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Tot School

Oct. 29, 2009 • 10:52 PM

Here are a few of our recent activities within our Tot School!

My youngest children enjoyed matching numbers using this Scarecrow File Folder activity.

We read Goodnight Moon with our FIAR Club. Here is a paper we did with that.

It was a coloring picture. They colored in the items in the room in crayons then to make the room green. They used green watercolor paints. (They love painting!)

We also did a few fun Tot Tray activities. I was organizing the Tot activity cabinet and these activites my youngest wanted to work on.

This one is just placing marbles on the suction cups of a patterned bath mat piece. I found some fish shaped ones. This is a fine motor skills activity.

This one is a color sorting activity. The ice cream bowls and scoops I found inexpensively. I put those three colors (blue, green, & Yellow) of pompoms in a container. They had to take the color ice cream scoop they wanted and use it to sort those colored pompom balls into the matching bowl.

The picture below shows two other things (characters) my little Tot is currently enjoying:

If you want to see what others are doing in their Tot Schools, check out 1+1+1=1 blog.

Itty-Bitty Bookworm: I like Me

Oct. 16, 2009 • 11:07 PM

We recently had some fun with the book entitled I Like Me.

I teach a class of 2-5 year olds in our homeschool co-op. It is a Little Literature class. This month we did a book within the Itty-Bitty Bookworm's Bo curriculum. The book was I Like Me by Nancy Carlson.

In this story, the pig appreciates and takes care of herself. I was able to incorporate a reminder from the Bible, too. I told the children how each of them was a special creation, made by God. How each one is unique.

We did the coloring picture included in the curriculum:

We also made the booklets from the curriculum. I had each child work on the same page at the same time. They colored each page according to their hair color, eye color. I wrote the word on the line since most of the children in this age group can not yet write. For the favorite foods page, I had food pictures already cut out of a magazine. They choose pictures of their favorite foods and glued them onto their "I like to eat____" page. The books really turned out cute:

For a take-home project, I gave them a sheet with an outline of a child. They were told do a self-portrait by making the person look like themselves. They brought them back to me to see at our next co-op. A self-portrait is a nice additional project for this book.

If you are interested in learning more about the Itty-Bitty Curriculum, check out their website. They have literature-based curriculums. The Bailey curriculum is for 18-36 month olds. The Bo curriculum is geared toward 3-5 year olds.

Tot School: new activities

May. 8, 2009 • 9:24 PM

 We had some fun new activities with TOT School recently!

This was a fun project I got from my blogging friend Angels of Heart!

This activity is simply to count the number of chicks on the given card and then place that many chicks with the card. I helped her with this and she counted with me. She should be able to do this one on her own next Spring.

We did a color match activity that is also great for fine motor skills. This wonderful idea came from the TOTally Tots site. I love this colored paper clips idea. We keep it in a ziplock bag and I often grab it for our Bible bag and the "littles" quietly work on it while sitting in the church pew.

She did a picture match-up using the My First Lotto game.

My toddler, "Precious" and her brother, "Peanut" each colored a new juice cup! Then used them for lunch. They thought they were neat. They were purchased at OrientalTrading.com.

They also had fun outside a day with a friend, while the older siblings worked on their Old Testament Lapbooks.

And... we did another new color-matching activity that is a favorite with my kids. Everytime I put it away (It is still in reach) they get it out again to do! This great idea came from Montessori Journey.

All the supplies were bought at the Dollar General Store for $1 each. (Total for everything together was $3) I might go back for more flower cubes to have more for the children to count out.

I thank all the wonderful blogs I mentioned for these great ideas! You'll find many more ideas for fun activities to do with toddlers when you check out the other TOT SCHOOL particiapants!

TOT School: Easter Week

Apr. 16, 2009 • 11:15 AM

This week, we read these stories...

We also read this great Book entitled "Benjamin's Box." It tells the story of the Resurrection eggs. We've done the Resurrection eggs every year since we've had them but it was especially nice with this book to go with it.

