Hello old friends

Hello blog friends, I am back.

This cute outfit was made by my friend

Melanie

. I absolute love it and wish I have one for Christmas (hint, hint). Actually I think I may attempt one myself.




Check out how cute the back is!

Here SL is Mousercising:




Boy does she love that mouse. She gets so upset when the show is over. We joke and call it her crack, lol!

We went to my friend Debi's house for Thanksgiving supper. Debi was the first friend I met when we moved here and she has been there for me so often! She cooked a huge dinner.


Debi's husband, Pete, deep fried a turkey:

I made Paula Deen's green beans and a pineapple casserole. You can find the recipes

HERE and

HERE

Jay and Pete:

Debi's son, Alex:

(I can't believe that he is this big now! And when did stone wash black jeans come back in style, lol!)

Debi brought out a tub of toys for SL and she loved them. She had to sit in the tub to really enjoy them, lol. I loved the toys because they were all old Fisher Price toys from when I was a kid!


Debi has three dogs and SL had a blast playing with them and they were so sweet with her!

Rudy makes a good seat:


And this last pic cracks me up because Libby used to hate Jay and run from him and bark and bark at him. But for some reason she really took to Jay this last time and just loved all over him!

We had a great Thanksgiving Day!

"At Home With Friends"

Joshua Bell's "At Home With Friends" was recently released on September 29. I will be honest and say while I had heard his name I have never listened to anything by him. But when I say the track list and some of the "friends" performing with him. I love Kristin Chenoweth so I was excited. I will have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this. I normally am not a fan of retakes but the version of Eleanor Rigby was probably my favorite and shhh don't tell any Beatles fans but I liked it better than the original! I highly recommend this even if you think that you don't like this type of music, I have to say that there is something for everyone on it!

Please be sure to check out his fabulous website at http://www.joshuabell.com


Album Tracklisting (Originally performed by):
I Loves You Porgy featuring Chris Botti, trumpet
Come Again featuring Sting, vocals
Oblivion featuring Carel Kraayenhof, bandoneon
Cinema Paradiso featuring Josh Groban, vocals
Para Tí featuring Tiempo Libre, various
My Funny Valentine featuring >Kristin Chenoweth, vocals
Maybe So featuring Edgar Meyer Sam Bush and Mike Marshall, strings
Grieg: Sonata No. 3 featuring Sergei Rachmaninoff (Zenph re-performance)
Eleanor Rigby featuring Frankie Moreno, piano & vocals
O, Cease Thy Maiden Fair featuring Nathan Gunn, baritone
Il Postino featuring Carel Kraayenhof, bandoneon
Left Hand Song featuring Regina Spektor, piano & vocals
Chovendo Na Roseira featuring Dave Grusin, piano
Look Away featuring Edgar Meyer, bass and Chris Thile, mandolin
Variant Moods: Duet for Sitar & Violin featuring Anoushka Shankar, sitar
I'll Take Manhattan featuring Marvin Hamlisch, piano
Left Hand featuring Regina Spektor, vocals

Thanks to One2One for sending me this great album to review!

Our New Etsy Store is Open!!

Finally after months of talking, my friend Debi and I finally have our Etsy store up and running!!! I am so excited. It is a big relief to actually have items in it. Please go here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7980249
to check out what we have for sale. You can also check out the link over on the right of this blog! I would love any feedback that you have! Be sure to check back weekly as I will be adding new and different items!

Harry Connick, Jr

Have you heard? Harry Connick, Jr has a new album out called Your Songs. I was so excited when I found out that he was releasing a new album. I have always liked his voice not to mention that he is very easy on the eyes. So thanks to the

One2One Network

I was able to preview this album. It was a rainy day, perfect for crafting and a little crooning by Harry. I will say that I really enjoyed my afternoon. For the most part I really enjoyed the album. I do personally think that there are just some artists that should not be covered, Elvis Presley and the Beatles are two. It was hard for me to enjoy those two tracks because I could not get the original artist's voice out of my head, but other than that it was fabulous. Perfect for a cold rainy day because it warmed me right up. Be sure to check out his website

HERE

And you can watch a behind the scenes video HERE

Here is a list of the songs:

