Shamrock Shape Puzzle Printable

Looking for a fun shape activity for St. Patrick's Day?  Be sure to check out the shamrock shape puzzle printable I'm sharing today at The Activity Mom.  Sophie LOVED this one!

Tot School - Rectangles

Sophie is 21.5 months old.

This week was all about rectangles, and I have to admit, after the fun heart week we had during Valentine's Day, I just wasn't feeling this one.  Honestly, Sophie kind of felt the same way.  The trays were kind of random and really simple because I just didn't put the time into planning and prepping for this one.  Totally my fault.

There was no sensory bin this week.  Mostly just because this pregnant lady is getting very tired and naps have just become priority during Sophie's naptime.  

Tot Trays

The first tray was one of the two that she really liked.  I got brave (*ahem* crazy) and put two containers with just a little bit of water and a sponge for transferring.  It didn't take a rocket scientist to determine this would be her favorite.  We always played with this first, and often times didn't even move on to the other trays at all.  She got really good at transferring with the sponge, and it definitely worked her little hand muscles!

Her second tray got no love.  It was a few jenga blocks (Donkey Kong version my husband has ;)) for stacking.  Lame, Mom.  The only interest she had was in the holes on the side of the block.  She thought they were beads and kept trying to take a shoestring from another tray and lace them.  

The third tray was her wooden name puzzle.  I thought since she has taken such an interest in letters lately that this would get her attention, but she never even let me take it off the shelf for her.  We'll try again later.

Her fourth tray was some pig shape matching cards I made and blogged about on The Activity Mom.  She wasn't interested in these either.  You can grab your free printable here if you think your toddler might be more interested than mine! :)

Tray number five was the only other tray that got attention.  It was the easiest, laziest tray I had this week, but she loved it!  I pulled out the animals from her Farm Animal Toob and let her play with them.  She sat there for ten minutes at a time singing songs with the animal names and sounds.  It was so precious!  She would stand them all up on their feet and then "ooohhhh nooooo!" dump the tray and do it all again.  Definitely a simple hit.

The last tray was a rectangle lacing card I made.  She didn't really even want to try it, but she did use the string to try and lace the Jenga blocks.  

Other Activities

We did some baking and lots of pretend kitchen play this week, but nothing really special to write about.  We had some sunny days that were great for going to the park, so we loved getting outside again!

We did do a couple "craft" activities.  We made a bus out of (mostly) rectangles, because Sophie thinks "Wheels on the Bus" is the best song ever written.  And she loves to glue.  Win-win.  We also did a St. Patrick's Day shape puzzle I shared over at Activity Mom (printable available here!) that she absolutely loved doing.  She really impressed me with her ability to be able to glue the shapes in the correct spot.  We'll be doing another page of this next week!

Perhaps the most important news of all is that she wore her first pigtails this week!  I can't resist sharing the cuteness with you! :)  When did my baby get so big???

Up next week is stars, and probably our last shape week.  We may do one general shape review, but I haven't decided yet!

For tons more ideas be sure to visit these sites I'm linking to this week!

Tot School Gathering Place at 1+1+1=1 

Teaching Tuesdays at Intentional Homeschool
Tuesday Tots at Rainy Day Mum
Link and Learn at No Time for Flashcards
Show and Share Saturday Link Up at I Can Teach My Child

Tender Moments with Toddlers and Preschoolers at The Chaos and the Clutter 
Sunday Showcase at Learn Play Imagine
TGIF at 123Homeschool4Me
For the Kids Fridays at Sun Scholars

Our Little Man - Sneak Peek!

I realized the other day I hadn't shared a pregnancy update since I first announced we were having Baby #2!

We found out around 16 weeks that our sweet little one is a BOY!  We are so excited to have a little man in our lives and can't wait to meet him.   I am currently 32 weeks pregnant and we just had our 4D ultrasound last week.  Here's a sneak peek at baby Miles!

He looks just like his big sister did (who is finally beginning to acknowledge that something is going on in my belly and our home).  She will look at this picture and say "my Miles" and also tell us that that's who is in Mommy's tummy.  She likes to lay her head on my belly when we watch a show together and she giggles whenever he moves around under her.  So sweet!

I am hoping and praying that we will have a relatively smooth transition when he arrives in around two months.  Sophie is loving taking care of her baby dolls so I'm hoping that holds out and she enjoys helping with her brother and caring for her babies while I tend to Miles' needs.