We had a LOT of fun painting eggs. They wanted more and more to paint so I boiled all the eggs I had except for the 3 set aside for my son's birthday cake!

Precious really did a great job painting her eggs!

Here she is helping me make that birthday cake I mentioned. Besides being the week of Easter, it was also my oldest son's birthday! Precious loves to add ingredients, stir and of course, lick the beaters.

For my son's birthday we went bowling...

"Precious" really enjoyed her first time bowling...

She did a great job, too!

Then we also had an Easter egg hunt with cousins at our family Easter celebration.

They're off....

If you'd like to see other TOT SCHOOL participants, click here!

Have a great week!

Tot School!

Apr. 6, 2009 • 11:09 AM

I used to be a regular TOT School Post-er but have not been able to post much recently.  We have continued to do Tot School activities but I didn't have the time to post them  I am trying to get back into the swing of it though and get it back into my regular blogging schedule. There are many more of you TOT School attendees now and I look forward to getting to know all of you better as we educate our young ones and share our lessons and learning with each other! Thanks to Carisa, as always for starting this great meme and keeping it going. She also started a wonderful new site called TOT-ally Tots. You should check it out when you have some free time!

Now... to our TOT Schooling...

My older children are working together with another homeschooling family we are friends with to make the HS in the Woods Old Testament Lapbook. While they do this, the younger crowd also has school-time activities they work on together.

Here is Precious adding animal stickers to her Noah's Ark paper.

Another time they made The 10 Commandments Books. These are very cute with 10 pages to color. Each page tells them one of the commandments. I purchased these at Oriental Trading!

Here she is working on one of the coloring pages for inside her Book of the 10 Commandments!

After they completed their booklets, they got to play with play dough. That is always FUN!

Almost every week consists of doing puzzles at some point:

This week, we also did some construction with our wooden blocks!

One of Precious' older sisters collects erasers. She had them out so we turned it into a color sorting activitiy. After that, we also sorted Lego block pieces.

Here is a picture of a SPECIAL UN-planned moment. My oldest read a tiny Golden Book to Precious. She sat right down on her nap and listened happily to the story.

We had a new activitiy this past week as we went roller skating with our church. It was a fun family activity. It was Precious' first time on roller skates and she did a great job. (Truth be told, she did better than her mom! )

Check out the other TOT School participants HERE!

Tot School

Nov. 24, 2008 • 10:29 AM

Here is our past week of

We did an artistic creation that started with foam stickers. Then they added regular stickers and also colored on them! They enjoyed being spontaneously creative.

They also had fun playing a new game I just received to reveiw. It is Two By Two Matching Game by Alphabet Alley. (Look for the product reveiw coming soon!)

Then.. since "Precious" must do everything that "Peanut" does, she was included in his Letter B lessons. Here they are with their finished papers.

Then we did a game from our Letter A lessons that the kids really like. It is from KidSoup.com .

It is called Apple Picking. Each child rolls the dice and counts the dots (on the dice). Then they count out that many apples (red pompoms) and place them on their mat. See who can fill up their page first!

Then we had a snow day and "Precious" enjoyed sledding down our big hill with her siblings and FUN daddy!

Have a great week! Happy Thanksgiving!

If you want to see other Tot School activities, check them out here!

TOT School: Oh No- Broken Toe!

Nov. 17, 2008 • 8:55 AM

The beginning od

The beginning of the day was going very well. Precious was playing with her 4 yr. old brother Peanut very well. She was the mommy to a stuffed lamb toy and he was being the daddy. They were being so cute and we all noticed and commented how sweet it was. I went out to start making lunch. Soon, I hear crying and my oldest is bringing me Precious. She didn't notice but Precious' white sock was entirely red and dripping blood. I am not good with things like this. I knew I needed to take off the sock but was so nervous I was shaking and we call my hubby. I was afraid that one of her toes may be severed. (There was a lot of blood.) Those in the room said all that happened was Peanut opened the closet door to get out a blanket to use with the lamb and Precious was standing in such a way that the door went right over her little toes. Upon removing the sock, I saw it was the big toe and it was cut very deeply at the bed of the toenail. We decied to meet my hubby at the ER. My girls were big helpers. One held a towel and put pressure on Precious' wound while the other got shoes and coats and keys (even though everything was chaotic).

