Dinosaurs & Trains

backyard play ~ truck wash

2011-05-25T13:48:00.001-04:00

Yesterday while we were playing in our backyard Lucas was upset because his favourite truck – he calls it Mack from the Disney movie Cars – was dirty.

So I grabbed him a big bowl full of warm soapy water and a sponge and he spent close to an hour cleaning his truck.

notice the backwards hat? Yep. That's the only way he will wear it.

Once he was finished using the sponge I got him the hose so he could rinse off the truck and the deck.

some good clean backyard fun ; )

tot school ~ 5.24.2011

2011-05-24T12:07:00.001-04:00

Since Lucas has stopped taking his afternoon naps it has been really difficult to find time to get online! Let alone upload hundreds of pictures and write a whole post!! Oh well.. Better late then never : ) Here is a look at our past week.

Learning through art and crafting

Lucas did painting/printing with some left over bubble paper packaging. I have seen this on several different blogs, it is also an activity that I had bookmarked from our First Art book.

Lucas has been really interested in using scissors over the past two weeks. He has been helping himself to the scissors and paper and he has gotten really good at using them. This week I will be setting up some more structured scissor activities for him.

We used our new paint rollers to create some BIG messy art!

We also participated in stART this week @ A Mommy’s Adventures. We made the crab from the book My Heart is Like a Zoo.

Lucas has really enjoyed the new materials in our sensory table for playing, and also some large scale sorting.

Learning through creative play

Lucas is really into role playing right now. In the picture above we used our waffle blocks to build a house and then he set up the table with the mommy, the daddy, the big brother and the baby.

Here is look at Lucas during play. I helped Lucas to set up his blocks and then he arranged the trees, street lights & signs, and people around the town. Then he drove his vehicles around to the different locations. He pretended one of the blocks was toys r us – his favourite store : )

Lucas has always loved our marble run but now that he can independently set up a track, he plays with it nonstop!

Another very popular toy this week was our train table. For the past 2 months the tracks had been packed away, once they were set up again there was lots of renewed interest!

Other Fun Stuff

From May to October we spend the majority of our weekends at our trailer up north, this past weekend was our first time up there this year. While we are there we spent 90% of our time outside playing so Lucas had a blast– except for at night when he cried to go home : (

In the picture above the trailer that you see across the road, belongs to my in-laws.

On the roof of their shed a robin made a nest and had some babies

aren’t they beautiful? Lucas wasn’t really interested in them… but I think I took nearly 100 photos of them!

That’s it for this week! Visit 1plus1plus1equals1 to see what other tots are learning.

stART ~ My heart is like a zoo

2011-05-18T22:40:00.001-04:00

While we were at the library last week I stumbled upon the book “my heart is like a zoo” and thought it was perfect for using in a story + art activity.

Lucas loved this book for the bright colourful pictures, and rhyming text. And Dominic liked this book for its variety of animals and there were just over 300 hearts for him to count throughout the book! I liked this book because it was a great way for me to begin talking to Lucas about his feelings. The book covers a range of feelings covering happy and sad all the way to feeling crafty and peaceful.

a look inside the book

Lucas chose the snappy as a crab… not because he is snappy or crabby : ) but because he loves our hermit and emerald crabs that we have in our fish tank.

Lucas started out with some glue and cornmeal for sand

and then with help from mama we cut and assembled the hearts to match the one in the book.

See other great stART projects by visiting A Mommy's Adventures!

In our sensory table right now…

2011-05-16T13:29:00.002-04:00

It has been awhile since I last shared our sensory table here on the blog! I still rotate our materials in the table about once a month, depending on popularity. This month we have pasta - in various shapes, pompoms, marbles, marker lids, and plastic eggs.

This sensory tub has been really great, we have been able to do so many different activities from it. So far we have sorted the items by objects, by colour, and by sound.

Above are the eggs set up with the different materials inside, and Lucas shaking them to hear the sound. Below is Lucas working on sorting out the materials by colour – this is an activity that I didn't think would interest him, but he has worked on it several times over the past few weeks!

in the messy room ~ bubble paper prints

2011-05-09T10:40:00.001-04:00

We have a room in our basement, just off the playroom that has been designated as the “messy room” a room for all things messy. Everything from play dough to art projects, to crafting to the sensory table. A room that we can go and have tons of fun and make a mess and I don't have to clean it up right away – I just have to shut the door and pretend its not there.. which is sometimes nice : )

Last week in the messy room Lucas did some painting and printing with bubble paper.

tot school ~ highlights from the past few months

2011-04-25T23:29:00.001-04:00

That was a much longer break then I had originally anticipated, but I am glad to be back! Here is a collection of pictures from the past few months…

painting with scrapers

drawing circles in the sand

free art with dot markers

torn paper collage…kinda. He lost interest : )

lots of puzzles

playing DS Games with big brother

Lucas inherited an old cell phone which he LOVES! Its been great helping him learn his numbers.

Mr. Shaggy Doo – got a hair cut

Lacing and wearing wooden shoes

Threading beads

building with wedgits

making bus trains ~ my mom gives him a one of those little yellow buses every time we go to her house for a visit.

rice and lentils in the sensory table

meeting petey the bird
… and taking him for a ride on mack

play dough sculptures ~ with googly eyes, big beads, and feathers

painting a mini birdhouse

more collages

and glitter

dying Easter eggs

be back soon!

2011-03-24T14:35:00.001-04:00

I have been really terrible at this blogging thing recently! So much has been going on in my family over the past few months I just haven't had the time, the pictures, or the desire to blog.

But I hope to be back soon with some of the activities we’ve been doing as well as some crafts and some new recipes!

finger paint gone wrong

2011-03-04T14:22:00.003-05:00

I made a batch of finger paint this morning from the recipe I found in the book First Art by Maryann Kohl, I followed the recipe/directions but it did not turn out quite right - I think maybe I over cooked it....

It looked great but when we tried to use it, it was too thick and jelly like to paint with.

Luckily Lucas like the jelly glops of gloop…

and our painting activity turned into a sensory activity…

We played in this squishy mess for a good part of our morning

I hope to recreate this mess again soon ‘cause this little man had a blast!

fix it friday ~ #88

2011-02-25T13:12:00.001-05:00

Original Photo:

My Edits:

see more great edits by visiting:

tot school ~ 27months

2011-02-20T12:11:00.000-05:00

Lucas is 27 Months

I don’t have too much to share this week. We didn’t go with a theme life has been a little to hectic so we just focused on the things Lucas likes to do, and had a lot of fun ~ which really, is the best way to do tot school!

