Bright Beginnings

School is now in session in our home. Children are constantly learning, so singing the ABC's, reading letter and number books, and pointing out letters or counting while playing is of course educating, but I wanted to start a more structured form of learning that could build on top of each lesson. So while perusing my favorite recourse site (do I even need to say Pinterest at this point?)I found this great site No Time For Flashcards by Allison McDonald. For someone who wants to start teaching little ones but doesn't know where exactly to start this is the perfect site for them. I've worked in day cares, religious ed classes, and elementary schools so the concept of teaching and lesson planning wasn't foreign to me. However, I've never taught a one-two year old in a "school" setting. As advertised, No Time For Flashcards is all about early education and creative play. Allison provides so many brilliant ideas and resources.

So with this new guidance I've started planning and doing mini lessons for each week. I've decided to start with the alphabet. So each week we focus on one letter. We've done three letters so far and Babycake and I have been having a lot of fun with it. 

For "Aa Week" I got as many books about the alphabet from the library as I could find. Like I mentioned, the youngest child I'd taught in an educational setting was five. So it makes sense that only about half of the books were a success with my toddler. (this is a learning experience for both of us)

Here is the list of the four books that Babycake enjoyed reading:

Eating the Alphabet: Fruits and Vegetables from A to Z. This is a great picture book of fruit and veggies listed in alphabetical order. It is very colorful and eye catching.

ABC Safari. This book is great for kids who love animals. One animal is listed for each letter. I really like this book b/c it lists animals but also gives a short poem for each animal.

Curious George Learns the Alphabet. Babycake loves Curious George. This book does have a lot of wording and is a bit long so it might not be as interesting to most toddlers. However b/c it is Curious George, her favorite, Babycake happily sits and listens.

Apples A to Z. The perfect alphabet book for Aa week! This book is great for toddlers and older children because it provides one simple sentence that matches the picture and letter for each page, but also gives a short paragraph description. 

So for each day we add the books when we sit down to read (there's no set reading time, Babycake loves books so we'll read at different times throughout the day) and do one craft or activity that coincides with the week's lesson.

For activities we glued apples to an apple tree (glue is super exciting for a one year old), colored a lowercase A to make it an apple, hunted for acorns in the yard, made an Angle, and made an Alligator. Here are the finished products:

What Can Be Done While The Toddler's Away

Yesterday we dropped Babycake off with her grandma and grandpa for a four day weekend. As we drove away I felt like I was missing something and was a bit sad. We got home, stayed up until midnight watching movies (b/c we could actually sleep in!), and left her a video message to wake to in the morning.
When I awoke today, I was filled with excitement and vigor. Today we had a major project. We re-landscaped. I have hated the landscape of our house from the day we first saw the house let alone bought it. Today we didn't have a child to watch to make sure she didn't touch anything that could hurt her, that she didn't run into the road, that she didn't eat anything she shouldn't. Today, we could get all the work done with no worry of what our child might be doing. What an amazing feeling! Here is our work in photos. It looks so good!!!!! :-)

The back of the house. Flower bulbs are already planted and just waiting to bloom.
I forgot to take a pic of what it looked like before we put in mulch and the stone boarder. Oops! Oh well.

The side of the house  was bare with a few flowers planted.
We added the stones before I started taking "before pictures."

After with mulch. Flower bulbs planted and waiting to bloom!

Front of the house before.

Hubby, "Are you really taking a picture of this?"
Me, "Yes! This is exciting and you are rocking your new chainsaw!"

There goes the first limbs!!!!!

Bye bye ugly bushes!

All clear!

Arranging the plants before planting.

Just a reminder this is what it did look like. :-P

The finished product! Isn't it beautiful?!!

We still have a lot of clean up to do, but while hubby is at work, I'll be home taking care of it b/c you know what, Babycake will still be gone, and I won't have to worry about her. :-)

Bathtub Learning Fun

This last week we started "school" in this household. Now when I say school, what I really mean is that I've started planning learning themes for each week. For the next few months we'll be doing 'The Letter of the Week.' Last week we did 'Aa.' Really all we do is one craft or activity a day that features the letter, and then through out the day add a book here or there that discusses the alphabet.

So far it's been really great. We've done a craft/activity everyday. Babycake loves to learn and loves activities and crafts. For her, this isn't school, or work, or a hassle. This is a fun play time with Mommy.

Her artwork featuring the letter Aa

It wasn't until bath time tonight that I realized I'd already made an activity that I wasn't using. A while ago I was perusing Pinterest (I know. I have a problem) and I found a really fun post. A woman got foam dots at the dollar store and let her kids play with them in the bath. The foam sticks to the walls. She used the activity for the kids to focus on finding colors. I however, had been thinking about purchasing a bathtub alphabet set for Babycake to play with and decided to make my own instead!

The foam dots come in a pack of like 20. I bought two packs ($2 wohoo!), brought them home, did my best bubble letters, and cut them out. For months Babycake has been playing with the letters in the tub. I only realized this could be part of our 'Letter of the Week' lessons when she started singing the alphabet while sticking her letters to the tub wall tonight. Of course she can't pronounce half of the letters while singing, and she names them all incorrectly when looking at them, but she's having fun and soaking it all in.

It melts my heart to hear her sing the alphabet. It's strange to say that, I never thought that song would mean anything, but when she sings it I can't do a thing but smile. I am so happy she loves learning and I can feed her hungry little mind. I am one proud momma.

Toddler Leggings

So, we're still in the potty training process. That means Babycake is still wearing the little leggings I made for her a while ago. In order to ensure no accidents when we're home, Babycake goes pant-less. Since it's still below freezing out I don't want her to get cold, so she wears socks/slippers and leggings for easy access to the potty while staying warm.

Since Babycake is not yet 2, she really loves these leggings because she can "dress" herself. She likes to pick out which pair she will wear that day and proceeds to tell me "no" when I attempt to help her put them on.

Babycake looks awesome in the leggings. My husband says she looks like she's ready for Flash Dance. At the moment they are slightly too wide for her skinny legs and stay on best with slippers. They are also a bit long for her right now; they start above her knees and end below the ankle. One way to fix the width and length "problems" would be to roll the leggings. I've tried, but being a toddler means constantly running, rolling, and moving in general. The rolls/folds usually come undone. I don't see the extra length and width as a problem though because she will be able to wear the leggings for a couple years.

The pattern for the leggings is super easy. That's what made them appealing to me. I think that even though there isn't any fancy pattern or add-ons, they look good and can be matched with multiple tops. I got the pattern from Corina Gray's website Stitch.