We got to the hospital and got her foot cleaned and wrapped.

Then they took an X-ray of her foot:

They needed to reattach the nail and then she got 4 stitches around the nail to close the skin. The cut went so deep that it fractured her bone in her toe.

*Warning!!** The following picture is not for the weak-stomached! It may be considered gross!

We went back home and tried to get back to normalcy after going through a drive through for a little treat. We had our Muffin tin Monday meal for supper!

The next day was our homeschool group co-op. I had the little kid's book class. We read this great story: The Pumpkkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs.

They also tried pumpkin seeds. (Most of the children liked them) and they played pumpkin patch match-up! This is a great game you can get free, print it and laminate it to have it last.

Then...Grandma stopped by one evening with a game we were looking for: Lego Builder Xtreme. We had been looking for the game and she found it at a thrift store for 99cents and ALL the pieces were there. Lego stopped making htis game and it is actually pretty valuable but even more- it is fun and great for those who like to play with Legos. (Thanks Grandma!)

She did a great job matching the letter block to the picture. Then I told her the word. This is a little above her level but as a matching game it was great. I had it out for her older brother but she enjoyed it!

Then here is a picture I really like. One evening (before bedtime), we had to soak Precious' sore foot to clean it and rebandage. She didn't want to so I had her older sister, "Princess" sit next to her and read her story books. She even leaned against her sister and let her foot in for quite awhile. They were so cute together.

That was a lot of our week! If you want to see other homeschooler's Tot Schools, check them out at Carisa's 1=1=1-1 blog (or TOT School)! And... please keep praying for Carisa and her husband and family! Read more about that here!

Tot School: Voting & Disney On Ice!

Nov. 10, 2008 • 9:35 AM

Here are the things I am sharing from our Tot School this week!

We read a funny book. It is a thick board book with a large whole at the binding, a semi-circle that becomes a full circle when the book is open. It was so cute seeing my little ones stick their faces through, I snapped a bunch of photos! Here are the shots of "Precious" ...just a little chicken ...and then Utterly cute!

Utterly Cute!

Then it was the week to VOTE! The kids went with us to experience it especially since we have talked about the election a lot more this time around. With the downward spiral of our world MORALLY, our Christian votes are getting even more important! We are to be lights in the darkness!

(Oh! Notice the very short bangs? Well, this week by youngest son, Peanut cut Precious' hair. They are "partners in crime". She loves to do everything he is doing.  One day during my shower, this happened. My older girls are great babysitting older sisters but this day the oldest was doing her schoolwork too and "Princess" had a bad headache so she was laying down and away from her desk. Well, the littles went under her desk with a pair of scissors they got from my desk and gave a haircut. UGH! I am very thankful though that they did not get hurt. I used to always lock away scissors so much that I barley ever allowed them. Peanut loves getting up at my desk so I see I need to re-organize things! )

Their favorite part was AFTER voting, when we went to get our free coffee and donut. (We had to buy the kids but what a treat it was for them!)

Another big event this week was that we took kids to the Disney on Ice show!

It was the first time we went to an Ice show. It was very good! Here's a slideshow of our photos! 

Tot School

Nov. 3, 2008 • 10:16 AM

This week was very busy for us all including "Precious" but I didn't take as many photos this week!  Oops! (I'll try to do better this week!)

Here are the few I took:

"Precious" played a lot of games. Here is a photo. This game, Playskool Bullfrog Bullseye is good for Hand/eye coordination and aim! She had fun!

The girls of our family went to a Sarah Palin rally. "Precious" slept a little on our laps, fussed one time and then had a ball. She yelled and held up her sign right along with the rest of us! It was a great experience for us all. We saw many homeschooling families we knew as well!

