Tots and Me... Growing Up Together

Friday, February 7, 2014

Lovin' the Weekend Blog Hops: February 7-9, 2014

Welcome to Lovin' The Weekend Blog Hops with your co-hosts:

Karen from Tots and Me and Rena from An Ordinary Housewife.

Thank you to every one who has stopped by, whether this is your first visit or you have been a faithful ongoing participant!

We would love for you to stop by both of the co-hosts and follow us, then feel free to add your links to any or all of the following linkies.

We also randomly choose a Featured host each week from the Lovin' The Readers linky. This week we are featuring Melissa from Natural Beautisms and Flappings in Life.

Here's what she has to say:

"I have been blogging since 2011. I started it just blogging because I wanted an outlet to rant and rave about anything and everything. I do not blog just about one thing. I have numerous subjects plus I like to participate in blog hops. I also try to get as much information about Autism as I can. I have an almost 3 year old (5 days away) autistic son. He is in the moderate to severe range. My family is blended. I am not married but live with whom I believe is my soul-mate. It took many mistakes and years to find him but I finally have. He has 3 boys of his own and I have two other girls of my own. Together we have 6 children. 4 boys and 2 girls. 3 whom of which are teenagers. Basically I am just on this crazy train called life and trying to survive and I like to blog about it :-)"

Don't forget to link up to the Lovin' the Readers Hop if you would like a chance to be a Featured host next week. Please comment with a way to contact you, especially if there is not an obvious way mentioned on your blog. We would love to include a little write up about you and your blog in the next week's Lovin' The Weekend Blog Hop post, including a link to your blog. And you will get to include the linky codes on your blog. Sound fun? We're looking forward to getting to know our readers better.

Here's how this blog hop works. We would appreciate it if you would follow Tots and Me and An Ordinary Housewife then please head on over to our Featured Host and follow as well. If you no longer have GFC please follow in some other way. After that there are three different linkies you can link to. Whichever one you choose to link to, please grab that button and share it on your blog (the codes are on Tot's and Me's sidebar). We'd love it if you could tweet or in some other way share about this blog hop, the more people who know about it, the more potential visitors and new followers of your blog. We'd love to meet some new friends this weekend.

Some people are more interested in just increasing their numbers, while others really want people who appreciate their blog and want to keep up with their posts. So, there are two separate blog hop linkies.

The third linky is for you to link up your giveaways.

If you are interested in increasing the number of followers to your blog via GFC, Linky Followers, email, Twitter, Facebook or Google+ link up here. We will follow you back if you follow us (just note which one you are linking to):

If you are interested in gaining followers to your blog who will read and comment and truly find an interest in your blog, link up here:

If you have family friendly giveaways to link up, here's your spot. Please make sure to include an end date for your giveaway.

We are so glad you stopped by. Please leave a comment if you link up and we will be sure to stop by and follow back.

Don't forget to check out my "Blog Hops" page for other great blog hops!!

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Toddler Ideas Tuesday: February 4th, 2014

Welcome back to Toddler Idea Tuesdays! Have you been busy with your young children? I know I have, though not as busy this past week as usual seeing as we had to fit in a couple of appointments.

I have been flipping my schedule around in the attempts to find the opportune time to work with Harold and allow the girls to have my attention as well. We have been doing more group crafts than usual as I think the older girls have been missing that with all their workbox work. While the girls work mostly independently on a craft I am able to give help to Hannah and Harold. When we are done with our group time the older girls are able to get on the computer while I work individually with the younger two. Tabitha and Amelia then work on their workboxes during Harold's naptime, while I have computer time with Hannah. This seems to be working for now, hopefully this will be the solution and we will have a more smoothly running homeschool.

Here are a few of the activities from this past week that Harold and I worked on.

Once I realized how much Harold enjoys puzzles I decided to get out the Lauri "See the Difference Puzzles Kids" puzzle that came with the MFW Preschool Curriculum. As you can see, each puzzle piece is a kid in a different position. I didn't want to overwhelm Harold so we only took out two rows of pieces, one row at a time. I had him match the colors for a starting activity and he decided to join them by the feet for some reason.

