Tot School

If you would like to see what other tots have been up to this week visit

1+1+1=1

I found this old Rummikub game at the thrift store for $1. I guess it is a sort of rummy game. I had never heard of it but hey, I thought the tiles would be great for tot school.

It came with tiles 1-13. I broke them into a couple of groups and had D put them in the correct order. He, by no means, recognizes all of his numbers yet. But, that is what tot school is for, fun and learning.

Same & Different pages from a Target $ Spot workbook.

D loves to listen to books on tape.

This week we listened to Cookie's Week.

I read about this idea in the Mailbox Magazine.

You buy a cheap skeleton decoration and take it apart.

Have your tot reassemble the skeleton to learn about our bones. Mailbox said to buy 2 of them and keep one together for the kiddos to use as a reference but, we just cut out the small skeleton on the package and used that as our guide. We got this for $2 and Amazon sells something very similar for $9. I bet we could have found one for $1 but we didn't shop around.

Target $ Spot puzzle. Learning how to make green, orange and purple.

I colored some rice with some black paint I had for D to use for a spooning activity. He of course changed things up and decided he would rather spoon into a funnel to fill the pumpkins.

"Do you have a hammerfur? What's a hammerfur? Pounding Nails." That is a long standing joke in our house. Just like "Smells like updog. What's up dog?" hahaha

"Quick mom come and look. I made a square." He was so happy about this.

Playing with shaving cream in a bag. We were practicing our letters.


Alphabet puzzle from Scholastic. I love book orders. I have an account with Scholastic so, all the points we earn from ordering books goes straight to stuff we can order.


D got board doing the puzzle. Can you tell?

Books this week

These were our picks at the library this week. We went 2 days in a row because it was so rainy out and we were bored. And why not spend time hanging out with books and puppets. D and I had the children's area to ourselves and we had a blast making up stories with the puppets.

Science Museum

The MN Science Museum is so wonderful. I wish we got there more but, since it is 3 1/2 hours away it only happens about once every 1-2 years. Sorry for the abundance of photos.

Ryan, A and D weaving. N came over too but, I missed him in the picture. Oops.

Putting all of the organelles into the big cell.

This is a favorite here. When you open this little door a big puff of damp air shoots out at you, simulating a sneeze. The kids love to show this to their friends who have never been here before. People usually get scared.

Just so you know.

D thought this was so cool. You need to see how long you can keep the ball in the air while rotating the fan.

My boys checking out the tornado. It didn't photograph real well. You can only see it a little bit up top.

A checking out fossilized poop. FUN. I so love science. Poop is so cool. You can learn so much from it. I do have to say that I don't think cleaning up dog poop is cool though. ISH.

Checking out fossils.

Reconstructing a dinosaur.

D loved this.

The boys made this huge bubble. You are able to see all of the colors streaming through it. D just loved popping it. N was getting a little frustrated.

N checking out water ripples.

A LOVED this. She spent a lot of time here.

It is so great that this place has something for everyone.

For some reason D really liked this. He was doing "an experiment." At one point he left this spot and another kid sat down and D had a total meltdown because he was in the middle of his experiment.

Ooo! A triceratops.

You make the jaws move by pulling on the joystick. N was making him talk to D.

A checking out planarian. I love these guys. They are so cute. If you can call a flatworm cute.

D had to check them out too.

Open Ended Art

This week for open ended art we had to create something using
black and orange.

I love the idea of open ended art. It lets kiddos use their own imagination. You get a glimpse of what is going on in that head of theirs. However, the control freak in me finds it really hard to not direct D. Sometimes, I just need to put the supplies down and walk away. Is that crazy? I want to tell him what to create. I had a little different idea of what his project this week would look like.

D did his own thing and it turned out really cool. Picasso-ish. Or like a deconstructed jack-o-lantern. This is what D created.

Tot School

If you would like to see what other tots have been up to this week visit

1+1+1=1

D loves his Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly book.

The book came with the old lady and bean bag animals that you stuff into her mouth.

Geoboard time.

I made these for D to sort upper and lower case A's. He didn't want anything to do with them. Maybe another day.

He won't cut unless I hold the paper for him. Hopefully that will change soon.

I found these, Build Your Own Monsters, at the $ spot in Target. He loved them. I did too. I hope they still have them when we go back. I will get more for next year.

Didn't they come out so cute. He designed them all by himself.

We are going to do a letter a week. I have seen this alligator project around a lot. It was his idea to trace the inside of the A.

Playing store is one of D's favorite activities. Most things sold for 42 cents but, I did have to buy a pillow for $56 and I got a great cup of coffee for only a penny.

Just a quick apple sequencing activity.

I haven't taken the time to learn how to post/attach a PDF file to my blog so, if anyone wants anything I would have to send an attachment via email. Someday I will learn. Thanks to all of you that do put attachments on your posts.

Changes

Lots of changes here. First and foremost, Ryan's beloved Grandmother Mary passed away yesterday. She was a wonderful, giving woman. She gave the biggest, tightest hugs. I loved so them and will truly miss her.

Ryan left NY yesterday and arrived back here in MN this afternoon. He slept for 2 hrs at a gas station during the 20 hr drive. I love having him home, even though I really wish it was under better circumstances.

We also had our 4th house showing today and the couple made an offer. We plan to counter offer but are basically considering the house sold. Tomorrow we will haggle and hopefully it will all be done. They asked, even though they realize it is quite unlikely, that we close on Oct. 30th. What? We really have no options yet in NY. Well, maybe one possibility and we were actually starting to think about building. The contractor we talked to said we could have a house done by around Christmas. So, what to do? What to do? Rent? Maybe?

So many changes happening so fast. It does give me comfort to know that I do have another guardian angel watching over my family during this time. It will be so hard to move the boys away from their Gram and Gramps and their Sissy.

Grandma Mary, You will always be in my heart.