Here she is happily holding up her sign:

Then later in the week we went trick-or-treating since our neighborhood does it. It is a safe environment and we all have a good time together and even get to know our neighbors a little better! Here is our sweet little M&M

Veiw the other Tot School Participants for great ideas of fun learning to do with your toddler!

Tot School

Oct. 27, 2008 • 9:21 PM

Our Tot School used to be both of my youngest children but now my 4yr.old son is doing Pre-K (so he isn't officially in Tot School). It seems my daughter often works with him on his projects since they are used to working/playing together and they like learning together.

They love painting but I love when it is painting with water. These books are great!

Then...

she took over his alphabet practice tablet. She likes to say "I make e a."

Then she played with some flannel/felt boards.

We did something really fun for lunch this week.

It was lunch in muffin tins. Each child had their own muffin tin filled with their lunch. I liked it because it was putting serving sized portions in and handing them out. Simple (no cooking even) and the kids LOVED it. It was easy clean-up,too! They have already asked to do it again!

I learned about this FUN idea at Sycamore Stirrings. She has Muffin Tin Mondays and even does themes! I love themes so I might participate sometime. (Things are too busy right now to add yet another good thing but I hope to do a theme muffin tin meal sometime!)

Here is a link to the muffin tin meals that moms created around Children's Literature! I love it -- so creative, fun and yummy! Read a good book then eat a meal relating to the story!

Check out the other Tot School participants, too!

Have a great week of learning, enjoying the blessings the Lord has given, and thanking Him for it all!

TOT School

Oct. 20, 2008 • 11:07 AM

This week started out with a great Play-do mess, I mean FUN!  

My preschooler, "Peanut" is starting his FUN alphabet scrabbook and learning! "Precious" joins in with most activities. Here she is making the A is for Apple, apple prints page! They loved it! 

Then there was FUN outside raking and playing and jumping in leaves. Just being out in God's beautiful world, seeing how He changes the seasons is a wonderful way to learn simply!

I really like this photo of "Precious" and "Princess":

Then we also had some of this thrown in this week:

A little creating using stencils (and later added stickers)

... and then also had fun with colored popsicle sticks. She sorted the colors and then just created and even lined them up in a row around the desk!

Here you can click & link to see what other families are doing in their Tot Schools!

Tot School- Princess style

Oct. 13, 2008 • 8:06 AM

Our Tot school this week had a bit of a royal flare!

This theme started with two books that "Princess", my 10 year old daughter read to "Precious".

King Midas (Dr.Suess version) was the first read. I remember reading this book as a child.

The next book was called "Princess Stories".....

Then with the blocks, they worked on making a "castle"

Next came the creating of crowns....

This part was LOTS of FuN!

Here is my Prince and Princess:

Later that day... "Precious" walks up to me in a dress with a tiny purse asking for her crown. They were ready for a tea party (compliments of the older girls). So we had a cute little tea party before supper!

You can check out the other Tot School Participants at the 1+1+1=1 blog!

TOT School: candy apples by the fire!

Oct. 6, 2008 • 12:22 PM

This week's ToT ScHoOl:

We had pretty many activities this week but I only got photos one day of two activities (besides are slide show below).

We had a lot of fun with finger puppets. 

 I love finger puppets for toddlers especially these soft cute animal ones. Sorry I don't recall where I got them but I have recently seen some at the dollar store. (They were cute, too!) They are fun for just simple creative play or ... read a story with animal characters and give the child those animals in finger puppets to play while the story is read.

"Precious" also played alot with this great preschool VTech apple toy.

This toy has many different games to play like Learn the letters, Learn the sounds, Find it, Before & after, and Music. I know I got this at a thrift store for about 99cents but I think it would be a toy I'd buy for a toddler for a gift. It even has a little handle in the apple's leaf!

At the end of the week, we checked out a country farm fair. It was a lot of fun even though we only had 2 hours to spend there. The little ones rode a small trian around a large field (on a track) and rode a carousel. We saw old-fashioned farming equipment in action and lots of tractors. The biggest treat was the candy apple we bought. The kids have had caramel apples but I think this is their first time eating a candy apple. Daddy loved it too and it was gone in no time so... as dad took the kids to the car, I ran back to the nice people at the concession stand and bought 5 more apples.

