Monday's Discovery

Bravery - the discovery of the week/month/year. A family who was leaving for awhile left us a plastic slide that we could use while they were gone. I had put it up when Kaleb was starting to crawl around because I didn't want him to hurt himself. Recently, I have brought it out of the storage closet. Kaleb can stand on the bottom step but usually needs help getting to the top and sliding down. I was working with J when I looked up and saw this...

on the second step....

on the third step....

success!!!!

Can you tell he was pleased with himself? Every time he moved a little, he screamed with joy at his achievement. Bravery, this child has very little fear. That can be good and bad. To aid in his safety while practicing the slide steps, I have placed every pillow I own around the slide to prevent too harsh of a fall. He still has to learn how to sit and slide but for now, he was on top of the world.

Culture Kit

This summer I am participating in a Culture Exchange with several other families. Living abroad is an ultimate learning experience for any child but for those unable to travel, culture kits allow the world to become a little smaller. These allow children to experience a taste of a a culture/country that they may not know about or may only dream of visiting. This is my first cultural exchange so I was unsure of what to put in my kit. Hopefully what I have chosen will offer a view of the country we live in. This is what I will be sending my other families.

I created a mini book which discusses many of the wonders of our country. It contains maps, pictures around the country, mini T lessons on colors, numbers and sayings, customs, recipes, etc... I added packages of Salep which is a drink made from orchid bulbs, a mini rug, and a keychain of the eye that is very popular here.

I bought some postcards of familiar sights here, added a balloon with the national flag on it, and an array of coin money that we use.

I was lucky to find a puzzle of some of the famous sites. I added a paper doll craft, a coloring book, and a seek-n-find in T.

Lastly, I added some fun chocolate cookies and some tourist apple tea. I truly wanted to add T Delight but I was unable to find small packages. I may still add another sweet before I send them.

I am hoping this kit will allow the children who are receiving it to experience a little of the country we live in. If you would like to do your own Turkey country study, you may check my pinterest board. It has links to different sites with recipes and crafts. If you would like a copy of my mini book, please leave me a message and I will email it to you. It is a personal book with my daughter in it, so I won't post it as a download. I hope this post will encourage you to experience new cultures and possibly participate in your own cultural exchange.

 Worldwide Culture Swap is a good place to start for ideas on culture boxes and for joining a swap.

Are You My Mother? Tot Bag

My final tot bag creation before the summer is based on Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman. I recently bought the board book at a used sale here and thought it would make a great tot bag for the upcoming school year. The board book is not as lengthy as the hardcover book and is perfect for the introduction to mother and baby animals. This is what I included in our tot bag.

I made a silly bird bean bag/block. It is basically a soft block with wings and legs. I added some lentils that I had in the bottom to weigh it down some. This will be used for games. I also made a bird pom pom for a milk jug toss game. I know this will be difficult at first but he will get the hang of it. It is just fun trying to get it into the milk jug (the whole family played, I may have made my bird a little too fluffy). I also laminated some pictures of animals so Kaleb can match the animal figure to its picture. I only chose the animals in the book (board book version) so I wouldn't overwhelm him.

I made a pom pom push game where I found some bird clipart and added it to an ice cream lid. The holes I cut in the bodies of the birds range from small to large to give it a range of difficulty. This will also be used later for a color matching game. I used the same bird clipart and made a tonging exercise. Kaleb will use the tongs to "feed" the birds pipe cleaner worms. The cards are for matching mother animals to baby animals.

I couldn't help myself, this book was just begging for some finger puppets. I made these in a night watching a BBC episode of Sherlock. I made a mother bird and a baby bird plus a hen, cow, cat, and dog. These are the only animals in the board book version. I also made a felt board activity. I cut several different colors of bird bodies and accessories (wings, eyes, feet) so Kaleb can create his own bird on our felt board.

