Tot School: letter k (13 Months)

Grace is 13 Months

Since we had less behavioral issues this week, we were able to get back into our tot school groove!

Books


This week, Jonathan and I focused on the letter K and read about kangaroos and koalas. Grace always joins in with our reading time, but I try to pick out some books especially for her. This week we read:

Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too? by Eric Carle

This is sweet book that reiterates the fact that all mothers love their babies. Each page asks "does a ______ have a mother too?" and then the following page shows a picture of the animal saying "yes, a _____ has a mother, just like me and you... does a _____ have a mother too?" It's predictable text, which is great for emerging readers or for children to chime in with the story. Carle's artwork, as usual, is beautiful. The story itself, while having a sweet message, is a little dull. My husband and I tire of reading the board book, but both our children have enjoyed looking at Carle's pictures of the different animals.

Motor Skills 


We pulled out our walk n ride this week, and Grace has loved walking around the house with it:

We brought another walker to the park this week and she had equal fun pushing it around the grass. Hopefully, it'll motivate her to want to walk at some point! She is starting to let goand stand unsupported  for very short periods of time.

She also is quite the climber. She can climb up the stairs all by herself, but doesn't do so well going down. She also loves climbing under furniture- especially under tables and chairs. Sometimes she gets stuck:

We've also played with our stacking rings, which she loves the repetitive action of taking on and off the dowel rod. I pulled out our Melissa & Doug Stack and Sort board, which she loved. She didn't match the colors or shapes, of course, but she really had fun just pulling the different pieces off and on the colored rods:

Art 


Grace loves to color and scribble. She's gotten very good at keeping crayons out of her mouth, but doesn't do as well keeping them on the paper!

Language 


Before I forget, she's said several words this week! She won't always say them, but she's said book, ball, milk, and puff. She's also started nodding or shaking her head when I ask her a question. It's so nice to be able to communicate with her!

I also made another "sound box" for her to explore. I'll try to post a picture of it next week. So far it contains a beanie kangaroo, a beanie koala, key rattles, and a bottle of pretend ketchup. It's a lot harder to come up with objects for "k" that I have around the house!

So that's been Grace's week, Check out what other moms are doing over at 1+1+1=1. Coming up tomorrow I'll share more about Jonathan's week.

Weekly Wrap-Up

This week went much more smoothly than last week. We've had lots more fun and adventures together. It seems a bit of a blur now, but here are some highlights:

* spent Monday playing and resting from our travels over the weekend
* Had a big playdate (5 kids) on Tuesday. Jonathan did very well sharing and being kind for most of the morning.
* Weds brought fall weather and we spent the morning playing at a local park with friends. We had fun playing in the afternoon.
* Thurs we went down to Chicago to participate in a study conducted by the Infant Learning and Development Lab at the University of Chicago. Grace got to watch a short movie and they tried to see how well she could predict actions. Jonathan was excited to go down to the city and see tunnels, choo choo trains and big buildings. We had lunch at a tollway Oasis and both children really liked watching the cars travel underneath us.
* Today we've played and had fun and we're headed down to bring a meal to some new friends who just had a baby boy.

It's been a busy week!

As far as Warrior Prayers goes, I've spent the week praying that Jonathan would avoid foolishness and pride, and that he would have a servant's heart and be pure, honorable, loving, and joy-filled. Whew! That's quite a list. Taking from another mom's suggestion, I've started praying over Jonathan (and Grace) at breakfast time. We usually pray for the day, but now I've added the specific prayers for them.

And this week I've seen some more progress. We've made some changes too- instead of always telling him what he is not to do, I've started emphasizing what he is supposed to do. He is supposed to be kind (as opposed to hitting, or not sharing). He is supposed to be self-controlled (as opposed to throwing a tantrum). He is supposed to obey (instead of being defiant). These things have resonated a lot more with him than me always saying "no"-- and he's so excited to tell daddy what he did well each day.

Do we still have issues? Yes. Definitely. But there's some improvement too. When we left the park Weds, he threw himself down on the ground because he wanted to go play with something his friend was playing with. I told him "it's okay to be sad, but you need to obey mommy. It's not okay to disobey." And you know what? He picked himself up. He still cried on the way to the car, but he obeyed me. So that was a small victory. :)

Another thing that's helped is I just purchased the book A Child's Book of Character Building Volume 1. I think it will be a great resource for us-- it goes through twelve different virtues with short stories about how the virtue is lived out at home, at school, and at play. I'm really excited to start going through this with Jonathan. I'll post more on it later, but I think I may spend two to four weeks on each virtue.

So that's been my week with Jonathan! I'll be posting our "Tot School" adventures on Sunday so you can see what we've been learning about this week.