The next afternoon we had the candy apples... outside on a beautiful crisp Fall day ... by the campfire. (Isn't Fall a wonderful time of the year!)

To see other Tot School participants, click Here!

Tot School: The Start of Autumn

Sep. 29, 2008 • 10:31 AM

Here's our Tot School from this past week!

This week we did some LeapFrog LeapPad. Here is "Precious" playing the musical one that she likes!

One day we had fun making pictures using an assortment of buttons. Precious liked this and sat doing this for quite awhile. I was sitting right next to her at my desk. If doing this activitiy with a toddler, make sure they are at an age where they don't put things in their mouths. Buttons can be a chocking hazard but if they are older, this activity is great fun. They can simpley dupm the buttons and keep creating. If they get a picture creation that they really like, they can use a glue stick and glue all the buttons in place!

We has fun with this great educational toy. I got this at a thrift store once for very cheap. It is so great for counting and then adding. We tried counting but she just liked moving the pieces around from one side to the other. We did work on the 4 colors!

We also had some fun outside in the nice Fall weather this week!

We even had a Family Hike one day! (See our photos from the hike here!)  It was a great time getting out in the brisk Fall air as a family, getting some exercise and enjoying and learning from God's world around us!

We also had puzzles and coloring activities as we have almost every week at this stage!

Then we had a neat (or maybe neat isn't the right word ) but FUN activity. I printed out these Play dough FACES pages! Then, I laminated them and got the play dough out. The "bigger" kids thought this was fun as well and played with it when they needed a break from school lessons!

"Precious" just liked cutting the play dough and never made a recognizable face but she still enjoyed the play dough time. I think it will be a great activitiy when we learn about feelings. They can make they certain face with play dough to show the feeling of the character, etc. Here is "Precious" cutting away and then "Princess" with her finished face.

Then we did an Autumn craft project. We had foam leaf cut-outs. We glued gems on them and added little bows.

These will be festive to hang out on sliding glass doors in the schoolroom and then added to a school notebook or Fall lapbook!

That was...

Check out the other Tot School participants at Carisa's 1+1+1=1 Blog!

Tot School

Sep. 21, 2008 • 9:05 PM

Here are some of our Tot School activities this past week!

We had some fun with a new foam puzzle/ threading kit:

"Precious" enjoyed sticking stickers on a piece of scrap paper. Good activitiy for fine motor skills. She can now peel up the stickers herself.

Then they all had fun together for awhile with a blanket. This was the older girls' idea. They each took a corner of the blanket, went down to the floor with it, then swooped it up and all went underneath it. It must have been fun because I heard lots of giggles.  It only lasted a little while but they enjoyed it!

I love this photo!:

"Precious" played Don't break the ice with "Princess".  "Peanut" joined in occasionally (But I didn't get him in a photo).

Then my tot glued pieces of colored paper scraps to a white sheet of paper. She loved this simple task!

Then she added more to her creation with colored pencils.

We also made this fun craft of paper plate fish.

We have been doing a unit on ocean creatures and making lapbooks. This was an activitiy for the two youngest, to incorporate them more in to our unit of study! If you want to see more of this craft, Check out my blog post here!

That was ...

Check out the other Tot School participants at Carisa's blog 1+1+1=1. Oh, and leave her a note of encouragement, if you have a minute.  She is newly pregnant and very sick,  making it hard to successfully accomplish all she wishes to do as homeschooling mom, devoted wife, busy blogger, and missionary!

Have a great week!

Tot School

Sep. 15, 2008 • 11:03 AM

Here are a few photos from our Tot School this past week!

We've been very busy with the schooling of 7th grade, 5th grade and 4th grade (and Pre-K now) so we haven't had as much intential planned-out Tot School yet. However, I believe there is learning to be done all around us especially when they are young. Just exploring and playing helps them learn and develop skills!