Album Tracklisting (Originally performed by):

All The Way (Frank Sinatra)
Just The Way You Are (Billy Joel)
Can’t Help Falling In Love With You (Elvis Presley)
And I Love Her (The Beatles)
(They Long To Be) Close To You (The Carpenters)
Besame Mucho
The Way You Look Tonight
First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Roberta Flack)
Your Song (Elton John)
Some Enchanted Evening
And I Love You So (Don McLean)
Who Can I Turn To? (Tony Bennett)
Smile (Charlie Chaplin)
Mona Lisa (Nat King Cole)

Free unit study and lapbook!

Click on the button below to download a free unit study called Autumn Treasures from This Old Schoolhouse!

http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=191_202&products_id=12934">http://trish.theoldhomeschoolhouse.com/christie_files/mscgrfx/AutumnTreasures.jpg" alt="Download N Go" border="0">

Tot School

*Shelby is 27 months*

Well we had a slow start back to Totschool this past week. Here is what we accomplished:


I got this puzzle a the Duck, Duck, Goose consignment sale in Knoxville, TN. Let me say I have been to a lot of consignment sales but this was the Granddaddy of them all! I mean it took me 3 hours to check out and that was a the presale that wasn't even open to the general public!!!
I was very excited about this puzzle/game and couldn't wait to show it to Lil Bit, but of course she didn't find it very interesting. She really doesn't like puzzles, I think it is because she is very impatient, something I am trying to work with her on. She gets very frustrated if she can't do something correctly the first time (she is just like her daddy!) He said he didn't really care for puzzles either as a child, which makes me sad because I love them!


After these pictures were taken she was over this activity. The good thing was when I said clean up, she help me put every piece back in the box. Normally she only will put away one or two items and then tell me she is done. As part of tot school we have been working on cleaning up and having to implement some timeouts when she refused to help. And I am happy to say this week we only had one timeout and the rest of the time she was very helpful and had a sweet attitude about cleaning up!

This next activity was a surprise because I really thought she was too young for it and thought it may bore her. Boy was I wrong! She played with this for a long time! I will definitely be bringing this out more!

I picked it up at Ross for less than $5! The possibilities are endless with math and pattern teaching tool. For our purposes this week I just got out the first sheet and only one color.




We had recess this week with daddy at a new park we found. It had a great play set but best of all it had soccer field which were fenced in with really nice artificial turf on them. We practiced hopping and running. I can't wait to bring our ball, hula hoop and other outdoor toys there! Since we don't have a backyard this is a great place where she can run and I feel safe. I just wished I had found it at the beginning of the summer! Here are my favorites and I had a bunch!









I had to share these next pictures of her wearing this hat before we left for the park. She really didn't like it at first and then she was ok with it.

What a mean mom for trying to make me look cute, she says!

"Well I guess it is not such a bad hat"

Mommy says she is jealous of my curls!

Here is another cute outfit from this week. I got this one and the previous one at consignment sales, except for the hat that came from Children's Place.

Be sure to hope on over to
http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/2009/10/tot-school.html
to see what Carissa and everyone else did this past week!

Changes are coming!

So I haven't posted in awhile because my mother had major back surgery(lumbar fusion) and I went home to be with her. Needless to say totschool has not happened. In addition to that I have been working hard with a friend to start a business and I so excited that we are almost ready to reveal our new etsy shop and in addition to that I will have a new, separate blog just for crafts and this one will remain our family and totschool blog. I can't wait to introduce it to everyone. Some things that I will have for sale are my custom canvases, digital greeting cards and photo albums, door and wall hangers, and camera strap covers.
Sneak Peak:
Here is an example of a set of custom canvases I did for a client's nursery:

**click on the picture to see a larger view

If you are interested in having me do something for your nursery or any room in your home, please feel free to email me and once my etsy shop is up I will update the site with that address.
Just wanted to let those that follow know where I have been and what we have been up to. Totschool is continuing and I will post along with my fellow totschoolers on Sunday, but you can always click on the button to the right to see what everyone else has been doing while we were off.