My mom and sister are coming in a week and a half to help decorate the nursery and get things in order for his arrival - I can't wait!  I'll post pictures of his nursery as soon as it is (close to) complete.  One thing I hope to do while they're here is have my sister (an early childhood education teacher and just all around awesome person!) help me plan some Tot School stuff ahead of time so that Sophie and I can continue to have that special time together.  I think it will be really important for me to have that accountability to give her one on one time, and it will be really helpful to have some plans worked out so that I don't have to do much prep work!  We'll see how it goes!

Printable God Made Everything Book

A printable version of my God Made Everything Color Book is now available on The Activity Mom!  Be sure to check it out! :)

You can see the original post here and go download the printable here!

Tot School - Hearts (Valentine's Day)

Sophie is 21 months old.

Better late than never, right?  This post is a little late in the writing, but we had so much fun with heart week I had to share!  We ended up spending two weeks with this theme because Sophie loved the activities so much and we were traveling for a few days the second week.

Sensory Bin

The sensory bin for heart week was filled with candy conversation hearts, small plastic heart containers I found at the dollar store, and foam hearts.  Sophie really enjoyed pouring and making noise with the conversation hearts.  I never had any issue with her trying to eat them since she had no idea they were candy, I just had to inform everyone that entered the house that she didn't know they were candy so they didn't say something that would encourage her to taste them! :)

Tot Trays

The trays were a hit this week!  Her first tray was heart sticks (umm...no idea what these things are actually called!) in floral foam. She loved it!

Her second tray was playdoh, which is always a winner.  I got out some heart cookie cutters and she made some hearts, but mostly she put it on her nose (Daddy taught her that) or made little balls.  This is her new "show your teeth" face.  Hilarious.

The third tray was a conversation heart color sorting printable I found at Teaching Tiny Tots.  She did this a few times with ease, but really preferred the other trays instead.  

Sophie's fourth tray was an heart lacing idea from Nicole at The Activity Mom.  Sophie tried this one and got frustrated and never really wanted to try again, unfortunately.  I just think she isn't quite ready, even though I thought this was a good stepping stone to threading.

Her fifth tray was utilizing one of my favorite DIY toys - a heart bracelet stacker.  We used heart-shaped bracelets from the Dollar Tree.  These bracelets have since been added to her purse, because they are a must-have fashion accessory.  She preferred stacking them on her arms to stacking them on the dowel rod, but she loved them!  One of her favorites!

The last tray was by far the favorite tray of the week.  This was two small bowls of conversation hearts for Sophie to practice pouring back and forth.  She got SO good at this skill during these weeks.  I think the bowls and hearts were the perfect size for her to practice with and were easy to clean up.  I was very impressed by her progress pouring - and she was so proud of herself.

 Other Activities

We made heart cookies with her BFF!  We had so much fun cutting out and decorating cookies on Valentine's Day with our good friends.  They turned out delicious, and of course they were works of art.  Sophie decided to pose with her cookie to make sure we got a good picture.

We also did several different arts and craft activities this week, including a heart do-a-dot, foam stickers, and gluing conversation hearts on to a heart outline.  (Be sure to get my free printable shape outlines here!)

 The weather started to warm up here (though it has since turned cold again) and so my loves got to spend some quality time riding the bike and playing outside! She kills me in those shades! :)

 Next up will be a really simple rectangle week!

For tons more ideas be sure to visit these sites I'm linking to this week!

Tot School Gathering Place at 1+1+1=1 

Teaching Tuesdays at Intentional Homeschool
Tuesday Tots at Rainy Day Mum
Link and Learn at No Time for Flashcards
Show and Share Saturday Link Up at I Can Teach My Child

Tender Moments with Toddlers and Preschoolers at The Chaos and the Clutter 
Sunday Showcase at Learn Play Imagine
TGIF at 123Homeschool4Me
For the Kids Fridays at Sun Scholars

Tot School - Triangles

Sophie is 20.5 months old.

We continued on with our shape theme these past two weeks with triangles.  Strange as it is, I had such a difficult time finding things around our home that were triangles!  We ended up spending two weeks with this theme, because at the end of the first week we had just spent so little time in Tot School.  

Sensory Bin

I pulled back out the rainbow rice this week and it was a huge hit!  She has gotten so much better at pouring and spooning since the last time we played in the rice and she loves pretending to "cook" with it. I "hid" some wooden and pipe cleaner triangles in the rice, as well as included the triangles from her shape sorter and some tweezers to play with.