Here are some photos from last week:

Puzzles are part of every week- actually practically everyday! I keep the wooden puzzles on a stack where the children can reach them and work on them whenever they wish!

Sorry for the slight blur on this photo but it was an action shot!

My oldest son decided he wanted to read to his younger siblings! Here he is reading a Go Diego animal rescue book. "Precious" laid her head on a pillow beside him, listened and interacted with the story! (I love the moments like these!)

Another day, we watercolored outside! They LOVED this!  It was allowed mess-making!

Here is "Precious" with her masterpiece!

My youngest son "Peanut" has a current love for airplanes. He asks daddy everyday to make him a paper airplane to fly! I got him some foam glider planes they had on clearance. They are cheap and don't last long but he loves flying them.

Daddy plays airplane a little while with them! (if you look closely, you can see the airplane up at the top of the closest tree.)

"Precious" tried out being a pilot, too! She got some help from her bigger sister "Princess".

That was a peek into....

Check out the other Tot School participants Here!

Our Tot School: Summer Fun!

Aug. 18, 2008 • 8:06 AM

We've missed posting our Tot School for a few weeks.  My computer took a vacation (to the maufacturer's for a fixing under warranty). We have also been really busy. Tot School learning has continued, I just haven't had the time to take as many photos or to post them without my computer.

Here is this week plus a little catch-up:

As I said before, we are finishing off our basement ourselves. It's been a lot of work,  fun , and family working together. Here is a little peek: (We are on the floor and ceiling now.)

Last week, we went to the free summer movie: Veggie Tales, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. It was a fun adventure as we usually watch our movies at home! The movie was really good! (Sorry the photo is blurry. I couldn't get it better in the dark movie theater and didn't want those around me getting upset with my constant camera noises)

We also had another new adventure! It was "Peanut"s first dentist visit.  Our dentist does something called kid's day where he only sees kids and has a theme with FUN and prizes. Guess what the theme was!

Yes ... PIRATES. He got to dress up, get a free bag of loot and a free (shaved) italian ice. He entered a drawing and won a Fisher Price little pirate boat. What an awesome adventure. The dentist visit was a huge success. He sat and did exactly as they told him and didn't seem scared at all!

On a day last week, we spent time outside. They played with an inflatable hoover disk (a great $1.00 Store toy. Even though it doesn't last long, it provides a good bit of fun while it lasts!)

Then they did a little swinging...

...and had a picnic!...

They especially liked the sandwiches cut in cookie cutter shapes!

Another day, we did some "Paint with Water" books. A great way to let them paint with little mess!

There was some of this...

... and a little of this...

This picture was taken at our church's annual Corn Roast. It is a wonderful outdoor picnic where the gospel message is preached (by a campfire) after an evening of great fun- all outdoors!

So... that was...

Click here to see the other Tot School participants!

Tot School: Bubbles, golf, Hardware store!

Jul. 21, 2008 • 8:22 PM

This past week we had Vacation Bible School (VBS) at our church. I am the craft leader along with one other leader. So... I was quite busy. We do not use pre-bought kit crafts. We come up with our own things and try to make them good take-home useable items! We open it for Free to ages 3 to 14. "Peanut" was part of VBS. "Precious" was my little shadow helper!  Each night they did a craft and played outside. Peanut also learn a verse each night and listened to the lessons on Jonah's Journey with his age group (and group leaders).

Besdies VBS, we did a few things for Tot School...

We had some outside fun one day with Bubbles!

"Precious" caught one on her arm!

Then we played a round of golf:

"Precious" took a turn too. No one won.. except the heat. We stopped and headed inside. It was just TOO HOT outside. I think they will really enjoy this activitiy though another day when it is less humid.

Another Day, "Precious" joined in the Fun while I was painting my oldest daughter's nails. She got her toenails painted too. She was so cute!

I guess this activity wasn't TOO educational but we did review the color PINK! Also it is a good life skill for a young lady!

It was a fun mother/daughters time!

She likes her pink toenails. She was so cute showing the ladies at VBS!