Tot School "F" weeks

**Shelby Lynn is 26mths

So we are still trying to do one letter for two weeks. We were supposed to go out of town this past Friday, so I didn't have too much planned. Unfortunately my niece who we were going to visit got sick so we reschedule the trip for Oct. I have not been to my sister's house in over 10 years so I was bummed to have to postpone.
Anyway here is what we did do:

One morning daddy didn't have to go into work until late so here they are working a farm animal puzzle that I got from the Target $1 spot (don't you just love that section!)


We also had some lessons in home ec. Here is Shelby Lynn "Folding" towels (it was more like unfolding, Ha!) My favorite thing though is she started singing the clean up song all by herself, I wish the video camera had been handy.








Whew! This is hard work!

We also listened to her silly, giggle songs especially the one on "F"ollowing Directions (maybe this one will stick like the clean up song). She enjoyed shaking her tomtom that we got on our vacation to Pigeon Forge, TN.



Here is a pic of her letter flip flash cards I also purchased at Target. I love these, on the back it has questions for me to ask her about the letter and picture. She really enjoys this activity.

We also learned the song "Father Abraham" and learned motions to go with it, she really liked the turn around part. My sister gave me several of the "Wee Songs" song book and I love them!

Here she is trying to play. She loves the piano and I am hoping that she will want to really learn how to play and practice! I always wanted to play but I hated to practice, so needless to say I am not that great.

I also started reading her toddler Bible to her and we talked about God creating the earth. I was really surprised at how much she enjoyed the pictures in the book, since they are pretty simple. She listen to whole part I chose to read and I was really excited because sometimes story time is pretty hit or miss.
We also reviewed letters A-E and she remembered them all, so even though my totschool is hit or miss at times she still is learning and that makes me happy!

I bought some really neat window clings at the dollar store and put them on the window above her little table and she talked about them alot as well. I wish I had more pictures to share, because I love seeing lots of pics on other blogs.

Next week we are heading to TN to visit Grammy and Granddaddy. Please say a prayer for Shelby Lynn's grammy as she is having major back surgery. We will be taking a break until we get back. Once we are back in town I hope to get into full swing with Totschool and have lots of pictures and links to activities we do!
Please be sure to go see what everyone else is learning in Totschool by going here:
http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/2009/09/tot-school-at-beach.html

FAVORITE PIC:

This is just so sweet! I love that they are both in their pjs!

a glimpse at summer totschool

So this summer was hit or miss with official totschool. We traveled so much and had company a couple times so we didn't keep to any sort of schedule. A lot of learning took place in life school however (this applies to both mom and Shelby Lynn). Shelby Lynn is learning about sharing, patience and showing kindness to others and mommy has learned some of the same lessons in her adult relationships, lol! We tried to still implement a letter every tw0 weeks and I was not successful at all, but we did learn the letter "D" and since she already knew "E" we did some review. This week will kickoff our official Totschool and we will continue with the letter "F" and also start our Before Five in a Row curriculum. I also got a new cabinet to organize all of Shelby Lynn's learning toys that I don't keep out all the time and can't wait to share that with you. I also want to try to be better about implementing the system that the Duggars use with their toys, I try to rotate the toys out but after her birthday this year it has gotten out of control, Ha! Here are few pics of what we "officially" accomplished and hopefully this week I will finish our Lancaster vacation posts and other fun activities we did this summer!

Here she is coloring her "d" coloring sheet from her sesame street and working on a number puzzle. She kept going back and forth between the two!

This was Shelby Lynn's favorite "D" activity, growing sponge Dinosaurs, she played with this for almost a hour, and I was shocked and please to get the kitchen clean while she did this! It was a great activity that we started together and talked about colors and she counted the dinosaur and sorted them and then I was able to let her play on her own. She loved squeezing the water out of them!

Here is is working with her magnetic "d"s and trying to draw with chalk. She also got the Leap frog magnet toy for her b-day that not only sings the alphabet but also when you put in a letter is says the name and sound. She loves it!

Here is a few pictures from this summer that I want to share but probably would not do a separate post:

Love this summer outfit.

Just a swingin'

The girl loves her pink boots and her music!

