Tots and Me... Growing Up Together

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Wordless Wednesday: March 26th, 2014 (w/linky)- A Bit of Random

An Audience for a Play

Happy Mail Day. Tabitha's new Logic of English Essentials curriculum we are reviewing with the Schoolhouse Review Crew.

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

Toddler Ideas Tuesday: March 25th, 2014

Welcome back to Toddler Idea Tuesdays! I am so sorry for the lack of a post last week. Between having co-op a day early and then being sick I ended up having to play catch up with a lot of things. I just decided it didn't make sense to post Toddler Idea Tuesdays later in the week. Unless things like that come up, Toddler Idea Tuesday will be a weekly party! So, have you been busy with your young children?

This week I would like to share what I think is a neat gross-motor activity. I did not come up with this idea, but I saw the potential as the children were playing. Teaching a toddler to catch a ball will take some work and they need to be physically ready to do so. Think about it, they can throw a ball, but to have to catch the ball there are so many thing they need to do at once. They need to be able to judge when to grasp the ball as it comes to them, they need to physically be able to grab the ball as it flies at them and they have to keep a hold of the ball.

This neat activity was started by Amelia and Harold, but of course Tabitha wanted to join in to help her brother learn to catch a ball. The older girls would roll the ball across the table for Harold to catch. Then he would toss it back to them. This was a great opportunity for the older girls to work on their aim and to try to figure out how much "oomph" to put behind their roll. If they didn't roll it fast enough it would roll off the side of the table, but if they pushed it too hard it would be too difficult for Harold to catch.

He loved being able to catch it and toss it back to them.

This worked best for "catching" practice if he was standing away from the table. If he was too close he would just grab it as it came close to him while it was still on the table. However, if he was a couple of steps away from the table it had to start falling off the table and he had to actually catch it.

Now onto:

Toddler Idea Tuesday Features

1. Steffany from Spit and Sparkles shared a great idea for Mess-Free Toddler Art. Little ones love creating works of art, but mommies don't always have time for the clean up that will take place afterwards. Yes, there are times for children to get their hands dirty, but if you would like to give your toddler a fun painting activity that can be used for different topics or holidays you will want to check out Steffany's wonderful idea.

2. Lisa from Our Country Road shared her Montessori Preschool Frog Theme. Even if you don't really follow a Montessori philosophy, your children can enjoy learning with these great hands on, skill-building activities. We just finished our frog unit a few weeks ago and I wish I had seen some of these ideas first. The activity pictured above is a color matching activity. There are also counting and hand-eye coordination activities, with links where you will be able to find the activities.

3. Rebecca from Raventhreads shared a yummy Bible-based activity with her Tower of Babel Snack Stacks. Children of all ages will love to make there own snacks and the younger ones will be working on their fine-motor skills. We will be learning about the tower of Babel later this year with our My Father's World 1st grade curriculum and I will definitely be having the children make these!

4. Monique from Living Life and Learning shared her Fine Motor Activity With Straws post. This is a fun fine-motor skills idea along with some ways to extend the activity.

What sort of activities do you do with your toddler? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on my Toddler Ideas board 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 toddler 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 toddler, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up- March 25, 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 Sue from My Photopage and Shelly from The Attic Girl.

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

Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 32 GB WiFi 4G Ends 3/30

Star Chronicles Giveaway {$275 value} US/Canada (excluding Quebec) Ends 3/30

$25 Gift Card to Glass Dharma (a company that makes reusable glass drinking straws) Ends 3/26

Portable Bluetooth Speaker (works with smartphones, mp3 players, etc) Ends 3/27

Thank you for linking up with Karen @ Tots and Me & Emily @ Emily Reviews along with Sue from My Photopage and Shelly from The Attic Girl.

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Five on Friday (Oops I Mean Saturday): March 22nd

There are funny things or cute things that will happen during the week that I would like to share, but they don't really make a post on their own. So, this is the perfect opportunity to share them.

1. Tabitha was so excited last Sunday to go on her first trip with our church's Venture Club. They stayed after church and ate lunch at the church, then they headed out for some nursing home ministry time. She was so excited she was getting her lunch ready earlier in the week. When we left, she wanted me to make sure to drive in front of the church so she could wave bye to us, and I had to make sure to take a picture.

