A bit of Seuss, Weekend Wrap-Up, and Orders!

Here's a little bit of everything for you today! Yes, you're getting a whole lot of random, which has been a running theme over the past several weeks. Welcome to my life. In all of it's randomness!

Last week in speech, we made Thing 1's and Thing 2's. I had to come up with something quick for Dr. Seuss/Read Across America week, and incorporated following directions into all of my speech groups. I don't typically talk "work" on the blog, but these were too cute not to share!

 

Just trace and cut out a hand for "hair", add a circle for the face, and a red t-shirt. This activity would be great for pre-schoolers, and my 3rd grade students even enjoyed making them! It's also great for working on fine-motor skills.

I took Addy with my on a trip to Target on Friday night and she happily (well, she doesn't look so happy) enjoyed the sling. I just love having a sling and how easy it is to carry her around!  And why is it that I always spend a crap load of money at Target! That place sucks me in every time.

 

On Saturday, I told DJ that it was going to be my selfish day where I sewed and completed projects. First, I tackled the re-organizing of my sewing space, which wasn't much fun, even though it at first sounded like it.

 

We moved the old living room t.v. upstairs, and moved around some furniture, added some more storage, and I put away tons of fabric, and it was done!

 

I spent the rest of the day working on your orders!

Infant layette gown & hospital hat $45.00 for set

"Lil Brother" tie shirt $20.00

Embroidered Bib $12.00.

 

Seriously, wouldn't this be the sweetest baby shower gift with some baby spoons and bowls!

Excuse snot nosed Addy Pearl, but this was her first time sitting in her high chair. And yes, it's on the floor, because that's what you do with a third child. We need to figure out how to squeeze in another chair at our dining room table.

 

Sunday morning we went to church, then we went out to eat. As we were pulling out of the driveway on Sunday morning, Gretchen said, "So, where are we eating after church today?" Which is not always our typical, even though we do enjoy it- well, that was before we had three kids. So, as to not disappoint her, we went to Red Robin, where it took us an hour and a half to eat because we had a super slow waiter! He was just so bad and so inefficient, and just not someone who needs to serve a couple with three kids that need to eat and need naps!

 

Megan fell asleep in the car on the way home, so DJ and G stayed outside, while I went in and fed Addy and put her to bed.

 

Once Megan woke up, they played outside while I went to Ulta and bought new make up! (Another post for another day.)

Don't you just love Megan's sense of style! Talk about pattern mixing!

Then when I got home, I took Megan, (in the jogging stroller), Gretchen, and her friend on a walk down to the pond and back again.

 

Such a great weekend! A productive weekend! And, we only have this week left of work and then we're off to Arkansas for spring break!

 

Stay tuned this week, because I have a new Girl Mom post coming tomorrow and a surprise for y'all on Wednesday!

By: Unknown On 07.05

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Ice Cube Painting

Last week I had the idea to make colored ice cubes with the girls. Honestly, I couldn't remember if I originally saw the idea on Pinterest or if I just came up with the idea on my own, but I thought it would be a fun way to pass some time, work on fine motor skills, and work on colors. 

I put newspaper out on the countertops and filled three ice cube trays with water. Then, I sat the girls on the counter, and let them squeeze food coloring into the trays. 

Squeezing the food coloring bottles is an excellent fine motor skill! It works on grasping and on those little muscles!

MC is working on naming colors so this was a great way to practice color names! Right now everything is either yellow or green. 

It can also be a great experiment on what colors can be made when you mix two colors together!

G decided to make patterns with her tray. She did one row as an AB pattern, and the next row was an ABB pattern.

When the girls were finished the ice trays were put in the freezer and forgotten about for several days!

Last Tuesday afternoon we spent a lot of time outside, so I thought i'd bring out the ice cube trays and let the girls play with the ice. 

I was hoping that the girls would be able to 'paint' the fence or the concrete with the cubes, but it wasn't working. So, we ended up dumping one tray into their water table and letting them play with the cubes as the ice melted. It was also fun to see all the colors mix together!

Then I went inside and grabbed another ice tray out of the freezer along with some paper. I popped the cubes out and let the girls 'paint' on paper. This worked out much better!

The girls had fun playing with the cold ice and MC even ate a little bit!