A sweet baby bunny we found outside our gate, apparently our neighbor had a nest in his backyard! We don't see this too often since we live in a townhouse!

please be sure to check out all the other fun times that were had at http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/search/label/Tot%20School

Update

If you would like an update on all the we have been doing please check out my BFF site. She is so much better at posting than I am! But not only does next week officially start a new year of totschool for us, I am also recommitting to updating the blog hopefully twice a week!

Here is Melanie's blog

picturecrazymomma.blogspot.com

She has a lot of great pics from the past two weeks!

Vacation Alert

Just posting really quickly to let anyone who follows me know that I am on vacation and that is why there have been no posts. I have limited internet access. When I get back I will probably have to do 3 or 4 post a day to get caught up! I hope I still have followers left, lol!

Our Family Vacation to Lancaster

In July, we decided to take a family vacation with just the three of us. This was the first time since we had had Shelby Lynn that we were able to do this. We chose Lancaster, Pa as our destination and let me say we had a blast. We stayed in a bed and breakfast called

Laurel Inn the Hollow

and the name of our house was the Carriage House. It was wonderful because we had the whole house which was build in the 1800s to ourselves. Jay and I kept saying how peaceful it was and how we felt like we were at grandma’s house. After staying in a B&B I have decided that is the only way to travel with a toddler. I will say it is difficult to find ones that will take children under the age of 10 but we found a great family ran one! The house had a sweet fenced in yard which is where we at most of our dinners. The weather was perfect for sitting out on a blanket. I loved how Shelby Lynn was free to run around. We live in a townhouse and she doesn’t have that much room. It also had a swing set and Shelby Lynn swung on the big girl swing for the first time!
I have decided that since we did so much on our vacation that I will break them up into days for the blog posts.
Here is Day 1:
We couldn’t check in until 4pm so we took our time driving up (only about a 3hour drive). Once we got to Lancaster we just kinda drove around until we could check in. When we saw the yard and the little bar-b-que we decided to run to the store and cook out! This is how we spent the first evening and it was soooo relaxing!

Our wonderful old Carriage House:



The sweet backyard where we did most of our picnics:

Shelby Lynn’s favorite part of the B&B:


My favorite picture from day 1:


Some more pics from our great first day:

This Old Schoolhouse

This Old Schoolhouse

I have recently found a new company that I would like to share with you. If you are considering home schooling, already do, or just want to enhance your child’s learning then this company has something for you! This Old Schoolhouse produces a home school magazine that I have just ordered and I can’t wait to receive my first issue. They also have a fabulous offer right now. The first 5000 customers to sign up or renew for the magazine will receive over $400 in freebies! I did this and was so excited to find out that I was their 100^th customer for the month of July and I received a $50 gift certificate. It was using this that I got to experience their fabulous customer service! I goofed up and didn’t check the box when I went to use it and the amount wound up on my card. They were very quick and helpful in getting this fixed for me and so sweet over the phone! I highly recommend this company, not only for the magazine and customer service but also for the wide variety of learning products. They have a fantastic variety of Ebooks to choose from to help with your child’s learning and playtime! I ordered 2 and can’t wait to start implementing them. I also ordered the Noah’s ark matching game. It is produced by another company and as soon as I ordered it that company was very quick in getting it to me! Please be sure to visit TOS and see if you can still take advantage of the free gifts!

**I have not be asked by the company to do this review. I just was really satisfied with them and wanted to share!

100th Post!

So this post is really late. We wound up going on a vacation and I have not had time to update. I really wanted my 100th post to be about something special so I waited until I had time to do a good one!


