d is for digger

Books 

Dazzling Diggers by Tony Mitton

Another hit by Tony Mitton- we are becoming big Tony Mitton fans. This is another book in Mitton's Amazing Machines series. This particular book talks about different construction vehicles in Mitton's rhyming style and teaches about the different technical parts. Jonathan loved this book the best of all so far-- he wanted me to read it over and over again! 

Digger Man by Andrea Zimmerman & David Clemesha

This is a cute story about a little boy imagining what he would do with his own digger. The boy imagines that he will use his digger to make ponds and parks. His little brother is too little to use his digger, but the boy imagines that he will teach his brother how to use his digger when he's older. This was a book that Jonathan could relate to- both with the little boy's fascination with diggers and the boy's care for his younger sibling. Jonathan wanted to read this book over and over again- it was a hit with this toddler!

Puzzles & Fine Motor Skills 

We pulled out his construction puzzle by Melissa & Doug. These chunky puzzles are too easy for him at this point, but he still enjoys doing them and playing with the chunky pieces. 

Pretend Play 

I pulled out his toy digger from the toy rotation bins. He was so excited to see it. It's battery operated and makes noise and moves the shovel. However, he was so intrigued by it that somehow he broke it and it no longer turned off. So all day long we heard "Rrrr rrrr rrrr" until the batteries wore out!

d is for doctor

Sign Language 


We reviewed the sign for doctor.


Books 

Going to the Doctor by Anne Civardi

This book is simply a great introduction to doctors for toddlers. It's about a family with three children who all need to visit the doctor for various reasons (well check up, illness, injury). The story relates what goes on during the family's doctor visit from checking in and waiting in the waiting room to picking up a prescription for the sick little girl. It's simply yet realistically illustrated. Jonathan easily sat through this story and enjoyed helping me find the duck that is hidden on each page.

Froggy Goes to the Doctor by Jonathan London

This is another book in London's Froggy series, a character Jonathan has enjoyed. In this story, Froggy goes to the doctor for his annual check-up and is worried that he may need a shot. At the doctor's office, Froggy meets another patient and is up to his usual antics. I didn't enjoy it as much as some other Froggy books. There was more slapstick humor and Froggy misbehaved a bit in the book (without any consequences). Jonathan, however, found the story humorous, but I'd probably pass over this one.

Field Trip 


We went to the doctor, of course! Gracie needed to go in to have her breathing re-checked. So we all loaded up into the van and talked about what we would see at the doctor's office.

Art 


We made our own doctor kit, using a craft idea I found over at Homeschool Creations. We cut out a "doctor" bag and glued or taped different medical items to the bag- a tongue depressor, Q-tip, gauze, and bandaids. Jonathan's favorite part was the "Cars" band-aids- he wanted to wear them. Unfortunately, the craft didn't make it long- Jonathan kept wanting to tear everything off the paper.

Fine Motor


We also worked on transferring water using a medicine dropper. Jonathan really enjoyed this activity- he was very focused while he working.

Library Links 


Going to the Doctor
Froggy Goes to the Doctor

Web Resources 


Doctors & Nurses Preschool Pack @ Homeschool Creations
Doctor Craft @ Homeschool Creations
Doctor Printables @ Making Learning Fun

d is for dinosaur

Image source

Last week did not go as planned-- but I suppose that's life, right? Jonathan did develop croup and when we went into the doctor they found out he had a double ear infection as well. He was really dragging and wasn't so interested in activities. So, we only focused on dinosaurs last week. I took hardly any pictures- sorry!

Books 

Since Jonathan was sick, we read lots of books! So this post will be pretty heavy on dinosaur books.

Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff

This was the longest book we read and Jonathan did surprisingly well sitting through the story. It's an early reader about a boy who goes to a museum and a dinosaur follows him home. They have adventures strolling through the city and meeting policemen and playing hide and seek. Jonathan brought this book to daddy several times to have daddy read it to him and he generally sat through most of the book.

How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen

This is the first book in a very cute series that is designed to teach children good behavior and manners. This particular story is about good bedtime behavior. Misbehaving dinosaurs try different tactics to delay bedtime. In the end, however, the dinosaurs hug and kiss their human parents goodnight. The story is cute and humorous and reinforces a good lesson. Jonathan enjoyed it so much that we ended up checking out How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? and How do Dinosaurs Count to Ten? 

Dinosaurs, dinosaurs.  by Byron Barton

This book is a great introduction to dinosaurs for toddlers. The bold pictures and clear text teach toddlers about different dinosaurs and focus on main features such as size and appearance: dinosaurs with horns, dinosaurs with spikes, etc. It ends with dinosaurs going to bed, which also makes the book suitable for bedtime. Jonathan liked this story, and we read it a few times. But he enjoyed some of the  others better. 

