Tot School: On the Farm!

Rosemary is currently 13.5 Months Old

After the Christmas avalanche of toys and books I had to take an inventory of Rosemary's toys and clear some things out. She has a ton of toys and books and we ended up at the end of each day with a carpet of books and toys strewn everywhere. I realized that I had enough toys that I could break them into THEMES! So, I did. I packed everything in some totes and put them in the basement and only left out a few toys and books that went with the theme of the week. Our first theme was On the Farm since it is Farm Show Week in Central PA!

These are the books Rosemary had available to read. Some of them are library books. She loves the Fisher Price and Peekaboo books. Lift the flap are some of her favorites!

These are cards from one of the Tot Packs available here:http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/FarmTotBook.html

 I allowed Rosemary to play with the whole set which she found fascinating. She has no idea what to do with them yet, so I chose just a few when working with her. We talked about the sounds the animals make. She is familiar already with cat and dog. Pig and cow were new to her. She got cow down by the end of the week but still won't do the pig!

Playing with the Tug and Pull tractor!

Showing off her wooden duck!

Our puzzle this week!  Rosemary loves the Melissa and Doug puzzles with the big knobs on them! She still struggles with getting the pieces back in correctly, but that doesn't stop her from enjoying them. When in doubt, just bang them around!

And finally our field trip to the farm show! Here we see Ro with some piglets in the background.

And getting up close and personal with a sheep! Hello!

It was a great week in our home!  Next week we are focusing on Things That Go! And I also introduced a Tot Tray which so far has been a big hit!  

Tot School: Gross Motor Skills

Rosemary is currently 13.5 months old.

We are back after taking a week off from blogging!  Rosemary had no interest this week in sitting and doing anything, so I went with it and focused on letting her practice her gross motor skills. She enjoys backing up to sit on the step between the kitchen and the play room, or on my leg! She has also mastered going up and down the stairs. She has mastered that so well that she will have a tantrum if she wants to go up and down the stairs and I am busy doing something else!

Sitting on the ledge while Daddy reads a book!

 Going UP the stairs!

Leg up! Ready to go back down!

I didn't get any pictures of Ro going down. She has chosen to slide down on her belly feet first and she just went too fast for the camera-and for my comfort. I didn't have my hands more than six inches away from her at any point!

We also played a fair amount of tag and hide and seek!  Rosemary loved chasing me around the dining room table. And when that got boring, I'd go and hide behind a chair and she'd come and find me. That game kept us busy for 30 minutes some days! 

We have also worked hard on body parts and she can now point to her head, tummy, foot, nose, mouth and ear. She also claps when I ask where her hands are!  She is picking so many things up so fast!

Tot School: Christmas Preparations!

Rosemary is currently 13 months old.

Tot School got a little off course this week since we were so busy. However, we did lots of preparations for Christmas!

Rosemary did her first craft project. I was too busy hovering to take pictures of her actually putting it together, but here is the finished product:

I did attempt to do some guidance, but she was so excited just to stick the items down that I let it go.  After she placed each piece she said, "There!"  She had a lot of fun. The craft kit came from a visit with Santa and was purchased by them from the Oriental Trading Company.  Everything had an adhesive backing except for the paper legs which I put on myself with hot glue once Rosemary was finished sticking everything to Santa's tummy.  She did put the buckles on the shoes herself.

We also made Christmas cookies.  It was a tradition when I was growing up for my Mom to make sugar cookies which we would decorate. We'd paint them with evaporated milk with some food coloring. I was pretty sure Rosemary wasn't quite ready to paint cookies, so I opted for snickerdoodles with colored sugar. She enjoyed throwing the balls in the sugar and then of course licking her fingers!

We did practice a few body parts as I had planned. Rosemary knows where her feet are and where her head is.  I will try to get a picture, but she doesn't like to perform for the camera!  I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Tot School: Big and Little, Up and Down

Rosemary is currently 12 months and 3 weeks old.

