Tot School: Week Four

~30 Months~

This week was a long one. Both my sitters got the same flu I had last week so we had my nephews this 3 days this week. Luckily not all the same day. We also had MOPS this week. Both Girlgirl and I love MOPS. I had great plans for this week but most of them didn't happen but we still had lots of fun.We cut coupons. Well I did she cut up the ToyRUs ad. She has loved her Little People this week. She got them out everyday.Water paint page. We danced and talked about shapes using our Elmo's Dance and Learn Mat. Glitter Glue. Lots of fun. Stacking buckets. Played Spin and Go from the Dollar Tree.Music at Aunties house.We played Candy Land for the first time and Girlgirl loved it. We tried to play to times in a row but it was to much for her. We played match the letters with one of her Memory games.

Terrible Twos: Tantrums When the Come

Terrible Twos: Tantrums When the Come

No matter what you do all tots have tantrums from time to time. If yours in in like mine some days it feels like they just are not stopping. So here is what I do when Girlygirl just get's do mad and has to tell the world. I believe she has a right to be mad. It is my job to teach her what to do when she is mad.

1. Go in other room to cry: She may have the right to be mad but I have the right not to hear yell about. The first time she got mad because something didn't go her way. I took her to her room calmly tell her, "You can't yell like that. When you are done please come out." Now most the time I just have to tell her to go to her room. I never send her to her as a punishment.
2. Ask child to claim down and listen: This works better when they are a little older. Sometime Girlygirl and I are thinking the same thing but she doesn't know it. Sometimes just getting her to listen if I can will stop the tantrum.
3. Let them know you understand: I often tell Girlygirl something like, " I know you don't want to take a bath. You are having fun playing. Mommy says it is time to take a bath. Can you help we turn on the water." Sometimes she is still mad but a lot of the times she is claims down knowing I understand.
4. Offer a hug: I try to always give her a hug as she is claiming down or when I am talking to her.
5. Rap in blancket: Sometimes Girlygirl can't claim down not often but from time to time. I just get a blanket and rap it around her and hold her tight.

Tot School: Week Three

~30 Months old~ Our school time and planned learning by me didn't happen this week. As Grammy and Poppy where here and then I had a bad flu. But I did get some unplanned learning in photos. Reading!! I am glad she loves to read so much and that she doesn't care if someone reads to her or if she reads on her own.This weeks favorite. Go Away, Big Green Monster!Bouncing on the big ball. Great to kick too. I mostly just sit her on it and help her bonce or roll her froward and back. Playing with Vtech - Tote 'N Go Laptop Plus, after doing Grammy's hair. Don't you think she looks great. I learned a great way to sign stories with Girlygirl from one of the yahoo chat groups I am in. It works out great. She has been pick up so much more sign now that she can see the stories I sign to her.Making valentines for friends and family. We will mail them out soon. We went to a Winter Carnival in Lombard. It was free. She love the glitter glue. I will have to get her some.Bye Grammy and Poppy we will miss you!!

Terrible Twos: Avoiding Tantrums

All moms with young kids know what it is like to tell their little one no or it is time to do something they are not ready for and the crying to start. Each child has different things that make them go into a tantrum but when they get there many of us don't know what to do. Lucky for me I got to learn things that worked as a nanny and teacher's aid long before I had Girlygirl. Here are a few of my thoughts about avoiding tantrums.

