Reevaulating Tot School

I had this post all typed out to share back in March, but it never got published! 

Let's blame it on pregnancy brain...

Sophie doesn't seem as excited about Tot School as she used to be.  I always want this to be a fun opportunity for her, not something that ever feels forced or unpleasant.  That's not how learning should be!  It's no secret that I'm pretty much in love with Carisa's blog, 1+1+1=1, and she has a post called "Following the Lead of the Child" that has always stuck with me about doing Tot School with Sophie. If what we've been doing isn't working, then I'm the one who needs to adjust - not Sophie!  As a teacher, I know that there are multiple ways to approach learning any skill or idea.  I want her to explore, learn, and discover the world in the ways that she enjoys - not necessarily what I prefer or enjoy.

In an effort to reevaluate my approach to our intentional learning time, I decided to start with the way my brain works best - making a list.  In no particular order, here are the things that I know Sophie really enjoys.

- Sitting on my lap to do activities
- Taking items in and out of her wallet and purse
- Reading books, especially her favorites over and over
- Drawing and "writing" - prefers to use my pencil or pen over a crayon
- Singing, dancing, and playing instruments
- Helping me cook
- Gluing
- Pouring/stirring
- Sensory bins
- Exploring outside

Doesn't like:
- Getting messy
- Counting trays
- Paper puzzle activities
- Matching cards

After we complete the shape themes we've been doing, my plan is to start doing a letter of the week.  Sophie is fascinated by letters and will point them out and say "A, B, C" when she sees writing.  It will be used as a way to explore letter recognition and other fun vocabulary concepts - not phonics or writing until she is older.

I'm not sure exactly how yet, but this will likely look a bit different than our current Tot School set up.  I think I will back down the number of trays again (I feel like six may be too overwhelming for her) and probably focus more on related activities during our time together rather than the actual trays, and allow the trays to be more for individual exploration.

I'll share about the direction things will take soon - as I figure it out!

The Adorable New Reason I've Been Quiet Lately...

I know it has been a while since I posted, but I have quite a precious reason why!

Miles Andrew was born on April 12 at 6:48 PM.  He weighed 6 pounds 8 ounces and was 20 inches long.  He stole our hearts quickly - especially his big sister's.  She absolutely adores him!

We've been spending the last eight weeks getting adjusted to our new "normal" and I feel like we might finally have a little bit of a groove to our days now.  Miles is a great baby!  He sleeps well (already sleeping for 6 hours straight most nights!) and eats well.  We struggled with both those things with Sophie and so we are very thankful for a less challenging newborn experience this time around!  He is very content and flexible, which is fabulous with a two year old to take care of as well!

Yes, I said two-year-old!  My sweet little lady had a birthday a month after Miles made his appearance. We celebrated with a simple Frozen themed party with family and a couple close friends.  She seems so grown up all of a sudden next to Miles.

She is an amazing helper and has handled this transition better than I could have imagined.  She loves to kiss "my Miles" and asks to see him first thing when she wakes up.  She wants to hold him and share all her toys and snacks, so I've got to watch her like a hawk to insure she's not feeding him cheerios! 

All in all, we are so blessed!  I wouldn't have believed you if you had told me three years ago I'd be holding two precious angels in my arms.  God has been so good to us and I thank Him for the blessing of being their mom!

As far as blogging goes, I hope to continue posting our Tot School and other activities, as well as contributing at The Activity Mom, though my posts be a bit slower than they were before we had two little ones in diapers!  Very soon I hope to share our first letter of the "week" (umm...10 weeks? lol) Tot School.  Sophie has really enjoyed it, and its been great for us to still have that intentional one-on-one time with all if the new transition!  

Thanks for sticking with me during our time of transitioning to life as a family of four! :)

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