The last thing I added was a magnetic game of matching the birds to the correct colored nest (which I colored myself). I love the portability of the cookie sheet magnet board so I try to include some magnet activity in most of my tot bags. I also made egg sound shakers. We do not have plastic eggs where I live so I used the insides of the chocolate eggs that hold those mini toys. I have been saving them for a while, J just loves the chocolate eggs! I added small items that would make a distinct sound when shaken. Each one sounds different. I also taped them closed to prevent any choking hazard should my little one open them.

I tested the pom pom push game on my tot. I wanted to make sure it wasn't too hard or too easy. He loved it and kept at it for a good half hour. He definitely loves activities like this.

Here is my bin with all of the tot bags that I have created so far. They are ready and waiting for the new school year. In each bag, I added everything I needed for each activity to reduce the time spent searching for materials. I labeled the bags with the books and will add the books when the time comes (we are still reading these).

I am all most sad that the school year is over, I have so many new ideas for more tot bags but they must wait until August/September. I hope these encourage you to try to make your own for your tots. They are a lot of fun to create. Here are the links to help you create your own. Questions, problems, or ideas for new tot bags, please let me know.

Are You My Mother? links

You Can Make This - this is where the idea for the silly bird bean bag came from, I didn't use a pattern.

Play Eat Grow gave me the idea of the milk jug toss, I just made the pom pom look like a bird for the game.

Counting Coconuts is where I found the printable adult/child cards to use for a matching game.

The Activity Mom gave me the idea for matching the animal to its picture. It has a printable included but I wanted to use real pictures which I found at The Moffatt Girls.

1plus1plus1equals1 has a printable adult/baby animal matching game, I like the real pictures of each animal. She also has a free printable pre-k pack on baby animals.

Homemade by Jill has a pattern for farm animal finger puppets, scroll down some. Hers are great and I especially love the barn quiet book page to go with them.

The Moffatt Girls has the printable animal pictures I used for the matching.

Engaging Toddler Activities gave me the idea for the pom pom push, I just added the bird clipart.

Sweet Clip Art is where I found the bird clipart that I used. I used the line art bird and added my own colors. I used this bird for my tonging exercise (made him small and cut off his legs), the pompom push game (added my own colors to match the pompoms that I had), and the felt board activity (made him big and used him as a pattern for the pieces). I have a pdf of the big and small birds if you would like it, leave me a message.

LDS this is the link to the color bird matching game that I added magnets to for the cookie sheet. It is a black and white pdf, you will have to color. It could be done the computer but I just colored it by hand.

More ideas for Are You My Mother?

I Can Teach My Child has a sensory bin idea for the book that I will probably do when the time comes.

Part of the Main has a button snake idea using animals instead of shapes, this would go great using the animals from the book.

File Folder Fun has a farm animal game, you could cut the animals in half and have tot match the animals.

I Can Teach My Child also has a great idea making animal mixed up legos, complete with animal printable. I love this idea and may still do it using the animals for the story.

Please visit my tot bags page for more ideas on other bags you can create. My interest board for tot school.

Small Friendly has an idea using feathers to practice color sorting. I forgot to add this activity to my tot bag but I plan to do this.

Monday's Discovery

This week's discovery is one of the best - chocolate. I don't give it to him often but when I do, he makes sure he gets every last bit.

He really loves it, can you tell?

What have we been doing lately?

I know it looks like I have dropped off the face of the earth but it isn't so. We are still working here trying to finish up school. We have had guests from the states for a week and we have some old friends move back here as well. We celebrated my birthday (not something I want to discuss) and we are getting ready to celebrate my anniversary. We have had trips to the doctor, visits to the dentist, and just plain life. We are getting ready for a long trip to 'Merica to see family and friends so even though I haven't been on the radar, I am still here, plugging away, counting the days (I need a break)... Here are some pictures of what we have been doing recently.

I found this the other day...J reading to Kaleb on her bed. So sweet.

Kaleb has been busy pouring and sorting bottle caps. This really seems to hold his interest.

J being silly.

J playing with her doll house.

J's fat lip from an "animal snowball fight." Don't ask....

