David Wiesner books

We borrowed Tuesday and The Three Pigs, both by David Wiesner, from the library last week and we have been reading them over and over and over again! If you have not read them, stop what you are doing and run to your library right now! They are THAT GOOD!

Money Toes

Don't you love it...
when your camera is handy....
and you actually capture those moments.....
that can only be explained with photographs?

Open ended art - yellow paint

While C was painting, he commented that the lumps of yellow paint looked like macaroni and cheese!
R did all of her painting for this project with a brush; I cannot believe she didn't finger paint! She loves to get messy with paint!
It is funny how different R and C are. She is content to just paint a little, while he insists upon covering every inch of his canvas.
My husband thinks it is strange that I keep all of our empty cereal boxes, but they provide a great canvas for open ended art!

Click here to visit my friend Shannon's blog and see the open ended art created by other children this week!

What do I do with this?

We have had this toy for a while. I have no idea what it is called or where it came from. We have used it to sort colors and arrange the wooden blocks by size, but I can't help but think that I am missing some great learning opportunity with this toy. So, if you owned this toy, what would you do with it?

Books and Movies

We have been reading Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg a lot lately; the book is fabulous. C and R were both so excited to find out that there was a movie about the book. I had never seen the movie, but didn't think anything of suggesting it to Grandma for their sleepover at her house. Unfortunately, the movie did not live up to their expectations. It was scary (although now C and R both say they were not the least bit scared - Grandma said it was scary); the book is not scary at all! Also, C was very upset that the movie is so different from the book. He is still talking about that days later.

This got me thinking about Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. The book is definitely one of our favorites and it comes off the bookshelf at least once a week. We are anxiously awaiting the movie based on the book. I just hope it is good. No, I want it to be great. I want the book to come alive. Is that too much to ask?

What movies based on books do you love or hate?

It worked!

C and R don't nap regularly, and I don't expect them too. I read a lot of blogs, however, in which there is mention of rest time. I started asking the bloggers about their rest time and realized that it is something badly needed in my own house.

C and R are usually awake by 7:00 every morning, and after lunch they start to fall apart. The fighting and whining intensifies and I find myself getting angry and YELLING (shhh, don't tell) too often.

A few days ago, I told them we would have rest time after lunch. I explained that it was not a punishment but just time for them to enjoy alone in their rooms with books, toys, puzzles, or whatever. The only rule is that they have to spend the time alone and they have to be fairly quiet. On the first day, they went kicking and screaming and I was not optimistic. Rest time only lasted fifteen minutes.

Day two they asked if they would be having rest time again and then went willingly. I was ecstatic, but then they started to complain after only five minutes. I was almost ready to throw in the towel on rest time! When they realized I was not succumbing to the whining, however, they stopped and stayed in their rooms. The house was so peaceful, and they got the down time that they really need.

There was hardly any whining on day three and the entire hour of rest time passed uneventfully. It is now part of our routine.

We have only made it through three days, but each day is a bit easier. I'm sure there will be days that are difficult when no one wants to rest, or when we have to miss rest time but at least we have a plan to keep the grouchies to a minimum and keep Mommy sane! Rest time is working, and there is a lot less crying and yelling going on.

If you want to read a great post about rest time, click here and visit Teach Mama. Look around while you are there; she has a great blog with fantastic ideas for teaching your children and the most wonderful parenting tips and tricks! I want to implement all of her quick tricks in my house!

Tot school

R is 40 months old

I know there are people who read my blog that are not quite sure what "Tot School" entails. In our house, Tot School is time to focus on helping R develop different skills and learn while having fun! I include the button above because Tot school is hosted by the blog 1+1+1=1. There are many bloggers that share their tot school experiences there so it is a great place to find new ideas. The tots are between the ages of one and four.

Here are some of our Tot School highlights from the week:

I found this game (Bed Bugs) in a consignment shop and bought it only because using the tongs to pick up the little plastic bed bugs is great for developing hand muscles. If you put batteries in it, the bed shakes and the game is more challenging but it's really, really loud so we play without batteries.
We use this Melissa and Doug toy to work on counting, colors, shapes, and number recognition (the numbers 1-5 are painted on the front of the toy).

Dress up is one of R's favorite activities. She is especially fond of using play silks as capes, skirts, blankets or whatever else she is in the mood for. We have a few colors and hope Santa will bring a few more this year! I would also love to know how your child uses play silks.

Scissors are always left at reach so that R and C can work on scissor skills when they feel the desire to cut! R loves to cut straws and C loves to cut out the Spider Man comic strip. If your child has trouble cutting paper, let him or her cut straws or play dough - it's easier for little fingers to cut. I will be writing a post about how we use those cut straws but one thing you can do with the cut straws is to lace them on string and create jewelry!

Melissa and Doug makes some of our favorite toys; these lacing beads are played with often and they are great for developing fine motor skills.

Meet "Mudda", R's Maine lobster. If you want to make your own lobster, click here for directions.
R had fun playing with her brothers at the beach.

She loves to be in the water. I'm hoping for many more nice beach days this summer!

Have a great week!
Click here to find out what other Tot School tots learned this week.