TOT SCHOOL - WEEK EIGHTEEN 34 Months

We started off our week with Music Class....did a lot of baking...the Letter N... and lots of other fun projects... Unfortunately toward the end of the week both kids got sick....so we had to miss Art Group and Dance Class....


This week: Back by popular demand...by the Mommies... the Yummy Yums... this time I will include the recipe so that others my share in the yumminess of it all.... Heat oven to 400 degrees... meanwhile... unroll Pillsbury pie crust... sprinkle with sugar & cinnamon & a touch of brown sugar....lightly fold up the crust.....place on a baking tray...pinch the ends so that the yumminess does not escape...bake for 20-25 minutes...when the dough starts getting to a light golden brown...take them out...let them cool for a bit...enjoy with coffee or tea .... or juice if you decide to share with your child :)

Ryleigh spooning some sugar onto the crust

Folding up the dough....

This week for Letter N...we did N is for Names. The girls glued their friends and siblings names onto the Letter N...so cute...

Also with the N theme, I printed out the paint dot page from Confessions of a Homeschooler and the girls painted with the bingo markers...

The girls also did some bead lacing...on lanyard. I think they enjoyed it.
It was a great fine motor activity...

The babies waiting for their sisters to be done "playing projects"...

To continue with our N theme, we downloaded from this Nn matching activity from Confessions of a Homeschooler. To add to this activity we cut strips of construction paper, glued it to the Nest page and had the kids sort and glue the appropriate N or n onto each strip.

When Ryleigh was born one of my friends gave me a whole bunch of adorable foam shapes that she had made for bath time. I have re-purposed them for lacing practice. I hole punched them and then we attached lanyard to them...and now they are great lacing practice.
This week was Michelle's Birthday (Happy Birthday Michelle!!!) To help celebrate I had the girls bake Chocolate Cupcakes.

Here the girls are beating the eggs (in the mugs)

Enjoying the cupcakes... YUM!

I had Ryleigh put stickers on a shamrock that I drew...great fine motor practice... she did very well putting them all in order.

Ryleigh, Marc and Braeden fixing household items with their tools....

Braeden practicing his crawling....he didn't go anywhere...
but he did get a chance to show off his thighs... :)

Braeden has been sitting up and has really started enjoying his toys....
it is really cute to watch him interact with his sister.

Braeden playing the piano...one of his favorites!

Recently, Ryleigh planted Forget Me Knots and Strawberries from the Target Dollar Spot...I was surprised to see that they are actually growing... Here she is using a pipet to water them.....Might as well get some fine motor practice in while doing a science activity....
I have been putting some workbook activities in page protectors so that Ryleigh can reuse them over again. I have her use dry erase markers...conveniently the ones that have the eraser attached to the top.. here she is matching colors.

Ryleigh sorting gigantic multi colored and multi shaped buttons by shape

Braeden...helping Marc sort laundry...I'm not sure why only my socks ended up on his head....

For more great Tot School Ideas visit 1+1+1=1.

Musical Mondays - Egg Shakers & Rhythm Stick

Every Monday I teach a Music class for Mommy & Me...in my house...for more information on the class itself go HERE

This week I had the class use Ridged Rhythm Sticks. Here is Ryleigh playing and singing. Sometimes I have them sing/chant while playing the sticks..."Who's that tapping at my window....Who's that knocking at my door....It's Mommy tapping at my window...It's Daddy knocking at my door." And hitting the sticks together at certain points in the chant to emphasize certain syllables... Like Who's that....It's Mommy...,etc.

One of the many other instruments we used this week were the egg shakers. I really like these because they are so versatile and even the youngest kids can use them. I think the kids like them because they make a fun sound and are easy to play.

The girls dancing and shaking the eggs to "What I like about U"....

Two of the babies playing with the eggs...

Musical Mondays - Tambourine & Bells

Every Monday I teach a Music class for Mommy & Me...in my house...for more information on the class itself go HERE

I am loving that the music class is consistently expanding!!! It's so exciting that the little ones can now interact with the older ones. Every week we use a plethora of different instruments (I like to keep the class moving)...short attention spans and all....my lesson plans differ every week, however there are some elements (and order) that remain the same. For instance...we always start off with signing hello to each child...followed by "warm up" songs...then an instrument...then a dance...and so on....

Ryleigh dancing with the tambourine...

Some of the kids dancing... (including our newest walker...so cute...)
Some of the girls playing bells (showing one of the babies how)...