Tot Trays

Her first tot tray was a felt pizza I made for her at the last minute.  She liked this one a lot at first, but it didn't get much attention after the first few times.

Her second tray was a few pieces from the Who Lives Where? game.  The game itself is still too hard for her, but she had fun playing with the wooden pieces, putting the animals in the correct spot and building "houses" for them.

The third tray was a triangle road printable from Making Learning Fun.  Sophie had zero interest in this tray.  She never has been very into playing with cars, but I thought I would give it a try.  Even with a monkey that looked like her BFF Curious George in the car, she didn't even want me to pull it out for her.  Oh well!

Her fourth tray probably got the most use, but not in the intended way!  I had a triangle printable with her counting bears.  The idea was to put the counting bears on the line or in the triangle (whichever she decided was fun at the moment).  Mostly she just loved showing me the bears.  She would hold one up and say "look" and I would act really surprised that she was holding a purple bear.  So, we talked about colors and counted the bears, but really didn't make any triangles.

She was really good at her fifth tray whenever she decided she was interested in it.  I had three cups with shapes taped to the outside and some wooden shapes to sort into the cups.  I wasn't sure how she would do, but she picked it up really fast.  But mostly, "drinking" from the cups was way more fun than sorting shapes.

Her final tray was a counting activity using the triangles from her Melissa and Doug shape stacker.  She loves counting, but has decided that "one" is overrated.  Everything is "two, three, four".  So I figured some deliberate counting with me might help show her that one is important too.  She really didn't care to count these triangles, though she did "steal" the cups for her sensory bin and kitchen. 

Overall, I'm not sure that the trays are the best approach for her anymore.  They don't seem to get or keep her attention like they used to.  I don't know if I am just slacking in my preparation, or if it's time for another approach.  I've been doing a lot of thinking about how we might try a different approach in the future.  I'll probably write a post about that as a way to process my ideas soon.

Other Activities

Music Time: We played with the triangle from her Melissa and Doug Band in a Box quite a bit this week.  She had the most fun when it was accompanied by Daddy on the guitar.  

We also sang our Shape song using laminated triangles, which is still just as much of a hit as it was the first week.

(to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat") 

Hold your triangle high,

Triangles touch the ground,

Put your triangle on your head,

Then we spin around!

Arts and Crafts:  We didn't do as much with arts and crafts this week, mostly because I had a hard time coming up with something cute for triangles!  But she did a Do-a-Dot triangle, colored some triangles I drew, and glued triangles in an outline.  

She spent TONS of time drawing and really has come to love drawing with a pencil rather than her crayons.  I cannot tell you how much of our day was spent with her drawing at her little desk.  She looks SO grown up!  I did decide to get her some colored pencils since she enjoyed pencil so much and she is a big fan.

Tot Notebook:  I added the triangle page from the  shape quiet book, though she didn't want to play with it.   She did love drawing with her "special marker" on the traceable shape book.  

Out and About:  We had the first "snow day" our Florida town had seen in 25 years - complete with school and bridge closings, which meant Daddy got to stay home with us.  (As someone who grew up in the Midwest, it was totally anti-climatic.  But I know to people around here it was a huge deal!) Here's a picture of the most ice I will ever see at our house, and the amount of ice it takes to shut down a Florida town for two days. ;)  (In all fairness, the bridges really were dangerous, and people down here are in no way used to driving in any kind of ice!)

The funny thing is, our church hosted a Snow Day event just three days before, where they shipped in snow for the kids to play in!  Here are a few pictures from our fun in the snow, 

Next week will be all about hearts for Valentine's Day! :)

For tons more ideas be sure to visit these sites I'm linking to this week!

Tot School Gathering Place at 1+1+1=1 

Teaching Tuesdays at Intentional Homeschool
Tuesday Tots at Rainy Day Mum
Link and Learn at No Time for Flashcards
Show and Share Saturday Link Up at I Can Teach My Child

Tender Moments with Toddlers and Preschoolers at The Chaos and the Clutter 
Sunday Showcase at Learn Play Imagine
TGIF at 123Homeschool4Me
For the Kids Fridays at Sun Scholars

Conversation Heart Activities

Looking for some inexpensive and festive Valentine's Day activities to do with your little one?  Be sure to check out my latest post at The Activity Mom!