Tot School Jan 25 - 29

The snow has fallen, JP & Olivia are outside building a snowman, and lil' mister is taking a nap. The house is quiet, so I thought I would Blog.

This week we actually did have some Tot school, though it was very sporadic and unpredictable. I could tell by the end of the week that we all do a whole lot better with some predictability in our days, so next week we'll be back to our regular routine. Yeah!! I can hardly wait.

I don't have many pictures this week because I didn't take as many, and it worked out very well. I was more focused on Olivia, and we both had more fun.

We continued reading our previous winter books and added in "The Snowy Day" and "The Biggest, Best Snowman." They were fun books, but I think our favorites from the winter theme has been "The Three Snow Bears" and "The Mitten."

Here's a few pictures from a few of our activities:

In our Itty Bitty Bookworm lesson, there was a recipe for Snow Dough. It included glitter and a little peppermint extract. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out. I actually enjoyed the consistency of it better than Play-Doh. And I really like the nice smell. Olivia was very creative with her snowman and even added lungs inside him, which obviously you can't see. She enjoyed this activity quite a bit and wanted to make a snow man several days.

Another Itty Bitty Bookworm activity - The Melted Snowman.

Well, this wasn't really a school activity, more of a life activity...but both kids really enjoyed it. Isaiah was just thrilled that his big sister was paying so much attention to him. Olivia had a great time with these...she piled them on Isaiah, made "Twig Angels" (similar to snow angels), and made a red/blue/red/blue pattern...all on her own initiative.

On Friday my friend Katrina invited Olivia over for a play date so I could have some good quality time with Isaiah (thanks dear friend!!! That was just what I needed.) But Olivia made this adorable Valentine for me while at her house. She even drew the heart all by herself! They also played a fun Leap Frog game that we got to borrow and are enjoying for a little while here at home.

And we even each painted and decorated a snow flake. Mine is the blue and Olivia's is the purple.

A few other activities we enjoyed together were:

• playing with her Kimochi Bug. I love this toy, and Olivia loves this toy too. It's a toy that gives us an opportunity to talk about feelings. This week Olivia focused in on the feeling of "Left Out." Not sure why, but for some reason this was the one she wanted to act out.
  
• sitting at the table and drawing together...actually, she tells me the story to draw and I draw it for her. We have done this many, many times in the past and I've noticed even when I do the drawing there are some great benefits for her: she is using her imagination to make a story and then seeing how it can come to life, and it actually improves her drawing during the times she draws because she has watched how I draw and then imitates...she's actually a pretty good drawer.