Lucas really likes working with glue, he asks for it daily. We easily go through a bottle a week – or day if I let him ; )

feathers and glue

a fun simple open ended art activity

I brought out our peg boards this week…

we built towers

and sorted out the pegs by colour.

we played with vinegar and baking soda again, this time Lucas really got into it ; )

We also had a lot of fun with puffy paint!

Lucas really enjoyed playing with this maze, you use the magnetic pen to move the balls to the different animals… its great for exercising his fine motor skills and hand eye coordination!

Lucas helped set up a marble track and LOVED racing his marbles around

This week I brought out our Melissa and Doug sequencing set. We don't follow the cards yet we just make our own patterns.

and sort them by colour.

After reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom we matched our letters to the letters at the back of the book.

then we put them on to our coconut tree

Over the past few weeks Lucas has really been into the movie Cars, and it has really sparked a lot of imaginative play which has been really nice to see!In this photo he has his buses talking to each other.

This last photo is may favourite! My two boys playing cooperatively together – a rare moment!

That’s it for this week! Visit 1plus1plus1equals1 to see what other tots are learning.

fix it friday ~ #87

2011-02-18T14:01:00.002-05:00

original image:

my edits:

see more great edits by visiting:

puffy paint

2011-02-08T10:29:00.001-05:00

Lucas enjoyed working with puffy paint yesterday, I knew he would since the viscosity is somewhat similar to glue… and he loves glue!

I made a batch and separated it into three different colours, I used old shampoo bottles and an old glue bottle. Lucas preferred the glue bottle since it was smaller and easier for his little hands to squeeze.

To make puffy paint:

1cup of flour
1cup of salt
1cup of water
empty squeeze containers
1 Tablespoon tempera paint –as many colours as you want

Mix the first 3 ingredients together in a big bowl.

Divide the mix out into smaller containers – one for each colour

Add 1 Tbsp of tempera and mix well. Adjust the colour by add another tsp of paint until desired colour s reached

Pour into squeeze bottle – a funnel will make this easier or you can spoon the mixture.

Give the child the bottles and watch them get to work!

* this paint does not work well on construction/craft paper. Instead use matte board or card board, we used and old cereal box cut up!

fix it friday ~ #85

2011-02-04T11:09:00.002-05:00

Original Image:

my edits:

You can find more great edits here!

stART ~ Art’s Supplies

2011-02-02T16:31:00.000-05:00

This week we read Art's Supplies by Chris Tougas.

The book starts off with Art saying “its not my fault… my supplies have a mind of their own!” then the book goes on “the paper started it by inviting everyone to her pad for a party”. It doesn't take long for the pencils to arrive. They are soon joined by crayons, markers, pastels, ink, glue, scissors, and paint. This book creatively explores the process of children creating art.

However there is a BIG part of the book that I did NOT LIKE… on every page Art’s supplies are talking and making comments. Some are cute and clever like the crayons saying “lets colour outside the lines” others are rude and inappropriate like the pencil talking about his butt, and the markers talking about having the runs and making references to alcohol – that completely ruined what could have been a great book.

I gave the kids large sheet of paper and some pencils, markers, crayons and pastels.

Once they had coloured for awhile I gave them scrap paper, scissors and glue.

Lucas LOVES working with glue, we easily go through a bottle a week!

“just when I thought it was over, the paints arrived.” ~ a line from the book

although I was not satisfied with our book, I loved this art project. It was great to just let the kids create after doing so many structured crafts the last few weeks!

See other great stART projects by visiting A Mommy's Adventures!

baking soda + vinegar

2011-01-31T13:32:00.001-05:00

baking soda + vinegar = a fun way to exercise small motor skills!

and play around with colour mixing!

and learn about cause and effect!

and its just plain fun!

It was hard work figuring out how to suck up the vinegar with the eye dropper, but with lots of practice he became a pro!

He loved watching the soda fizz up!

When Lucas grew tired of this activity I told him to dump the cups into the bin for one big final fizz.

This activity was tons of fun for both me and Lucas, we will be repeating it again soon.

totschool – 26 months

2011-01-30T22:42:00.002-05:00

Lucas is 26 Months

This week our focus was dinosaurs. We will be continuing on with this next week as well.

Stamping dinosaur footprints with brown paint/mud

After Lucas was finished he washed his dinosaurs in some warm soapy water

he really enjoys playing with water so this occupied him for quite some time, I cant wait for warmer weather so he can play in the water table whenever he wants!

I gave Lucas our craft toothbrush to scrub the dino’s

Lucas glued black beans and split peas to a triceratops

and played with his tiny dinosaurs in the rice and lentil sensory tub.

Lucas also helped me make play dough this week

and we used it for our stART activity!

I made this file folder game for Lucas, I found the printable for it here.

Lucas showed me how well he knows his alphabet when we did this activity!

I printed this page from the making learning fun website. After Lucas told me the letter I would give him a sticker for him to match to the letter on the page.

He knew the names of most of the letters… and he knew the phonetic sound to almost all of the letters! ( he loves to play on starfall and has learned a lot from that site)

Lucas really enjoys helping, so each day I have him do some do some chores around the house!

I use a mix of vinegar and water to do most of my light cleaning, so it is perfectly safe for Lucas to help… and he LOVES to use the spray bottle!

Lucas also loves to vacuum!

here he is vacuuming up some dried up play dough from earlier in the day.

Lucas has been really into puzzles lately, he loves his melissa and doug shape puzzle.

He also really likes this puzzle, especially when his big brother helps him sort it out!

It also makes for a great stage when your done! ; )

That’s it for this week! Visit 1plus1plus1equals1 to see what other tots are learning.

I heart faces ~ Fix it Friday

2011-01-28T11:02:00.001-05:00

I’ve always loved playing around in photoshop, its so much fun! So when I came across the I heart faces blog and learned about their fix it friday photos I just had to join in on the fun!

This is the original image:

and here is my edit:

You can find more great edits here!

Valentine Art

2011-01-28T09:24:00.001-05:00

Last week when Dominic stayed home from school we got out a large sheet of paper, and some oil pastels and started doodling&scribbling

Once we were finished I gave Dominic some pink acrylic paint (watered down) to paint over top.

I love the hearts he drew!

Once it was dry we cut out the hearts, and traced and cut out the word Love.

It is now hanging on the wall in our dining room.

stART ~ Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones

2011-01-26T18:18:00.001-05:00

We have moved on to learning about dinosaurs! and the book we have chosen for our stART project is

Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones by Byron Barton.

For our art project to go along with the book we used our play-dough and some different pasta shapes that I raided from our pantry we made dinosaur skeletons/fossils!

Lucas made this one on his own

and this is one that we made together!

He wasn’t to interested in making dinosaur shapes, and that was OK! We ended up having lots of fun making all sorts of other creations with the play-dough and pasta!

