Tot Time - Pink

Sticker Art

This week I let R. try to pull the stickers off of the backing herself. This was a little frustrating for her, but she eventually worked it out and made some progress. She had the most difficult time with the larger stickers as they tended to rip when she tried to pull them off.

Pipe Cleaner in Sugar Shaker

R. really enjoyed this one. She has taken if off the shelf almost every day this week. At first she wasn’t sure what to do with the pipe cleaners but after a little assistance, she got the hang of it.

Apparently I was really bad at taking pictures during her tot time this week. We also played with the sensory tub filled with lentils and all things pink, the pink bucket filled with all things pink, wood blocks, 2 new Melissa and Doug Puzzles, Tag Junior & Curious George Colors Book, Fisher Price Ball/Bowl Stackers, and her new pink pots and pans that she got for Love Bug Day from her daddy. She also enjoyed painting with a potato masher and pink paint, bingo dotter painting, and coloring with pink crayons.

She has also been busy working on bead lacing. I found some sets of wood beads and laces from the Dollar Tree – So I bought 4 packs. This activity is tough for her. We will keep working on it.

Hopefully next week will be a more picture-filled tot time blog. I don’t know why I didn’t snap more pictures this week. Oh Well.

Tot Time: Red and Valentines Day

 

This week we worked on all things Red, Valentines, Hearts, and Love…….Lots of Love

Dress-Up

R. Played dress-up.  Last fall after Halloween I picked up a handful of costumes for about $2.00 each.  She has a Tinkerbell, Snow White, Clown, Dorthy, and this Pirate.  Of all the pretty frilly costumes, the pirate was by far a favorite. 

 

Dot Paint Art

We also did a dot-paint heart with our red dot painter.  She loves these and the dot painters come out each week.

 

Sensory Tub – Oatmeal with all things Red

We filled the sensory tub with all things red.  A red bowl, red cup, red spoon, red fork, red glittery pom poms, red porcupine balls and the normal scoops and tongs.  It still has oatmeal in it.  She is really getting the hang of scooping with the spoon. 

Color Box - RED

We also have the “Red Box”.  This is similar to all the other ones.  I did put a rolling pin from her playdoh toys in it.  She is really liking discovering the colors.

Gross Motor – Snow Play

R. spent some time outside with her daddy while he scooped the snow from the driveway.  The snow was about 3 inches deep which is the deepest she’s walked through.  Usually we just go walk on the culdesac  after they plowed so the snow is pretty much packed down!

 

Heart Sticker Art

R. worked on her fine motor skills by pulling stickers off the page and sticking them to a heart shaped paper.  She loves this activity.

Placing Colored Sticks into a Sugar Shaker

R. has  a very easy time with this activity.  She very simply places the sticks in the jar.  We have done this using a container from dried onion flakes before, but I decided to give her a little variety and offered her this sugar shaker instead.  It only has 1 hole in it and it has a metal flap that falls over the hole.  Holding the flap up to put the stick in was the most difficult part of the activity. 

 

Other Activities

We are adding the red flash card in with the blue and green ones that we have been working on.  No, I don’t just sit her and do flash cards with her, but every once in a while I lay the colors we have worked on out on the floor and ask her for a specific color.  She is right about 75% of the time.  She very much enjoys flipping the card or handing them to me as she picks her card.  Of course this activity is a short lived one and only lasts approximately 2-3 minutes.

R. also enjoyed playing with her “Big Ball” and Fisher Price Little People.  She also had her Mr. Potato heads (She has 3 of them) out along with her musical instruments and stacking/nesting cups. 

As always she plays with puzzles, reads books, and runs around the house like a crazy little girl!  It’s time for some nicer weather soon!  This cold and snow is getting old!

We were kind of off on our structured activities.  I also had out a sun-catcher to make from contact paper and tissue paper, but that did not get done, also, our red bird for our “Brown Bear Book” did not get finished this week.  I may hold off on doing the “Brown Bear Activities and just make a week of it after we get through the colors. 

