Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Liebster Blog

 Imagine my surprise when I awoke this morning to find that Red’s mom from Learning Through Clutter had nominated me for a Liebster Award. When you have a moment you should check out Bug’s little friend Red. They are about the same age and Red loves Tot School too.

A Liebster Award (yes, I had to look it up) is something that is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers from their own peers. It is a fantastic way to hear about other bloggers and encourage them to continue to blog. With the nomination are a few rules. I must answer 11 questions, nominate 11 other bloggers, and post 11 new questions for them to answer. So here goes…

            1.    What are you most excited about in the upcoming year?
I have recently taking a huge step in my personal health a fitness levels. In just a few short weeks I will be running my first 5K and in February I will be running the Disney Princess Half Marathon.
  
            2.    What are you least looking forward to?
There isn’t a whole lot that I have on the calendar for the rest of this year so there isn’t anything that I am not looking forward to doing.

            3.    What are your biggest distractions?
Work, work, work. I run a non-profit that can truly get distracting if I don’t focus and limit my time working on things involving the organization.

4.   What is your favorite activity to do as a family?
Going to the park is my absolute favorite thing to do as a family. Bug loves to play outside and when him and his daddy get going it just brings me so much joy.

5.   What is your go-to dinner meal?
Believe it or not, pork tenderloin. It is a favorite at our house and I always seem to have some on hand. Plus the leftovers are easy to turn into another quick meal.

6.   What is the best advice you've ever received?
      To take it one day at a time.
7.   What is your favorite season?
Hand down – FALL – I love when the weather starts to cool down and you can smell the change in the air. In Florida this only happens rarely.

8.   What is your favorite book/author?
 
I love Mary Higgens Clark. Any mystery/suspense really but she makes me think hard to figure things out.

9.  What is your favorite TV show?
Grey’s Anatomy is my current favorite but my all time is Friends. I have seen everyone of them multiple times and can quote so many of the scenes it’s not even funny.

10. What is your child's favorite book?
I don’t know if he has a particular favorite at this stage but he loves anything that can interact with, like pop out books or finger puppet kind.

11. What is your child's favorite TV show?
Veggie Tales – He is a huge Larry fan.

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My 11 Nominees:

                 1.       Shannon’s Tot School
                 2.       West World Blog
                 3.       Stir The Wonder
                 4.       The “Unworking” Mom
                 5.       And That’s Family
                 6.       The Great Green Room
                 7.       We Can Do All Things
                 8.       Royal Little Lambs
                 9.       The Preschool Experiment
                10.   Memorizing the Moments
                11.   The Kavanaugh Report

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And finally the 11 questions:

      1.       What is your favorite holiday?
      2.       How do/did you handle tantrums?
      3.       Who is your favorite singer?
      4.       What is your child’s favorite color?
      5.       What do you do during your “me time”?
      6.       Are you a cat or dog person?
      7.       Does your child have a snuggly (security blanket/animal)?
      8.       If you had an entire weekend to yourself, what would you do?
      9.       How old were you when you started your family?
     10.   Are you a crafty person?
     11.   What is your favorite food?

     Don't forget to check out the blogs.




Recovery and Review


~Bug is 27.5 months old~

We had a few issues with mommy’s back this week so things didn’t go quite as planned. When all else fails, review. So we did. We went through all the letters he learned previously and I wrote them on the white board. He then used his car to drive over them as I called them out.

Bug has taken to try and figure out a different way to stack his stackable toys. He will try anything to make them balance.

He is getting much better at the concept of Alphabet Bingo although the pieces don’t always find their way back to the tray. Thank goodness they are only colored pieces of paper.

A few weeks ago we introduced Bug to discovery bottles and HE LOVE THEM. The only downfall in using Gatorade bottles is that there aren’t enough smooth surfaces for him to use the magnetic bottle. So the current process is to dump out all the pipe cleaners and then pick them up with his magnet stick.

Bug is very much of the electronic age and spends lots of time with his InnoTab and my IPhone. Thanks to 1+1+1=1 we are able to download lots of free educational apps as she posts their availability.



Mom’s Favorite:
Every time we get to the mall Bug likes to go to the book store. Here he is reading a story while we shop around. His shoes are off as he just finished playing in the play area and was obviously tired as he kicked back to relax. We recently began utilizing our local library to increase his availability to books. I can’t believe to tell you how valuable I find that little business card size piece of plastic.



Next week the forecast is rain... so much I might not have enough pieces for our weather board. the good news is I have some new colored rice so me thinks this calls for some sensory bins. So until then…

Check out what other tots are doing with their moms here

Hairy Hungry Hippo


~Bug is 27 months old~

The official start of the 2012-2013 School Year started with the letter H. That may seem a little strange to some but we decided to continue our lessons in order versus starting over from the beginning. This week we worked on the letter H. Bug enjoyed using his dot markers with his lapbook sheets. He also enjoyed this color matching hippo game from Letter of the Week.

  


We did a couple of craft activities this week. We made planet earth with a coffee filter, colored markers and a spray bottle. This was part of God’s creation lessons. We also made a hippo that earned a place on our project wall. Our project wall is where Bug is able to display his art inside frames so he can show it to daddy and anyone who comes over to visit.

               

Play dough is such a great learning tool as it uses multiple senses. Here Bug rolled balls and logs to make the letter H.

Bug quickly took to his toilet paper roll puppet Hairy and ran around the whole house with him. However, I was able to snap this picture of Hairy as he went “nite nite” right before Bug went for his nap.

We introduced the Bible in Felt and it was a huge hit (thank goodness since my fingers still hurt thinking about cutting it all out.) Bug enjoys helping put the pieces on the board and for the most part gets them in the correct location.





Mom’s Favorite:
This week’s favorite images come from an amusing incident. Bug stepped into a hole that his best friend (our yellow lab) dug out and got muddy p past his knees. So we had to get him cleaned off. The idea was to just rinse him off but it quickly turned into a great chance to play in the water.


Next week we look forward to a review of lessons we have learned and how we can apply them. So until then…

Check out what other tots are doing with their moms here