M is for Mouse & Moose- Books

This is a bit of a belated post, but I thought I'd share what we read aloud last week for Read Aloud Thursday. We learned about mice and moose last week as part of our "m" unit.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff

I don't think I know a toddler that doesn't enjoy this book. It's a modern day classic about a little boy who gives a mouse a cookie. That cookie leads to the mouse asking for other things which eventually lead up to the mouse asking for another cookie. Silly, yes. Fun, definitely. Jonathan really liked this one!

Making Learning Fun has some great printables to go along with this book!

Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh

Jonathan just loved this classic concept book. It's about three white mice who discover red, yellow, and blue paint. Lots of fun painting and mixing colors ensues. Jonathan really started to grasp the concept of how secondary colors are formed. It's a very fun book for toddlers and preschoolers! We also read Mouse Count and Mouse Shapes, which were also very enjoyable.

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear by Audrey and Don Wood

This gorgeously illustrated book captured Jonathan's attention. It's about a little strawberry-loving mouse who will do anything to save his strawberry from the big hungry bear- including sharing it with the reader! It's clever, humorous, and sure to please a toddler or preschooler.

If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff

This book is a sequel to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. It's another story about what follows after one gives a moose a muffin. The moose of course wants jam which leads to more adventures which lead back to more muffins. It's another silly gem that we enjoyed very much.

Making Learning Fun also has printables for this story.

Moose, of Course! by Lynn Plourde

My parents gave us this book after their annual trip to Maine one year. It's about a little boy who is determined to see some moose. Everyone keeps telling him to "do nuthin'" but the boy comes up with more and more elaborate schemes to try to find a moose. Finally, the boy gets trapped by one of his own devices and ends up having time on his hands to find the moose he was looking for. It's a silly tongue twister that teaches the benefits of patience.


So that's what we read together last week! I'm sharing this at these linky parties.

Kids in the Word: the Exodus / Manna

Last week we continued our journey through the Old Testament, focusing on the stories of the Exodus (Passover) as well as God providing manna for his people in the desert.

Bible & Stories


Each morning at breakfast we read the relevant stories from Jonathan's toddler Bible. The stories are one page long and each story has a picture to accompany it. Jonathan loves this time every morning and he's started reminding me that we need to read our Bible.

We also read his beginner reader book Moses and the King. This book covers the events of the Exodus in a simple story that is easy for Jonathan to follow. We've had this book for a while and he almost knows it by heart. He enjoys saying "No! The slaves cannot go!" every time the king is answering Moses' request. It's another winner from this series of early reader Bible books. My husband had a great idea when he picked these up for Jonathan.

We also attempted to read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett. I chose this story because it is loosely related with the theme of manna from heaven. I loved this story when I was a child, but it was still a little too long for Jonathan to sit through. Maybe next year!


Art 


We did a paper craft of Moses parting the Red Sea from DLTK Bible. I cut out the pieces and Jonathan had fun gluing them onto paper. The boy loves to paste!

I also found this cute craft after we completed our lesson. It uses cornflakes for manna-- great idea for next time!

Source: daniellesplace.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Baking 


To go along with the idea of manna from heaven, we made manna cookies. Jonathan helped me mix and scoop these. We made half the recipe since I wasn't sure how they would turn out-- but they were quite good! I'd recommend making the entire recipe next time! Jonathan really enjoyed helping me make these- and he enjoyed eating them even more!


Manna Cookies

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour

Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and mix well. Add in honey and vanilla. Add flour slowly. Drop by half tsp on cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 minutes. Yield: about 2 dozen.


That was our lesson last week- now we're on to the Ten Commandments. Thanks for visiting!

Pinterest Tuesday: Fall Finds

It's Tuesday and that means Our Country Road is hosting another edition of Pinterest Tuesday! Head on over to Lisa's blog to see what fabulous ideas other moms are coming up with.

Here are some pins that I just thought were fun! 

DIY Clothes Fastening Book:

Source: fortytworoads.blogspot.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Weather Watching Jars:

Source: familyfun.go.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Scripture Memory Wall Art:

Source: etsy.com via Amanda on Pinterest

And because this weather (60s) has me in a fall mood:

Pumpkin scones:

Source: theshoeboxkitchen.wordpress.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Centerpieces:

Source: yourdecoratinghotline.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Warrior Prayers

Just a quick post tonight to share that I'm joining in the 21 Days of Prayer for Sons this month, so you may see some weekly posts related to prayer. I'm praying for Jonathan as well as my future son-in-law. ;-) 

The group I'm in is specific to moms of toddlers and preschoolers, go on over to Milk n' Honey Learn and Grow to learn more about the Moms of Toddlers group. (Pssst- the ebook Warrior Prayers is on sale for 1.99 through 9/6/11!)

Tot School: M is for Mouse (31 Months)

Jonathan is 31 Months Old

This week was a little slower, but we still had lots of fun! We finished up the letter M by talking about mice and other related "m" words. 

Bible

This is the most important part of our week-- I'm trying to fit in our Bible story and crafts before I fit in any letter of the week activities. This week, we learned about the Exodus and God giving manna in the wilderness. I'll share the specifics of the lesson on Weds but we did a couple activities based on the stories:

We did a papercraft of Moses parting the Red Sea

We made manna cookies:

Check back in on Wednesday for our next Kids in the Word post!

Stories, Nursery Rhymes & Read Alouds: 

Our bookshelf for the week

I haven't written up our thoughts on the books we read this week, but here are some highlights:

• Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh and its sequels: Mouse Shapes and Mouse Count. Jonathan loved these books, but Mouse Paint was his favorite!
• Hickory Dickory Dock-- we recited this nursery rhyme several times.
• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and If You Give a Moose a Muffin-- children's classics that Jonathan requested several times this week. :)

Gross Motor Skills 

We had another beautiful week! We spent time outside playing golf, catch, soccer and spending time with friends who came to play. 

