Collage Tray

Girlygirl loves to glue. She often can be found sitting at her little table making a collage. It is great open end craft project and now is out and ready whenever she wants to do it. The great thing about collages is you can put to match a theme or just random things.

I just keep a store bought veggie. I just ask for it after the church potluck. Veggie tray are great for a few reasons. It is dived to keep the different things in there own place and has a lid. What I like best is if you get them from a potluck like it did it was free. Now here are some list I found of stuff to put in the Collage Tray. Earth Kids has a great list that can be found here. This list is almost the same but has a few different ideas.

Goals for the New Year

I have made four goals for the new year. I have never done it before but I have decide I need a plan to get out of the funk I have been in. So far it is working good. I was not going to share my goals but have decide to because I'd like to keep a record of how I do. More than that if I know if I need to tell someone (any one who is out there) how I am doing I will feel like I need to keep it up. So here are my goals and how the first month went.

1. I want my house to be cleaner today than yesterday. I chose to word it this way because it will be easy to succeed. If I tell myself I need to clean a lot I do nothing but if I start small most often I will clean more. January was a great everyday but two my house was cleaner than the day before. Now at the end of the month my house is cleaner than it has been in a long time.
2. Join Bible Study. After moving from California I have gotten farther and farther away from God. So finding a good Bible study I thought would be a good step in getting close to God again. My good friend has been asking me to go to Coffee Break with her for a long time. I had lots of reasons I couldn't go. But I started at the new year and love it. (thanks Amy for not giving up on my)
3. Read though the Bible this year. I have a great book called the xxxx that I am using. I started at the end of last year. I have read more days than not and I really love the look at the Bible.
4. Teach Girlygirl more. I do a lot with Girlygirl but after my summer kids left this last summer. I got very sad after hearing more of their story back home and not having a choice but to send them back there. After do the first three things this has just happened. I will be posting in tot school again soon.

There are my goals for 2010. I look forward to sharing with you guys how I do and what happens.

Valentines Day: family love

Sweet Dude and I feel differently about what Girlygirl should get for Christmas. For a few reasons I believe that we should keep it small. I want us to focus on Jesus on Christmas not gifts. We have so many people who love her and get her stuff our gifts would be lost in it all. I also want her to be happy for each gift she gets. So many kids in her in America think they should have what they want when they wanted. I work hard to teach Girlygirl that she can't have everything she wants and that gifts are special no matter what they are. Sweet Dude loves to give Girlygirl lots of things. Though he understands my point still wants her to have the things that she wants and would make her happy. We needed to come up with away to make it work for both of us where Girlygirl could have a day other than her Birthday to get gifts from us. I came up with teaching our children that Christmas is for Jesus and give gifts they are small. When then will have Valentines Day be all about family love and daddy will give gifts to each person in the family a gift and we each get him a gift. This is our first year doing this. At Christmas time we where able talk about giving to others and how that Jesus came to earth as a baby. We then made list of things we want for Valentines Day and when we talked about gifts it was what we wanted for Valentines Day. Though it is our first year it has worked out great. We hope to make it a family tradition.

Towel Time

In my last posted about things I do to teach Girlygirl to play on her own. Now I wanted to share what towel time looks like in our house and give you some idea of toys to give during this time. Where does towel time happen? Towel happens most often near me, where ever that is that is the great thing about it. This helps me make sure Girlygirl stay there and helps me to get to her fast if she gets of. I do not always stay in the same room but if I am down stairs then she is too if I am up stairs she is too (my house is tiny so it works out good for us). I just tell her we are going to do towel time. She doesn't like it at first some days. The longer it has been the hard it is for her. Should I do towel time with my kids at the same time? This summer when we had my friend's kids living here. Both of the little girls (Girlygirl and Little Sister) like to do towel time. They would do it at the same time often in the same room but not close enough to touch each other. It gave them a break from having to share and deal nicely with other. It also gave me time to have one on one time with one of the big kids also. What does Girlygirl get at towel time? Like I said before she gets a few books, her blanket, and a toy or two (may be a group of toys) What are the toys Girlygirl gets at towel time? There are a lot a different toys I give her. Some I keep put up for this time only others are out all the time and I just think she will like to play them more than she does. When it comes to picking toy pick things you know your child can do on their own and will like to play with. Here is a list of the ones we us most.