A recap of my New Years Goals

 

All I can say is I am trying.  I kind of fell of the horse right away with the new years goals.  I am achieving the tot time goal….we have focused on that almost every week since the new year.

It’s that stinkin’ work-out/eat-better/be-healthier goal that has been getting me.  But after feeling miserable for the past week, sluggish, yucky and just plain not happy, I hopped back on the horse. 

I have done 20 minutes on the elliptical 2 days this week, which means I have to do it tomorrow, or Else.  So today as I was going, I really pushed myself.  I felt good doing it.  I get super excited while working out, besides the dreadful fact of huffing and puffing and burning that is happening, I do feel excited.  I get my hopes up and feel better about my self overall.  I am trying to eat better, yet I have decided that I like food to much!  j/k.  I am trying.  Today i have been writing down everything I eat and am trying to drink more water. 

I must say that I really need to keep this going.  I have thought long and hard about this, and the one thing that I discovered is that if I don’t change my eating habits/health habits now, when R. is eating more and more and higher calorie and fattier stuff, I will want to join her.  So that’s it.  I am changing.  :)  I have to.  I will.  I am.  

Wish Me Luck

Tot Time FUN Overview

 

 

Here is a recap of this week during our Tot Time.

Our theme for the week was the Color Green

 

We filled the sensory tub with oatmeal and all things green.  It took about 1.5 big containers of oatmeal to get it where I wanted it to be.  I added green porcupine balls, green spoon, fork, bowl and cup, green dinosaurs and finally the scoops and tongs. 

The oatmeal really helped R. work on her scooping skills.  She was scooping oatmeal today with the little spoon.  Up until now she has always just dipped the spoon in whatever she was using the spoon for.  Today she actually scooped a large amount of oatmeal on it. 

We will be leaving the Oatmeal in the tub for another week I think.

   

While I was getting lunch ready one day I sprayed a little Green Silly String on to the table and let her explore it.  It was a little strong smelling so I only left it out for a couple minutes, but she was definitely liking it!

We also painted a white paper bag green to be made into a frog puppet.  I don’t have any pictures of the finished product or the link where I got the idea from but I believe it was on DLTK’s website under reptile paper crafts. 

I bought these wonderful paint cups from Discount School Supplies for R. for Christmas.  They really work wonders.  She can dip the brush into the cup herself and fully understands what she is doing.  The brushes are also from Discount School Supplies.

 

We also colored the arms, eyes and tongue of the frog puppet with green crayons, and we worked on using a glue stick for the first time to glue the pieces onto the puppet. 

Other activities we did this week were

• Placing Green Wood Sticks into a Sugar Shaker
• Changing shaving cream from White to Green in a plastic bag
• Dot Painting a frog and snake – For these we used actual magnet pages or bingo dot pages.  I found them on DLTK’s website also.
• Played with Green Play-doh
• Colored a frog paper craft green

And Today she will be working on making a turtle from a small paper bowl (like paper plates but a bowl – it just sounds funny to type paper bowl), tissue paper and the glue stick. 

It was a very busy week.  And not very many pictures :( 

We are very excited for the weekend.  Happy Friday Everyone

Colorful Fun

And what is all this colorful fun that we have made?




We made wonderful colorful rice for our sensory tubs.

Right now R. has a tub full of white beans, porcupine balls, heart sequence, scoops, cups, spoons and tongs. She has loved it for the past week. Absolutely loves it. She also has a big tub full of blue playground sand that she has yet to play in as the table for it is not quite finished yet. (Too big of a hunny-do list from mommy for daddy) We will be adding the rice to the little tub though and removing the beans soon. I am hoping she loves this splendiforous colorful creation as much as I do. Actually, I just think it is really pretty! ha

Tot Time & Daddy's Girl

I will start this out with the fact that I have been trying to upload these same pictures to blogger for almost 3 full days. It was not letting me, there for these are from earlier this week!