Dinosaurumpus by Tony Mitton

We've really enjoyed some transportation books written by Tony Mitton so I decided to check this one out as well and it was a definite hit! Mitton's rhymes introduce different dinosaurs as the rumble and dance across the pages. There's one point where the T-Rex comes bursting into the scene that I thought might turn out to be scary- but it ends up being fine! This is a great book to get your toddler moving and like Barton's book, has the dinosaurs settling in to sleep at the end of the night. This was quite the hit for Jonathan- even being sick he had fun with this book!

Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs! by Sandra Boynton

This is a book that daddy picked for Jonathan and Grace. We've loved Sandra Boynton books in the past and this one is no exception. It is filled with colorful, fun-loving dinosaurs and teaches children about opposites. Both Jonathan and Grace really had fun with this book!

Sensory Bin 

I made our first sensory bin- I filled the bin with oatmeal and black beans and threw in some dinosaurs we received from a friend. I gave Jonathan some cups and measuring utensils to play with, spread out a plastic tablecloth to catch the mess and let him go at the bin. He loved it-- it occupied him for about an hour!

Fine Motor Skills 


We worked more on lacing . We laced a dinosaur card I printed out from Confessions of a Homeschooler's Letter of the Week curriculum. (COAH)



Letters 


We also did a dinosaur letter match from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I made letter disks using the caps from gallons of mlk. He did it a few times, but would get the letters turned upside down- the "u" and n" looked a lot alike.

That was it for the week- but this week we've been able to do more- so stay tuned!

Library Links 


Danny and the Dinosaur
Dinosaurumpus!
How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?
How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?
How Do Dinosaurs Count to Ten? 
Oh my Oh my Dinosaurs!

Web Resources 


d is for dinosaur @ Confessions of a Homeschooler
ABC Dinosaur Flashcards @ First School

Bitty Baby School (7 Months)

We were hit with the croup as well as ear infections all around this week. So no Tot School this week. But here's what Grace has been up to this past month:

Books & Language 


Grace joins in our story time each morning, and I've also tried to set up some time to read one on one with her. I chose board books that tied in to our topics for each week. Grace also likes to pat and explore books, so I've pulled out some of Jonathan's old "touch and feel" books. Some favorites this month:

Little Car (can't find a link to this one)
Have You Seen My Cat?
Moo Moo Brown Cow
Moo Baa La La La
Does a Cow say Boo?
The Carrot Seed
The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Motor Skills 


This month, Grace mastered rolling and is sitting on her own for about 5 minutes! I still put the boppy pillow around her quite a bit, but she's getting very strong!

She loves the freedom of being able to explore toys. She reaches and grabs for the toys that she wants. Jonathan is having to get used to sharing!

And she still loves being in her bouncer:

Creative Play 


Grace still loves exploring different textures. Now that she's sitting, she really enjoys her sensory scarves:

She also has started to play with blocks and cups, mostly banging them together and exploring what they do.

And she joins in our song time now- Jonathan insists on giving her the pink rattle and baby bells when we sing in the mornings. She likes participating in anything her big brother is doing!

We've also enjoyed a few walks this week as well:

Again, nothing very intense- but we have fun!

Frugally Finding Books for Your Tot

If you couldn't guess, I could easily spend our entire month's budget on books for Jonathan and Grace.This, however, would not make my husband very happy. So I've had to find ways to be frugal. Here are my favorite tips:

1. Utilize your local library

This is my favorite way to find books and to see if I would be interested in purchasing them. We've been blessed to be in library systems where I can go online and request a book from any library in the system and then pick them up in my local library. It's similar to Inter-Library Loan, but without me having to hassle the librarians to request the book. I can just go online and request them. Being in Chicagoland, there are 23 libraries in our system-- so it's very easy to find books!

2. Inter-Library Loan

I use this whenever I want a book that is not in our library system. I go in to our local library with a list and they do their best to request the book. I often will find that our library will purchase the book if it's not easily available. Libraries have different procedures for this service, so check with your local library. If the book is a must have, then I try to purchase it to add it to our collection:

3. Paperback Swap


I love Paperback Swap! It's a great resource for (almost) free books. To join, you simply list ten books that you have that you no longer want. You get two free books for simply listing your ten items. When someone requests a book you have, you send them the book paying postage. When you find a book you want, you  request it from another member and get it in the mail! When I find a book I want, I add it to my wish list. When it becomes available, I'm sent an email and I can request the book. It's that easy!