See other great stART projects by visiting A Mommy's Adventures!

Homemade Play-dough!

2011-01-26T13:09:00.002-05:00

Yesterday Lucas and I made a fresh batch of play-dough from our favourite recipe. Our play-dough always turns out so soft and perfect for Lucas little hands, so I thought I would share our recipe!

I know there is a ton of play-dough recipes floating around on the web, but I thought I would share ours anyways incase any of my readers are in search of good recipe!

You will need:

2 Cups of Water
Food Colouring
1 Cup of Salt
4 Teaspoons Cream of Tartar
4 Tablespoons of Oil
2 Cups of Flour

Everything measured and set up ready to go!

In a large saucepan add water, food colouring, salt and cream of tartar.

mix softly to combine ingredients

If you want to add a little something extra like a scent or some sparkles, do that now! then set on the stove at low heat and stir.

Once the mixture starts to heat, add the oil. Then slowly add the flour in while stirring.

Continue mixing the dough until it starts to look dry and is pulling away from the sides of the pan.

Remove the dough from the pan and place on a clean work surface. If you find the dough is sticky put it back in the pan for another minute or so.

Knead the dough until smooth!

Next give the dough to your little dinosaur and see how he likes it!

poke it…

and make some balls…

and some snakes… or trains as this little dino prefers

pull it apart…

and then smoosh it back together!

and when you are done, store it in an airtight container (not in the refrigerator!) for another day!

We usually make a fresh batch of play-dough each month, just to change up the colour and to restore interest. But if you wanted to this dough will easily last 3 months!

Read to Me – Transportation Theme Books

2011-01-24T12:20:00.000-05:00

We just finished up 2 weeks of transportation themed activities, here are the books that we read during these two weeks:

Trucks by Fiona Watt- We bought this book quite awhile ago, and it has been one of Lucas' favourites ever since! The text is short and simple, perfect for a two year old that doesn't like to sit still! Each page has its own truck with multiple textures to feel, also each page has background images, and or animals to touch and feel which is great for expanding the story and learning even further!

Alphabeep by Deborah Pearson- I loved this book! I thought the rhyming text was sweet, and the pictures were bright, bold, and engaging! Both of the boys enjoyed this book as well, it was a little difficult for Lucas to sit still for the whole book but he loved seeing all the different vehicles, and he chose this book several times throughout the week!

My Car by Byron Barton– This is a terrific book for any little boy who loves cars, Lucas wanted to read it over and over again! Once again this was a book with very simple text “I am Sam – This is my car.” Throughout the book Sam talks about his car and its parts, and how he cares for his car… I later used this while playing cars with Lucas – we pretended to fill our cars with gas, and change the oil, use our headlights and so on… at the end of the book Sam drives his car to work – where he is a bus driver! Lucas loves that part!

Fire Truck By Peter Sis – Neither Dominic, Lucas or I like this book. It was written by a father for his son who loves fire trucks, I can imagine some kids may enjoy this book… but I found the pictures were boring, and the text had no rhythm or story value to it.

How will you get there maisy? by Lucy Cousins – another book we weren’t too fond of. This was a lift the flap book which the kids usually enjoy, but the way the story was written was just not engaging for us at all. Other then the one time we read it together, I don't think it left our book basket all week.

Freight Train & Flying by Donald Crews – for anyone who has been reading my blog you know of my love for Donald Crews and his books! The pictures are always clear, colourful and crisp! and the text is short, simple, and engaging!

Read to me!

2011-01-23T19:57:00.002-05:00

We have joined the read to me challenge that is being hosted by the blog There's a Book. We have joined at two different levels, for Lucas we will be doing the “harvesting level” – which has a goal of me reading 200 books to Lucas and for Dominic he will be doing “early reader” – which has a goal of Dominic reading 120 books independently.

For a family that loves books as much as we do, I am not sure this will be much of a challenge : ) But it will be nice to document our reading and rate the books on how the kiddies like them!

Tot School

2011-01-23T17:33:00.001-05:00

Lucas is 26 Months

We were all a bunch of sickies at our house this week! We didn’t even do half of what I had planned, but we were still able to fit a bit of fun and learning into our week.

Here is a look at our week….

This week involved lots of playing with our train table

We got this train set for Lucas for Christmas and he LOVES it!

We did a traffic light craft.

Lucas LOVES working with glue!

When Lucas was finished with his traffic light he wanted another gluing project, so he made a circle collage!

Dominic stayed home sick from school one day this week, and he helped Lucas make a Vehicle Word Book that I got from Enchanted Learning.

We read Freight Train for our STart project this week

Here is Lucas playing with our freight train we made.

Lucas also coloured a train with some oil pastels, he loves colouring with those!

We used our blocks to make roads and tunnels for his vehicles, Lucas loves to do this!

That’s it for this week! Visit 1plus1plus1equals1 to see what other tots are learning.

stART~ Freight Train

2011-01-20T11:31:00.001-05:00

This week we read Freight Train by Donald Crews for our stART activity. Yep! Another book by Donald Crews! What can I say, we LOVE his books!!

After reading the book – several times, we made a train from toilet paper rolls.

Lucas lost interest in painting after the second colour, so Dominic helped me finish the rest after he got home from school.

After the paint dried I joined all the pieces with paper clips and had Lucas glue on the wheels. It didn’t turn out quite how I had pictured, but Lucas loves it and that is all that matters!

See other great stART projects by visiting A Mommy's Adventures!

Tot School ~ Transportation Theme

2011-01-15T15:12:00.000-05:00

I have decided to start doing some theme based learning activities with Lucas, my hopes is that it will create more structure in to our routine not only for Lucas but for me when planning activities.

The theme we have started with is transportation – Lucas loves trucks, trains, planes, boats, and buses so this has been a very easy transition for us so far!

Lucas is 26 Months

Here is a look at what we did this week…

Cc is for Cars! With cars stickers

Lucas also put some stickers on his face.. his big brother taught him to do this!

Lucas worked on some of his puzzles this week too, this one that he got for Christmas – he loves it because its has a school bus! He also did his other favourite puzzle, the

Melissa and Doug vehicle sound puzzle.

We made a toilet paper roll airplane for our stART activity. You can see the post here.

Lucas built a road for his school bus out of our blocks.

In the sensory table Lucas made car tracks in the play dough.

I made some transportation bottle top cards, inspired by this post. You can find the download for them here.

This is another activity I made for Lucas, you can find the post about it and the download here.

For some open ended art I set up our craft table for Lucas to paint with some of his little cars. I love his delicate fingers in this photo : )

We did this same activity last year in march – I cant believe how much he has matured since then!

