I'm moving and changing my name...

No, I'm not joining the Witness Protection Program. Please visit me at my new blog, Family Fun Notebook.

I've been wanting to change the name for a while, and this also gives me a chance to clean up the layout a bit. I'd love to find a cute notebook template, but for now the template is a little boring. It's basically the same blog, just a different name and address!

Tot School - March 7, 2010

~ Toddler M is 29 months old and Baby J is 8 months old ~

Ask Mr. Bear

This past week our family has been "studying" Marjorie Flack's Ask Mr. Bear. (I smile as I type "studying" because my family still jokes about when my younger brother came home from school and very seriously told my parents that he was studying Clifford The Big Red Dog). This is a Before Five in a Row book.

Ask Mr. Bear is about a boy, Danny, who is searching for a present for his mother's birthday. He asks different animals for help, including Mr. Bear. I thought that this would be a good book for us to focus on because my birthday was last week, and Toddler M has become fond of another bear recently, his Pooh bear.

Stick Puppets and Booklet:

We made a set of stick puppets of the animals in the book using the animal and product cards found at Homeschool Share. If you look at the stick puppets, you'll probably notice that they don't look like they were colored by a two year-old. Toddler M wanted me to do the coloring. I was disappointed, but decided to make the most of it. I colored the pictures to make them look like the ones in the book, and narrated my coloring: "look, the goose in the picture is black...I'll use the black crayon to color." Toddler M seemed to catch on to this; when I colored one of the animals gray, he picked up a Valentine's day card from the windowsill with a gray animal and said "same!'

We also made a little book to hold the animal stick puppets. I folded a yellow paper in half and wrote "ASK MR BEAR" on it, and gave Toddler M letter stickers. He matched the letters, with my help, and put them on top of the letters I had written. He really enjoyed it!

We've used our stick puppets to tell the story several times. As each animal joins Danny, I pick up the stick puppet, and then count how many animals have joined in. It's also fun to make the animals gallop, trot and hop (as they do in the book).

Animal Puzzles:

To tie in with the animal theme, I also set out some animal puzzles.

Animal Hospital:

The boys played with the animal hospital toy. It's a nice toy, and you can match the colors of the keys to the colors of the doors. Toddler M also likes to examine his younger brother with the equipment. Poor Baby J... we all were laughing last weekend when Toddler M ran towards Baby J with the thermometer and said: "take off pants!"

Special Thinking Spot:

In the book, Danny sits on his front steps to think. I told Toddler M we could make him a "special thinking spot." I put the Elmo chair and some blankets in the corner of his room and (after the picture was taken) he added several more pillows and stuffed animals. We cuddled together during Baby J's morning nap and read books together. But, when it was time for his own afternoon nap, Toddler M freaked out that the Elmo chair was in his room because it isn't usually there. When people talk about a toddler's "sense of order" they aren't kidding!

Hard and Soft:

I told the boys that many animals, including bears, have soft fur. I put together two trays, one with hard objects and another with soft objects, for Baby J to explore. (I intended for Toddler M to help me sort objects, but that didn't coincide well with his late afternoon grumpiness). Baby J stood up at our train table and I helped him feel the different objects, talking about hard and soft. He smiled when I rubbed the fluffy green boa and Curious George doll against his cheeks.

First Words Cards:

I set out these cards for Toddler M but they have been most enjoyed by Baby J. I think the shape and size of the box are a good fit for his hands; he really enjoys taking the different cards out of the box and looking at them. His favorite card is the cat and he likes to touch the soft "fur" and is interested in the eyes.

Hope you all had a great week! Check out 1+1+1=1 for other Tot School posts.

Trash Can

File this in the "why didn't I think of this sooner, because it is so obvious" category...

Toddler M really enjoys practicing cutting, which is mostly a good thing, except he kept leaving bits of paper all over the playroom table and floor.

Brace yourself for my brilliant solution: I put a trash can next to the playroom table.

It worked! He was excited to have his own trash, and picked up all the scraps.

You know you have a nursing baby when...

...your baby sees balloons and lunges forward with his mouth open.

Bubble Wrap Printing

Inspired by Laugh, Paint, Create, we tried bubble wrap printing. It was fun, and I encourage you to check out her site for directions as well as other great project ideas. We modified the project a little to use what we had at home; I used bubble wrap with larger circles and we painted with large paint brushes instead of a roller. Below are more photos of our prints, taken by Toddler M.