4. Used bookstores

I have a few used bookstores that I like to frequent. We have several Half Price Books in the northern suburbs, and I love to browse through the shelves. I've found several books this way! My sister-in-law also owns a used bookstore on the east coast and we're blessed that she sends us boxes of books each month!


5. Amazon

And there's always Amazon. I use swagbucks to earn Amazon dollars. With Swagbucks, you earn digital dollars for searching the web, taking surveys, answering polls, and other activities. For 450 "Swagbucks" you can score a $5.00 Amazon card. They can add up quickly! Amazon is another good source for used books-- and they often have the most reasonable prices for new books as well.


Those are my ways of stocking up our library. What other tips do you have?

Letter Cc Books

My "c" Sound Box by Jane Monclure

This is another book in the Sound Box series. The story is very simple- a little girl (little c) finds items that begin with her sound and puts them in a box. There are pictures above the vocabulary words used in the story to help your child become familiar with the way the words look. At the end of the book, there's a list of the "c" words used in the story, as well as other "c" words you can talk about and related activities. The book focused on the hard "c" sound, but it also lists some soft "c" words as well as "ch" words in the back of the book.  This series provides us with a chance to expand our vocabulary and also is somewhat entertaining to Jonathan. 

Carrie's Surprise: The Sound of Hard C  by Joanne Meier and Cecilia Minden


This is another series by Child's World publications.  This series specifically focuses on phonemic sounds so this book focuses on the hard c sound and there's a second book which focuses specifically on the soft c sound.  In this particular story, Carrie and her father make a card and a cake for her mother's birthday. I liked that the series has different books to differentiate the sounds that "C" makes. The vocabulary used was not as extensive as the Sound Box series, but it would make this series ideal for early readers. 




Jonathan's "C" Book


We also made our own "C" book focusing on the words that start with a hard "C".  I downloaded the template from Alphabet Avenue, but then added some of our own pages to focus on hard "c" words that we learned about. I searched and found free clip art to use in our pictures. Jonathan enjoyed looking through his very own book and would tell me the items on each page. We began doing this with the letter b, and while some of the novelty wore off, he still wanted to flip through the book a few times. 




Library Links 


Carrie's Surprise
My "C" Sound Box

Reading Our Library- Jim Arnosky

Jim Arnosky writes and illustrates books that focus on animals and the natural world.

His books are beautifully illustrated. I learned from Carrie over at Reading My Library that Jim Arnosky uses a camera to photograph wildlife in action and uses this as a basis for his artwork. His illustrations are gorgeous and full of details. I love simply gazing at them and finding "hidden" animals-- animals that are not the focal point of the story, but happen to be part of the illustrations. Sometimes this captures Jonathan's attention as well, but not always.

This is kind of an odd review post. I tried to pick out some books that I thought would be toddler friendly, but only a couple of the books held Jonathan's attention. I'm guessing that most of these books would be more suitable for preschool and up, and I think we'll revisit them as he gets older.

Rabbit & Raindrops

This was our first Jim Arnosky book, as it appeared on a recommended book list for toddlers. It's a perfect book for Spring! In this book, momma rabbit and her babies leave the nest for the first time. It soon begins to rain and the rabbits must rush back to their nest. Jonathan sat through this story and had fun  spotting other animals as I pointed them out (ants, spiders, birds, etc.)

Grandfather Buffalo

This is a touching story about an older buffalo who usually is at the back of the herd. This ends up being a positive thing, because he comes to the aid of a young calf and its mother. The older buffalo helps keep the young calf safe and remains a valuable part of the herd. Jonathan paid attention through this story and I pointed out some of the animals like snakes and skunks that appeared on the different pages.

Every Autumn Comes the Bear

This story tells about a bear that comes near a local farm to hibernate. It follows the bear as he makes his preparations to hibernate for the winter. The illustrations are warm and detailed. It's a perfect story for Autumn or for a unit on bears. Jonathan didn't focus in on this story at 2 years old,  but I think we may try it again in the fall.

Babies in the Bayou

This is probably my favorite, of all the books we read. It shows all the animals living in a Southern swamp- alligators, raccoons, turtles, ducks. All of these animals are shown under the care of their mothers. The artwork is very soft and soothing and the prose is very rhythmic. Jonathan paid attention a little more easily to this one and I think it'll be another one we repeat in the future.



Jim Arnosky has written over 91 books for cihldren and I think any of them would be wonderful additions to  a science or nature study. While Jonathan is too young right now to appreciate these nature-loving books, I think this is one author we will be revisiting in his preschool years.

Library Links 


Babies in the Bayou
Every Autumn Comes the Bear
Grandfather Buffalo
Rabbits & Raindrops