• Doll house
• Little People- most often the farm but some time another ones
• blocks-we a a few different kinds to choice from
• Fast food toys- I keep them in a drawer with the other toys and just give her the drawer
• Mr. Potato Head
• puzzles
• stacking cups
• Elmo ( like Mr. Potato head)
• Doodle Pro
• lacing cards
• doll with clothing, food ect.

Girlygirl is the only kid here with me right now and she has learned to play on her own because of this we don't do towel time much. Cheek out what Kimberly said in her post called Multi-level Homeschooling: Little Ones Part 2. It will be hard at first but remember your not in the entertainment business you are their mom and teaching them to depend on themselves from time to time will only help them as they get older. I'd love to hear how towel time or whatever you call it in your homes works so please share in the comments.

Preschools Playing on Own

Before I became a mom I learned that children need to be taught to play. Getting down and playing with your kids is important. Just as important is teaching your child to play on their own. I have done a few things to teach Girlygirl this. I am not good about have a set time for things but we use all these more as needed than daily.

• Towel Time-It is just like it sounds. Girlygirl sits on a towel and plays with toys I have given her. I put a few toys on the towel for her to choice from along with 2 or 3 books and her Nauna (her blanket) I set the time for 10 to 25 min. (I notice more than 25 min is too long).
• Room Time-She plays in her more for 30 min. I put up the baby gate and just let her play. She has about half her toys in her room and a lot of her favorites.
• Table Time-I have blogged about this before. I often start something with her and then let her do it on her own for 5 to 15 min. I will then come back and play with her again.

I even teacher she can do things on her own in our day to day interactions. I am not quick to help her. Even at a young age I would sit back and watch how she would do something I thought was too hard for her. Sometimes she would amaze me at what she could do. Other times she be proud of her work done "wrong". I have many pictures of her trying to put on clothing at 1.5 years old and it is all "wrong" but is was happy to do it herself. Encouraging words when she wants me to do it or if is get frustrated. I often tell her if she tries she can. Sometimes it works and she will do it others she just stops. In Elmo's Potty time the have a song about things being hard when you are learning. I will sign it to her. I also use words to tell her how. We gave her a V Smile for her birthday. It is a little hard for her. I will sit with her and tell her what to do. Like press enter the big orange one. When she does it she knows she can. Teaching your kids to do all they can gives them great self esteem. So let them do things on their own even if they don't like it at first they will. You are teaching them they can play and do things on their own.

4th of July fun

We had a fun day we talk about 4th of July. I don't think she gets it but we had fun. We made cards that will send out Wednessday.We color rice.

Then Girlygirl played with it for a long time. We put up window stickers. Then we made Fireworks with the rice to hang on the wall.

We had tons of fun. above you can see them drying. Remember to play with your kids today. It make the happy.

Game give away

I found a great game that is being giving away over at Barefoot Mommy. I am going to put The Ladybug Game on my game to buy list.

