Tot School (sort of)

Z is 31 months old!

Sooooo...Tot School....is it really that time again already? Well, I don't have much in the way of pictures to post this week - sorry! :( My camera was out of batteries part of the week, and we were just super busy around the house and at camp this week!

I do have one picture to share that represents our family mealtimes at camp:


That is my face on the right side of the picture in the blue shirt. Notice that one person is taking our picture, one person (the speaker's wife from this week, SWEET lady!) is talking to Natalie (who is focused on the picture being taken), and one person (one of our awesome staffers, who babysits my kids on a regular basis) is sitting by and talking to Z. This is pretty much representative of how a camp mealtime goes - we love being surrounded by our friends, and though parenting 'in a bubble' can be difficult (and embarrassing!) at times, it is always a blessing to have friends who are willing to help out - so many of our staff friends are constantly offering to hold my kids so that I can get food for Z and myself, or hold Natalie so that I can finish my meal when she's fussy! I think being surrounded by friends of all ages is an excellent atmosphere for my children to grow up in - they are already learning how to interact socially with all ages and all kinds of people, not just their own peer group.

So. This week was family camp, and we spent time at camp, eating meals, swimming, going on a wagon ride, and, of course, playing on the playground. It was a beautiful (HOT!) week, so we were outside quite a bit. We did manage to squeeze in a few inside activities such as writing on a wipe-off board, playing Play-Doh with cookie cutters and a rolling pin, and a fun activity called The Tupperware Matchup. I wanted to see if I had a bunch of useless Tupperware lids in my drawer, so we got out all my plastic containers & matched them up with the lids. Then I shut my packrat side in a closet, and threw away the lids that didn't have matches. :) (but what if I someday FIND the container and then I don't have the lid, my packrat side is screaming...) :) Anyway...Z had fun with this - he liked that the Rubbermaid containers had numbers that matched on the lid and container, and he did a really good job matching them up! It was fun. :) He also sat in the drawer when it was empty. :) This was a fun and useful learning activity! :)


We also managed to find time to do one craft this week - I saw this craft in Mom Sense Magazine, the MOPS magazine that comes with your MOPS membership. This turtle is made of a paper (well, foam, really) bowl, which we sponge painted blue and green on. The directions called for blue and green tissue paper, but I could only find white and pink in my closet. So we changed the craft up. After we let the bowl dry, we taped on the turtle's head, tail, and legs, made of green construction paper, and then glued on wiggle eyes- a must for any animal craft! :) Z loves him, though I did not anticipate the turtle's flimsiness - the first day Z played with him, he got stepped on and crushed. :( I taped him back together, but he is cracked. :( Poor turtle.



My Tiny Tot

No pictures of the two together this week, but they are still pretty cute. :) Natalie can roll around the room now, and today as Z was eating lunch in his booster seat on the living room floor, she rolled over by his tray and tried to grab his pizza. He kept saying, "No, Nallie, can't have my supper! Mama, Nallie can't have my supper!" :) Natalie had a 6-month dr. appt. this week, and she weighed 17 lbs 6 oz! She is at the 60th percentile for height and weight, so just about perfect. :) She is such a happy girl, and is sleeping well for me. :) I FINALLY managed to get a little clippie bow to stay in her little tufty hairs this week for the FIRST time - so here is a picture of that momentous occasion! :)



The biggest thing I did for Tot School this week was to work on my planning for the fall - I have planned out my school 'schedule' - we are doing 28 weeks, with 26 weeks that are assigned a letter focus, and then the last two weeks will be review. This week I assigned a memory verse for each week, that has something to do with the letter of the week, and I am working on assigning a song for each week, to go along with the verse. When I am finished, I will share my list, in case anyone else wants to use it! I also made a list of all of the teaching tools that I won, and all of the teaching tools that I would like to make in order to use for this fall's school - and, um, the list of printables that I would like to make? Is TWENTY-FIVE things long! I may have to revise that... :) Anyway, so the next step is to start working on the printables, so that I'll know what I have available and can use for my curriculum. Then I'll plan what activities to do on each day and hopefully have all of my planning done before we move (hopefully late August/early September - to a different house here on the camp, don't worry, we're not leaving!) :)

I'll close with a totally random picture of Z in Natalie's laundry basket! :)



To see what others are doing for Tot School this week, head on over to 1+1+1=1!