Wow, I can't believe this is already my 100th post. I was going to post part 2 of Shelby Lynn's first 2 years. But I think instead I will show what we did for her second birthday! On Friday we decided we would take her to the Children's Museum of Richmond. Well mommy and daddy slept in and we got a late start. So needless to say she wasn't in the best mood, be once we got there and started playing we had a good time. And then mommy and daddy decided to really push their luck and took her to Chucky Cheese. Bad Mistake! She so wasn't into, plus mommy didn't realize how full her diaper was and it leaked. And normally I ALWAYS have an extra outfit in the car, but for some reason I didn't. All I had was a bathing suit. So she was running around Chucky Cheese, screaming her head off wearing her shirt and bikini bottoms, LOL! And I didn't get any pictures of this! So mommy and daddy decided it was time to go. When we got home our fabulous friends, Melanie, Oz and Zoe sent Shelby Lynn a birthday gift. So without further adieu, here our the birthday pictures:



Since on Friday she was birthdayed out we waited until Saturday to do cake and presents. Orginally I was going to attempt to make a fabulous cake in the shape of the number 2. When I went to get the eggs for this cake I realized I was out. Soooo we settled for a store bought cake instead and it was pretty yummy! I guess the terrible twos have really struck, because once again she had totally melt downs when we tried to do presents and cake. We finally put the gifts in the floor and let her go to them in her own time. As for the cake as long as we didn't sing Happy Birthday and the candles weren't lit she was fine!


Whew, what a Birthday for Miss Shelby Lynn!

My Baby is 2!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Pretty Little Shelby Lynn ( when she was just a little tiny baby I used to call her this)!
I wanted to tell the story of my pregnancy (long awaited and high risk) and her birth ( 5 Weeks Early) but I didn't get it done because we have both been sick and then tonight I went shopping for birthday goodies; so hopefully I will get done for this weekend. But here are few of my favorite photos over they last 2 years...I can't believe 2 years have passed already!
( I don't have any pics on my computer from the 1st 3 months but will post some in the next post.)
3 MONTHS:

Thanks Melanie for always taking our pics; I don't know what I would do without you!

Here she is with her umbilical hernia (used to worry me to death), we call it her radio knob, lol! The docs said it would go away and what do you know it did!

6 MONTHS
My mom always says she looks like a little boy in these pics, lol. She cute even as a boy!

I love her sweet little clasped hands

"Come on Mom, are we not done yet?"

FIRST CHRISTMAS

Look what all Santa brought me!

9 MONTHS

Thanks Melanie once again for being a fabulous friend and taking these!

There are so many of the photos and I love them, but I will have to compress them down before I can put any more up.

Some more of my favorites from the first year:

The one and only time she showed interest in a paci and it was in her mouth backwards!




I love this pictures, we were at playgroup and she was upset with another playmate, and I couldn't help myself!

One Year!


Year Two and birth story in part 2!

Cool Crazy "C"

So totschool has been really hit and miss for the last 3 weeks but when I was looking back over what we had covered we have not done too bad. Then end of May and beginning of June was really busy. Shelby Lynn's grammy came to visit, then we were sick, then Shelby Lynn's cousins Charlie, Reaghan, Alena and their mommy and daddy also came for a visit, and then we were sick again, whew, what a few weeks! But here is what we accomplished:

Math
"C"ounting:
Shelby Lynn work on her counting puzzle that I got from Michael's for a $1. She can count to 13 and is really good at that but not so much as putting the pieces back in as she is at taking them out.

She also worked on shape sorting with her "c"ookie jar and sequencing and "c"olors with her nesting cups which you can see in the background.

Outdoor/Physical Activity
Build Sand "C"astles
Grammy bought Shelby Lynn a sandbox to go on our new patio and she really enjoyed playing in it. She basically just pours the sand out right now, but we did also drive "c"ars in the sand!


We also played "c"atch with her ball. She knows how to hold out her hands to catch the ball but hasn't quite figured out how to keep it in her hands. (sorry no pics of this activity)

Home Economics
"C"leaning:
We started talking about cleaning and to get ready for her cousins coming to town, Shelby Lynn helped me clean her toys. She really enjoyed this activity and that made mommy happy!

We also sang the "c"lean up song!
Reading:
We read several counting books this week that featured Shelby Lynn's favorite, Elmo!

Here are some other things we did these past weeks that involved the letter "C":

Hanging with the "C"ousins on the "c"ouch watching "c"artoons:


We went to the amusement park (Kings Dominion) where Shelby Lynn rode the "C"arousel, the "C"ars, learned about waiting in line, and met the Nick Jr "C"haracters:







And here is one of my favorite pictures from Totschool:


Be sure to check out what happened at all the other Totschools by clicking on the imagine below:

I am still alive!