Kaleb testing a homemade toy for my last tot bag of the current school year. The last tot bag will be based on Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman. This activity requires him to push the pom poms through the holes in the bird bellies. He really liked this.

Playing with legos that we recently acquired in a yard sale. So we are still learning and playing and slowly getting things done. Hope your week is full of sunshine and warm weather.

The Napping House Tot Bag

My next tot bag is based on the book The Napping House by Audrey Wood. This is a cute book about a napping family who is startled awake. We own the board book version of it, so I thought it would make good tot bag for the following school year.

These are the activities I included in my Napping House Tot Bag....

I made blocks using an old Jenga game that I had. Each block has one of the characters of the book. Kaleb will stack them and, of course, knock them down. I found this idea, as well as the printable pictures which I colored at The Art Annex. I made the bed from duplos. I also made a sensory game where I cut out circles of cardboard and added different types of sensory materials such as sandpaper, corduroy, tinsel, fleece, the scratchy part of the velcro.... I made two of each so we can match the different materials. At first, we will do this with the pieces out in the open but I would like to put the matching pieces into a bag and see if Kaleb can match them just using his sense of touch.

I sewed a silly looking felt mouse and created a game - Where's my mouse? There are all  versions of this game going around the internet. I mainly want to use this to teach Kaleb his basic colors. I may only start with two of the houses as to not overwhelm him. The mouse idea came from Craft Jr.

I am a quilter at heart and while working with this book, I kept thinking textures and quilts. I sewed this together very quickly in the fashion of the rag letters, no binding or quilting. I made shapes using different textures of fabrics and all of the items I had on hand. I chose a silky material, fleece, corduroy, flannel. Each shape has velcro on the backside so Kaleb can rip it off the main quilt piece and stick it back on. This will be good to work with shapes as well as textures.

In the beginning of the book, it is raining and at the end, there is a rainbow. I laminated a pom pom rainbow sheet to use with our cookie sheet magnet board (on the back is the N for Napping House magnet page from MakingLearning Fun) and I made a felt rainbow that Kaleb can take apart and put back together. Right now, the felt rainbow arches are just placed on top of each other but I am thinking of either using a button or snap for Kaleb to practice.

I am hoping to create one more literature based tot bag for the month of May but I am planning to be back in September with some new tot bag creations. These have been fun to put together and I am looking forward to using these with Kaleb for "Tot" school. I hope that these encourage you to create your own and if you have ideas or requests, please contact me.

The Napping House Links

One Fine Day the idea for the felt rainbow came from here.

The Art Annex - the Napping House blocks idea complete with jpeg that you can print to make your own.

Craft Jr. - the felt mouse pattern that I used to create my Where's Mouse? game.

Making Learning Fun - this site has a lot of ideas for this book, a magnet page, story stick idea, felt board, check it out.

Kiz Club - has patterns that you can use for felt boards or even downsize them for your blocks. I did this originally but the Grandma block required two blocks so I went with the other site.

Making Learning Fun rainbow magnet pages.

1plus1plus1equals1 - rainbow tot pack if you would like to do more rainbow activities.

I Can Teach My Child great idea of a peek-a-boo house using the plastic flip lids of wipes containers, I would have done this but I don't have the lids. I finally bought some wipes with these lids and when they are done, I will create this will pictures of family behind the doors.

No Time For Flashcards this looks so much fun, a rainbow gelatin sensory bin, am I brave enough....maybe when the time comes to use this tot bag.

All Join In this is where I got the idea for the sensory game, she used bottle caps for hers.

Engaging Toddler Activities another set of magnet pages, another rainbow page here.

The Iowa Farmer's Wife where is mouse felt game idea can be found here.

The printable of the color houses is a Mailbox file.

Monday's Discovery

I am constantly on the look out for interesting and easy learning toys to keep Kaleb busy especially when we are doing school. One such toy was J's learning links and a milk jug. I cut a hole in the bottom to make it easier for the links to come out, which I probably shouldn't have since half the fun it getting them out! I kept the links linked together by threes just in case he wanted to try to eat them.

Learning, loving, such a sweetie!