This week we focused on opposites while we played. Though there were plenty of other fun learning experiences through the week!!

We spent lots of time in the bath tub since Rosemary had a cold and enjoyed her bubble bath with Johnson's Medicated Baby Bath. During bath time we played with the Big Yellow Duck and the Little Yellow Duck and also with the Big Green Frog and the Little Green Frog.  Rosemary played and I just repeated big and little.  She has also learned how to fill the bath toys with water and squirt the water back out! Loads of fun with that one!  Sorry there are no pics of bath time!

Another game I do not have pictures of is Hide and Seek. Rosemary has just started walking this week and she loves to use her new skills to find Mommy. I hide behind a chair or the dining room table and she walks around to find me. Great workout for both of us and she gets a huge kick out of it. 

We also finished killing off her birthday balloon.  When she was holding the balloon it was Down and when she let go it went Up!  She enjoyed that game for half an hour. 

Rosemary has also really learned to love coloring!  Here she is demonstrating Brown.  Coincidence of course, but I went with it!  Here Brown Kitty, have a Brown crayon! LOL!

I love coloring!!

Finally we talked about Yucky!  Here is Rosemary demonstrating a yucky crayon. Into the mouth it goes and she says, "yccchh"

Right now Tot School is pretty laid back. I just make use of the teachable moments that come up throughout the day.  We have a great time!  Next week it is body parts. We are going to talk about feet, hands, tummy and head!

First day of Tot School!

Rosemary is currently 12.5 Months Old



I stumbled across the idea of Tot School while trying to find some different things to do with my daughter.  Interesting how much I was over thinking the whole idea!  We have just started today and I have not taken any pictuers yet. I am going to jump straight in and  stumble through this whole thing as I work on getting more organized.

Today my thought was to use a giant foam Elmo puzzle that Rosemary got for her birthday from Grammy, to work on body parts!  I took the puzzle apart as Rosemary dutifully ignored me and was pulling books off a shelf.  I started to put the puzzle together and said, "Look, Rosemary, there are Elmo's eyes!"  She showed some interest by ripping apart the puzzle pieces that formed Elmo's eyes.  She took the rest of the puzzle pieces and made a big pile.  So, instead of body parts we made big and little stacks for twenty minutues. So much for my lesson plan, but we had a great time!

We then moved on to playing with the Fisher Price Little People Circus.  We of course did animal sounds. Rosemary loves to say, "Rawr!"  Even the giraffe says, "Rawr!"  We also practiced moving the lever left and right to spin the animals around on the platform.  Finally we played with the animals going in front of and behind the circus (all while saying, Rawr!)

Just having the idea of Tot School in mind allowed me to better focus on playing with my daughter. I didn't really do anything differently than any other day, I just paid more attention to what I was doing and why and most importantly we had so much fun!!

Birth Story

I was a guest writer of sorts on another blog today. You can see the post here:

http://littlemissemmylou.blogspot.com/2011/03/birth-stories-series-jennifers-story-of.html

Well now, it's been a while...

I am terrible at keeping up with these things. I thought today was as good a day as any to try again.

This has been a rough week. Jason is away in Bermuda on business and I am on my own with four cats, a dog and a baby! Three of my four cats are on medication which is a challenge. On Wednesday Guinness was at day camp at Petsmart playing and sprained his ankle. He is now on meds three times a day. I feel like I am running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

So today, while trying to keep up with all of these responsibilities, I locked myself out of the house. Thankfully with the baby. I was checking on Guinness' poop since the vet had said his pain meds could cause stomach ulcers and I should make sure there was no sign of blood in his poo. Loads of fun already...but I decided to close the door behind me...the locked door!!

Thankfully I had Rosemary with me. We went next door to our neighbor's house and borrowed his living room and phone trying to find someone to come by who could let me in! My mother didn't answer, my husband didn't answer, my mother didn't answer again. Finally I got a hold of my sister who got a hold of my brother who came over to let me in. What a fiasco.

We are giving our neighbors a key after this!