Tot School: Week 20

~34 months~

We had fun this week. I found Girlygirl ABC book that I used with Five and Girlygirl last year. It is great for Girlygirl now. We also started playing on the computer. We do the calander on Starfall together everyday. She loves it. She also plays the Abc's Zoo on the Fisher Price web site. I am hoping this will help her want to learn her letters. We played games. I found the one at a Children's Reale for $2 it is great and on of Girlygirl favorites. We added paint to our circle collage (which was add to her ABC Notebook) we start last week. Girlygirl didn't like not paint with brushes. So... We painted with brushs a lot longer. I did get her to paint her hand and make hand prints.She painted a letter "b" sometime we will glue buttons on it before adding to our ABC Notebook. Our friend turned 3. We went to her party at Monkey Business. We had lots of climbing, painting and learning to be happy for others. Making an Elizabeth E for our ABC Notebook. Circle elephant. I which I could find the link I used to printed. It is cute and fun to make. E is for Eyes.Cutting fabric left over from bean bags I have been making.Barbies are a new favorite for her. She is even learning to dress and undress them herself. Counting cards I found on ChildCareland (you'll find in the middle of the page) If you have never looked at the idea on Childcareland you should look around. I had fun this week after find them last week on someones tot school page.She loves her doll house and we add a baby this week so she likes even more now.Played at the water table at her cousin's house. (We will call him Crazy here.) She got more play dough stuff from a family friend. Chip clip color match. She needs to hands to open the clip so I put the card in for her. (she picks the cards and gives me the color.) We did puzzles she needs a lot of help with them put she loves to do it. Playing game. She didn't get the idea of how to play but put she loves putting the pieces in. Making neckless with daddy. Playing games with daddy.Bubbles. We got from a garage sale for $1. playing outback. See what others did last week over at 1+1+1=1

Bean Bag Fun!!

Bean bags will come in handy again and again. Here are some ideas I have to get you started but they are a great open ended toy. Bean bags could lead to hours of play.

• Bean Bag Toss- toss the bean bags into a laundry basket, bucket, pie tin or other container. Once he has gotten skilled, make it more challenging by moving the container farther away. • Catch- with friend or by throw up in the air • Balance beam- place bean bags in a line on the floor and walk on them • Pillow- for doll or stuff animals • Balance-walk with a bean bag on your head. Too hard on the head try crawling with them on your back. • Game of hot potato • Practice colors- by talking about the colors or asking your child to bring you the _____ bean bag. • Counting- count the bags, have the child bring you ___ number of bags. • Juggle • Hit the can(s)- set up cans and throw beanbags to knock over the cans • Parachute flip- put bean bag(s) on parachute and flip up. (No parachute? Use a sheet or for a two man game a pillow case.) • Bean bag hide and seek- hide the bean bags all around the room or house for little on to find.

Bean bags have hours of fun in them to help to kill hours of boredom for us. To find out what others do to kill boredom cheek out Works For Me Wednesday "Mom I am bored" week over at We Are That Family. After your done remember to go play with your kids.

I re-use it!!

I know it is sad but I am not good at being Green. One thing I am good at is finding a new life for old stuff. Here is some things I reuse for our table time (Tot School).

Juice boxes I just started saving them. They are strong and it was the right size for the pens. I will be finding more uses for them I am sure.

I am sure we all reuse bubble wrap.(Girlygirl use to hate the noise but loves it now)

It is hard to see but that is one of Girlygirl's paintings made into cutting strips. I save the piece she cuts and give then to her to glue later. I have tried to let her cut and glue at the same time but it hasn't yet worked for her. Play-doh tubs work great for holding things on her trays. I also use the smaller one for sorting or with a small wet rag for painting (this keeps the water cup from making a mess). I save all our lids above she used the to glue below I traced and cut them out for her circle collage.The lacing card is made out of a cracker box and a painting Girlygirl did. I use old food tubs for lots of stuff to store stuff or to hold things on the tot tray. In this tub is cut paper and glue stick.

A cigar box become letter box.

Egg cartons are great. We us then lots we made Easter bunnies this year with them but no picture. Above: is was we use for counting. Below is pattern matching.The mail box is made from a tissue box.The jar is hold all kind of old stuff.We painted news paper hearts for Valentine's Day. I know I do reuse other stuff and I am do an other post about it someday. I just don't want this to be too long or is it too late. Anyways what do you reuse in your tot school or just with your kids?

Tot School: Week 19

~33 Months~ I don't have anything great to say this week but her are the picture of what Girlgirl did. We had a fun week. Girlygirl is getting so big.Cheek out what others did for there Tot School last week over at 1plus1plus1equals1. Remember to play with your kids today. They love it.