Paper Plate Pumpkins

Paper Plate Pumpkins

ByKori
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We haven’t done too many Halloween or fall crafts with Squeaker this year though I’m not sure why. Fall is one of my favorite times of the year for many reasons. We’ll kick start that though next month with Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas crafts. And plenty of winter themed crafts as well since it seems that Squeaker loves winter and snow just as much as her daddy. But, for now, let’s get back to Fall! We did do a K-Cup crow that turned out pretty cute, I think. And my personal favorite was our handprint keepsake pumpkin. We also did two apple themed activities with our handprint and pom pom apple tree, plus the toilet paper roll apple stamping. So I suppose it wasn’t too…

Easy Letter Matching Activity

Easy Letter Matching Activity

ByKori
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As we have our informal tot school, and by informal I mean we do a fair amount of free play, learning through play, pretend play, reading books, arts and crafts; sometimes I’ll try to sneak in a learning activity. But those learning activities are also play based, or at least have some element of play in them. I want to keep it simple enough for Squeaker and yet still with an element of challenge so she’s working on her skills. Things like fine motor, gross motor, letter identification, and that sort of thing. For Squeaker, this also means playing games and having learning activities that can be quick in nature or that she can come back to when her attention span allows for it. We’ll…

M is for Monkey Tot School Unit

ByKori
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This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #FuelTheirAdventures #CollectiveBias Though our Tot school is still very much informal at this point, sometimes we do more in depth themes. And by in depth, I mean somewhat in depth as Squeaker’s attention span is still quite short. Still, I try to capitalize on her interests at the time and the most recent theme that we tried out was based on monkeys. To make it more of a theme, we decided on M is for Monkey as our tot school theme. We may revisit this in the future. For Squeaker, I wanted to keep this simple, yet fun. So I started looking through the books that we have…

F is for Farm Sensory Bin

ByKori
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Welcome to Alphabet Sensory Activities, hosted by The Jenny Evolution along with their partner site The Sensory Spectrum! 26 amazing bloggers have gotten together to share a sensory experience based on a letter of the alphabet every day this month. As one of the participating bloggers, I chose the letter F and we’re doing a fun farm sensory bin. Squeaker enjoys learning about farm animals, so I thought it would be fitting to do a sensory bin for her. Easy Sensory Bin Ideas (for non crafty moms) We haven’t done as many sensory bins as I would like, but when we do them it makes it extra special for Squeaker. One of the biggest problems that I run into is finding a filler material. Previously, I had used green…

Free Painting Ideas for Toddlers

ByKori
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Art can be messy but I think that’s part of the reason why it’s fun. Especially art experiences for toddlers and babies, who are more likely to put paint on any surface except the piece of paper or easel. As part of our informal Tot School, I try to offer art on a weekly basis but sometimes more if Squeaker is showing an interest. Sometimes we do themed projects like our handprint and pom pom apple tree or toilet paper tube apple stamping. Recently though, I wanted to offer her options and so we put on some music and tried these free painting ideas instead. Supplies needed: paint (We used fingerpaint and Tempera paint) clothespins cotton balls construction paper or art paper willing participant For…

Preparing for Tot School

ByKori
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Thank you to Barnes and Noble Mastercard, powered by Barclaycard for sponsoring this conversation and helping us as we continue preparing for tot school this year. Squeaker will be two in December and I’ve already started planning to start doing a more formal tot school/preschool at home with her. I understand, fully, that she’s a toddler and she may not always cooperate with my carefully laid plans. Which is why I’m not going to plan things out to the minute or even use lesson plans at this point. I think it would be futile and would only result in frustration for both of us. But, that still won’t stop me from preparing for tot school, as informal as it might be. We’ll read, do art…