TOT SCHOOL - WEEK SEVENTEEN - 34 MONTHS

We started our week with Musical Monday...had the girls over Tuesday and Wednesday for school...did a stART project with sea salt...did two letters of the week...lots of baking...many projects...had Art group...and finished it with Dance. I also introduced the felt board to Ryleigh...huge hit... :)

For Valentine's Day...From the Target Dollar Spot I bought two little plants (with the pots included)... one is strawberries and one is forget me knots.... Ryleigh had lots of fun planting the seeds...hopefully they grow and we can watch their progress....

Ryleigh dumping the dry soil into water (like magic...it expands...)

Scooping the soil into the pots...

Braeden...the gnome.... no relevance to school...

Ryleigh working on her water color and sea salt stART project...

On Tuesday I had three "pupils" ... plus the 3 babies...who should be doing tot school by the fall...anyway...our first project was baking ...what I like to call...and I kid you not... "Yummy Yums..." Seriously..that is what I named it.... they are kind of like flaky cinnamon rolls...

The girls spreading a cinnamon and sugar mixture on the dough...

Juliette and Braeden...watching the girls bake...

Next the girls worked on the Letter L...I had them make L is for Lion...First they used scissors and cut up green construction paper for "grass"...then we used orange and brown felt for the mane and head... and added a pom pom for the tail... I was really pleased with the way the project turned out... I can't always be sure how they will actually look when I come up with them:)

Working on the grass...

The finished project...

As we were setting up for the next project..I glanced into the living room and this is what I saw... Juliette is UNDER the jumperoo...Anna in on the gym...and Braeden in the bouncer...crying...I think because Juliette left him and went exploring...

Next, we had the girls use dot painters and paint L is for Ladybug...which I printed from Confessions of a Homeschooler...The girls used Markers to trace the Upper and Lower case Ll's.

Also from Confessions of a Homeschooler- I printed off these great alphabet activity sheets. I had laminated them for repeat use. The girls took colored glass stones from Michaels and placed them in the missing spots on each sheet.

For Wednesday's class I had 4 girls...plus the 3 babies...and we started with baking some corn muffins...

We also did the Letter M is for Mountain...which I got from No Time For Flashcards. To add some texture into the project, I had the girls use white felt for the snowcaps and the clouds.

We did some pattern work (also printed from Confessions of a Homeschooler)

Next, we did some patterns with M&M's....
I think the favorite part was the eating of the candies...

We finished off Wednesday's class with water transfers...I had them use a pipet to transfer water from a plastic cup to the suction cup part of those suction bath grip things....

Recently I made a felt board for Ryleigh to use...this was the first time she saw it...and liked it right away...I think she played with it for a good 45 minutes....

Ryleigh using the board and doing some sequencing...

We also did a lot of pattern work....

At this point Ryleigh knows all her letters and the sounds they make (Thank you Letter Factory!)...So to help reinforce them...and because I thought they would be handy in so many activities...I got scrapbooking letter stickers from the Target Dollar Spot. I got two packs of the same stickers..then I put backs on them to create disks....

Here Ryleigh is playing Match the Alphabet...
and saying which sound the letter makes as she goes....

Braeden watching Big Sister do her Alphabet Tray...

Both kids playing side by side...my favorite picture of the week!

To see what others are doing in their Tot Schools go to 1+1+1=1.

stART - The Very Quiet Cricket

A Story + Art = A great stART!

The Very Quiet Cricket is written by Eric Carle. It is about a cricket who is born (hatched..or whathaveyou...) without being able to make a sound...he meets many creatures along his journeys...until he meets another cricket...then there is chirping... Ryleigh was not so into the story itself...but did like the illustrations.

For our stART project this week, Ryleigh painted with water color and then added sea salt...to create a unique pattern....as the pictures in the story are also uniquely patterned. As the sea salt dried the water color...it removed the color and created a very pretty pattern...and I am in no way biased....well....maybe a little;)

Ryleigh painting

Sea salt being added

Sea salt starting to dry with the painting...

The finished project....the salt created the white in the painting...

For more great stART projects visit A Mommy's Adventures!

Musical Mondays - Hand Castanet

Every Monday I teach a Music class for Mommy & Me...in my house...for more information on the class itself go HERE.

As the babies get older, they are able to participate more and more in class. In this class we used, among other instruments, the wave drum and the hand castanet...for the younger children I have an infant toy which sounds like the hand castanet...since they are not old enough to properly operate them yet...

Braeden exploring the wave drum...

Juliette with the wave drum...

Some of the girls with the Hand Castanet...playing B-I-N-G-O...
Juliette with the infant model...