H is for House

I say this ALL THE TIME, but this did not turn out as planned :)

This week we have been working on the letter H. One of the activities that we did was a house. The plan was for each window and door to have a member of our family peeking out. I had Tristan draw each family member on a piece of precut (and measured) paper. We are really really struggling in the people drawing area... Then we glued them behind the house. It is cute, but I probaby should have given him a photo of each family member and had his glue it in each window and door.

The other thing was I made sure that each part of the house was a certain shape. We talked about the colors, and shapes as well as the letter H. We had fun!!

I should have let him glue on bushes etc, but after this much, he was done. ;)

The letter H

This week has been H week. I am late posting this, again... sorry! I am trying to do better!

Here are some H words to get your creative juices flowing :)

helicopter
horse
house
hat
hair
hammer
hummingbird
heart
horn
hamburger
helmet
hippo
hands
Humpty Dumpty
Harry
happy
helper
hot
heavy
hard
heard
hear
hairdresser
hospital
hobby
hardware store
hop

just for fun

This is not a G post persay, but it was certainly a learning field trip! Tristan and I try to spend one day a week with my mom in Richmond. My dad tries to join up for the fun, too, when he can get off work. This week, we went to Maymont Park, in Richmond, Va. I LOVE Maymont. For those of you who have never been there, this is a beautiful park that is very hilly (so you get a GREAT workout) and it has animals spread out throughout the park. There is also a petting zoo. The park is free, however they do ask for donations. It is well worth the visit. It is also a perfect place for a picinic lunch!

Enjoy the pics :)

 The bears were fighting! The one in the back by the tree was on his hind legs. Ive never seen anything like it. So cool to watch!

 This goat was Tristan's BEST friend. He followed Tristan everywhere he went.

Tristan and his Grammee went over the steep bridge in the Japanese Gardens.

We had a GREAT day!!!

G is for simple grapes

G is for Green Grapes! This is also super simple, but that is the point of this blog! Super simple crafts for learning the ABC's!

We are constantly drilling (in a fun way of course) colors, letters and shapes. I try to use standard shapes for most projects.

For the green grapes, I only used a rectangle for the stem and circles obviously for the grapes. This did not turn out as cute as I had hoped, however, the lesson itself and the discussion made it worth it. Not to mention the fact that anytime Tristan completes a project, he is proud of himself. Isn't that what it is all about??

The letter G

This is super simple and you can use anything to glue on to your letters. It is all about your child seeing and hearing the letter. There can never be too many repetitions!

A Green letter G

Tristan has his favorite things he likes to glue, but get creative! I don't trust him with glitter yet. Otherwise, it may have been sparkly :)

G is for...

G week was last week. I unfortunately haven't been able to post lately. I will try to get everything up and current this weekend.

One of the things that I had wanted to make with Tristan was a guitar. He has a guitar, that is just his size, and he loves to play with his Daddy. But, I thought it would be fun to have him make a guitar. They are super easy so I wanted to pass it on to you.

materials
box
rubberbands
scissors
paint (optional)


All you need to do for this is get a shoe box. Cut a hole in the center of the shoe box lid. Put the rubberbands (at least 3) lengthwise around the box. PLAY!

If you would like to get more involved, you could have your child paint the shoe box before you put the rubberbands on it. You could also make a neck out of a papertowel roll and glue it on the small end of the shoebox. There are lots of possibilities!

Additional lesson:
Guitars make music. The "string" vibrate. Vibrate means to move back and forth quickly. Have your child strum the guitar to see the strings vibrate. Then have your child put his/her hand on his/her neck over the voicebox. Have your child whisper. Feel anything? Now have your child talk normally. Feel anything? Vibrations!

We used to do this when I taught first grade. We would pull out all kinds of instruments for vibrations. See what you can find! Or save it for the letter V ;)

G is for Giraffe

G is for GREAT GIRAFFE!
This is too cute! Bag puppets are so much fun! If you are like me, you probably wont print out the template, but I wanted to pass this great site on incase you wanted to! They provide the materials needed and the step by step directions to complete this giraffe bag puppet with your child. Have fun!

DLTK has some great ideas for toddlers-K kids!

G is for GRAPES!

This will be a two part post.... we are working on a grape craft but it seems to be taking us forever to get it finished no matter how simple it is...