R. has been loving the new arrangement of toys/books and the rotating of toys in and out. She will sit and play with her toys for 30 minutes easily and makes many trips back to the toys throughout the day.

I made a small sensory tub for her. She was in love. She poured and scooped and poured and scooped and spilled beans everywhere. She had so much fun. I put white dry beans in a medium sized tub along with scoops, tongs, cups, measuring cup, spiky balls and heart confetti. She has so much fun. She played with this activity 3 times yesterday and would sit easily for 30-45 minutes scooping and pouring. She even got mad when I put it away one time. She was beginning to throw the beans so it was time to be done. She didn't think so.



We worked together to make this mitten suncatcher one day. I cut out the mitten shape and stuck it to contact paper. I cut tissue paper into large squares and R. stuck them one by one onto the contact paper. She was amazed with what she had made when I held it up and the light went through it.



One of our all time favorite things to do is paint with dotters. I bought empty bingo dotters from discount school supplies and filled them with crayola paint and water. They work amazing. She completely loves to dot with me. The minute I stop though, she is ready to be done.



R. had so much fun building and stacking blocks with daddy this week. She never tried to stack blocks until this week and low and behold she can stack 17 on top of each other. I was amazed this time.

And then they fall down. But it sure is exciting to watch them fall isn't it?

My little girly girl has always let me put bows and clips in her hair while we are out, but at home, not so much. She would just assume let the hair hang in her face. Trust me, I try. Every morning we spray her hair, brush it, and put her bangs off to the side with a clippie. Every day after breakfast, she rips the clippie out and lets her silly curly q's hang in her face. I don't get it. So don't mind the crazy hair in the eyes in all of the pictures. She will leave a pony in but I don't like to put ponies in her hair everyday, so the result is hair in the face. Oh well.

The same goes for hats of any type. She will leave them on while outside, but the minute indoors, the hat gets ripped off. Crazy girl. She has been playing with her daddy's hat alot though lately. She always takes him his stocking hat and he will put it on her. She walks away before taking it of. Lately she has been seen wearing a green cabellas hat. (I wonder who started this one..) Her daddy thinks it's hilarious. She is super cute in a big hat though.

She is a mini-daddy all the way. But a super cute one at that!

Tot Time and Snow Fun!

This week we have been busy busy busy. I am getting over my "LAZY" self and doing a little more around the house. I just don't know what got into me. Besides puzzles, tools, stacking blocks, tea parties, mega blocks, and a crawl and cruise jungle, we also spent time doing special tot-time activities.

Dot Painting

Supplies:

• Paper of choice - we used a sheet of 12x12 dark blue cardstock
• Dot Painter - I made ours using crayola kids paint mixed with a little water and a bingo dabber from Discount School Supplies

R. really does well dot painting.....well except when she gets going on her clothes and hands and the table....but she understands the concept of where the paint comes from and how to get it out. We made another "SNOWSTORM" out of ours. We are planning to add a snowman out of foam to it, but that will happen later this week if we do it.

Indoor Snow Play
Supplies:

• Large Shallow Tote - ours is from WalMart
• Sand Toys or other scooping and shovel toys - we also put some cookie cutters in there
• SNOW - from our back yard

R. wasn't so sure about this one. She loved to take the spoons and forks out and play with them but wasn't real sure about the snow. At first I put mittens on her, and she touched the snow once and freaked out because there was snow on her mitten. Once we took the mittens off she did a little better, but was still not a fan of touching it.

And yes, she is not wearing any pants. I know, I know, playing in the snow without any pants on. We are slowly working on potty training, and so she has undies on.

Finally, Yesterday it was warm enough that we went outside to play after her nap. She was in heaven. She walked up and down the street and around the culdesac. She loved it. I think the fresh air did her some good, however you would think it would have tired her out...Oh no, she was up until 12:00 am last night. Little stinker.

R. smiing for the camera. Can you tell she was loving the snow?

Tot Time and More!

