Tot School

Learning Toys and Tools
Sawyer sorted his pegs by color. The boys like stacking these, making "trains" and sorting them.

Jax got these new Melissa and Doug stacking construction vehicles for his birthday. I think they are so cute and the boys love them.

They also liked playing with these Melissa and Doug magnetic puzzles. I played a game with Sawyer where I asked him to give me the truck with a certain number on it. Then he put them in order from 1-10.

Jax is especially fond of the fish puzzle. I used this to work on his colors.

Another new toy the boys enjoy are these Melissa and Doug lacing animals. Can you tell we like Melissa and Doug toys at our house?

I made the boys this bottle top name activity. I found the idea on Carissa's blog. I also made one for every kid in my class with their pictures on it. I just realized I forgot to put my own kids' pictures on these. I will do that soon.

I also saw this book on Carissa's blog and we love, love, love, it. I am so glad we got it. It is called How to Build an A. It is perfect for Sawyer.

Art and Letter Activities
I wanted the boys to make fall trees one day, but they were just not in the mood. They humored me for a minute, but all they wanted to do it paint with their hand. I have to admit it kind of frustrated me, but then I remembered that it is the process, not the product that is important. I really did pay attention in all those child development classes in college.

I hung up Sawyer's fall tree, even though it looks more like a fall colored blob.

Jax was also much more interested in just making hand prints.

I think we will just do open ended art for a while. They love to just free paint and color and it is so important. Maybe I just needed to be reminded of that. It isn't important that we have cute pictures for my blog. The important thing is that the boys are learning and having fun. Look how much fun Jax had with the markers and his easel.

We painted the letter C with cars. The boys loved this. I have done this activity several times with different age groups and every kid loves it. It is so simple, but there is just something about it that kids adore.

When the Cs were painted they didn't want to stop, so I put out more paper for them to paint on. We used various trains, trucks, etc and looked at the different tracks they made.

When they were done they washed their cars in the "car wash."

One day we made Chocolate Chip Cookies to review the letter Cc. I wanted to form them into Cs, but the dough was too soft and we were too hungry to wait for it to harden.


One day we made squishy bags with shaving cream and red and yellow paint. We talked about how red and yellow make orange.

Jax really liked squishing his bag. Then I let them finger paint with a little bit of it. They weren't really into this, so it didn't last too long.

Theme: 5 Senses
We did this theme a couple of months ago, but we are talking about the 5 senses in my class, so I thought we would review it at home.

I found the template here thanks to the ten kids and a dog blog. Sawyer did a pretty good job with this.

We talked specifically about taste and sound this week. I put various items like cinnamon, lemons, and honey into little containers. I blindfolded them and let the boys smell and guess what they were smelling. They had so much fun with this.

Just having fun
Last weekend we went to a birthday party where the boys were able to decorate pumpkins. Jax decorated his to look like a cat.

We also went to the fair. They loved riding these little cars.

Check out 1+1+1=1 to see what everyone else did in tot school this week.

Mommy needs a break!

My little two year old is into everything these days. He loves to dump out every toy in the playroom or climb in the fire place. He is a joy, but he does wear me out at times. He is also not sleeping as well as he used to. He does sleep all night, but he is up before the sun every morning and his naps aren't as long as they used to be. All of this is the making of a cranky boy and a tired mommy by dinner time. The last few days I have been pulling out the high chair and giving him things to keep him busy. This has really helped a lot. He likes being with me in the kitchen and I like not having to clean up huge messes.

One day I gave him this spice container and tooth picks. I have also used dry spaghetti noodles and various containers.

Yesterday I gave him some cooked spaghetti and told him to help me make dinner. I just gave him an old formula container and a little bowl. He had fun moving the noodles back and forth. When he got hungry he ate a little spaghetti.

When he was tired of that I gave him a bowl of water and sponges. Other ideas I have used are spooning beans or rice back and forth, stringing beads onto pipe cleaners, or playing with pots,pans, and muffin tins. He also likes to draw with markers. If anyone has any other ideas of how to keep a busy toddler still for 15 minutes please let me know. TV doesn't really work for him. He has a few videos he likes, but they don't keep his attention for long. I am just glad we didn't get rid of our high chair. It is really the only thing that keeps him contained since he learned how to get out of bed. As long as I keep him busy he doesn't mind it.