As far as the Homemaker's Challenge, there were a lot of things that really resonated with me. As far as homemaking goes, I wrestle with laziness (I'd rather play with my kids, read, or be online than clean, wouldn't you?), as well as the monotony of daily tasks and the fact that the children just pull everything out again! I try to stick to a cleaning schedule, but I'm not much for schedules. I know they will make my life easier, though, and give me more guiltless time to play. 
I usually just need to give myself a kick in the pants and just do something. Usually if I start one task, I can move on to the next. Once I sit down, I'm done. My husband and I recognize the same thing each night. If we turn the TV on before we clear all the dishes, load the dishwasher, and do all those end-of-night things, they won't get done. Or they *will* get done haphazardly at 11:30pm when you feel so grumpy about doing anything besides getting in bed. So we try to get things cleared up before we have couch/tv/computer time. I'm glad he struggles with the same tendency as I do, even if it's not to the same extent. 
I really liked Sarah Mae's vision for being a homemaker: "I want my life to me a light shining for my children. I want them to see a bouncy, jolly homemaker whizzing through all her tasks with the joy of the Lord." I want to be a model for my children, but apart from God's grace that's hard to do. I need to rely on Him for strength and motivation each morning. 
Anyways, this week I successfully: 
* purged some cabinets and drawers in my kitchen* maintained my kitchen (most of the time)* cleaned windows and dusted blinds in the living areas* dusted furniture in the living areas
I didn't accomplish as much as I'd like, but it's something! We'll see what next week holds-- we still will need to go to central Illinois at some point, but we're not sure when yet. 
Have a great week!

Reading Our Library: Marion Dane Bauer

Marion Dane Bauer is an award-winning author who has written books for children of all ages, including a Newberry Honor book. We picked up several of her books for younger children at our local library. Here's what we read:

The first two books are a sweet celebration of parenthood. They come complete with a greeting card that a child can give to his or her mother or father (although our library copies obviously didn't come with the greeting cards).


My Mother is Mine by Marion Dane Bauer illustrated by Peter Elwell

This book is a beautiful tribute to the mother-child bond. Bauer's rhyming text is sweet, but not overbearing. Elwell's pastel illustrations show animal mothers caring for their babies- bears, tigers, kangaroos and ultimately culminate in a little girl and her mother. Both Jonathan and Grace enjoyed this book as well as the sequel (below). Jonathan particularly had fun naming the different animals.

The Very Best Daddy of All by Marion Dane Bauer illustrated by Leslie Wu

This is a companion to My Mother is Mine. It shows different animal daddies caring for and protecting their babies. The simple text and soft pastel illustrations show animals from gorillas to zebras and prairie dogs. But the very best daddy of all, is the daddy of a little child at the end. After reading this book, Jonathan told me that his daddy is "the best daddy in the whole world!" :)


The next several books all emphasize different body parts and were fun for both children. Jonathan has long known his body parts, but he still has fun pointing to or moving his body parts. Grace, however, is just starting to try to figure out the nomenclature of things. So she enjoyed these books as well and she's started pointing to her nose as a result!

If You Had a Nose like an Elephant's Trunk illustrated by Susan Winter

This is a clever, imaginative book that takes children through the animal world. What would happen if you had cheeks like a chipmunk or a tail like a porcupine? Each page asks a similar question and gives an answer. For example, "if you had a tail like a monkey's, you could swing from your grandmother's antique chandelier". It's a very fun book that teaches the benefits of being you! It brought out lots of grins and giggles at the lunch table!

Thank You For Me! illustrated by Kristina Stephenson

This is a cute book for teaching children how special they are made. They have hands to clap, feet to dash, a mouth, tongue, cheek with a nose above and chin beneath. The book even mentions that children have hands to pray to say thank you for me. It's a sweet addition to any unit on the human body.

Toes, Ears & Nose illustrated by Karen Katz

I was surprised to find a book we already owned was written by Marion Dane Bauer. This is an adorable lift the flap book that helps to teach the parts of the body. It's most appropriate for young toddlers-- about 9 months-24 months. Grace particularly has started enjoying these type of books and we've been working on the parts of the body.



So that's what we've been reading-- we link up to these bloggy parties. Check out these blogs for more read aloud ideas!

Kids in the Word: The Ten Commandments

Last week, Jonathan and I learned about the Ten Commandments. Although it was a rough week, we made it through our Bible lesson, so that was a success!

Bible


We read the story out of Jonathan's favorite toddler Bible, The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes. The Ten Commandments were covered in one short story, which was good but I wanted a little more detail this time.

I found a copy of The Ten Commandments for Children by Lois Rock in our local library. This story gives the ten commandments in child-friendly language and emphasize how the Ten Commandments help us know the good and right way to live our lives. Some are simplified such as "Husbands and wives- keep your special love just for each other" instead of "Do not commit adultery". I liked this explanation for toddlers.


Other books that were recommended to me (but not in our library system) are The Ten Commandments for Little Ones by Allia Zobel-Nolan and The Story of the Ten Commandments by Patricia Pingry. I think we may try to purchase these for next year.

