Tot school & Growth chart day 4

I bought this cute teddy bear puzzle months ago from the dollar section at Target. While the puzzle is really easy, what I really love about it is the different expressions on the faces. R loves to dress the bear in different outfits and then I will ask her if the bear is happy, sad, angry, sleepy, surprised, or ill.

We planted sunflower seeds and read Big Yellow Sunflower by Frances Barry. R hates to get her hands dirty and she was not thrilled with this activity at all. Hopefully, she will get excited about it when the sunflower starts to grow. I know it is my fault that she doesn't like to get dirty because I do not like to get dirty either and I am embarrassed to admit that I do not do yard work.

I cut out pictures of fruits and vegetables from a grocery circular and R sorted them into one pile for fruits and one pile for vegetables. Then she glued the vegetables onto the letter V.

Since I put the magna doodles and magnetic boards up on the lovely paneled (circa 1978) wall, they get a lot more use. I used Scotch Reclosable Fasteners (like velcro) to hang them so that they can also be removed to take in the car. I got the idea to hang them from Jennifer at My Two Happy Homeschoolers.

We measured a cup of penne and a cup of rigatoni in straight lines and were amazed by the difference in length. Check out my post if you want to learn more.

Cranium Hullabaloo is a favorite in our house and we play a lot.

The potato heads were played with every day this week.

We put some "Magic Creatures" in water and charted their "growth". Today is day 4 and the caterpillar has doubled in size to 6", the fish grew another 1/2" to 4 1/2", and the lizard grew another 1 1/2" to 12". The butterfly only grew one day and has remained at 3" since then. C and R are still excited about measuring the creatures every morning.

Thanks for visiting!

Growth chart day 3

Still growing!*

The caterpillar grew 1/2" and is now 4" long, the fish grew 1" and is now 4" long, the lizard grew 2 1/2" and is now 10 1/2" long, and the butterfly stayed the same - 3" long.

C and R look forward to this every day.

*Yes, I know that the creatures are not really growing and I have been telling C and R that they are expanding because they are retaining water! They understand that completely, of course.

Too many toys

We have too many toys. Way too many toys. It is ridiculous how many toys we have. Unfortunately, every time I think that my children have outgrown a toy or just don't have an interest in that toy any longer, they start playing with it again. I was so certain that the potato heads were ready to bring joy to a new little boy or girl. I boxed them up and put them in the garage to be donated. Two days later, C asked for them and he and R have not stopped playing with them since.

Do you rotate toys? I have been meaning to do this for years and I think that it might work well in our house.

I also would like to implement a rule that every time a toy comes into the house, a toy has to leave the house. Do you do this?

Also, I think we have too many bins for toys. If we had fewer containers, then we would have to have fewer toys, I think.

How do you manage toy chaos? How do your children deal with saying goodbye to old toys?

Button letters

I used gallon size ziploc bags and placed a piece of paper inside each bag. I placed the paper in there only because there was writing on the bag and it would get in the way of our letters. Then, I used color coding labels to make the shape of each letter of the alphabet - one on each bag. C and R place buttons on top of the dots to make the letters. You can even put the correct number of buttons in each bag and zip it up to take these with you. That is why I use the ziploc bags, so I can put the buttons in the bag and take whatever letters we are currently working on out to restaurants or Grandma's house. Obviously, this is intended for children who do not put things in their mouths. R is three and C is almost five, and they both enjoy this activity.

Growth chart day 2

They grew!



The caterpillar grew 1/2 an inch and is now 3 1/2", the fish grew 1 inch and is now 3", the lizard grew 4 inches and is now 8", and the butterfly grew 1 1/4" and is now 3".



C and R were so excited to measure the creatures and see how much they have grown!

Yo-yo painting

WARNING: THIS IS MESSY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE HAD PAINT ALL OVER THE DECK AND THE SLIDING GLASS DOORS.

What do you get when you combine beans, nylons, paint, and a couple of kids? Yo-yo painting, of course. I got this idea from The Snail's Trail and it was so much fun. I cut the legs off of a pair of nylons and put about a cup of dried beans in each leg. I tied a knot right above the beans to keep them in the stockings. C and R loved that they bounced up and down like yo yos, but C preferred to call his a slingshot. He wanted to pretend that he was David defeating Goliath.

They bounced the stockings into a pan of paint and then onto large pieces of paper. This works best if you just dip it into the paint once and then drop it on the paper a few times. If you use a lot of paint (constantly dipping in the paint) then you don't really get the cool design made by the beans in the stocking.

*If you look at the screen door in the first photo, you can see our puppy. She had a cone on her head because she was spayed a few days before the photo was taken and the cone was to keep her from chewing or licking the staples.

Growth chart day 1

I bought a package of four plastic creatures that you put in a container of water and watch grow. We are going to chart their growth over the next few days. Before placing them in the water, C and R measured the creatures.

We have a: caterpillar - 3", fish - 2", lizard - 4", and a butterfly - 1 3/4".

C and R cannot wait to see them grow.