just go through the files, decide which ones will work, and print a ton!

Addi sits right on top of the print and computer waiting to snatch up the papers.

I love it! 

Since I've been trying to simplify how we tot school, printing once a month works really well. 

As everything comes out I put the main packet in a dividers, then if there are supplements or pages I know I will reuse I put them right into a page protector pocket.

Last week we wrapped up previous pages from some fall themes: apples, squirrels and leaves.

This week we will be focusing on Thanksgiving with printables and a few simple crafts. 

Then it's on to winter.  No, I'm not one of those crazy people who loves snow!

I love celebrating my King! 

We'll start off December with woodland creatures and owls.

Then we'll get to the good stuff!

I'm so excited for Christmas this year.  

Addi isn't super into presents yet, she thinks everything is awesome. 

I'm excited to have Christmas printables {gingerbread mean, candy canes, and the nativity.}

  That way during the business of the holidays we'll be able to take our celebration with us.

For advent I have a book about Christmas for her to open each day leading up to it. 

So there will be lots of cuddling up and reading this season too.

Perfect! 

Tot School {Simplified}

Since I'm still feeling like a newbie with Tot School I'm constantly working out kinks and I feel like I'm taking two step forward and one step back.  I love my notebook, school in a bag, and of course the 1+1+1 printables, but something just wasn't working.  Honestly, I think we were trying to do to much.

Each week I printed out the letter of the week activities for Addi and I think we could done each letter for two weeks.   On top of that I was trying to do theme play dough, songs, books, etc for each week. So what did I decide to do?  After the "holiday rush" I'll experiment more, but this is what I'm thinking:


CALENDAR TIME: Recently I found a calendar time I absolutely adored! They get to choose what the weather is like outside and what color their wearing.  Once we get going I think we will quickly be able to change the format, but it's super simple to start with.  And I'm all about simplifying! 

THIS WEEK IN TOT SCHOOL: For each month I will create an over all theme, to go with the season. 

November - Fall/Thankfulness 

December - Christmas

January - Winter

Then I will create a few activities that will go with the over all monthly theme and use the printables packets for two weeks. Honestly, I think using printable packets for more then one week will make a huge difference for us.  We will be saving ink, paper, and time.  I was finding myself not using all of the sheets, so now I have enough left over sheets to probably last us all next month.  To bad it's not for next month's theme.  

ARTS & CRAFTS: Each week I want to do one craft to go with the theme.  To some that might not seem like a lot, but we have our favorite crafty activity, play dough, and we go to a story time each week where she also does craft.  Plus church nursery and general coloring, so I'm comfortable with this decision.  I'm the type person that if I commit to much I am setting myself up for failure.  Saying I'll do more then one craft a week would mean I am setting myself up for failure.

PLAY DOUGH: Each month I will make play dough for the month's theme.  October and November was fall spiced play dough, December will be candy cane play dough, January will be sparkly snow play dough, etc. In general I will keep this the same for the whole month, but if something isn't working or I find something in the $1 section I'll add it.

BOOK BIN: Each week we go to the library for story time and a children's music class.  So I try to plan what books I want from the library a few weeks in advance.  I go onto my favorite website to find what books are recommend for the theme, make my list, then check our library database.  That way I go into the library with a plan.  Usually I write down ten books, but sometimes I walk out with four and other times all ten are on the shelves. I also use books from my personal library as well.

Now I want to start using library books for a few weeks instead of switching each week.  Before I didn't want to use pumpkin books if it wasn't pumpkin week, instead of using pumpkins, leaves, acorn books all month long. 

Hopefully these changes will help us not only learn more, but also simplify so we can have more fun!

Tot School {Apples}

~ Addi is 27 Months Old ~

This week was my favorite week of Tot School so far! 

Last week I was  really doubting whether or not Addi was ready for the ABC Printables.

On Monday she blew me away! 

The apple songs were a huge hit! 

Right now I'm trying to only do two activity sheet at a time, so she doesn't get frustrated. 

She was really trying to color "gently" and color the shapes, not just scribble.

Then she did great with circling {coloring} the apples with dry erase markers.

After re-reading the Tot School post a few times, 

I wanted to make I emphasized the left to write not just coping the lines.

It amazed me how she just picked up the marker and did it! 

When we were done I was blown away how much she had changed since last week.

Then we got done with dinner and she wanted to do more school! 

I tried to keep it light with apple playdough mats and pom pom apple counting.

This girl wanted "sheets!"  So I cute up her color apples.