Raising Rock Stars: Creation

I am really excited about the new program Carissa at 1+1+1=1 recently started called Raising Rock Stars. Basically it is just being intentional about laying a firm foundation of the Bible so that our children will "shine like stars". I decided to join in and share some of my ideas as well as learn from others. I am not only raising 2 rock stars of my own, but I am currently teaching 7 little 3 year old rock stars twice a week at our church. I just recently finished a unit on creation at home and in Mothers Day Out.
Our Bible Verse for the past two weeks has been "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Gen1:1 Every morning at breakfast we read a part of the Bible, recited our verse, and sang a song. Then we did various activities throughout the day to reinforce our learning. On the first day we made these coffee filter earths. I am not sure where I found the idea, but basically we just colored coffee filters with green and blue markers and then sprayed them with water. The preschoolers absolutely loved spraying the water and it is great for their hand muscles.

Day 1: God separated the dark from the light. At home I had my boys separate these black and white pom poms. At school we separated cocoa puffs and kix and then had a yummy snack. During circle time I had different objects and pictures that were associated with day and night. We divided the objects into two groups.

Day 2: God made the sky and the water. We made these cotton ball clouds. We also went outside and talked about the different shapes we saw in the clouds. I also let the kids pour water in the home living center, which they loved.

Day 3: God made the land and the sea and all plants.
We went outside and planted grass in styrofoam cups. I had the kids decorate the cups with stickers and markers first. We also made hand print apple trees. I hung up this foam tree that I found at Michaels. My students love putting the leaves on the tree. I plan to add apples and colored leaves soon.

Day 4: God made the sun, moon, and stars. We made paper plate suns. I traced their hands on yellow and orange paper and glued them to the paper plates they had painted yellow. I don't have a picture, but they came out really cute. We also made moons and stars out of floam. I also made a color matching game with stars and clothes pins. This was a big hit! We were talking about the letter S this week, so we glued stars onto S's.

Day 5: God made the Sea Creatures and Birds
We made these rainbow fish and played with sea creatures in our water table.

They also practiced sorting colors with these fish bowls I made.

Since we were taking about the letter d and a duck is a bird I decided to make these cute D ducks from No Time for Flashcards.

Day 6: God made the animals. (God also made man on this day, but I am doing another unit on God made me that started this week). We made animal tracks with our little animals.

I really enjoyed doing these activities at home and with my students. It is nice to be able to plan once and use the ideas twice!

Tot School

Sawyer -3.5 years
Jax-2 years today
Last week we passed around a stomach bug, so we spent a lot of time at home in our pajamas. The boys were good little patients and we were able to do some fun tot school activities.

I saw this idea on Carissa's blog last week and thought my boys would love it. They jumped o the letters I called out. With Sawyer I would call out the sound or say bring me the letter that "dog" starts with. Jax just liked to jump, so I called out the letter name as he jumped and he would repeat it.

Here were some of Sawyer's favorite activities from the week. He loves puzzles and is really good at them. He got this Melissa and Doug 48 piece puzzle last week and worked it almost every day.

He also played his Leap Frog Word Launch game. This has been such a great game. I highly recommend it.

He also liked sorting and stringing these foam shape beads onto pipe cleaners.

Painting with water colors was also a big hit.

Jax spent a long time putting pom poms into this paint jar. It was a very simple activity that both boys enjoyed.


We talked about the letter D and made these ducks. The idea came from No Time for Flash Cards.

My littlest Tot turned 2 today! I can't believe how fast these past two years have gone by. We celebrated with our friends and family on Saturday. The party was a construction theme. We had cupcakes, dirt pudding, and pizza.

We got the boys a trampoline this week. Jax had a blast jumping!

The kids decorated construction hats with stickers.


Jax got some great puzzles, books, and learning toys for his birthday. I think I am more excited about them than he is. Here are two of the new Melissa and Doug puzzles.

This is my favorite picture of my big 2 year old boy. Oh, how I love this kid! The big one in the background is pretty special too! I am so blessed.

Check out what other tots did this week in tot school.