We are going to continue on with this theme next week as well, Lucas is loving it and I have a million other ideas for us to do!

That’s it for this week! Visit 1plus1plus1equals1 to see what other tots are learning.

Transportation Spelling Cards

2011-01-14T08:48:00.001-05:00

Here is another transportation printable I made for Lucas, it was inspired by this post.

I wasn't sure how Lucas would do with this activity, I thought it was going to be a little difficult for him or that he would lose interest instantly…. but he LOVED it!

stART~ Flying

2011-01-13T18:31:00.002-05:00

This week Lucas and I read Flying by Donald Crews. I mentioned before that we love books by Donald Crews for their nice illustrations and short, simple text – Lucas is not yet ready to sit for a longer story.

After our story we started an airplane craft.

It took lots of concentration ; )

After the paint was dry we added some wings, and glitter glue.

Lucas loves his airplane that we made, this is the only picture I could get before he snatched it away : )

See other great stART projects by visiting A Mommy's Adventures!

Transportation Match!

2011-01-10T13:57:00.000-05:00

I have decided to start doing some theme based learning activities with Lucas, my hopes is that it will create more structure in to our routine as well as introduce new words and concepts for Lucas to learn.

Our first theme we are working on is Transportation! Lucas loves anything with wheels so this seemed like the perfect place to start!

I made these cards for Lucas – my original plan was to clip them together as a little book, but while I was cutting them I came up with a better plan!

It was a hit!!

You can find the download for this printable here:

Enjoy!

In our sensory table right now…

2010-12-21T22:56:00.003-05:00

It has been a long time since we had our sensory table out, Lucas was so excited when I brought it out from storage. He has been playing in it almost non stop!

I went through the pantry to find some simple and engaging materials to fill our tub! I choose Rice, Lentils – mostly orange, but some yellow and green as well, and a bit of penne pasta. For his tools I gave him a large scoop, and a pie tin.

Lucas loves to pour the mix into the tin to hear the wonderful noise it makes… he tells me its raining :)

The tin is also great for making birthday cakes!!

This sensory item requires lots of sweeping, so Lucas has been learning to sweep as well!

Tot School

2010-12-12T14:13:00.001-05:00

Lucas is 25Months

Our week started out pretty slow we have all been sick with a nasty cold around here and Lucas unfortunately, has had it the worst. He also got a needle this week which has made him extra irritable! But we were still able to accomplish quite a bit of learning.

This week we worked on the letter Bb!

I had some bubble wrap that one of our new Christmas decorations came in, and I thought it would be great for Lucas to wear as a mitt and make bubble prints for B.

Then we worked on our B page. His Favourite was the bus of course! He barely bothered to colour anything else!

Our finished Bb page for our alphabet book.

For our open ended art activity did some bubble painting! I have no pictures of Lucas in the process of doing this because I had to make sure he was blowing through the straw and not sipping up the paint – which of course was the first thing he did when I presented the activity to him!

As I mentioned above Lucas was pretty cranky all week, one of the things that kept a smile on his face was our singing snowmen. We have 3 different sets that all dance and sing jingle bells.

Here he is dancing along with a new one that his nanny bought for him!

Another open ended art activity Lucas enjoyed this week was making a Christmas collage. I cut up some of the Christmas cards we received last year along with some colourful wrapping paper and Lucas had lots of fun gluing and arranging everything.

For our structured craft this week –also our stART project we made a school bus

You can see our post about it HERE.

Lucas recently fell in love with Max and Ruby so I downloaded a few episodes off of i-tunes for him. Lucas, being the little computer wiz that he is often takes off to our computer room and goes to i-tunes and turns on Max and Ruby all by himself!

Here he is watching his favourite episode “Ruby’s piano practice”

That’s it for this week! Visit 1plus1plus1equals1 to see what other tots are learning.

stART ~ School Bus

2010-12-09T12:55:00.000-05:00

This week Lucas and I read School Bus by Donald Crews. My son has an obsession with buses right now so he really enjoyed this book!! As with most books by Donald Crews it had wonderful illustrations and short, simple text… which is a must when reading to my busy little guy!

After we finished reading the book… 3 times! We made a school bus craft. I had all the pieces already cut out and ready for Lucas to glue. I glued the pictures of Lucas and Dominic into the bus for him.

After he was finished gluing he coloured the bus, this was his favourite part. I think this was the longest time he has sat and coloured!

Check out other STart projects by visiting “A Mommy's Adventures”

Tot School

2010-12-04T13:45:00.002-05:00

Its been a looong time since I last participated in tot school! This week was the first time that I posted something on my blog since July. I have been going through a lot of tough stuff in my life and I just didn’t have the desire to come online. I plan to write a little post about what has happened over the past few months, but for now I’m just going to jump right back in to tot school mode and share with you what Lucas and I did this month!

Lucas and I have been working on our alphabet for the past little while, he LOVES going on starfall.com and it has really taught him a lot. This week we got started on making our alphabet book. I think these are really cute, but I wanted the letters to be a little more obvious so I went with this older idea I found on 1plus1plus1.

Lucas used a carrot to stamp “apples” onto his Aa’s

When he was finished with that I gave him a paint brush to do some free painting time. It had been a long time since we last had out paint out.. he ended up making 4 pictures! I plan on making this with them.

Lucas is still really into his cars! His favourite thing to do is line them up and then he takes turns playing with each one. I find line ups like this all the time:)

This week while he was playing I asked him to help me sort the cars by their colours.

I made this A page for Lucas when I gave it to him I had him tell me all the things that were on it and then he coloured it.

Afterwards I glued it to the back of his Aa’s page he had made. I am going to put it in a page protector and we are going to make a little alphabet book!

Also this week we did a little stART activity using a cute little book I found at the library

We read the book Little Blue and Little Yellow, I found a cute little video of the book here

Playdough has been really big at our house lately! Even daddy likes to join in on the fun!

I use the same recipe that my mom used to make for me growing up… the feel and the smell of the playdough bring back so many childhood memories :)

Lucas’ favourite tool to use with the playdough is our pizza cutter… its not sharp enough that he could hurt himself, but he is of course always supervised anyways!

Coming in a close second for favourite playdough toy is his cars, he loves to make tracks!

A few weeks ago my hubby and I decided to get the kids an early Christmas present… a puppy!

So perhaps this isn't technically tot school related but Lucas did learn a lot about being gentle and helping to take care of her so I've decided to include it anyways!

We got a beautiful, happy, smart, playful boxer puppy -who we named Abby. The kids LOVED her! But unfortunately we had to give her away :( Somewhere over the past 6 years I have developed an allergy to dogs! We gave her to another family with kids and they have agreed to send us photos every once in awhile so that we can she how she is growing.