Their paintings were more 'pastel' but the girls were able to explore the cold ice, taste, and touch.... we really had fun with this activity even though in my mind it worked out a little different, but we touched on a lot of learning subjects and the girls had no idea that learning could be fun! In fact, G even said, "this is the best summer ever" as she was painting with her ice cubes!

By: Unknown On 05.00

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Our Favorite Books

I'm linking up at Kelly's Korner again for "Show Us Your Life". Today's theme is Favorite Kid Books.... we love books in this house, and I always make sure to give the girls a book on Christmas and Easter, and their birthdays. My mom is also good about buying them Halloween, Thanksgiving, or other holiday books! Needless to say, we have an overflowing bookshelf upstairs in the playroom, and both of the girls have books in their own bedroom.

We try to read to the girls every night before bed. DJ and I even read to Gretchen when I was pregnant with her! This is the very first book we bought when I found out I was pregnant with a girl and the book we would read to Gretchen.

I absolutely love this story, as it's all about two parent bears who wanted a baby, and how the baby grew inside, and then the baby came home. It's just such a sweet book.

Now that we are a little more busy with full time jobs, two kids, and our third on the way, reading is not something that happens every night, but it does happen most nights. I've started to get the girls on the couch before bedtime and the three of us read a book together, and then they go to their respective rooms, and we'll say prayers with each of them separately. 

Here are a few of our favorite books:

Ladybug Girl is about a brave little girl who thinks finds heroic things to do while her parents are busy in the house and her big brother is playing with a friend. I recently bought "Ladybug Girl at the Beach" for G~ she received it in her Easter basket~ but we haven't had a chance to read it.

Fancy Nancy is another one of my favorites. I don't think Nancy could be any more fabulous! She loves to be fancy and explore and loves dogs. We have several Fancy Nancy books and G received another one for Easter! 

I was first introduced to Fancy Nancy when I was pregnant with Gretchen. I received two of her books at a baby shower, and they were signed by the people who gave them to me. It was and still is one of my favorite baby shower gifts that we've received!

When I was pregnant with MC, I was given a Fancy Nancy baby shower because we were so in love with the books! 

.........

The next two books are fun for all ages, and I really like to read them to my therapy kids and to my girls.

We have several of the "If You Give a ________ a _______" books. I think "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" is the original book, and it's fun to let kids draw what they think would happen if they gave a mouse a cookie, and then serve cookies and milk as a snack! It also teaches cause and effect.

And, I can rave and rave about several Dr. Seuss books, but this classic is my favorite! It's great to read to your baby because of the rhyming sing-song pattern in the words and teaches your baby intonation of our speech. It's also easy for kids to memorize to feel like they are reading themselves, and it has several sight words and it's easy to predict what words will come next due to the rhyming and patterns.

And, if you're looking to expand on this book, there are a gazillion pins out there for you! 

I read this book every year to my speech kids as well, and plan an activity to go along with it. This year, I gave them a template of the Cat's hat, and we wrote vocabulary words on the lines and listened for the words in the book.

Thanks so much for stopping by my little nook!

I hope you've enjoyed a peek at some of our favorite books! Have you read any of these?

By: Unknown On 06.49

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Teaching Tots~ Cookie Cutter Fun!

I was able to stay home with the girls on Friday, and G was begging for us to do something "fun", so I browsed through Pinterest, and eventually found this idea.

I got out all of our cookie cutters, and let her go to town.

 We pressed them into different types of carpet to see if they would leave an impression.

 It didn't work on our regular carpet, but we could play with this soft bathroom rug (freshly vacuumed) and sort of see an impression.

 Then, we got out papers and crayon and traced the inside and outside of the cookie cutters. 

 G eventually took her papers and wrote a "book" about the different shapes she had made.

We also stacked cookie cutter towers!

 G is probably too old for the impression part of this activity, and thanks to our carpet it wasn't that fascinating, but it was easily expandable to working on fine motor skills such as coloring and tracing. 

By: Unknown On 14.53

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Sight word practice

Over the past few months, G and I have been working on learning sight words. I know that she will learn them in her pre-K program, but I wanted to give her a head start, and she's had so much fun learning her words!