1. Give them a warning before it is time to clean up, go to bed or leave the house. Just telling Girlygirl in 5 minutes it is ______ works great. No she doesn't know when the 5 minutes are up but it helps her know that she will have to change what she is doing soon.
2. Try to keep your days the same most days. When changes will come in let your child know. On days we go out to do something Girlygirl and I talk about it. I am say "Today after we eat we have to get ready. We are going to go shopping today." That way she know we will not play for two or more hours after we eat.
3. Teach your child as young as you can to be able to play on their own. Don't run to your child every time they start to get mad wait a little bit to see what they will do even as a young baby.
4. Let your child help you do what you are doing. Girlygirl has a place she can come in the kitchen when I am cooking. If she does I try to find something she can do to help me or just talk to her about what I am doing. She has her own cleaning stuff to help when I clean. Sometimes I feel if she was not helping what I was doing would go faster but then the times I tell her no she ends up getting mad because she loves to be with me or making an other mess I have to clean.
5. Move your toys around. Even if you don't keep toys to rotate you can move the bed room toys to the living from or even to a new place in the room and the child will like to play with them more.
6. Don't have tantrums your self. If you get mad and yell when things don't go your way what makes you think your child will not.
7. Plan things to do each day. Your child will get broad if they are just left to play all day everyday. Some days of just all day free play is good but most days should be broken up with planned things. Bring out the play dough, have them sit at the table and play for at least 15 minutes a day, go outside, go do something, or make a craft just to name a few ideas.
8. Take time to play with your kids EVERYDAY. If they don't have to be be bad for you to stop what you are doing to talk to them they will enjoy you more.
9. To do this say what you mean and mean what you say. Don't say I am going to throw you outside if you don't stop yelling because you know you can't do that. Maybe say if you don't stop mom is going to put you in your room because that hurts my ears. Or if you say if you do that again I am going to spank you then when they do spank them. In the same way don't tell you child if they are good at the store you will buy them a candy and then not buy one when they are good or worse buy them one after being bad.
10. Teach your child your are the boss. We all have bosses in life and for now you are your child's. Tell your child , "I am the Mommy (or daddy or _____) you most listen to me." I have taught Girlygirl I am the boss. Sometimes now all I have to say is "Who is the boss?" Girlygirl will say "Mommy, Daddy". I say "Yes you have to do _____ because I am the boss."

Remember what you teach your child today is the steps to the whole life. I will be talking more about tanturms in the next few weeks. Come back to see my other thoughts.

Tot school week two

~30 months old~ This week I read Noah's Ark to Girlygirl everyday. I have 4 different books with the story in it and I read them all to her. Here are the pictures of other learning fun we had this week. WeWe made a snake with Girlygirl's name on it. She loves to glue. I taught her to play laundry basketball. She loved it and we did it everyday. We had our paints out most days. She loves it. It is cute that she is now saying that her picture is things. Often people we know. She gave her baby a bath. We cleaned the whole house.She loved the string cards this week for the first time. We have tried them before and she just got mad at how had it was. After she leaned how to do this day she was so happy to show Sweet Dude when he got home from work. Again in our jammies we played with play dough. She does the often but after reading about Tot School I sat down and played with her for a long time. Although she did play for more than an hour so I did get up to make lunch. Yea lunch in our jammies.Dancing with NuNu. (her name for her blanket) I cut out a Noah ark and pictures of a rainbow and animals for a magazine and we glued them on blue paper. Well she glued I read to her about Noah. Pointing out that she was make his big boat called an ark. I am not sure she got because she told me,"No not Noah's! POPPY'S!" We painted coffee filters and the made them into butterflies (picture below).We brushed the dog. We made a boat with blocks and filled it with the animals. And then we got out our Noah's boat. Fixed Daddy's hair. Helped make lunch. Mac and Cheese. End our week with Grammy and Poppy coming. She is looking out the window waiting. They are here!! We had a great week. Lots of fun. I can't believe how good I was at getting picture thought the week.

Preschool Craft time: Coffee Filter Butterfly

Preschool Craft time: Coffee Filter Butterfly These are great fun but a little messy to make it. Step One: Gather 1 or 2 coffee filter(s) and 1 1/2 pipe cleaner. A cup of water, water colors paint and bushes. Young kids have fun using more than one brush. You may put down pager on table because paint does go through the filter. (I don't mind cleaning up the mess so didn't do this.) Step Two: paint the filters and let dry.

Step three: If using two filters put together. Then pinch mild together. (like in picture above.)