We also went through part of the Big Book of Questions & Answers by Sinclair B. Ferguson. This is a great book for grounding children in the Christian faith. It's aimed for elementary age students, but I found the explanations of the ten commandments very applicable for toddlers. The ten commandments are covered in questions 39-50. We read two questions per day-- usually at breakfast and lunch.


Games 


We played the "perfect" game. We tried to sit perfectly quiet and still-- which was obviously hard for my Jonathan to do! The point of the perfect game is to show that no one is perfect. We all make bad choices and we can't keep God's perfect law. God's rules are meant to show us that God is perfect and we are not. God sent Jesus to live a perfect life so that we can be forgiven.

Art 

We made a Ten Commandments train, using a printable I found here. To add a little math practice, I cut out the train and put numbers on each car. Then I had Jonathan put the numbers 1-10 in order and glue the pieces down on a long piece of paper. He loves choo choo trains, so this was a hit! As we read our Ten Commandments books, we pointed to the appropriate train car.

So we wrapped up our study of Moses last week, now it's on to Joshua!

Pinterest Tuesday- Thoughts of Autumn

Well, we're still home for right now, but we are ready to head back down to central Illinois at any point. So I expect this week will be a bit lighter for us.

Here are some things I've been pinning this week. Can you tell I've been thinking of Fall? Head on over to Our Country Road to see and submit more pins!

Baby/Apple Activity from Lightening Bug Literacy (can't wait to try this with Grace- they have lots of great resources at this site! I'm thinking of making a Fall sensory bin, so this would be a great extension!)

Source: lightningbuglit.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Apple Cupcakes: 

Source: makeandtakes.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Candy Corn Cookies:

Source: kathiecooks.blogspot.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Homemade Pumpkins:

Source: crystalscraftspot.blogspot.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Tot School- the week of no letters

Well, as I shared, it's been a bit of a rough week. We didn't get much "Tot School" accomplished this week-- more life school as we dealt with some special discipline issues that have popped up. Friday was a much better day, for which I'm thankful!

We're still trying to deal with some self control issues and naptimes are continuing to be a challenge. Jonathan seems to be tired, but is keeping himself awake at nap time- walking around his bed, singing, kicking, talking. When he does take a nap, it's been very short (about an hour). Is this normal for 32 months? If the naps are going away, I want to transition him to having some quiet/rest time. However, he's been more prone to tantrums so I don't think he should give up napping yet. Any advice for one weary momma?

Bible

The one thing we did this week was our Bible lesson, which was the most important! We talked about the Ten Commandments and made a Ten Commandments train. I hope to sum up what we did on Wednesday.

Grace


Grace is still crawling around and cruising the furniture. She's gotten very interested in climbing over and under chairs and table legs. She's actually pointing to things and trying to communicate via gestures to tell us what she wants. She's also cutting her 8th tooth- so she's been a little cranky, but not too bad.




But anyways, it's been a long week. Next week may be a little crazy-- we're currently in central Illinois because Jonathan's great-grandfather is on hospice. We may be headed back down next week if he gets worse. So my "tot school" plans may be put on hold again, we'll see what the week holds. So that's our life right now... Keep us in your thoughts & prayers, if you will.  Have a great week!

Weekly Wrap Up

Wow. What a week. I'd have to say this is one of the roughest ones I've had all year. You'd think since it was Labor Day, that it would have been a easy, short week... but that was not the case. Sigh.

Warrior Prayers

I mentioned on Monday that I was joining in the Fall session of 21 Days of Prayer for Sons. Ever since then, it's been a battle-- let me tell you! I've prayed for heart change, obedience, submission, integrity for Jonathan (as well as Grace, my future son-in-law and myself).



The Good: Jonathan has gotten much better at sharing. We've been stressing being kind to others and that seems to really resonate with him. So there's some progress-- yay!

The Bad: Temper tantrums and deliberate disobedience have reared their ugly head this week. It's unusual for Jonathan. He ordinarily has a overall sweet temperament. I have lots of questions for more experienced moms:

* how do you deal with temper tantrums?
* Jonathan has also decided to mostly stop napping during the afternoons-- he's 32 mos. I don't know if the two issues are related... when do little ones generally stop napping?



31 Days to Clean 


I've also joined in the September session of 31 Days to Clean over at Homemaker's Challenge. So, as a general progress update, this week I:

* reviewed my mission statement
* hung some fall decor and some wall art in my mudroom
* cleaned out my refrigerator
* cleaned the top of my refrigerator
* cleaned the outsides of my cabinets and appliances
* cleaned out my microwave and my oven
* mopped the kitchen floor

So there's some progress there too.


So this week I've spent more time disciplining and cleaning than anything else. We got very little "Tot School" accomplished this week. I feel broken, humbled, and weak.  So, my readers, I don't have it all together. I'm not Super Mom! I feel physically and emotionally drained this week. I've had to "run away" for some me time a couple evenings and make some Starbucks runs during the day to keep mommy sane. So, please pray for me and my little ones this week. It's been rough, but this too will pass...  right???