That’s it for this week! Visit 1plus1plus1equals1 to see what other tots are learning.

stART ~ Little Blue and Little Yellow

2010-12-01T14:37:00.001-05:00

I have been working with Lucas on learning his colors, so I picked out Little Blue and Little Yellow for our stART project. Its such a cute little story!

For our art project I gave Lucas blue and yellow paint together on a plate for him to mix and paint.

I had originally planned on having Lucas finger paint, but it has been awhile since we last used paint and he wasn’t very interested in getting his hands dirty.

Check out some other great stART projects by visiting "A Mommy's Adventures"

STart ~ Go, Go, Boats!

2010-07-21T21:45:00.000-04:00

This week Lucas and I read Go, Go, Boats. Its just a simple board book showing the different kinds of boats. Lucas and I are currently working on recognizing the letter B and also the color blue so this fit activity fit perfectly into that.

We started off our art project with painting some water

Then later we colored a sailboat….

Lucas was not very interested in this, he did a few scribbles and ran away before I could even catch a picture!

Afterwards I cut out his sailboat and put the glue on his paper for him and Daddy helped him put his boat back together.

Check out other STart projects by visiting “A Mommy's Adventures”

Tot School – This & That

2010-07-15T23:21:00.001-04:00

This is my first tot school post in few weeks! I have been so busy with the move and the new house that I haven’t been able to take many pictures or spend much time online. Things have begun to calm down around here so I am hoping to go ahead with my plans of a more structured tot school for Lucas. Next week we are going to begin with introducing a letter a week as well as either a number, color or shape. I have 3 weeks worth of tot school already planned so hopefully Lucas feels like learning : )

Until then here is a post about something's we’ve been up to over the past few weeks!

Lucas loves his stacking cups! We build towers (and knock them down of course!), and we sort them by color, we ‘nest’ them back together and Lucas’ new favorite thing to do with his cups is to put his marbles inside them and pour them from one cup to another.

I made this tot book for Lucas, he is really into Elmo right now so this has been a big favorite around here! You can read more about this here.

Lucas has been really into pretend play lately, in this picture he is setting the dolls up at the table to have “nack”

We have done some spooning with marbles which was a HUGE HIT!

Here Lucas is trying to put shoes onto baby Sophia (this was Dominic’s doll from when he was a baby!)

and here he is helping the baby do a somersault!

Lucas was happy to have his peg board unpacked, even big brother wanted to play!

We had lots of fun playing in mud puddles!

We did a STart project last week which you can read about here.

Lucas loves to help daddy and big brother pick raspberries in the backyard!

and the most recent thing we did was……… a haircut!

Doesn’t he look like such a big boy now?

I keep asking him to stop growing, but he just doesn’t seem to wanna listen ; )

Little Hands in the Kitchen - Omelets

2010-07-13T12:26:00.001-04:00

Dominic and I have been cooking/baking something together at least once a week for the past few weeks. He absolutely loves it! This week he made omelets.

Dominic loves to cook and help out in the kitchen, and I know there are a lot of other kids out there that like to as well! So I have been thinking of starting a “Little Hands in the Kitchen” linky each week. Would anyone be interested in participating?

Simple Fun

2010-07-12T18:25:00.002-04:00

It amazes me how something so simple can be so engaging for children. Lucas and I went for a walk a few days ago while we were up north, we stumbled upon a small mud puddle and Lucas and I played in it for a long time. Digging and splashing, and jumping, and of course throwing rocks!!

I couldnt decide which pictures to post so I added them all!!

STart ~ Elmo’s ABC’s

2010-07-08T10:20:00.000-04:00

Its been awhile since our last STart post, we’ve been busy moving to a new city! We are finally getting settled in our new home and able to do more of our regular activities.

This week we read Elmo’s ABC Book. Lucas loves Elmo right now!

After Dominic finished reading the book we just did a simple art project since most of our craft supplies are not yet unpacked.

I printed out some Elmo coloring sheets and the boys used our tempera paint pucks to paint them.

Dominic joined us in painting too!

After we were done painting we added some alphabet stickers

Check out other great STart projects over at ‘A Mommy’s Adventures’

Spooning Marbles

2010-07-06T20:39:00.000-04:00

While I’ve been busy getting the house organized I’ve had to come up with some activities to keep Lucas busy. His favorite activity at the moment is spooning marbles!

He was able to control the marbles much better from when we did this activity using rice a few weeks ago.

After Lucas spent some time spooning the marbles back and fourth between the bowls, I gave him an ice cube tray and we put one marble in to each section and counted them.

He lost interest almost instantly! and went back to the original activity.

I’ve noticed when I directly teach him things… like counting out the marbles, he wants no part of it. But if we are singing our finger counting song he will count to 10 no problem. What a little monkey!!!

Tot Book

2010-06-18T11:59:00.005-04:00

I made this tot book a few weeks ago for Lucas and he absolutely adores it! Here it is in case anyone would like to make one for their tot!

If you make this for you tot and blog about it please share a link! I would love to see how it turned out!!

(If you have any problems downloading/printing please let me know this is my first time doing this and I am still learning!)

**These files are for your own personal use, you may share these files with others by providing a link to my blog. Please do not link directly to the pdf.

Thank-You and Enjoy!

In the sensory tub this week...

2010-06-03T07:47:00.001-04:00

For our sensory tub this week I rounded up some (waterproof) toys and then threw them into a plastic bowl with some water and froze it over night.

not the best picture, but you get the idea!

Then I filled our sensory table with water, food colouring, and baby soap.

I gave the kids some cups, spoons (big & small) and some other kitchen utensils, a ladle, silicone brushes, a whisk etc...

The kids really enjoyed this! We had a little friend with us for this activity, she loved using the whisk to make the bubbles reappear, and Lucas just liked being able to dump cups full of water on the ground without ~~getting yelled at~~ - being told no. Dominic really liked using the brushes to melt away the ice he said he was an "archaeologist discovery new dinosaur bones and other ancient artifacts."

Our Play Room

2010-06-02T12:44:00.001-04:00

I am writing this post as part of the linky going on over at 1+1+1 regarding Tot School Zones. Below are the photos of our current play room setup once we move however, I am planning on doing something completely different!

The boys love being in their playroom! It is a fun and inviting space for them, but for my husband and myself we don't like to spend much time there at all. That's why in our next house it will be more of a family room and less "daycare-ish"

In this photo is our sensory table, Dominic's work table, a play kitchen and LOTS of toys! That is something else that will be changing with our move, I already have 3 big bags full of toys that will be going to the thrift store because we just have way to much! A lot of the toys don't even get played with and it tends to be really overwhelming for the kids.

