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MY BUTTON WORKS!! :) My Best Friend is AMAZING at HTML code... she has helped me quite a bit on this blog- Thank you BFF or as I have dubbed her (Fairy BLOG Mother)!!
Please take a button if you like- and pass around- I would appreciate it!



Love,
Me

Week 4- Thanksgiving and Not So Much Tot School...

This week our Tuesday and Thursday Tot School was replaced by lots of holiday busy"ness"!!

We were able to meet up with friends and talked to a Montessori teacher who showed the little ones some great activities. Here she is demonstrating picking up marbles with tongs and placing them on the tiny suction cups (from a soap holder).


I had been wanting to make a cute BUTTON turkey- I have seen them all over blogs- but copied the idea from Confessions of a Homeschooler. So I quickly made it the day before we flew out to Southern Indiana for Thanksgiving. (I thought it might be a fun "quiet" activity for Scarlett on the airplane!)


Scarlett really enjoyed the Button Turkey! She was pretty good at it too- she only got frustrated with one feather and eventually she did it! :) She was very proud and I had to pass it over to her Daddy to show him too.


Then she took the feathers off and wanted to do it again! She was great on the plane ride! Wish I could say the same about her 1 year old little sister! ha!

When we arrived in Southern Indiana we met up with my cousins and their kiddos and my grandfather. We had a great time seeing everyone and Scarlett told me her cousins were her "best friends" just a few minutes after they met! They played so much they all wore each other out!!

We rented a room in the hotel for the whole family to have Thanksgiving- the food was delicious and the company was even better. Finally we all passed out Christmas gifts (since we only see each other every 2-3 years) and we had mini-Christmas! Lily was having a blast opening the presents!!This week we will really get back into TOT school- as well as celebrating ADVENT and decorating for Christmas (we are a little behind with all the traveling!)
The holidays are upon us- and I LOVE ALL THE MADNESS!

** BECOME A FOLLOWER- I'D LOVE TO HAVE YOU!! :)


For more GREAT TOT ideas check out 1+1+1=1 : TOT SCHOOL!!

I am very, very THANKFUL!

I have a lot to be thankful for... this week it was hard at first to think of all the wonderful things because my husband's grandfather ( who I loved!) very suddenly passed away Monday morning. We had just been with him Saturday night celebrating my cute niece's 2nd birthday and he was completely fine. We are very sad- and it was difficult to decide what we needed to do because we had plane tickets to Indiana to see MY grandfather... (very stressed out about this)
Luckily- with LOTS of prayers, I might add- we are able to do both. So I am typing this on the hotel bed in Indiana while my little angels are napping after just eating lunch with my grandpa and my cousins.
So... I am thankful that we get to visit my grandfather (who we hadn't seen in 2 years!) AND I am very thankful that we will be back in time to honor my husband's wonderful, hilarious, loving, sweet grandfather, PaPa.
I am thankful for 2 beautiful little girls. Thank you Lord for such a blessing- because I know that it is!! I am especially thankful for a husband who supports me in the good times and bad (and we have definitely had our share of both!!) I will forever be thankful for him and for helping keep our marriage strong through thick and thin.
I am thankful for my very large, (never-a-dull-moment), loving family and I am thankful for Rick's caring, "open-arms", beautiful family as well.
I am soooooo thankful for my friends- they make being a mommy sooo much easier- I am so lucky to have such great friends close to me!!
Thank you Lord for all my blessings... help me to remember these all through the year not just on Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
Love,
Me!

Earthworms Attack!!

This morning after a stormy night we looked out on our back porch to find lots of earthworms wiggling about! This was just too exciting for miss Scarlett and she talked me into letting her wander around the porch and look at them- which turned into picking them up and petting the earthworms... which turned into "saving" the earthworms by putting them out in the dirt. Then after I let her save them all on from our back porch (of doom!!) she decided she wanted to make a worm house for them. I gave her a shoe box and she put them all in the box with some dirt and water- of course!! She kept telling me how "cute" they were- it was pretty funny! I also had to give in and pet them a few times as well! Of course when she was done (about an hour later) we did a BIG scrub down- ha ha! But she really had so much fun- it was neat to watch her playing, building, and using her imagination. LOVED IT!





























Saving the earthworms from our porch (putting them back in the dirt...)
















A HOME FOR THE EARTHWORM!

Tues. AND Thurs. of Week 3 Tot School!

THURSDAY TOT SCHOOL!
(And PS-My Thanksgiving Wish (besides Peace on Earth) ... More Blog Followers...please?)





















Scarlett matching shapes... I found it on a website called Toddler Toddler. I laminated the sheet with the outlined shapes and the colored shapes I cut out/laminated/ and stuck around the room for Scarlett to play hide and seek shapes- she LOVED it!















Sticker or STAMP book- found on ITTY Bitty Love blog- Scarlett loves stamping and it was great practice for counting too!















Then we made "Native American" necklaces- LOL! I just had some wrapping ribbon and some very large noodles for Scarlett to string onto it. Not the most creative but I noticed even with the large holes she really had to work at it so this ended up being a great manipulative for her to do. Little sis wanted one too so I put one together for her quickly!!


TUESDAY TOT SCHOOL!!





