However, we had taken a bit of a break, with birthdays, being out of town, dance, summer, moving, and this week has marked our first week of getting back into a routine.... We are all back in town, with no real plans to go anywhere, DJ is back at football, and work is still in full swing. So, I've taken the opportunity to attempt to get back into our learning routine.

After reviewing her sight words, I decided that she needed a little more practice with a few of our words. So, I wrote them on a small piece of paper and taped them onto our kitchen cabinet doors. 

The one below is on the door where we store the girls' plates and cups. G is required to help us get her dishes, so now, she will have to identify her sight word before she is able to get a cup or plate. 

I also placed one on the refrigerator. She will have to identify a word when she wants a drink.

I placed one on our pantry door, so she has to say the word before she gets a snack, and I placed one on the baby gate that blocks off the stairs to her play room. So, she has to say her sight word before she goes to play upstairs. 

Now, I do realize that in time, she will have the words memorized with their location, so every few days, the words will change locations, until she is able to identify all of the words. 

You can also do this with colors, shapes, addition, subtraction.

By: Unknown On 06.00

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Pretty Words = Crazy Hair

If you know G at all, you know that she is so strong willed, stubborn, and loves to argue. (I have no idea where that personality comes from!)

We really have been working on her not arguing with us so much when we ask her to do something, or when we tell her she cannot do something. So, I devised a plan that would hopefully encourage her to not argue with us.

I purchased a Chore Chart at Target in the $1.00 section. We were able to write in our own goals and we decided to start on two. One of them was fairly easy, and included her cleaning up. The other one, was using "pretty words". I didn't want to state it in the negative form, so we came up with "pretty words" rather than no arguing.

At the end of every day, if she did not argue and if she cleaned up when asked, she would earn a sticker. We wrote down our two goals through the bottom of the sticker chart, and counted up that she would have 40 days to earn her reward, which, she chose. We decided that if she could be successful for 35 of the 40 days, we would purchase her toy.

She saw the LaLa Loopsy Silly Hair doll on t.v. and said that she wanted. So, I knew that she would be motivated to improve her behavior in order to earn the toy.

There were a few days that she would miss her 'clean up' sticker and there was one day where she missed both stickers. She still argued, but it was much less than she had previously been doing. I also found that I was able to say, G, you're arguing, and she'd instantly stop. Those were pretty powerful words.

We are going to continue a sticker chart for her behavior. I think i've tried everything in the book, for discipline and positive reinforcement, and a sticker chart continues to be very reinforcing for G. I'll again let her choose her reward, but this time we're going to guide her to something a little less expensive. This doll was $35.00! I had no idea how much it cost when we saw it on t.v., but, it was what was reinforcing at the time. I think we're going to work more towards a movie night at the theatre, trip to the park, or ice cream!

What rewards have you tried for your child? Have you had to purchase something super expensive because it was reinforcing?

By: Unknown On 05.00

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Teaching Tots- Little Volcano's

Last week, the girls & I had another stay home day. I desperately needed it after having family in all weekend, and MC and I never got out of our pj's! G however, decided to play dress up, and she wore a cupcake dress all day and we didn't even brush her hair. 

While MC napped in the morning, G and I cuddled in DJ's chair and watched t.v. while she played a counting game on my iPhone. It was perfect. I'm telling you this, because mom's aren't perfect and we all suffer from our guilty consciences. 

But, that afternoon, I did feel a little guilty that we had accomplished nothing that morning, unless you count spending quality cuddle time together, but I wanted G to have something fun to do. I looked on Pinterest, under my "Teaching the Girls" board, and I found this idea pinned. It was easy, and I had all the ingredients lying around.

 I pulled out four small cups, food coloring and vinegar. Pour some vinegar into each cup, and let your child squeeze in food coloring in each of the cups. Give it a quick stir.

 Pour baking soda in an old dish, pan, whatever. I placed the vinegar filled cups along the side, and gave G a medicine dropper for each cup, and taught her how to pull the top up  to fill the droppers with the vinegar.

 Then, she squeezed them out onto the baking soda.

 Voila! Little volcano's appear and erupt. G thought it was the most fascinating thing ever, and played with it until the tray was completely covered in liquid!