In this photo is some push toys (Lucas loves them all), our train table and parking garage, and on the black shelf is manipulative's and puzzles.

Here is our reading area a chair for each boy, and we put up some rain gutter bookshelves. In the baskets are some stuffed animals, dolls, doll clothes, and blankets.

Here is our messy area! where we do our crafts and play playdough, and anything else that I don't feel comfortable doing on the carpet (like rice in the sensory table!). See our easels mounted on the wall? It was originally this but it didn't fold and it just took up way too much space so I took it apart and had Shane mount it to the wall for us : )

This is our laundry/storage room. This is where I keep all of our books, puzzles, games, extra toys, and our craft stuff.

As I mentioned earlier I do plan on totally revamping the way our playroom is set up as well as the way we do tot school. Once we are in our new home and all is complete I will add some photos to share our new learning space!

Sesame Street Tot Book!

2010-06-01T12:59:00.002-04:00

A few months ago while I was cleaning out our crawl space I came across one of Dominic's old Elmo dolls. Its one of those ones that you program with your computer so that Elmo knows your name and some of your favorite things like your favorite animal, favorite foods, etc. So after I cleaned him up a little I reprogrammed the doll to suite Lucas.... He instantly fell in love with it and now carries his "melmo" EVERYWHERE! Now if only I could get him to sit down and watch an Elmo video once in awhile. Not that I want him to be one of those kids that wants to sit in front of the TV... I just think it would be nice if he would watch just long enough for me to vacuum without having to do this!!

Anyways getting back to topic, I have been wanting make a tot book ever since seeing all the ones that Carisa made over on her blog 1+1+1=1. So I took the time that was supposed to be spent packing : ) and made my very first tot book!!

Here is a look at how it turned out.....

In the top left corner is a mini colouring book, in the bottom left corner is an accordion fold counting book with numbers 1 - 10. In the top right corner is a mini book naming some of the sesame street characters, and in the bottom right corner is an Elmo size sequencing set. In the middle is shapes, and it says "help Elmo find the different shapes"

Here is a look inside the mini colouring book.

and the mini sesame street friends book.

Here is the Elmo size sequence set.

Lucas loves his new tot book! Especially the Elmo sequencing... he cant sequence them yet but he really likes putting them in and out of their pouch.

I have every intention of sharing this tot book I just have a few small kinks to straighten out first, so be sure to check back soon!

Tot School

2010-05-30T09:00:00.003-04:00

Lucas is 18Months

This will probably be our last Tot School post until after we move. It’s only a few weeks to our moving date and its really time for me to start packing our toys as well as the rest of the house!

What we did this week….

We worked with our Melissa and Doug bead sequencing set. I asked Lucas to use the green beads and he was doing good finding them....

... until he got a blue bead. Colors are something we still need to work on : )

We had a new sensory item this week, puzzles! Lucas really enjoyed this. He liked spooning the pieces into his cup.

We also worked on a puzzle this week

We did this Melissa and Doug puzzle we did the frame together and he put the animals in himself.

He really liked doing a big boy puzzle like he watches his brother do!

But his favourite part of course was tearing it apart so we could start all over again. We did this puzzle 3 times just this day, and several other times throughout the week.

Lucas likes to paint at the easel but this week was the first time he coloured on the dry erase board easel. Regular markers tend to not draw well on there, so we used our window markers and they stayed on great.

He really liked doing this, although now I'm a little nervous about him finding a marker somewhere and coloring on my walls!

When he was finished coloring his picture I gave him a wet cloth to erase his picture.

He liked this part too!

Lucas is really in to babies right now. He likes to take care of his babies by wrapping them in blankies and feeding them pretend food and sharing his cups with them.

So yesterday when I was at a garage sale and seen a doll stroller for 50 cents I just had to get it for him!

He loves it! It was hard for me to even get a picture of him with it he as been running around the house with it since we brought it home!

Lucas likes to point to himself and say baby...

Which has him trying to get into the stroller himself, what a little monkey! : )

Once we are settled in our new house I am planning on making our tot school time more focused. I'm not sure about themes yet, but I would definitely like to start introducing the alphabet and numbers to him. Right now I am working on making a form for me to jot down my ideas for each week. Once I'm finished making it I will post about it here if anyone is interested.

In the sensory tub right now...

2010-05-27T17:07:00.001-04:00

My kids looove their sensory table! I am always trying to come up with new ideas on what to put in it. To keep interest levels up I tend to change the materials every week, or two weeks if its something really popular.

This week we did puzzle pieces. I had some old puzzles that I was saving for crafts but I thought it would work well in the sensory table as well.

It has been a hit so far. The last material we had in here was lentils, the puzzles pieces are much easier to tidy up compared to that : )

I would love to hear what other Mama's are using in their sensory tables!

Tot School

2010-05-25T14:10:00.003-04:00

Lucas is 18Months

What we did this week....

Lucas LOVES marbles! He plays with them on a daily basis (supervised of course!). On Tuesday while Dominic was at school I set up a simple marble run for Lucas, he played with it for a little over an hour!

When Dominic got home from school they continued playing with this for awhile and I was able to pack 2 boxes - Yay!

On wednesday we played with water

I cut a sponge into small squares and put them in a tub with some water and soap and let Lucas and Dominic play in it they both love any sort of sensory play

Also on wednesday we explored our new tot book

His favourite part of the tot book is putting the shapes in and out of the pouch

On thursday we did our STart project which involved stamping shapes!

He loved bangning them on the paper

Then we spent Friday - Monday up north at our trailer. It was a long weekend here in Canada (Victoria Day) so we had lots of BBQ's, campfires, and fireworks. I dont have too many pictures to share I was too busy enjoying time with family & friends. But here are a few pictures I was able to catch...

Lucas' first time eating ice cream

I think he liked it! : )

Lucas' cousin sharing a slice of watermelon with him at the beach

leaving the beach

That unfortunatley is all the pictures I have from the weekend!

And did you notice a blur to most of the pictures in this post? Someone with little sticky fingers got ahold of my camera and I didnt notice the dirty lense until I uploaded my pictures and seen the blurs!

STart ~ Mouse Shapes

2010-05-20T07:35:00.001-04:00

This week for our STart project we read Mouse Shapes by Ellen Walsh

And for our art project we did shape prints using the shapes from our shape sorter toy

He really enjoyed this project, he thought it was fun to bang the shapes and watch some of the paint splatter

He had so much fun with this that by the end we could barely see the shapes anymore : )

and of course it would be a true painting experience if he didnt get a taste, right?

Visit A Mommys Adeventures to find other STart projects!

Our First Tot Book!