But the other thing I wanted to pass on was a site I discovered accidentally. The DOLE website. Dole Grapes are mighty yummy. They have some games and activites for kids on their site. They also have a wealth of information on nutrition for parents as well. Enjoy!

CLICK HERE :)


http://www.dole.com/

G is for garden

Although I have not taken a lot of pictures with the letter G, there are so many activities for G (and most letters) that do not involve a craft, but just hands on learning time with Mom. I find that the best learning is through doing and conversation. Tristan loves to be outside with me and we love to plant. This year I regret not doing a real garden, but we were still able to do some gardening with flowers. Our yard really needs some TLC and there is no TLC like that that comes from a 2 year old. Whew.... what messy fun!

G is for grandparents

G is for Grandparents! Tristan is so blessed to have THREE awesome sets of grandparents! I hope one day he realizes this blessing! They would all do anything for him (or us) and we are so thankful for our relationships with them.

I encourage you and your child to write a note of thanks to your child's grandparents! Even if your child can not write, have them tell you what they like about them or his/her favorite thing to do with them. The recipient will be tickled!

Have fun with it and let your child sign the card/letter as well!

Happy Writing!

girl or boy?

Gender is one of those things that we just seem to know and take for granted. Tristan was very quick to remind me the other day that that too, has to be learned. When we were working our making our family last week, we were talking about Mommy being a girl, Daddy being a boy and Tristan being a boy. Tristan kept telling me I was a good boy. :) Ryan, my husband, kinda laughed and said, "Well, you are working on G next week so maybe you should work on what a girl is!" I think he was right!

So we have been talking about girls and boys, picking them out of books and I have been interjecting gender comments in casual conversation. It is amazing how just talking to your kids about everyday life, is so important! Improvement has been made, but as always, there is still more room.

The Letter G!

This week was supposed to be G week. We are going to extend G into next week as well considering today is Friday and we just got started!
Here are some ideas for the letter G...

glasses
glass
goat
grasshopper
glue
glove
goose
grapes
gavel
gate
globe
gift
guitar
garden
golf
golf ball
granola
grilled cheese
green
goldfish
garbage
girl
game
ghost
gingerbread

Field Trip idea- grocey store- call ahead of time and see if they will allow you and your child to view the back part, deli areas etc.

F is for Fish

Tristan loves Finding Nemo. This obviously looks nothing like Nemo, but he still enjoyed making his fish. He found a box of beads in my craft things and wanted to use those to glue on. I had planned on using sequins and other sparkly things, but this is what he wanted. Fine with me! I think he did a really good job.

F is for flowers

One thing I wanted to do was to plant some Mums. We finally got around to taking out the ugly dead plant and replacing it with a nice pretty yellow one. Tristan had a blast. He LOVES to be outside and get dirty so I figured this was the best option for an F activity. Nothing spectacular was planned, but there was still a lot to be learned!

I encourage you, if you do not already, to include your children in your everyday activities such as cooking, cleaning, gardening etc. It can be tough and you need a lot of patience, but it is well worth it. Have fun!

SO MAD

Now I am just MAD. I downloaded my copy of Extra Special onto the tablet and not ONE of the pictures showed up! What in the world! Please dont download it yet!!!! I will let you know when they have the glitch fixed. So frustrating....

IT IS LIVE ON AMAZON

My book, Extra Special, was finally put into eBook format! I am so excited!!!! It is currently on Amazon and can be downloaded onto almost any electronic device! It is so cool to see how technology works. Be sure to tell your friends :)

You can order your copy here!

I need some feedback so be sure to let me know what you think! Also, if you do purchase it, and like it, will you leave a positive review on Amazon.com so others will see it? Thanks you guys!

<-------OR you can click here on the box to go right to it :) Thanks for your support!!

F is for family

My son became super excited about making our family today. This, of course, excited me! We had a lot of fun! I had precut some simple clothes for him to make us with. This creates good conversation about gender and articles of clothing. After he put our outfits together and glued them down, he was excited to do the heads. He did not, however, want to give us hair.... which is why we are all 3 bald. I asked him to tell me some things about the picture and our family and I wrote it on the page at the top. This is one of my favorite things he has made. I think the main reason is because he was so excited about his family.  :)

"This is Tristan, Daddy and Mama. It has Beamer too! Thank you for loving me, Mama." -Tristan

The clothes were made from random fabric pieces I had around the house. I could have made the faces or heads to have Tristan glue down, but I wanted it to show more of his work. It everything had been pre done, I was afraid it would take away from that.