2. We didn't get as much schoolwork done this week as I would have liked. Co-op was moved to Tuesday because of possible bad weather (which never came) and on Wednesday I was lying on the couch all day with a stomach bug. I was so thankful for the older two girls who got breakfast and lunch, got their brother dressed and helped Hannah with her online CTC Math.

3. Fortunately I was feeling better the next day because my oldest daughter had a dentist appointment in the town close by and we got to go to visit. They live over an hour away now, so 20 minutes is a much better drive. I also got to take her the Christmas present we got her.

4. We found a new, fun way to teach Harold how to catch a ball. Amelia started rolling a ball across the dining room table and Harold had to catch it as it came to him. Sometimes he was standing back a bit and the ball actually had to leave the table, other times he caught it on the table. I figured it was more controlled for him than what it would be if it was thrown at him.

5. It appears Tabitha was a bit tired when she disappeared upstairs earlier this afternoon. Not sure if she was really sleeping when daddy found her like this or if she was just pretending. Looks a bit precarious.

Friday, March 21, 2014

Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen #77: Veggie Ranch Pizza

Time for Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen

(A weekly linky to share what you and your children have created in the kitchen.)

The linky is at the bottom.

This week our letter is V and our topic is Vegetables. What better time would there be to make a Veggie Ranch Pizza. I have always enjoyed a good veggie pizza at fellowship meals and picnics, but I have never made my own. We followed this recipe I found on allrecipes.com.
(I have to say, I would recommend cutting the cream cheese, mayo and ranch mix back by half or making 2 pizzas, because the dressing was overpowering. However, the ingredients listed here are the amounts used in the original recipe.)

Ingredients:

2 (8oz) Cans of Refrigerated Crescent Rolls
2 (8oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup Mayonnaise
1 oz dry Ranch dressing mix
Choice of Veggies, chopped/shredded (several cups total)
(We used veggies in the color of the rainbow)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

First we rolled out the crescent roll dough into a 9x13 cookie sheet, making sure to pinch the seams together.

Then we mixed the cream cheese, mayonnaise and ranch dressing mix together.

Next we chopped and shredded the veggies.

We baked the crust in a 375 degree oven for 12 minutes.

(This probably could have been done while we were chopping the veggies, but I was waiting because I had to go give a child a bath.)

After it cooled we spread the ranch topping and arranged the veggies in the order of the colors of the rainbow. We actually made it on St. Patrick's Day so we could continue our focus on rainbows.

Grape tomatoes, carrots, corn, broccoli, and shredded beets

Do you have your children help you in the kitchen? What lessons do they learn? Do you have any kid friendly recipes to share?

I'd love to see your posts, whether you have done something this week or some time in the past. Just link up below. This is a weekly linky.

I am linking up to:

Melt in Your Mouth Monday
Try a New Recipe Tuesday at Home to Four Kiddos
The Gathering Spot at Mamal Diane
Friday Food Frenzy at Close to Home
Fantastic Thursday at Five Little Chefs
Foodie Friends Friday at Robyn'sView
Family Fun Friday at Happy and Blessed Home
Find a New Recipe Friday at Almost Supermom

And here is my Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen linky

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Lovin' the Weekend Blog Hops: March 13-16, 2014

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

Karen from Tots and Me, Rena from An Ordinary Housewife, Erin from For Him and My Family and Aurie from Our Good Life

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

No, we have not made a mistake. Lovin' The Weekend is now going to run from Thursday night through Sunday night!

Please note, there are 3 linkies, please scroll down to the 3rd one to link up giveaways! Thank you so very much!

We would love for you to stop by all 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. This week we are featuring Sylvia from Living and Learning With Our New Normal.

Here's what she has to say:

"My name is Sylvia Phillips. I'm an over 50 blogger, Jesus following, homeschooling mom of nine great kids and one awesome grandson! I began blogging as a therapy and to tell the story of what life has been like for our family after our daughter's diagnoses of brain cancer and subsequent disabilities. We are Embracing the challenges of childhood brain cancer, brain injury, autism, and epilepsy one day at a time with faith, hope, and love. Romans 12:12- Rejoice in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer. "

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, An Ordinary Housewife, For Him and My Family and Our Good Life 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):