MC laughed and laughed at the bubbles forming, so it's great for your tiny ones to join in and watch!

Sadly, I used all of my baking soda, so make sure you have a super large box of it, so your child will have more to be entertained with! I also didn't scrub my pan, and I put it in the dishwasher, and when I took it out, the pan had discolored. So, make sure you don't care about the dish you are using.

Take this activity a step further, and talk about mixing the colors. Squirt yellow vinegar on top of the blue to make green. Have your child make a prediction about what will happen when she squirts the vinegar onto the baking soda. Will it turn to liquid, make a solid, or bubble up? This activity also works on fine motor skills- holding the medicine dropper with one hand while pulling up the top with the other, and while keeping it far enough in the liquid to actually fill up the dropper. 

This is definitely an activity that we will do together again. I could give this to her while i'm making dinner or when I need to do some laundry. 

Let me know if you try this and what your tot thinks!

By: Unknown On 06.00

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Teaching Tots- Bird Week

In March, I shared that I was so excited to have two days off with the girls and that I was bringing back my "Teaching Tots" series. Well, it's May, and I have yet to write one post and share any activities with y'all! I find that my days are full of picking up toys, vacuuming dog hair, feeding a baby, putting baby to bed, and making lunch followed by clean up and dinner. So, here's to hoping that I can bring you a few lesson plan ideas of your own!

I allowed G to choose our learning themes. I wanted her to have something that she wanted to learn about, so she would be interested. For our first week, she chose, "Birds". 

I went on dltk-kids.com website and printed out a few bird coloring pages. She is working on her cutting skills, so I wanted to chose a picture that would encourage those skills. 

 G decided that she didn't want to use her crayons. She prefers pencils, because it's more "grown up" and writing versus coloring.

After cutting out the pieces and glueing them together, we worked on signing "bird". She's very interested in learning sign language right now.

Here are a few more 'bird' activities you can do with your child:
~ Go on a nature walk and look for birds. Talk about their colors and the different types you see.
~ Paint with feathers, that you've picked up at a craft supply store.
~ Make Birds Nest Cookies using peanut butter, butterscotch, and chinese noodles.

Enjoy your day with your little tot and let me know if you try any of these activities or have other bird-related activities you've tried!

By: Unknown On 08.00

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Changes

Do you like changes?

I'm so excited about the upcoming changes to our family! It seems as if our life is always changing, and i'm a person that embraces change. I love differences, I love learning new things and exploring new adventures.

And, we're about to have a new big change to our family!

No, we aren't moving, and we aren't having another baby.

This is a change that I have wanted for as long as I can remember, it's something that I have literally prayed for.

I'm officially going to work part-time!

Now, granted, I really have been working part time since we moved to Oklahoma, but I had at least been working a few hours every day, meaning, we have been paying for full-time daycare.

Over the last few weeks, I have cut down to 3-4 days a week, but starting this next week, i'm cutting out day number 4!

G has two more weeks of full-time preschool, and then, she'll move to 3 days. This will cut our daycare budget down by $200.00 a month!

MC's sitter does not take part-time, so we will continue to pay her full time rate, and keep her home on the days that I don't work (which, I already do).

In August, G's preschool is expanding, and MC will finally have a spot there! By putting MC and G at the same preschool, but keeping them both at 3 days a week, we will eventually save $400.00 a month!

I'm nervous about the change, because we still own our house in Indiana, and cutting down childcare, cuts down my hours available to work, which can also cut down a cushion to make that house payment should anything happen. But, we're ready to face this challenge head on, and just put our faith in God that our needs will be provided for.

DJ and I agreed that G is at a critical learning point, and her class next year is very advanced. So, it's a risk pulling her out and her falling behind her peers. So, we will continue to have learning time on the days that we are home together. And, i'll be able to continue my Teaching Tot's posts as I develop lesson plans for her and MC.

If I can ask one thing of my readers and family, it would be for your prayers. To just pray that G can embrace these changes and that our pocketbook can as well. I know that while we are saving money, it also makes me nervous, because I just can't pick up extra days should something happen. I'll have no one to watch the girls. But, i'm so excited about spending my days with G and MC, especially as this will be G's last year before starting kindergarten (which, still doesn't seem possible).

By: Unknown On 19.22

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