Week 6 of Tot School

This week actually went pretty well, Sam recognizes and says letters A-G so far!

On Monday Sam added the letter H to the wall.

She loves her puzzles.

We made handprints for our H.

She wanted to do it herself.

On Tuesday I just let her practice with her glue and scissors.

Then headed to the library for story hour which ended up being cancelled so she played for awhile.

On Thursday we made cookies and then I took Sam to Chick Fil A to play while Howie was at class.  He has a math class on Tuesday and Thursday nights now.  The rest of his classes are online.

On Friday we had a movie night, pulled out the couch bed and watched Beauty and the Beast.  We've started checking out a few movies at the library each week along with books:)

This week was a little more lax than the previous ones but I'm just going by her cues.  Some days she's really into sitting and doing the things I have planned and sometimes not so much.  

One thing we do pretty consistently is at breakfast we point at each letter on the wall and she says what it is.  If we forget to do it she'll ask "a,b,c?"  

Toddler beach tips!

It's getting to the end of summer and we have made so many trips to the beach!  I put together some tips for taking your toddler to the beach.  

1.  Be prepared to run around!  It's not relaxing but it sure does make it more fun.

2.  Dig a giant hole and fill it with water.  Some people say to take a baby pool and fill it which might be good for a baby but Sam loves the sand and water but still isn't a giant fan of the waves.  So the first thing we do is start digging:)

3.  Take snacks such as pouches so you don't have to worry so much about sandy hands and food.

4.  A five gallon bucket can have a few good uses.  It holds all the sand toys, Sam likes to sit in it to rinse off, and we use it to fill the hole we dig.

5.  Lots of sturdy sand toys.

6.  We always take a gallon of water to use when we're leaving to rinse Sam completely off.

7.  If you don't stay all day find a favorite food place nearby.  We always stop at our favorite Taco Shop for lunch, it's only about 10 minutes from where we usually go and we're starving by the time we get there!

I'll be back with more Tot School posts next week!

DIY Chalkboard Table

I'm really excited about this project that Howie took on this last week. My sister in law passed this table along to us, and it turned out perfect for this project.

Before

Howie sanded and primed the table twice, trying to take care of the spot in the middle.

Stenciling the letters and numbers

Sam wanted to help:)

Then 2 coats of chalkboard paint and spray painted the chairs.

Week 4 of Tot School

This week was a struggle people!  Even trying to get this post written.  I volunteered to work Saturday which is 6 days in a row and it messed with me all week!  But we did some stuff:)

On Monday I wanted Sam to try out some of the fine motor activities I had found on Pinterest but they were a little much for her.

She did enjoy eating the Cheerios though!

This one might work better with maybe a large spoon until her grip is strong enough for the tongs.

She still loves putting the pipe cleaners through the strainer holes.

We also introduced the letter F and number 4 and did a little painting.

On Tuesday we did our letter craft and then headed to the library for story hour.

Wednesday was rough because the first Wednesday of every month is potbless at church so we go earlier.  So besides Howie doing the calendar and letters that morning that's all we did.

On Thursday we did our weekly baking, it was a chocolate chip brownie dessert I saw on Pinterest.  Sam has really figured this baking stuff out!  She can open the butter and run the mixer all by herself.

Since I had Friday morning off, we decided to go to the zoo for a couple of hours.  Sam is really enjoying it more and more.  She knows so many of the animal sounds now, it's really fun to watch.  We bought the membership last November and have really got our money's worth out of it.

On another note, I'm torn about continuing the tot school posts.  It's the only thing I've posted about in the last month but it's getting harder to keep up 

with.  Let me know if you're enjoying reading them or if I should move on to other topics!