Tot School

We went to VBS every morning this week, so we didn't do a whole lot at home. The kids had fun singing, playing games, and making crafts at VBS and were pretty worn out when we came home.

We played with instruments at home.

The boys also had fun playing with play-doh one day. I gave them feathers to stick in the play-doh.

The boys are really interested in ocean animals, so I decided to do an ocean theme. We read lots of books about ocean life. We also made this starfish.

First, I drew a picture on a starfish (or sea star as Sawyer calls it, several of his books use this term) on a paper sack. Sawyer chose to paint it yellow.

Then I had him put glitter glue on 5 craft sticks.

When everything dried I cut it out and glued on the craft sticks. Here is our finished sea star.
Jax loves whales so I helped them make these whales one day.

The boys tore up newspaper and stuffed a lunch bag. Then I let them paint the bags with blue paint.

I don't even have a picture of the finished product. I will have to take one when I get home. I am currently at my in-laws because our AC is out and we have been having 100 degree weather. To find out what happened in other tot schools this week go here.

Daddy's Favorite Cookies

Justin worked late every evening last week and the boys and I really missed him. One day we decided to make his favorite cookies. He loves No Bake Cookies and I thought this recipe was really yummy.
Ingredients:
4 oz butter
1/2 cup milk
2 cups sugar
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3-4 Tbsp peanut butter
3 cups oats
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Place choc. chips, peanut butter, oats, and vanilla in large mixing bowl.
Then combine butter, milk, and sugar in sauce pan. Bring to boil for 1 minute.

Combine hot and dry mixture.

Stir well and scoop onto wax paper.

Lick the bowl and spoon. I don't let my kids lick the bowl if there are raw eggs in the mixture, so Sawyer was so excited that he got to do this.

We left a few out for Justin along with cards the boys made him. I think he came in around 3:30 a.m. and had a little bedtime snack. This was a fun activity that both my kids enjoyed. It was a great opportunity to spend time together, learn about measurement, and enjoy a yummy treat.

Tot School: We love Daddy!

We had a pretty good week last week. Daddy worked late every night last week, so the boys really missed him. With Father's Day on Sunday we made several things for daddy and read lots of books about Daddies.

I got these piggy banks from the Dollar Tree and was surprised how much they loved them. Sawyer really took his time painting his.


The next day when the banks were dry the boys had fun putting coins in their banks. I introduced the names of each coin. It was good counting practice for Sawyer. Jax did this over and over, so it was a great activity for developing his fine motor skills


Last week Sawyer and I cut out pictures of families. This week we made a collage with those pictures. We talked about the people in the pictures and what they were doing. Then they glued the pictures to this paper grocery bag.

Puzzles continue to be a favorite activity with my boys. Sawyer loves these 25 piece puzzles I got from the dollar spot at target.



Sawyer made a card for Daddy. He asked to spell his name with these stickers. He chose the letters for his name and then I helped him with the rest.


One day I let the boys sponge paint. Later, I used their art work to cover this Pringles container. I found the idea here. I thought it was a good idea and it gave me an excuse to by and eat Pringles.

Then we made Daddies favorite no bake cookies to put in his decorated container. I will post the recipe later on. My boys were such big helpers.


We left these cards and cookies out for Daddy to find when he came in one night.

Check out Carissa's blog for more fun tot school posts.

Tot School: Enjoying Summer

We did a little bit of tot school and a whole lot of "life school" this week. We spent lots of time outside and lots of time with friends this week. I think we will be like this for most of the summer. I am going to try to plan a little bit, but will probably even less organized than normal. You can go here to see what others did in Tot school this week.

I recently got the boys these shapes and cards at Ross. Sawyer really likes them. Jax likes them too, even though he doesn't really know what he is supposed to be doing. He just covers his card with shapes, but it gives me a chance to teach him colors and shapes. He likes to say everything is yellow and a circle, but he is learning more every day.

One day I got out lots of tot school activities and all Sawyer wanted to do was look at books. That was fine with me. It actually gave me time to work one on one with Jax.

He was really in to the matching activities this day. He did 3 different matching boards for about half an hour. These really help expand his vocabulary, because he always names the item that he is matching.

He also played with his puzzle matching books.

I didn't get any pictures, but the boys have been enjoying stringing these beads, another Ross find.

Sawyer decided he wanted to practice his cutting. We found pictures of families in magazines. We will use these pictures sometime this week to make a collage.

One evening Sawyer helped me make cookies. They were from a mix, but it was fun all the same.



We also went to the sprinkler park,

Doogoland,

and the water park.
Here are my favorite pics of the week.

Mommy and Jax having fun at the water park.

Sawyer enjoying one of the yummy cookies he helped me make.

Tot School: The Five Senses

We had a fun week of tot school this week. My camera battery was charged and I took lots of pictures of the boys. On Monday we did this activity. Sawyer did a pretty good job of telling me what he saw. I was also surprised at how well Jax did. I thought he would just say whatever Sawyer said, but he was able to name some things on his own. They both liked the googly eyes.

On Tuesday the boys followed me out to the garage while I took out the trash. It was thundering and raining, so I let them sit and watch the rain for a minute. Then I thought that it made a good five senses lesson. We talked about what it sounded like, looked like, smelled like, felt like, and even tasted like. They loved it!
We also did different taste, smell, touch, and sound activities this week.


They both liked exploring with this touch bucket

and Jax liked reading and touching this "Who do you love book?" This has always been one of our favorites.

I printed off a few match boards this week. This one has pictures of the boys on our water slide. They both liked playing with this.

One of Sawyer's favorite activities this week was hammering his number puzzle. He chose it almost every day.

I made these homemade nesting bags. I just put different size make-bags together so that the boys could practice zipping and unzipping. Sawyer did well with this, but was disappointed that their wasn't anything in the last bag. Jax did this with help from me.

We went to the zoo one day this week. Jax is such an animal lover. He points to all the animals and tells me it's name and the sound it makes. Sawyer just likes to run around and climb on everything.


I planned a few sensory activities for the boys to do outside. We made goop one day using equal parts corn starch and water. At first they didn't want to touch it, but once they did they were hooked. They made a huge mess on the porch, but enjoyed every minute of it. They also played with shaving cream.

Jax really liked scooping and pouring rice this week.

I have tried having them arrange flowers several times and they have never been very interested. Sawyer got into it this time though. I combined it with pouring rice and he liked that.

These are some of my favorite pictures from the week.

My sweet baby boy!

Sawyer has been working on getting himself dressed this week. He is doing a great job, even though he puts his clothes on backwards about half the time.
You can go here to find out what other parents did in tot school this week.