2011 is really hitting me with a bit of a bang. As I realize this is the year that my darling Monkey will go to Kindergarten! How is that even possible!
In February my Darling Alligator will begin preschool 2 mornings a week!
Check back, as I will post my new years resolutions tomorrow!
One of our main causes of tantrums lately is because Alligator can’t tell us what he wants. So, Alligator’s speech therapist recommended making a book of some of his favorite foods. That way we can use it to learn the names, but also to point to a picture when he wants something.
I owned this “look book” from Sassy for awhile now. It had pictures of Alligator’s family in it (meaning us and grandparents). But I decided to switch out the pictures for ones of food.
Here are the pictures I took. I have added a caption so you know what we call each item.
Fruit: (either it is peaches or mandarin oranges, easiest just to say fruit)
Cracker
Goldfish
Yogurt bites
Sippy
I have also made a cover for the book that says “Alligators favorite foods” and it includes the following picture, cause he is eating!
First let me say I am not a specialist. I learned this activity from our speech therapist, and wanted to pass it on.
Today Alligator and I were in the doctor’s office waiting. He was in a good mood despite being sick and I needed something to entertain him. I happened to find a sticker that was stuck to the inside of my purse. First I showed it to him. He thought it was pretty cool and immediatly placed it on his hand. So I said “hand”. He took it off and placed it on his other hand and I said “hand”. THen he gave me the sticker so I placed it on various parts of him, stating the name of the location. He laughed and laughed.
Then I asked him to place it. (a-ha, he had to follow a 1 step instruction) Which he did pretty well. Then he dropped it. So I asked him to “pick it up and put it on the chair” (see…a 2 step direction). And he did it, most of the time.
We had a ball, kept busy, and had a language lesson. All while waiting for the doctor. Which we then discovered Alligator has a double ear infection. OUCH!
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Around here our mornings are CRAZY! I am a natural night owl, I don’t fall asleep easily, and end up staying up till at least midnight most nights. Monkey follows in my footsteps and is impossible to get to bed at night, and almost near impossible to wake up in the morning. Alligator is pretty good at going to sleep and is usually awake around 7, assuming he isn’t sick or didn’t have a bad night (meaning he wasn’t up for 2-3 hours in the middle of the night).
So our mornings are hectic. We are all running around crazy, trying to find things; mittens, hats, coats, shoes, socks, sippy-cups….
So I created our Morning Bins. Each child has their own. These are plastic bins that are see-through. Monkey and Alligator each got to decorate their own with stickers. Then every night before bed, I place all the things they will need the next morning in them.
Monkey’s bin contains:
Clothes, underwear, socks, shoes, hat, mittens, coat, and a loaded book bag.
Alligator’s bin contains:
Clothes, diaper, wipes, socks, shoes, hat, mittens, coat and a clean sippy cup.
I can’t tell you what a difference this has made in our mornings. After breakfast, when it is time to get ready for school I grab the bins, and get one child ready at a time. I don’t have to be running around asking where things are…I just get them dressed. In fact, it has even helped Monkey do some of his own preparation in the morning.
I was not born-organized. So I need these little systems to get me going in the morning. I have also added two other bins to our lives the shoe bin, and the hat/mitten bin. When we come in from outside shoes and hats and mittens go in the bins. Then I am not looking for them all over the house.
Don’t you just love ORGANIZATION!
So yesterday we decided to take our family Christmas picture. The pictures below tell the story!
My darling Alligator loves to color/scribble. I guess it is scribbling since he doesn’t actually color in shapes, but makes designs on paper. In fact, most of the time if you give him a paper with a design on it (like a coloring page) he won’t color it. But he loves a crayon or marker or pencil, and some clean fresh paper.
Well, today he grabbed the paint and a paintbrush and brought it to me. So I figured he wanted to paint. (duh…right). Normally painting isn’t something he loves.; But I think I found the secret.
1. He has to have a brush. He WILL NOT finger paint! Better yet give him 2 brushes, one for each hand.
2. Squirt the paint directly onto the paper. If I try to squirt it into a bowl for him to dip, he will color the bowl. So I squirt directly on the paper.
3. I only squirt a little at a time. He will point at the paint and tell me when he is ready for more.
4. Offer fresh pieces of paper often. Who doesn’t love a fresh start?
Here are all of this mornings creations! We had fun!!!!!
This week has been pretty active for us thus far because Alligator has had his nap in the morning on both days. So that makes the afternoons much more eventful.
We are doing a Itty Bitty Bookworm unit on “The Best Mouse Cookie Ever”. Below is our shelf for the books we will be reading over the next 2 weeks.
We started off by reading the book. Then Alligator and Monkey decorated chef’s hats. They used crayons and stamps. Alligator really got the idea of the stamps after a while. He seemed to love it.
Here they are. They wore them all afternoon.
Today we made gingerbread play dough. Monkey loves to make things in the kitchen. SO I let me do most of it. However, it was a cookied play dough recipe, and I did all the cooking, but he stood back and watched.
Here they are playing with it, and wow, did it smell good!
Alligator is loving letters these days. So I have started some letter activities to play with him. Here is our letter Aa bin.
Included:: Alligator, airplane, 3 A’s, an ant, and an acorn.
Here is our Red bin:
It includes:
Red Wand, a red view finder from Time for Tots early toddler kit, a tomator, some red blocks, a strawberry, a big coin, a tractor and a red cup.
When we play with these I will give Alligator the bin and let him pull things out talking about how it starts with A or is red. As he plays I’ll continue to reinforce “that’s an airplane, it stars with the letter A “or that is a red block”.
I will surely have more picture later in the week.
I am so excited about the month of December. I finally have a plan in place that I am very excited about.
I am going to be doing toddler preschool with Alligator in the mornings while big brother is in preschool. You can find the website here. I am not sure if they are actually selling the lessons anymore. I used them when Monkey was 2. But lately I can’t get through to the site. Good thing I saved the lessons. They are VERY age appropriate. There is an LA lesson and a math lesson each day. This week we are working on the letter A, the color red, and building with blocks.
Then while Alligator naps, Monkey and I will work on our Time For Tots kits. We’ll do the Christmas kit, and the countdown to Christmas kit. I will do the count down to Christmas kit with both boys when appropriate, but will definitely do the crafts with both of them. And he also has a animal sticker book, that he enjoys working on (My mom bought it for him at Ross and he loves it).
Then once Alligator wakes up we will do Itty Bitty Bookworm. THe books featured this month are
The Best Mouse Cookie by Laura Numeroff
How Do Dinosaurs Play With Their Friends? by Jane Yolen
Monkey loves playing with the sensory tubs from Time for Tots.
Here he is playing with the Thanksgiving activities from TfT as well.
Here is Monkey and Alligator making a rooster mask and dancing with them on.
Here is Alligator playing with our piggy bank. He loves this toy.
Alligator will surprise me if he isn’t some form of a musician later in life. He played this drum for over 30 minutes straight. He is always playing a drum. I hope Santa brings him a real drum and more musical instruments.
Here are the boys working on painting.
I will be linking to Totschool and Preschool corner. Please check out what others are doing.