2010-05-19T12:55:00.007-04:00

As soon as I seen the Thomas the Train Tot Pack on the 1+1+1 website I knew I had to make it. Lucas loves trains!

I had to make everything "Lucas proof" if I didnt he would have ripped it to shreds in a matter of minutes.

I started by laminating the "Thomas and Friends" book and then put it on to keyrings and threaded it through the file folder - which is also reinforced with contact paper. The number fold has also been reinforced with contact paper (after I put the contact paper on I sandwhiched it between some books so that it would do the accordian fold). The shapes are laminated and the pouch for the shapes is contact paper.

Here he is working with his shapes. So far he can only identify the circle, but now that we've got the train shapes Im sure he'll be able to learn a few more ; )

here he is flipping through the pages of the book.

I knew he would be trying to rip this apart... So glad I LucasProofed it!

You can find the Thomas the Train - Tot Pack here!

Tot School

2010-05-17T12:38:00.001-04:00

Lucas is 18Months

What we did this week....

Lucas LOVES this book we look at it several times a day. He likes to point to all the different objects and ask me "whats dat?"

I also spend time asking him to point to the objects that he knows " Lucas wheres the pig?" He is very proud of himself when he is able to find what I want him to : )

This week we tried spooning rice!

as you can tell from the mess, this was a bit tricky for him but he loved every minute of it and did not want to stop!

We did a STart project this week... (that I never got around to posting!)

For this we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and I had precut and glued a tree onto paper for him and then I gave him alphabet stickers to stick to the tree. He has never really been interested in stickers before so I was pleasntly suprised when we were able to do the entire alphabet!

"Cheese!"

We spent our weekend up north at our trailer Lucas loved spending so much time outside!

We watched daddy (from a safe distance) chop wood with the axe. Then Lucas helped daddy put all the wood into our little wood shed.

And then we spent most of our weekend playing like this

Check out what others do with their tots at Tot School @ 1+1+1=1.

Tiny Rocks + Stacking Cups=1 Happy Boy!!

2010-05-16T18:44:00.000-04:00

We spent this weekend up north at our trailer. Lucas loved being able to spend soo much time outside and was instantly attracted to the gravel roads. I gave him a set of stacking cups to use with the rocks and he was thrilled!

He didnt want to do anything else the rest of the time we were there!

He had tons of fun filling and pouring the cups.

The next day was no different. Its the first thing he did when he got outside.

This time Mama added a dump truck to the mix!

Soo much fun!

Spooning Rice

2010-05-14T13:27:00.002-04:00

This week we tried something new!!

I gave Lucas a tray with two small bowls, one empty and one with rice. Then I showed him how to spoon the rice from one bowl to the other. I had seen this idea on another blog awhile ago, I cant remember which one.... I think it may have been Chasing Cheerios.

It was a bit difficult for him, but he still enjoyed it. I think next time I will use something a little bigger to make it a little easier for him : )

Tot School (Its been awhile!)

2010-05-02T20:24:00.000-04:00

Lucas is 17Months

It has been awhile since my last tot-school post (or any post for that matter!) and the reason for this is that we are moving!!

We decided a few weeks ago that it was time for us to move (my hubby started a new job awhile ago and the commute is becoming too much) So we have been spending the bulk of our spare time fixing little things around the house and trying to keep it spotless for when realtors come. All our work has paid off because our house is now sold after only 8 days on the market! It all seems to be happening SO fast my head is spinning!!!

I’m Scared since we are moving quite far from all my family – it’s only a 2hr drive but it still seems very far!

But Im also pretty excited about it too, we bought our new house yesterday and it is in a wonderful neighborhood with lots of nice parks & walking trails. We are also going to be able to walk to the library & rec centre!!

and now about Tot-School, here are some pictures from over the last 2 weeks...

I wrote a post a few days ago about how Lucas loves to help his mama, well he likes to help daddy too!

Daddy was raking up the yard waste and Lucas brought over his shovel to "elp daddy"

here he is putting the berries in the bag.

We've been spending a lot of time outside, so that our house stays clean : )

Lucas is beginning to enjoy the park, at first he wasn't so sure but after big brother showed him how to slide he got the hang of it.

We did some work with small spaces this week

He really enjoyed doing this and filled every hole

It took lots of concentration : )

I picked up some of these at Michaels a few weeks ago for Dominic

and this week I set it our for Lucas he really enjoyed "jabbing" the brush at the paper.

We also used our Melissa and Doug beads this week

We threaded them on to a string and made necklaces!

He needed a bit of help with getting the beads on the string but he still really enjoyed doing it. I left the beads and string out on our activity table for a few days and he kept going back to it.

Does anyone else LOVE Laurie Berkner like we do??

We listen to her music almost everyday, and if we're not listening to it we're signing it!!

Here is Lucas with an old cell phone singing 'Telephone' from the We Are.... The Laurie Berkner Band CD Its his most favorite song right now he is always running around the house saying "helloooooooooooooo hellooooooooooooooo"

Mama's Little Helper

2010-04-30T13:36:00.000-04:00

Lucas loves to "ELP Mama" with lots of the chores around the house. One thing he was unable to help with was the emptying of the dishwasher, since all our dishes are stored out of his reach. So a few weeks ago when I was cleaning and reorganizing my kitchen I decided to put all of his dishes in a bottom drawer…

As you can see he LOVES being able to put them away him self!

( I think his pants are a little to big hehee)

First he piles them together

Then walks them over to his drawer

Then he sets them down to open the drawer and put them in

and when he is done he closes the drawer back up

and then he closes the dishwasher for me too, I love having a little helper around the house : )

STart ~ Five Little Kittens

2010-04-15T12:48:00.000-04:00

The book we chose for our STart project this week was "Five Little Kittens" by Stewart Cowley

I have had this book since I was young, it was a favourite of mine and now Lucas really enjoys it too!

For our craft this week we of course made a cat!

I put some black and white paint on the paper for him, and then he mixed it and painted

Can you believe he doesnt have paint all over him???

If you have looked at any of our previous STart posts he is always covered in paint!
This was the first time EVER that we painted and he didnt eat the paint, or paint his hands : )

Im not sure if its because maybe grey paint isnt too appealing? Or if my babe is growing up!

Once he was finished we put it away to dry

Then I cut it into a cat shape and had Lucas help me put the eyes and nose on

Check out other STart projects here

Tot School

2010-04-11T10:59:00.000-04:00

Lucas is 17months

This Week in Tot School...

This week we worked on playing with golf tees and Styrofoam. This was a huge success! Lucas loved this activity and did it almost every day this week. Notice big brother at the side of the photo... he decided to be camera shy on this day.

Such intensity as he works!