To be honest, I was a little nervous that my strong willed two year old 

would not like being limited to one color, but she proved me so wrong.

Look at those apples!!! Not only did she not complain once about the colors, 

but she tried to stay on the apples with out me even telling her.

Seriously,  I'm loving these little moments that remind me all my work is not in vein.

We're still loving our Fall Spiced play dough! 

It's lasted amazingly and as super soft still.

I love coming up with new recipes and ideas. 

Since our week was cut short by visiting family, 

we'll be continuing apple week this week as well.

Tot School {Squirrels & Acrons}

~ Addi is 26.5 Months Old ~

Since fall is in full swing here in the midwest, 

we've planned some fun units around our favorite season.

This week was squirrel & acorns week! 

Our trees are filled with squirrels and our yard with acorns.  

It was hard to find library books about squirrels, 

so we stopped to Barnes and Noble to get A Good Day.

A few random books from the library mentioned squirrels too.

I wish I would have had The Busy Little Squirrel, but couldn't find it anywhere. 

So I order it from Scholastic for enjoying through out fall.

We did some of the squirrel sheets from Animal ABC Printables too.

I'm struggling with whether or not I should continue these.  

Some of them Addi loves, like identifying the shapes,

but others she doesn't have the focus to do them and just scribbles.

Does anyone else have this experiences? 

Is it more beneficial to keep presenting the information and letting them scribble.

Or wait until they are ready to color the picture the proper colors?

There were lots of other fun activities going on:

* Squirrel Buffet- we collected a variety of foods for our little friends.

*  Playdough- after three recipes, we finally modified our own Spiced Fall recipe. 

We made playdough pies with the bad recipes.

* Melissa & Doug's cutting food was a favorite this week! She loves the independence I think.

*  Acorn Shaker- we ventured around the yard to collect acorn "hats" in a bottle.  She worked on putting them in and out as well as shaking and dancing around.

* Pompom Sheets- while she put the pompoms on little circles she named them after family members.

* Tot School Notbook- last week I finally put together my tot school on the go book. I'm loving it! 

It includes: as daily schedule, weekly lesson plans {ideas}, monthly overview, writing without tears worksheets, printable sheets from 1plus1plus1equals1, reusables sheets in protectors, dot pages from Confessions of a Homeschool, Dollar Tree finds, lots of books, and busy bag activities. 

Happy learning. Enjoy! 

Spiced Fall Playdough Recipe

Last week we tested out a few different fall playdough recipes, 

but weren't impressed with any of them.

So this playdough loving, baking mama set out to create her own recipe.

The key thing I've found in all the playdough recipes I've tried is salt!

To much salt and it's a dry, stiff waste of time.

Personally, I think the perfect ratio is 1 cup flour to 1/4 cup salt.

Kid tested, mom approved!

This recipe is sure to make your house smell great while it's cooking,

Plus your kiddos will love the smell every time they are playing with it. 

Enjoy!

Ice Cream Shop

This "weekend" we have has Morgan since Thursday afternoon!  I love when we get to have super long weekend with him because we get to relax, have fun,  and cuddle more.  We have gone on bike rides and walks, took naps, watched movies, gone shopping, swam, laugh lots, went on a run, and today we got some of the tot school stuff I bought after the move to keep little miss interested.  

I found a great idea to do an ice cream sensory bin on Pinterest, might I just add I love Pinterest for so many reasons.  Any way, I decided to get some goodies from the dollar store to make our own little bin.  We got neon little pom poms to match all our fun neon ice cream accessories, then this week I discovered water beads on the Play at Home Mom blog.  Their original purpose is to put in flower vases so you can't see the stems and decorates really nice.  

He obviously was enjoying himself!

Morgan & Addi both had a blast with them, a little stressful the first round since I was super nervous about Addi trying to eat them.  Round two was better with her perched in her highchair watching Morgan's every move and using water as her ice cream.  His favorite was scooping the beads into the waffle cone cup, then we had three little ice cream dishes that he would serve up "ice cream" for everyone.   We probably spent an hour or more outside playing with the beads.

Sometimes I can't get over how smart, sweet, happy, and a blessing this little man is.  I love him with all my heart and am so very blessed to be his mama.  He also makes me look forward to Addi being a little older so I can do more of these activities with her and not have to worry about her ingesting something.  

Next up on the unofficial tot school docket (we aren't officially starting until we move to our new place...doing tot school while living with someone else proves hard) is colored whip cream painting.  I'm pretty excited and I know Addi is going to love it!

Hope you have a great weekend and enjoy this beautiful weather!