When we were done sorting by color we found where each child went in the puzzle. I showed him how some children had arms out or up or were bending over. We even imitated some of them. He did struggle with getting the pieces back in, but mommy was there to help.

Last fall we participated in a busy bag swap. These shapes were one of the activities we received. They are great for working on dexterity, but Harold isn't quite there yet, he would rather I put them together while he pulls them apart. We do use these as an opportunity to discuss shapes.

On the other hand, Hannah is able to put these together rather well and can create some lovely sculptures.

While we allowed Hannah to use the shapes, I pulled out our Number Counting Activity. I have mentioned this activity before, most recently in the 5 Days of Teaching Toddlers Series. I love this activity for one-to-one counting and numeral recognition. You can find the number templates I used over at DLTK: Growing Together. I printed off some little snowmen and attached Velcro to the back. There are just enough Velcro pieces on each numeral to match the number. This was an activity we did with the toddlers in the toddler room of the Montessori I worked at. I figured it was time to pull it out for Harold.

I also made a smaller version that is able to fit in a busy bag for the above mentioned Busy Bag Swap. I have yet to print out some snowmen for this one though. My plan is to have pieces for each season so I can change them up.

So far the activities I have had Harold work on have been one-on-one time with me. Knowing him, I don't dare leave him alone with these activities yet as the pieces will be all over the ~~room~~ house.

Toddler Idea Tuesday Features

If you struggle with ideas for keeping toddlers busy while working with older children you can find some great ideas posted by Deanna of His Treasure Seekers.

She shared a post last week titled "Entertaining Elijah (tips for todders)" which has lots of wonderful suggestions in 6 different categories.

Seatwork
Sorting/Matching
Tactile Play/Small Motor Development
Entertaining Household Items
Store-bought Toys
Other

Our second feature was shared by Kimberly from Natural Beach Living. She shared her "Montessori Valentine's Activities for Toddlers" post which highlights some wonderful sensory, fine-motor, and practical life activities.

You will find several different toddler friendly activities just right for Valentine's Day. My absolute favorite was the Flower Arranging. I had never thought of trying flower arranging with toddlers, but you have got to head on over to her blog to see how she made such a lovely activity possible for toddlers.

Wordless Wednesday: February 4, 2014 (w/linky)- Happy Birthday Tabitha

Seems we had a birthday in our house last week!

My little baby...

...has turned 7!!

We went to Ponderosa for dinner and got to meet up with big brother Steven.

Of course, daddy teased her with her present.

"Mine!"

She got the camera she had been asking for.

I think she likes it.

(That and she has been taking bunches of pictures with it.)

A trip to Ponderosa wouldn't be complete without ice cream cones for dessert.

When we got home it was time for cake.

If you can't see, she was making a weird face because the candles wouldn't stay lit because the wicks kept falling down behind.

What has amused her, you may wonder.

Daddy grabbed a couple of my jar candles so she could have some candles to blow out.

Of course, the tongue needs to poke out to help with concentration.

And I realized as I was getting this post ready that I never got pictures of them eating the cake.

But I do have a picture of Tabitha with her birthday books from grandma. They arrived a few days late, but they arrived.

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

Monday, February 3, 2014

Muffin Tin Monday: R is for...

It was another fun muffin tin Monday here. We started our R: Rock unit and I tried really hard to come up with something with the food we had in our house.

They had Rabbit shaped cheese (except for Tabitha who had a rabbit shaped sandwich because she doesn't like American cheese.

Carrots (because rabbits love carrots)

Ranch dressing

Round Rice "Rocks"

Chocolate chip pebbles and brown sugar sand

Peanut butter and jelly roll ups.

It seemed to go over pretty well.

Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up- February 4, 2014

Welcome to Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up with your hosts Karen @ Tots and Me and Emily @ Emily Reviews

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

Our co-hosts this week are Ashley from Forgetful Momma and Mellissa from Something Like Life.

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

Wooden Coat Rack w/ Hand Forged Hooks from NV Able Items Ends 2/12

Learning Resources Stack 'em Up Doughnuts Ends 2/6

ANATOMIE Style Women's Blue Laguno Jacket Ends 2/7

Thank you for linking up with Karen @ Tots and Me & Emily @ Emily Reviews along with Ashley from Forgetful Momma and Mellissa from Something Like Life.