So I have not posted in a couple of weeks because we have had a lot of family in and then we all have been sick (what a story this was...5 doctors for Shelby Lynn for something that the 1st doctor should have seen). I will share all about both in another post when we have more time, but for now we are getting ready to go to the amusement park because my dear hubby has the day off! Something for your viewing pleasure until I can post more:
I wonder what could have caused this look:


Possibly this:

More on this when I return!

Birthday photo

This week over at www.iheartfaces.com the theme is Happy Birthday or pets. I decided to enter this photo in the Birthday category. I normally don't like to do too much to the photo, but I kept adding different filters in CS4 to this and loved how it turned out. Definitely outside the box for me!

I would really like to hear what others think about this since it is different, please leave me your honest opinion! Thanks!

Be sure to click on the button to see the other great photos!

I Heart Silhouettes!

This week over at www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com the theme is silhouettes. I have never tried to shoot a silhouette before so if was fun trying! Here is my best one from this week. I would love to hear what you think and how I could improve!


Be sure to head on over to http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/2009/05/week-20-photo-challenge-silhouettes.html and check out all the other amazing photos!

**click on the button at the top if you don't want to copy and past the links...don't know why they aren't working.

Big Bold B tot school

-Shelby Lynn 22 months-

This week in totschool we learned about the letter B. We are only spending one week on this letter because she already knows it, but with all the activities out there to do we could have probably spent a whole year, lol!
For our morning music we listened to Bananaphone by Raffi.
While Shelby Lynn ate breakfast I would read a book that went along with that day's activity. Books we read this week included:
I am a Bunny by Ole Risom and Illustrated by my favorite Richard Scarry
Big Red Barn and The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
Spot goes to the Beach by Eric Hill
Bearobics by Vic Parker
A Babysitter for Billy Bear by Miriam Moss

Activities for the week:
Fine Motor Skill: Beadwork




This activity was a huge hit. I got these beads from Michael's in the dollar section. She spent 30 minutes playing with them. While working with them she not only named the shapes all on her own but also named the colors! Shelby Lynn now recognizes circle, square, star, heart and triangle and knows red, blue, yellow, purple and green. She was not able to put them on the string as the holes were really small, but she did stack them on top of each other which accomplish the goal of practicing fine motor skills.

Art: Paint with water, Mickey Mouse in a Hot Air Balloon

She is saying, "Seeeee!"

Felt Board: Brown, Brown Bear what do you see?

Shelby Lynn did really well listening to the story.

I thought she would do well taking the animals off the board when I called out the color, but she wasn't interested in that, instead she would pick up one and walk around with it saying the name of it. So I guess that was good!

Writing: Making the letter B. For the first time Shelby Lynn allowed me to hold her hand while we made several B's with a pencil. Normally she is little miss independent and doesn't want any help, but this time she let me help! Unfornately I couldn't take a picture.

Snacks: Blueberries, Bananas, Bug graham crackers, and Berry English muffins. For dinner one night we had Cheddar Brats. She is definitely a daddy's girl and gobbled them up!


She also played with these "B" toys this week:
Ball
Barnyard
Bed Bugs
Babydoll

It is really working well having the cart with specific toys on it. She plays with what is on it more then the ones in her toyroom and it is great because they are rotated with each letter! So her toys are getting more use. And as always she slept with her Bunnies! What a great B week we had!
The least sucessful activity of the week was the one I was most excited about. I got this cute puzzle from Target that was a bear that you could pick a different face, dress and shoes for. She enjoyed looking at all the pieces, but had a hard time fitting the pieces in so she gave up pretty quickly and never went back to it this week.

Hmmm, how does this work?

She did well taking the pieces out.

This was the extent of the activity.

Here is my favorite pic from the week:

This is what happens when the beads won't go on the string!
Be sure to click on the Totschool logo at the top of the post to see what others are doing!

