2010 - 1+1+1=1

December 29, 2010

Winter Fun Plans

I am not going all out for winter like I did for Christmas, but I have been browsing around a bit to gather some special ideas to make the snowy season fun for my children. There won’t be any fancy lesson plans or anything, so I thought I would share a few places I have found some great ideas online so far. I am going to minimize how much I print/laminate to keep things simple, since we really need to be focused on our main curriculum starting next week. I do plan to add a few fun winter activities in throughout the season!

Here are my favorite finds for WINTER FUN, including a few of my own so I don’t forget that I already have stuff! It’s amazing how I can forget my own stuff from year to year!

Musings of Me has a new winter unit available…

Itsy Bitsy Learners has a new webpage set up filled with fun winter printables. These units are available now and more are coming!

Confessions of a Homeschooler’s letter S unit features snowmen!

Spell Out Loud has an awesome Snowman Trinity Squidoo Lens filled with great ideas…

Totally Tots did a winter theme last year and has blog posts featuring all sorts of fun winter ideas.

I have a Winter Fun Tot Pack…

I am still searching and adding ideas to my tumblr blog. You can see all of my tumbld ideas here. All ideas tagged WINTER are here.

Do you have fun winter themed ideas for tots, preschoolers or young elementary aged children on your blog/website? If so, please leave a link in a comment below!

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December 24, 2010

Christmas Learning Fun ~ The End!!

We finished up our learning fun this week, and although I was slack on photographing everything, I did get a good portion! We didn’t get to do everything I had planned, but had fun with what we did do! You can see our 10 Days of Christmas Fun plans here.

One of the best Christmas activities we did, and it wasn’t even in my original plan…making Christmas tree crayons! My mom brought a silicone tree mold and we had the old crayons…

We peeled & peeled…

They baked at 250 for about 25 minutes…

Once they cooled, they popped right out and have been good not only for coloring, but also for counting…and stacking too!

Least impressive of my Christmas ideas…the manger themed sensory bin. I used straw {from Michaels} and added miniature nativity characters {which were tiny ornaments also from Michaels}. I cut the straw some, but not enough and it was big ol mess. Ladybug played for awhile but then pointed to get the other Christmas bin down!

Krash finished up most of the Christmas coloring I had for him…

He didn’t like that the pattern blocks wiggled around , but he did it!

We had a lot of fun sorting the ornaments by different attributes.

We had lots of fun with the trace a tree from Homeschool Creations. Again, the boys loved using their large block and Education Cubes printables.

Christmas Learning Fun ~ Day 1

Christmas Learning Fun ~ Day 2

Christmas Learning Fun ~ Day 3

Christmas Learning Fun ~ Day 4

Christmas Learning Fun ~ Days 5, 6, & 7

We had tons of fun this year and although we didn’t do everything on our plan, we had loads of fun with what we did do. I stuck to my ATTITUDE over ACTIVITY mindset for the most part and tried my best to be peaceful and graceful attitude with the kiddos.

A special thanks to everyone who created the printables and activities we used throughout our Christmas fun weeks!

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December 20, 2010

Merry Christmas to All…

This online life is a strange one. Many of us feel as if we know someone while also realizing that they have no clue who we are. Many of us have connected with blogging friends and become in REAL life friends. Many of us know each other well online but may not even know the real names of each others’ children! It’s a wide variety of relationships in the blogging world and I am thankful for them all.

I am thankful for those of you who feel like you know me and my family well, even if I don’t know you at all.

I am thankful for those of you who I only know online but call you friend still. The relationships that have developed over email, comments, Twitter and more. I have SO many of these friends and I really truly consider you friends, even if all I know of you is online.

I am thankful for those of you who have become true in REAL life friends…for those of you whose real Christmas cards hang on my stairwell!!

In honor of the many relationships we all have online I thought I would host a Merry Christmas to All Linky so we can share our Christmas wishes with our online friends.

If you’d like to participate, just link up a blog post sharing your family Christmas card and any message you’d like to include. If you get really into it, show us how you display Christmas cards you receive {we hang ours on the stairwell shown above}. Link back to this post so other greetings can be shared. Just put the name of your blog in the text portion and link to the exact post sharing your Christmas card.

Merry Christmas to you all, thank you for being a part of my life. I look forward to hopping around and seeing your posts!

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December 19, 2010

Tot School ~ She WALKS!!!!

~Ladybug is currently 20 months old~

We had a pretty normal beginning to our week but by Wednesday BIG things began to happen for Ladybug and thankfully my regular camera was returned to me that same day!! Ladybug finally started walking!!!!!!!! {You can see more on my Lil’ Ladybug blog} Her walking has been the highlight of our week and my camera has been snapping away, this is a teeny-tiny sampling of the hundreds of photos I have of her standing tall!

You can hear her proud giggle in this video as she walks to me!!!

My parents arrived last night and got to the business of playing right away. Ladybug is in love with my Dad “Baba” and monopolized him for the evening!

She loved showing him her blocks which we have to go with our new Education Cubes membership.

She also has really enjoyed the sensory bin and really likes it when Daddy plays with her!

We are looking forward to a fun filled Christmas week ahead also!

See Christmas Gift Ideas for Tots here…

More Tot School Links…

Tot School 2010/2011 Roll Call {and FAQ Clarification Post} –I have finished updating the Tot School roster, please let me know if you are not on it and you have linked up for at least 3 weeks. You can leave a comment on this post telling me that this is your 3rd {or more} time linking up!
Behind the Scenes ~ Where Do I Begin with Tot School?
Tot School Webpage {including links of all participants}
Tot Trays {webpage}, Behind the Scenes ~ Tot Trays, Where are the Trays?
Totally Tots {my other team-written blog, all about tots!}
All of our Tot School Posts
Visit our Tot School Tools Store
Tot School Zones {Linky with other moms sharing their Tot School zones}
Tot School FAQ
How do I Link up to Tot School? Please be sure to read this BEFORE you link up for the first time!!! If your blog is not linked back here to Tot School {within your post, not just on your sidebar}, and/or your post is not specifically a Tot School post, your link will be deleted to help Tot School surfing moms. If your link was deleted, please email if you don’t know why.

Please put your tot’s age (in months) after it, like this: 1+1+1=1 (41 mos)

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December 17, 2010

Christmas Learning Fun ~ Days 5, 6, & 7

We have had a fun past few days, I just haven’t had a chance to post it, so I am combining a few days. You can see our 10 Days of Christmas Fun plans here.

I got really slack with the plans AND the camera, being so frustrated not having my real camera. I did capture some of our fun though!! The kids continue to enjoy finding the one new item I add to the sensory bin each day. Pac Man is very good about reminding me if I forget!

I am working on different skills with them while they play, this day I made patterns with them and then noticed Ladybug stacking the cylinders on her own!!

Ordering by size…

Krash was not at all interested in copying my Christmas pattern, but Ladybug loved it!!!

Want to see who else stays in her jammies a little too long some days…

Working on our shooting star trees…

Making the word cat…

Mickey Christmas Maze…

Making patterns with Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus…

Ladybug LOVES all of the Christmas additions and will dig through our bucket often. I let the kids play with the games we have already done and find other creative ways to use them. Ladybug’s favorite activity is throwing them over her shoulder.