Tots and Me... Growing Up Together

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Wordless Wednesday: January 20, 2016 (w/linky) - Falling Snowman

Daddy and the girls went out to build a snowman the other day. Can you tell who dressed him?

Unfortunately, it was warming up and the snowman decided to start falling, not long after he was made.

If I hadn't gone out right when I did, I wouldn't have gotten a picture. As I walked around him, he decided to fall.

The next day, the children used what was left of the snowman to build a fort...

complete with a snow chair.

It made a cute little seat for some stuffed friends.

Looking forward to seeing your Wordless (or not so wordless) Wednesday posts this week.

An InLinkz Link-up

Littles Learning Link Up: January 19, 2016

Each month you will find:

A seasonal round-up (toward the beginning of the month)
A guest post featuring crafts, activities, tips, snack ideas or other early childhood topics. (toward the end of the month)
Posts where I share what I have been up to with my preschoolers and/or early elementary children (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme. Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up.

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

What have we been up to?

We have started our state studies in our My Father's World Adventures curriculum. The younger two have continued to join in with us, but we haven't been doing a lot of Kindergarten/Preschool time. I don't really have anything new to share this week, but I would like to remind you to check out the Chock-Full of Snowman Fun Round Up for fun craft, activity, snack, ideas.

I am lining up my guest posts for the new year. If you would be interested writing a guest post for Littles Learning Link Up one of these months, please leave a comment or contact me via my contact info on my About Me page. I will need to have your email address so I can contact you. I am looking for posts that have to do with young children: crafts, activities, foods/snacks, tips, or other ideas. I am open to suggestions.

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 19 wonderful posts linked up!

I will be picking one randomly selected post to share, plus the top clicked-on post.

Don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's Randomly Selected Post is:

In Our Pond shared Moving Countdown for Kids.

Here are the top clicked-on posts:

1- Shecki from Greatly Blessed shared Our Week- New Table in the Classroom.

2- Amanda from Hopkins Homeschool shared Winter Bird Unit Study Resources.

3- A Kinders Garten Vintage Homeschool shared The Mitten - A Ukrainian Folktale Interactives and Freebies Part 2.

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday, January 18, 2016

Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up- January 19, 2015

Welcome to Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up with your hosts Karen @ Tots and Me, Emily @ Emily Reviews, Shelly @ The Attic Girl, and Rena @ An Ordinary Housewife.

So glad you could join us as we share our giveaways on Tuesday's Giveaway Link Ups.

This link up will be posted Monday at 7 PM est. and run all week long! Make sure you stop in as often as you can to list your latest giveaways.

Here is how to use the Giveaway Link Up

1. Post your reviews and/or giveaways, as many as you have, be sure to add the end date (family friendly please)

2. Help spread the word about the giveaway link up by grabbing our button, Tweeting or posting on Facebook. (Not mandatory- but it helps get more exposure to your giveaways as well!)

3. Take a moment to enter any giveaway that strikes an interest to you!

If you would like to follow the hostesses, we will gladly follow you back! Simply leave us a message to do so.

Featured Giveaways

Trim Healthy Mama Giveaway - Winner will receive their choice of either the new Plan and Cookbook OR $30 Gift Certificate to the THM Store - US only Ends 1/20

Kung Fu Panda 1 & 2 DVDs US only Ends 1/19

Thank you for linking up with Karen @ Tots and Me, Emily @ Emily Reviews, Shelly @ The Attic Girl, and Rena @ An Ordinary Housewife.

An InLinkz Link-up

Sunday, January 17, 2016

K is for...Kitten Fun

Cristi from Through the Calm and Through the Storm and Meg from Adventures with Jude are hosting this great weekly party called Blogging Through the Alphabet. All are welcome to join in, just make sure to keep your posts family-friendly. I am determined to stay faithful this time around. I might not always post on the same day of the week, but I have every intention to post something each week.

Here is how I decided my "theme" for this round of Blogging Through the Alphabet. As I was going through old blog posts recently, I noticed I have some neat ideas for activities and crafts that I did with in the past. Unfortunately, I always included them in my weekly wrap up posts or more recently in Poppins Book Nook posts, so they sort of got buried. I can't really share them as individual activities or create pinnable images to promote them and share my ideas, which is why I started this blog in the first place (to share my ideas with others who work with children). So, I am going to make new posts for these ideas.

I have found there is a huge benefit in this strategy. I am remembering ideas that I had forgotten, which means I can now do these activities with the younger children. I will be sharing the old pictures and possibly sharing new pictures of the younger children participating.

K is for Kittens

Several years ago, we were up to the letter K and I found a cute version of Three Little Kittens written by Jerry Pinkney. The illustrations were beautiful and the story is cute. Though I have to warn you, the story is told quite a bit differently.

I then found a free lapbook activity over at Homeschool Share. The girls needed to color and cut out some mittens.

Then I hid them around the living room. Amelia then took a turn hiding them from me. I did decide to just use these as activities instead of a lapbook.

Then the girls cut apart the pages and glued the little pictures that I had printed out from Homeschool Share. I then decided to ask the girls if they wanted to make pie. So we made a nice simple chocolate peanut butter pudding pie. I follow the instructions on the box of instant chocolate pudding. Except I usually double the recipe, add a 1/4 more milk and add 3-4 heaping tablespoons of peanut butter. Then I add chopped up Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. The girls took their turn cutting them.

And adding the pudding mix.

Then they added the chopped up candy when I was done mixing it.

I told the girls they could eat the pie for dessert at dinnertime while wearing some mittens.

Yes, they soiled their mittens.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Throwback Thursday Blog-Style #82: January 14, 2016

Welcome back to...

I know, I know, Throwback Thursday seems to be all about sharing pictures from the past, great memories that mean something to you, that you would like to share with others. At least that is how it appears to me. Throwback Thursday wasn't something I was participating in, and then I came up with an idea.

I thought it would be great fun and a help to my blog to share old content, but not just any old content. Each week I will share an old blog post from a previous year, any year, BUT it has to be from the current week (for example, something I've posted around January 14th, from any previous year) I will go in, edit the post if needed, add a pinnable image if I don't already have one, and share it on Facebook.

I have reviewed some great products in the past (and continue to do so). I thought it would be a neat idea to choose review posts this year and highlight some of these great products again.

Would you like to join in? You do not need to edit your past post in any way, you don't need to create a pinnable image, though it couldn't hurt, in fact it will help your blog traffic to add quality pinnable images to your posts.

Just go into your archives, choose a favorite post from this current week from any previous year, and link it up below. (If you don't have anything from this current week, it is still okay to link up with a post from a previous year around this time.)

I will be pinning posts to my appropriate Pinterest boards and will be randomly selecting a Featured Throwback Thursday post to share next week. Just a note, I will be sharing a picture from your post if you are selected as the featured post, but I will link back to your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. By linking up you are giving me permission to use your picture in the post.

Here is my Throwback Thursday post:

Originally posted January 31st, 2013
Cupcake Race Review

Here is this week's randomly selected

Featured Throwback Thursday:

Diana from Busy Homeschool Days shared:

Chocolate

To participate, link up below. It would be great if you could visit several of the other posts that have linked up. Stop by, comment, and pin images so we can help each other.

If you would like to help spread the news:

Happy Throwback Thursday!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Wordless Wednesday: January 13, 2016 (w/linky) - A Little Bit of Snow

These pictures are actually from a week ago. I let the children play for a few minutes after church. We haven't seen much snow, and this melted away due to warmer temps and rain. However, it looks like the snow may be coming to stay, so maybe next week we can have some real fun snow pictures.