Blurb book photo contest

For weeks now out in blogland I have been reading about a photoblog where you can enter photos in weekly theme contests. I thought this would be a great way for me to get some feedback and learn how to use my new canon rebel camera. Well did I pick a doozy of a week to enter. This week they are having a contest where if chosen your photo could wind up in a book with other fabulous face photos! But there are a couple of rules, first you could only enter one picture and you are suppose to pick you best face photo. Well did I ever have a hard time choosing. I kept going back and forth. I am entering in the amateur category...obviously since I don't know anything about taking pictures and shutter speeds and iso numbers, lol! So here is my pick............

I just love this picture because it really shows her dark eyelashes and her little curl on her face. To me this picture really shows off some of my favorite features of my daughter. Please leave me some constructive criticism and be sure visit iHeartFaces to learn more!

(you can click on this button to go to iHeartFaces blog to get all the information on how to enter the contest and see other entries!)

I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb book photo contest. If chosen, I grant I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites.

Bloggy Break

My mom has been in town visiting us for the past week and half, so we took a blog and tot school break. I am going to start back with tot school on Friday and spend the weekend and next we on the letter B. I feel that this is okay that we don't do a full two weeks on this letter since she already knows it, but I would like her to associate it with some pictures of items that start with B. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to post pics of our new patio that we are working on!

All About A

(Shelby Lynn - 22 Months)

So this week for totschool I decided to try learning by the alphabet. I took notes from HERE . I love this mom's alphabet approach and she has done a lot of hard work and has resource links. Thanks so much! I also used the Totally Tots website for info as well. I have a button on the side of my blog you can click on to see that site! I thought I was just going to spend one week on each letter, but there is so much we can do that I think I will spend two weeks. Also I think this gives her time to really absorb what we are learning!
Well I am really excited because now I have an official school area. We moved the tv out of the kitchen and that whole corner is now for school. I have a rocking chair for "circle time" with a felt board and magnetic chalk board on the wall. I also bought a rolling cart so that I can put that weeks activities on it. On the bottom shelf I place toys that emphasized "A" learning. The baskets have puzzles, books, and flashcard games and the top shelf has the activities Shelby Lynn does with mommy. I love this!
Our Learning Cart:

Circle Time Area:

Some books from the library and activites to go with them:

Every morning while we ate breakfast I had American Folk music playing ( I felt like the Darlings from Andy Griffith had invaded our house) and we read a book. After breakfast we did one activity together. The first activity we did was a sensory tub. I filled the container with rice and hid amphibians (frogs I got from the dollar section at Target) in it and provide some scoops and another plate. Shelby Lynn really liked this activity. We she finally found an amphibian for "A" (big word I know) she played with it for a long time! I had to keep telling her that there were more in the container.



I was really excited when she got the Little People animal set out and started playing with it. She has had this since last year and never really shown any interest in it. I think by placing it in a new place away from her toys worked! She played with this over and over all week.


Another activities we did was to work with rubber stamps. I place whole bunch of "A" stamps and stamps that started with "A" in a box and let her use the ink pad to stamp on small papers that I am going together as a book for her. She liked this activity until mommy tried to stamp her finger into the ink for the "Ants on my A" project from the totally tots website. She got really upset about having ink on her fingers and we had to stop the activity, because I want totschool to be a fun experience for her.
Stamping:

She kept saying, "oooohhh, paypee(paper)" and hugging it! She does have stuffed animals to love on in case you were wondering!

Not happy with mommy!

Another activity we did was a new abc foam puzzle that I got from Michaels for a $1. We work also on sorting the different colored letters. She did really well with that and by the end of the week she could work the puzzle. Mommy was so proud that Shelby Lynn kept getting it out by herself to play with it!

Other "A" activites we did this we was to count our apples on our felt board tree, sing animal songs, look at abc flash cards (from the $1 section at Michaels) and play a match game that I made with my cricut machine. I was really surprised that she was able to do this. This week we hope to build an ant farm, write a letter to our Auntie Anne, use our scent shakers filled with allspice and work on our Noah's ark totbook from 1+1+1 website.
Here is my favorite pic of the week. This was her expression after she spill a bunch of the rice ( I think I will use pasta next time!)


As always be sure to check out what others are doing in totschool here:

http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/2009/05/tot-school-finally-back.html

Great Video

Check this out! Love it!

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