Spagettio's - They are a favorite with the little miss in the house! She absolutely loves them! She loves to eat them, to paint with them, to take a bath in them basically. We always make sure to take off her clothes before she starts to eat these. Spagettio's are about the only food we actually do that for. She is normally a fairly clean eater. With that, she has yet to learn how to use a spoon. She can do it, just has no desire to actually use it.



And in this orange slimy splendor, not only do we put spagettio's on our face, but also on our arms, hair and belly!



And "ALL DONE" We are done making a mess!



Now onto Tot Time! We played with playdoh - not ordinary playdoh, but playdoh with lots of silver and pink sparkles. We thought it needed to glisten like to snow outside. We have been focusing on the color "White" and the topic of "Snow". What better time then the week that we get another snowstorm and lots of White Fluffy Stuff. Too bad it's -30 degree windchill out and we can't play in it.

This is only the second time we have played with playdoh and she still isn't too sure about it. She at first tried to sample a piece, but stopped before it got to her mouth after her mommy saying yucky over and over again.



She also worked on transferring pom poms into little cupcake tins. I had gotten these sparkly blue and white pom poms at Hobby Lobby 3 or 4 years ago for almost nothing after Christmas. They were honestly like 25 cents for the package. The cupcake tins are the ones that come in the brownie mini boxes. They are one-time use for baking, but many time use for transferring and crafting, and playing.

She does a very good job of this, however she gets bored fairly easy and starts to throw the pompoms. I guess it's to be expected of a 16 month old.

This last picture is the beginning of the end with the transferring. Next the pom poms were everywhere. Oh Well!

We have also been playing with puzzles, mega blocks, stacking bowls, and shape sorters this week. Mostly they end up all over the floor but it's ok. She's learning to pick them up when asked and that's a good start.

R. Is having fun with her tot time, and It gives her a little time to focus and follow directions. She is a very independent little girl and so she tends to do what she pleases. She listens fairly well when we tell her to do something, however focusing on tasks are a little more difficult. Hopefully this structured time helps in that area.

Well off to have some more fun!

Tot Time!

So today was the official start to our "Tot Time". We had a visitor tonight so our time to "work" came later while we were waiting for supper to get done in the oven.

The first project we did was a "Snowman Collage"

Supplies for Snowman Collage:

• Piece of colored paper (We used purple construction paper)
• Pictures of Snowmen (We used some scraps of wrapping paper from christmas. It had snowmen and snowflakes on them. Snowmen stickers would also work) - If using wrapping paper or other pictures, have the pictures precut before beginning the project with the tot.
• Glue
• Paint Brush
• Glitter (Optional)

I first spread the glue on to the colored paper for R. I then gave her one snowmen/snowflake at a time and she stuck them onto the paper. She is very particular about the way the snowmen should be. They all had to be picture up which in my opinion is pretty good for a 16 month old. After R. tired of placing the snowmen on the paper, I sprinkled a little glitter on the remaining glue to add some shimmer! I always write R's name and the date on the projects.

R. placing snowmen on the paper

The finished "Snowmen Collage"

The next project we did was a "Snowstorm"

Supplies needed for the Snowstorm project:

• A piece of black paper (We used a 12x12 piece of black cardstock from my scrapbooking stash)
• White paint (Of couse we use crayola washable paint - It's the best)
• Paint brush & Paint Cup (ours are from discount school supplies and work great, however any type of cup would work and any paintbrush however one with a bigger "brush" part is great for this age)
• Glitter (optional)

R. paints with white paint on a black paper creating a snow storm

R worked on dipping her brush into the paint cup. The cup has a small hole to place the brush through and R really had to concentrate to get the brush to reach the paint.

Again, concentrating really hard on her painting.

The finished "Snowstorm"

R. also had fun playing with her mega blocks, puzzle and ball pit. Another thing she is working on is climbing onto her chair and off of her chair. She is getting the hang of it and only fell off once today. We can't wait for tomorrow for some more "tot time" fun.