On his shelf this week as his animal cottage

This is still a big favorite around here!

He now knows that he has to match the coloured key to the same colour door...

Also from his shelf we played with his stacking/nesting cups

these are another favourite around here!

We spent some time outside Lucas likes to dig in our dirt patch

Here he is putting the dirt from one bucket to the other

and smooshing the dirt

Also this week I brought out a new toy

This however he had very little interest in

We did play with it for a few minutes but thats about it- oh well I will reintroduce this in a few weeks and see if he'll like it better then!

We did some feet (whole body lol) painitng for our STart project

(see our STart post here)

Lucas' new favourtie pass time has been looking out our living room window!

watching for birdies and waiting for dada to get home

Mamas favoutite photo this week...

STart ~ Whose Toes Are Those?

2010-04-08T11:10:00.000-04:00

The book we chose for our STart project this week was - Whose Toes Are Those by Jabari Asim

The book itself is not that great... One of my least favorites but Lucas enjoys it for the bright picture so we do read it quite often. The art project we did to go along with this book is painting with our feet!

I had originally planned to do this outside but its been raining here everyday this week. So I set this up in our bathroom instead that way I could just throw him in the tub when he was done : )

First he painted for a bit with his hands....

Then I showed him to put his feet in

He loved squishing the paint between his toes

He had a BLAST!!

Be sure to check out other STart projects by visiting A Mommy's Adventures

Tot School

2010-04-05T09:15:00.000-04:00

Lucas is 17months

This week in Tot - School

Hmmm which colour should I choose??

We did some colouring this week, Lucas is showing interest in learning the colour names so far he can say yellow and red, now just to work on matching the colours to the names!

We explored in the water tub again this week!

Lucas really enjoyed playing in the water so I put it out again. This time I added some plastic ice cubes and a slotted spoon for him to transfer the ice cubes into a bowl

He really enjoyed this activity, his favourite part was dumping this ice cubes back into the water he thought it was pretty funny making the water splash

We spent some time playing with out little people zoo this week

I started helping him to match the animals to their pictures, we did that for a few minutes and then he lost interest so we just did some role playing with the animals which he really enjoyed!

Apparently I have not been providing Lucas with enough sensory play so he decided to help himself...

Lucas found a bag of flour and decided to dump it onto our upside down picnic table! Funny thing is I was in the kitchen with him the whole time and didn't even realize what he was doing until after he dumped the bag lol

He played in here for about a half hour while I finished making dinner, then he helped me to vacuum it all up : )

I printed this great easter matching activity from Home Grown Hearts

Lucas matched about 3 eggs before he lost interest... Oh well! Ill just tuck them away for next year ; )

Mommas favorite photo this week....

Water & Ice Cubes in the Sensory Tub

2010-04-01T14:48:00.000-04:00

A few days ago I set up this activity to introduce Lucas to spooning objects. At first he was a little discouraged because he was having some trouble getting the ice cubes to stay on the spoon but after some encouragement he got right into it.

Wordless Wednesday ~

2010-03-31T16:17:00.000-04:00

What?? Dont we all clean our house this way

This is the only way my floors get vacuumed/mopped. No wonder I have a sore back, geesh!

Captain Destructo!!

2010-03-30T21:06:00.000-04:00

While Dominic was at school today I started reorganizing his room and switching around his furniture. I took all his toy bins off of his shelf and piled them into the corner while I dusted and moved the shelf to a different corner of the room. Before putting everything back on the shelves I had to go to the washroom, usually I take Lucas with me but he was sitting quietly looking at his books so I left him there. As I was in the washroom I heard crashing and banging and then some more crashing and banging.

I was gone for less then 2 minutes when I returned to this......

I guess Kim from Mom Tried It is right, going to the washroom without an audience is overrated! lol

Tot School

2010-03-28T18:21:00.000-04:00

Lucas is 16 months

we had an extra quiet here Lucas hasnt been feeling too well ( I think its teething related) but here is a look at some of the things we did do....

our weather is slowly getting warmer we spent lots of time in our backyard

he loves his ride on toys!

Lucas loves to explore in Doms room this week we spent a lot of (supervised) time in there playing with his marble run set

Lucas loved this as hes been trying to get at it for months now!!

We alos played with Dominics magnetix and some other wooden blocks (I forget what they are called but they are magnetic as well)

he loves all the "big kid toys"

We also did our STart project, youcan read about it here

and we had fun doing some art with our "sparkles"

which is really only coloured salt since I reeeeeally dont like sparkles!!

I printed these from the 1+1+1=1 website (the easter / spring tot pack)

Lucas loves them!!

I would "meow" "bark" and "oink" and he would pick up the animal that matched the noises I made he thought it was really funny : )

Thinking Warm Thoughts.....

2010-03-26T20:49:00.000-04:00

Summer is almost here.. just a few more months and we'll be back on the beach

STart ~ My Car

2010-03-24T18:12:00.000-04:00

This week for our STart project we read
My Car by Byron Barton

This is a very simple book with colorful pictures my son just adores it, and since he doesn't have much of an attention span (especially right now he is not feeling too well with his teething) it was perfect for us!

After we read our book I covered our table with paper and set out some paint and cars for Lucas explore.

It didn't take long for him to get right into it

and I mean RIGHT INTO IT! LOL

Coloured Salt

2010-03-22T14:16:00.000-04:00

Dominic and I made some coloured salt last week - to make one of these.

Today we used some more to make pictures.

Dinosaurs of course!

a BEAUTIFUL mess!

Lucas joined in on the fun too...

I put the the salt into old prescription bottles and poked some holes in the top. This is what we use as "sparkles" most of the time - cleanup is much easier!!

Dominics picture when he was finished.

and here it is again after it dried and we shook off all the extra salt.

Tot School #8

2010-03-14T20:07:00.000-04:00

Lucas is 16 Months

I dont have too much to share this week for Tot School, we've been spending a lot of (camera-less) time enjoying the outdoors now that our wheater has been getting nicer.

Here are some activities that we did do...

Ive been nervous about giving Lucas an activity like this since he is a little mess-montser,

but he did really well with keeping the water in the tub and he had a blast!!

He would scoop the water with the cup and pour it back into the tub and of course he had a few sips aswell : )

He also enjoyed spooning he rocks into the cup and spooning them back out.

We will definately be doing this again!

We also did our STart project for the week, you can read about it here.

We spent a lot of time playing with Lucas' ball.

He really loves this thing!!

it can bounce up to 70ft in the air so when he throws it, it bounces all over the place.

He loves to make it bounce he thinks its funny!

My little helper!

Laundry and vacuuming, I hope he still likes doing chores when he is older!! LOL