Step Four: Wrap the half a pipe cleaner (the are easy to cut with scissors) around where you pinched it. Step Five: Place the whole pipe cleaner through the pipe cleaner that is there. Fold in half and twist together. This is held to make the butterflies fly. Girlygirl loved that she made something she can play with.

New Ideas For Preschooler

I was looking at a book my sister has and I got new ideas I would like to try with Girlygirl. I love finding new things that I have not tried that will work for us to do at home. For snack time I found a great idea to had Animals in the Mud. All I need is animal cookies in chocolate fostering. Just have the animals standing in the fostering. I think I will be a good thing when we talk about animals. For art/craft time I got lots ideas. Some are more simple like; scribble bookmark, torn paper or fabric collage. A few will be made out of shoe boxes. Treasure box made out of a shoe box covered in construction paper. You can choice to decorate the box with stickers and by coloring. We will use it to hold all the treasures of a two year old and as she grows. Show box garage simply cut whole in front to fit toy cars in. Again you and decorate however you want. I am sure the kids will not care if it is just a box with a hole for their cars. Mail box is made just like the garage you can decorate or just cut a hole to get the mail. (I plan to make the mail box this week I will blog about it when we are done) Car wheel painting is a great and easy thing to do. Just get or make a shallow box make sure it is big enough to fit your paper. Roll toy cars in paint then in box. Or you can just put a few drops of paint in the box and roll the car around on them. I have never used a car but when I worked in a preschool we did it with balls it work it was a great hit. I found three other things I am not sure what category they'd be in. I still look forward to trying them. Falling ball tunnel (I think can work for cars too) you need a cardboard mail tube, a towel, cookie sheet and masking tape. To make the falling ball tunnel you roll towel and place on cookie sheet. Then place the mail tube long way on the cookie sheet with towel holding one end high on the other end on the cookie sheet. Tape all three together do not cover the holes. A cheep great game is what is in here. All you need is a pillowcase, tube socks and things to hide in the socks/ pillow case. There are two ways to play you can just put things in the pillow case and let your child play with them. They may dump the all out then put back in or just take out one at a time. The other way to play is to hide things in the tube socks and then in pillow case. The last sounds easy but I never thought of it. It is called laundry basket ball. It is just like it sounds you throw a ball in the laundry basket. The other idea was to use rolled up socks. I can't wait to play these with Girlygirl. Remember to play with your kids today.

Tot School

I am joining in an other thing. I look forward to doing this. It will be great to look back on what I did with Girlygirl over the weeks. This sounds even more fun to me includes my love to photos and watching Girlygirl play and grow. We we go with my first post about Tot School.

We played in the snow at auntie's house.

We all worked together to make a snow man. We played with blocks and practiced sharing without being bossy.Painted our red color bag. She cut and glued for table time.We read in the chair. This picture is after I was told to move. She needed more room for books

Go cheek out what others are doing for Tot School this week and remember to play with you kids today.

Operation Playtime Day 6 of 12: Get outside

Today operation playtime is about outside play. This is something I have not been good at this winter. With there always being snow on the ground and how cold it is been it is not something I want to do. Also with my old job I didn't have much time to do anything fun. The last time we really played outside was Monday we made a snow man and Girlygirl played with some sand toys. Today we are going to go to see the husky dogs at the Arboretum. That will be fun and a great way to get out. I will add pictures later.

I am going to try to get outside more to play with Girlygirl. Remember to play with your kids today.

Operation Playtime Day 5 of 12:Painting

I found Operation playtime today. I wish I found it before day one. I seem to find things 5 days in all the time. I joined late but it is still fun. In Operation Playtime the goal is to play with things that don't have batteries or a plug. I love that. Each day they give an idea of something to do. Today was painting with kitchen stuff. Girlygirl didn't like the idea of painting with anything but brushes so we just paint the red bag to use for our color bags. Painting is one of Girlygirl favorite things to do so she loves when I get the paint out.

new Web Site

I just found this web site today and it looks great. I can't wait to have more time to play on it and learn more stuff to do with Girlygirl.