AGAIN....

The computer drama continues... My tablet seemed to just suddenly break today. It is always something with technology around here! Because of that, I won't be able to get the pictures of our lovely F crafts up until I can get a hold of my husbands computer. This one for some reason wont let me upload pictures to it.... Ahh....

On a totally different note, I have a book signing on Saturday in Fredericksburg, Va from 9-5 for my book, Extra Special! It is called Heartwood Days Festival and it is a very large festival for kids (and their families). There will be food, rides, vendors, freebies, crafts and much more! It should be a great time! We are praying for great weather because the hurricane seems to want to send tons of rain that way. NO NO NO!!! :)

F ideas

Here are some SIMPLE ideas for F week!

• Make a trip to your local fire house and meet the firemen! You may want to call ahead to make sure they are available.
• make a visit to a local farmers market
• visit a farm
• paint with feathers instead of brushes
• make fruit salad
• make french fries (YUM!)
• Fruit smoothies/shakes
• plant flowers
• paint flower pot

F week!!!

I am really excited about F week! Last week was an absolute struggle for ideas and time.... we really did not get to do too much. Now after this long weekend with friends, we are ready for F words! Can't wait!

Here are some F words you might want to do something with...

family
friends
farm
fish
five
fire hat
fireman
fire house
fence
feather
father
fan
flag
flower
fork
four
fox
frog
fur

and I am sure there are many more!

Tristan and I will be starting with the word FAMILY.  I am excited about the idea I have! I hope to have it up by tomorrow.

Happy Crafting and Learning!

Another Elephant Idea

I really wanted to take the time to make elephant ears and a trunk for Tristan to wear. He is not really into the whole "dress up" thing, but I figured it was worth a shot. We have company coming and it has been a hecktic week, so time has slipped away. I wanted to share this idea below incase you were interested (from ask.com).


ELEPHANT TRUNK AND EARS - this was posted by Sherri Osborn.




I really want to make the nose turn up. I was thinking if you cut the paper towel roll into small sections (about two inches long) and punched two holes in each side, you could tie them together with pipe cleaners and bend it up. I have not tried this, but in my head it seems like it would work! Then you could spray paint it gray. If you do give it a try, let  me know how it goes!

E is for Elephant

Tristan has really started to enjoy watercolors. I think he mostly likes the splashing in the rinse off cup, but whatever, it is fun! I am not the best drawer, by any means. When it comes to certain things, I have to trace. Tristan wanted to paint so I pulled up a big pic of an elephant and traced it with silver paint pen. Then he painted it. He also painted the E and e that I had drawn for him.

Below is the final product!

I am not sure why it is so fuzzy... sorry :(

E is for ELMO!!!

One of my lovely facebook friends passed this along. I really wanted to make sure you all saw it! And to make it even better, IT IS FREE!!! :)


FREE Personalized Elmo Song for Your Child

E is for....

I am a little slow with E week. We have had so much going on (that I never see ending) and I am trying to create an actual routine/daily schedule. I have yet to succeed with the schedule thing... Anyhow, we have started E activites. We mostly talked about the letter and tried to find it places. Tristan loves to "write words" using my computer so he tries hard to find letters. Its great! I wanted to provide a list of E words that could be used! Thanks to my friends on facebook for helping to create this list!

Elmo (more on this later)

envelope

energy

elephant

eskimo

elevator

eat

exit

eggplant

eggs

elf

empty

easel

E is hard!!! I like elephants and you can do some cute things with them so Tristan and I will start there :)

stay at home mom

I never knew how busy a stay at home mom could be! I wouldn't change my job for anything, and I am so thankful God is allowing me to stay home with Tristan, but I totally underestimated this job! I find that I am more tired than ever and I drink more coffee. ;) 

One thing I have decided, partly because it is the teacher in me, but also because I see the benefit in it for my son as well as other children, is to set up field trips. I am going to be a part of two mom groups this upcoming year. One, MOPS, which I think most people know about, the other is Moms and More which is through our church. I am really excited about both of these opportunities. It will be great for me to be involved with other moms as well as for Tristan to have some social interaction. I want to set up these little field trips for those kids involved. So far I have these places on my list...

Fire Station

Police Station

Library (although we mostly all go there already) (story hour??)

Post Office

Kitchen in a restaurant

Bank

and maybe some others.... any ideas of places for toddlers? (preferably FREE) :)