Another week of Tot school- yay! Back to the workboxes--- Scarlett just loves picking out what she will do first- she always comes in early and peeks in the boxes! Little Sister Lily is already working with graduated cylinders (see how smart she is?) Ha ha! Another toy from Chik-Fil-A put to good use. I just used the puff balls that she had been putting into the water bottle and now she puts them in here as well!
















Practicing spelling her name! Scarlett pasted the turkey on the paper and then chose the letters in her name from the feathers that I cut out. Got this idea from Teaching Two.





















I for ICE CREAM!Since we are still working on the letter I we matched numbers (chocolate chips as Scarlett called them) onto the Ice cream cone! This idea is another one of the many wonderful ideas I get from Confessions of a Homeschooler.
















Love these Infantino Colors and Shapes Puzzles. They are not too difficult to put together and she really has learned her shapes from them- plus the colors are sooo pretty! A great gift-- Check it out-- (I put a link on the right side of my blog if you want to purchase.)
Then we did a sticker/shapes activity but I forget where I found it- yikes! I have seen it around quite a bit though... I thought Scarlett would LOVE this but she got bored quickly- in fact she would only do the circle... oh well.
















To work on the letter I --- I colored ice cubes and froze them over night. Then Scarlett used them to make the letter I! It was a great tactile activity because it was cold brrr.... and she licked them- ha ha! AND she had to place them in the correct spot to make the letter I- too fun!
















Here's my smart little 14 month old again!! ha ha! This time she was pulling Scarlett's hair while Scarlett was trying to work on her Kumon Maze book... and so I pulled out my Iphone and let her play I Hear Ewe- it is a free game on Iphone (I love the free stuff- and I won't pay for anything!!) It has animal pictures and when she taps the animal it makes the animal sound- she loves it! This kept her busy while Scarlett worked on her mazes!

Have a happy weekend!! I probably will not get a blog out next week because we are going to see my grandfather in southern Indiana for Thanksgiving! Yippee!! I haven't seen him in almost 2 years, and he gets to meet little Lily! yay!
Have a SAFE, and BLESSED Thanksgiving everyone!

If you want more AWESOME IDEAS check out:
Homeschool Creations: Preschool Corner AND 1+1+1=1 Tot School!

ALSO FOLLOW ME! PLEASE? I want followers- it is my Thanksgiving wish!! xoxoxo

Thursday of Week 2 in Tot School!

Scarlett was ready as usual to head over to the workboxes! She had already "peeked" at them and knew exactly what she wanted to do first!


Thanksgiving Native American Headdress- We got this idea from No Time for Flashcards.
First Scarlett was able to work on her cutting! (For 2.5 years she is pretty darn good!)


Then she colored, used a glue stick- and her favorite- GLITTER!


Finally, Scarlett got to put the feather on her headdress.


One little, Two little INDIANS! :)


Smelling Jars- Montessori idea. I put different scents in clean baby food jars. Scarlett had to match up the smells- lemon, pepper, vanilla, mint,vinegar (or STINKY smell as Scarlett says).


Matching up the scents... Lily is watching too!




Matching Letters...




Toothpick punch... great idea from: Prekinders.com


What a fun week! Can't wait till next week to try some new things!

A New Week of Tot School- Week 2- Letter T

We are ready for a new week of FUN!! I had Lily entertained with a small puff balls and a water bottle... she was entranced! She loved putting the little balls into the water bottle. Then we would close it all up and she would shake it around. It was cute to watch her chubby little fingers doing the work. So fun!

Scarlett was ready to get out to her Tot work-boxes! She loves getting to choose what to do first!

I found the cutest Thanksgiving pattern game for Scarlett from File Folder fun. I copied it and laminated it but it made it almost too slippery!! Scarlett's interest in this was not so great... and I think it was somewhat difficult for her- but we made it like a song... I would sing the pattern to her and then she got into it more!

This is a Turkey Hand- Scarlett painted her hand brown and fingers different colors for the feathers. We have yet to put a wiggly eye on it and then send it to her grandparents!
Got this idea from The Ramblings of a Crazy Woman - too cute!








Gotta love shaving cream! I'm not shy with messes... I'm almost as messy as my girls- ha! So we got out the shaving cream and put it all over the table. Then, we practiced our capital letter T! She LOVED it- and was a bit surprised, I might add, that we could do this with shaving cream!

I found some pictures on Google search of turkeys and printed them out. On each feather, I wrote (with marker)the first letter of a color (in that color too!) Then ,Scarlett matched the feather with the color on the turkey. She loved pasting the feathers on- she told me the turkey was naked and he needed his feathers. Ha! Great color matching idea!!

This was fun- a very Montessori idea. Got the blindfold (sleeping blindfold- see the closed eyelashes on it!)at Dollar Tree a couple weeks ago. We are going to use it when we do smelling jars as well. Grabbed a bag I had and put in lots of random things for Scarlett to feel. She just giggled and really enjoyed this! She was pretty good too- sometimes she wasn't confident it what she guessed but she got them all right!

What's in the bag?

We had lots of fun today- I think my favorite part is just watching her peek in the boxes to see what new activities she gets to do. I am loving this!!

I do wish it was easier to post pictures on here... I am getting frustrated because I think I am just not saavy enough with the blogging. I have to post my pictures backwards and then type everything in. Plus if they don't all line up one might be deleted accidently and then I can't get the picture back without posting it again!

* Check out my blog for what we did on Thursday in Tot school TOO! :)

**Want more ideas! Check out 1+1+1=1's Tot School!!