Another day, we had to go to a hardware store with daddy. We found ourselves waiting while daddy was looking for and finding exactly what he needed in one part of the store.

While we were waiting we saw this display:

Since we are potty training, this was pretty appropriate and we COUNTED the potties!

One, Two, Three Potty- Four Five Six Potty! - My counting Cutie!

Then we moved onto COLORS:

We gathered the Free sample paint cards in all the rainbow colors plus pink, brown, gray, white, and black. We reviewed them until dad was ready. I hope to use them to make a simple colors book for them! What a great FREE colors lesson. They had FUN when usually these trips are pretty boring and/or exhausting! Peanut even got to ride with a COOL tube in the back of the cart.

Then on the way home we watched one of these movies I got at the Dollar Store. They are great for each a buck!

We watched the Counting one!

 Great day of Tot School while Out & About!

That was our week for the most part.

If you wish to see the other Tot School participants, click Here!

Tot School

Jul. 15, 2008 • 10:48 PM

This week has been hard for me to get my Tot School post done. We have VBS this week and I am the craft leader along with one other lady. We don't do kit crafts. We come up with and buy everything for each of our crafts. We try to make really great take-home gifts that are also inexpensive (buying things on clearance.) Having something every evening has kept me from getting a lot done yet it has been wonderful seeing so many kids learning about the Lord and having a great time, too! (I'll try to post some of our crafts later on!)

So here is last week's tot school...

We tried a clothespin relay. They liked it but it was harder for the youngest to work the clothespin.

I just put a variety of small toys in one tub and had them transfer them to an empty tub at the other side of the room!

Since the clothespin was too hard for "Precious" to work, I switched them to plastic kitchen scoops. They both then had a lot of fun!

They did this for quite awhile especially my little girl. They kept going back and forth from tub to tub. Simple but fun!

Then they played this game...

It is a fishing (magnetic game)

Another day, "Precious" enjoyed watering (misting, really) my outdoor flowers pots while I grilled supper.  I use the spray bottle of water at the grill just in case the flames get high. She loved using it over at the flowers.

We had a game of Cranium's Balloon Lagoon!

Then I DID get our sand box set up...

 ...and they had a great time playing in it.

We also picked lots of raspberries! (Anyone have a good raspberry recipe? I'd love it!)

If you want to see what other participant's did in their Tot School, click here!

Tot School

Jul. 6, 2008 • 10:08 PM

We are in the process of finishing our basement to be a game/movie room. It will be great for the family but also to host youth group events. We have really been spending a lot of time trying to get it done so... Tot School was limited this past week.

"Precious" enjoyed coloring one morning. She initiated this herself so I got things out for her. She held up different colored pencils and called out a color. She usually was NOT right but she was trying and when she did name a color right, we cheered for her. We corrected her the other times and she would repeat it. It was purely spontaneous on her part and was great for working on colors!

Another day, she had a lot of fun with an assortment of blocks. Most of these are foam blocks. I keep them in a basket and they can get them out when they want to. She enjoyed this for quite awhile!

We had a summer picnic for our Homeschool group (co-op). The family that hosted it has a gorgeous outdoor environment. Isn't it beautiful?

 In the top part of their yard, they had a samdbox under a playground set. My little ones loved this.

 I recently bought play sand and hope to get our turtle sandbox set back up for them. Since we moved, I didn't get sand in it yet but they had such a wonderful time, I hope to surprise them this week with their own sandbox (again).

Also this past week, "Peanut" got to go to his first (minor league) baseball game. He went with his older sisters and daddy. ("Pilgrim" went with daddy earlier in the season). I am hoping that our whole family goes next to a game! They had a BALL! They got cotton candy and he even came home singing "Take me out to the ballgame!" He was so VERY excited about this outing!

I think we will have more Tot School activities this coming week but sometimes it is nice to have a little break... It doesn't mean they didn't learn things this week. Life is just a HUGE learning experience even when we are adults. We learn so much everyday! I wonder what each of us will learn today?!

Have a great day!

Check out the other Tot School participants Here!