We also went to our local forest preserve and took a nice walk (about a mile) had a picnic by the pond. Jonathan loved this. (Grace did too!)

Larry the Cucumber went everywhere with us this week. 

It ended up being a little nature study-- we saw geese, fish, ducks, seagulls, birds, and butterflies! Jonathan and I fed the ducks (and the fish) and he had so much fun doing this! 

Art 

In addition to our Moses craft, we painted with watercolors this week:  

And we made playdough mice using cookie cutters: 

And we mixed playdough to make new colors: orange, green and purple! (as in Mouse Paint)

And made mouse houses out of shapes (like Mouse Shape)

And then made a snake (like Mouse Count):

Science 

We made Magic Muck this week. We made it in the secondary colors, once again mixing primary colors to see the colors they made. 

The recipe was from a book called The Ultimate Book of Kid Concoctions:

3/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup water
food coloring

1. Mix water and food coloring together.
2. Slowly add cornstarch- do not stir!
3. Let stand for 2-3 minutes.
4. Pick up a handful and squeeze it until it forms a hard ball.

Magic Muck turns from a solid to a liquid and back again. We had a lot of fun mixing it up. Jonathan enjoyed playing with it, but didn't fully understand the whole solid/liquid thing. We may pull this out another time.


So that's what Jonathan and I did this past week. I'm linking up to these linky parties. Head on over to get more fun ideas for your toddlers and preschoolers!

Tot School- 12.5 Months

Grace is 12.5 Months

We had another fun week! I'm not doing anything formal with Grace, but we just play and have fun. Here's what we've been up to this week:

Books & Literature 

Gracie and I read several books this week. Here's a new favorite:

Snuggle Wuggle by Jonathan London

This is a cute book that wonders how different animals hug. Each layout shows a particular animal and describes how they hug using a different "nonsense" phrase, such as snuggle wuggle. Grace loves sitting on my lap and we try to hug the different ways the animals do. Some animals nuzzle noses, some hug topsy-turvy, etc. This book always brings out giggles-- Jonathan enjoys it too! Note: the board book version is abridged. 

Nursery Rhyme-- I said/sang Rub a Dub Dub this week as I was changing her diaper. 

Language & Vocabulary 

We continued to play with her alphabet box. This week, we focused on the beanie mouse and moose I put in there (to go along with Jonathan's read-alouds). 

Motor Skills

Grace is still cruising the furniture. She seems more stable and more confident, but isn't trying to walk unsupported. 

We continued to "work" on fine motor skills this week. She loved the stacking rings, she kept taking them off the dowel rod and putting them back on:

She also likes her Tumble n' Twirl toy. Jonathan had a lot of fun with this too when he was her age:

Creative Play 

We played with our thistle blocks and she tried to stack the blocks with me:

She also enjoyed playing with her babies, but I don't have a picture of this. I'll try to have one next week!

So that was Gracie's week! Head on over to 1+1+1=1 for more Tot School ideas! 

Reading Our Library: Byron Barton

Byron Barton has written and illustrated a number of nonfiction books for children. His style typically involves bold outlines and bold cartoon-like illustrations. We've read several books by Barton before this point and most of these have been a hit with Jonathan.

Barton is known for several vehicle-related books. These are simple, informative, and very toddler-friendly. We've reviewed Boats before (linked to review) and Jonathan really enjoyed it. So, we checked out the rest of the books in the series-- and Jonathan loved each one!

Planes

This particular volume introduces different types of airplanes- jet planes, seaplanes, crop dusters, helicopters, etc. Jonathan enjoyed this one equally well, and requested multiple readings.


Trains

Jonathan loves choo-choo trains. We live close to a train track, and he's always so excited to see trains as we are walking about town. This book was definitely his favorite of the bunch! He kept telling me he wanted to "read it himself". It talks about freight trains, passenger trains, electric trains. It's the perfect book for a train loving little boy!



Trucks

This book focuses on different trucks that we encounter in everyday life. There are dump trucks, tow trucks, garbage trucks-- and even an ice cream truck! Jonathan enjoyed pointing out the different trucks in the book as well as while we are on the road.



Some related books we read were:

Airport

This book introduces children to different facets of what goes on at an airport. From passengers arriving to departure, the book follows passengers through the (pre 9-11) check in and boarding process. Barton's pictures show the inside of the jet plane, the control tower and the cockpit. It's a wonderful book that Jonathan requested several times.




Machines at Work

This is another board book, focusing on construction vehicles at work. It goes through a day at the construction site showing bulldozers, steam rollers, cement mixers, cranes and other big heavy equipment. This was another favorite for Jonathan.



We also read a couple of Barton's folk tales:

The Three Bears

This is a perfect first introduction to the familiar folk tale with Barton's simple, childlike illustrations. It was Jonathan's first time hearing the story of the three bears. Jonathan loved this story and enjoyed "reading" (narrating) the story back to me. We also tried The Little Red Hen, but he didn't sit through this one.

Barton has written a number of other books for toddlers and preschoolers. Little boys, especially, will be drawn to his work. If you have a little guy in your life, be sure to check some of Barton's books out the next time you go to your library. Jonathan would heartily recommend them!


See some of our other Barton reviews here:
Boats
I Want to be an Astronaut
My Car
Dinosaurs Dinosaurs

I'm linking this post up to these book-friendly linky parties.