We're Back!

I have not posted on this blog in over two years. I stopped blogging here to focus on our adoption blog. Also as the boys started school we were doing less activities at home. Our family has changed quite a bit in the last two years. This past March we welcomed home our sweet 3 year old daughter from Ethiopia. 

 The boys are now home for the summer and I want to record some of our time together on this blog.

 Sawyer is our oldest child. He just finished kindergarten and we are so proud of him. He is a great big brother to his little brother and sister. He loves to read, play video games, and play with his friends. I really think he would be happy to spend all day in front of the tv if I let him. This is part of the reason I am planning activities for us during the summer. I want to spend time with my children encouraging them to learn and have fun together.

 Jaxon is our adorable middle child. He just finished pre-school and is getting ready to start kindergarten. He will be five in September. He loves to play outside, love on his sister, and build with blocks.   Part of my motivation for teaching them this summer is to help Jax review his letters and get ready for Kindergarten.

Mia is our beautiful 3 year old Ethiopian princess. Mia Grace spent most of her life in an orphanage crib in Ethiopia. God led us to our sweet girl and she is the perfect fit in our family. She has come so far in the last few months and it is amazing to see her learning so much. She goes to physical therapy and occupational therapy twice a week and will begin speech in the fall.

My plan for the summer is to have letter themed days. This week we had A day on Tuesday and B day on Thursday. We will do these on the days that we are home all day. Our activities will be fun and all play based. We will make snacks, play games and do fun art projects.

Adoption Blog

We started a blog to document our adoption journey. Check us out at One Day Closer.

Tot School: The last few weeks

I have not been very consistent with tot school recently. I really don't think we ever will be again, but I am not completely giving up. We do what we can and I take pictures when I remember. Sawyer is almost 4 and really enjoys more preschool type learning. I am trying to follow Jax's lead as far as tot school is concerned and many times he just wants to play with his trains and cars.
The boys made these fluffy polar bears when we talked about animals who live in cold climates.
Jax is getting more interested in puzzles lately. With this one I give him the letters and then he puts them into the right spots. Sawyer of course can do it without any help.
I bought this first book of tracing several months ago, but Sawyer wasn't really interested. Lately, he has been wanting to try to trace and write. He really liked these mazes.
The boys have been painting with water colors a lot. Jax LOVES to paint. I wrote a "secret message" and had them paint it to see what is said. You can't really read it, but it said "Mommy loves Jax and Sawyer."
I printed out and laminated a few of these file folder games. Sawyer really liked them and Jax liked watching his big brother. Sawyer is such a good teacher to his little brother. In this picture he was telling him the letter names and helping him match the upper and lower case letters.
Jax made play-doh "cupcakes".
I filled a tub of water and let Jax transfer the water to another bucket with cups and sponges. This was his favorite activity of the week. Sawyer liked it too.
I bought these Sesame Street mats at Wal-Mart a while ago. We have 4 different ones: shapes, colors, alphabets, and numbers. Sawyer practiced tracing the letters. They were only about $1.00 each ad we have used them a ton.
I made this Valentine sensory tub for my three year old class. My boys played with it quite a bit last week.

We talked about H for hearts and painted with cookie cutters.
For the last two weeks we have been learning about what the Bible has to say about love. We have read a little bit of 1 Corinthians 13 each day. I found this on totally tots. I also made a bulletin board using these in my classroom. I printed out the hearts and had my students make valentines. In the center of each Valentine I let them glue on one of the printed hearts. In the center of the bulletin board I put the 1 Corinthians 13 poster and the word Love. It looks really cute and I have been referring to it all month to teach the children about love.
We also got a special treat last week. Snow!!!! This is the most snow my boys have ever seen. They had fun playing in it and were sad to see it melt away.
This is actually our neighbors snowman. Ours was knocked down by an excited little boy before we could take a picture. Go to Carissa's blog to see more tot school posts.

Tot School: Winter

We continued our winter theme this week.

I found the idea of making felt board snow men on the Ramblings of a Crazy Woman blog.


I also found this recipe for snow play-dough. I encouraged the boys to make snowmen with the play-doh, but they weren't too interested. They did spend along time playing with their cars in the "snow".


We bought the boys these Magneatos for Christmas. They love them! They played with them on the tray for a while and then discovered that they would stick to our metal table.


We also talked about things that start with the letter I last week. I put out this igloo and some marshmallows. I had them count the marshmallows as they placed one on each block. I promised Jax that he could eat them when he was done and he actually had the self control to finish. As soon as he was finished he devoured the marshmallows. I did this activity with my 3 year old class and had them glue magic noodles to the igloo.

I put these state flash cards on one of the trays. Sawyer is really into these right now. Every time we go anywhere he wants to know if we are going on the interstate. Being around family for Christmas got him really interested in the states everyone lives in. I don't quiz him on the states or anything. We just talk about the states and who we know that lives there. He can recognize Texas (the state we used to live in) and Louisiana (the state we live in now). I would love to do a unit where we go through all the states. Maybe that will be a project for me to start this summer.

The boys also got this Dr. Seuss Stretchy ABC game. Sawyer loves it! It is a really cute game. You take turns calling out letters or items and they have to place a hand, foot, or ear on the item. It is kind of like twister with alphabet practice. I highly recommend it! Sawyer is really into playing games right now. I would love to know what board games your little ones love to play.

My little Jax loves, loves, loves to paint. I put out a jar of paint, a paintbrush, and a toothbrush. He was a little confused as to why the toothbrush was at the easel. I would also loved to know what creative activities your kids do at the easel. I usually just put out paint, but would like to be a bit more creative with it sometimes.


We also made these snow globes. Ramblings of a Crazy Woman has awesome winter ideas!

We also made ice cream one evening. Yes, I know it's winter, but you can't talk about the letter I without having an ice cream treat. You can see my ice cream post here.



When I saw the boys sitting side by side playing with their Tags, I just had to snap a pic and just had to post that pic.

Visit 1+1+1=1 to see what other tots did this week.

Ice Cream in a Bag

I have heard of making ice cream in a ziplock bag, but had never tried it before. We talked about the letter I last week, so I thought it would be a great time to try making ice cream. It was so simple and fun. My boys loved it! I also tried it with my 3 year olds at school and I think it was one of the best activities we have done all year. Here is the recipe we used.

What you'll need:
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup milk or half & half
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons rock salt
1 pint-size plastic food storage bag (e.g., Ziploc)
1 gallon-size plastic food storage bag
Ice cubes

How to make it:
Fill the large bag half full of ice, and add the rock salt. Seal the bag.
Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag, and seal it.
Place the small bag inside the large one, and seal it again carefully. (I double bagged mine, because they can puncture pretty easily)
Shake until the mixture is ice cream, which takes about 5 minutes.
Wipe off the top of the small bag, then open it carefully. Enjoy!
I have also heard that you can use small and large coffee cans and roll them down the hallway for a few minutes.

We made vanilla ice cream and added sprinkles. It makes about 1 scoop of ice cream. I read that you can double the recipe, but not to do more than that in one bag. I wrote out the recipe and showed it to the boys. We talked about what a recipe is and why it is important to follow directions when cooking. Cooking with your kids is a great way to teach measurement and following directions.

When the boys finished eating their ice cream, I let them color a picture of an ice cream cone. Then they added sprinkles and a pom pom cherry on top.

Color Wheel Project: Red

We are going the participate in this color wheel project. We are a little late as red was last weeks' color. I started out by explaining to Sawyer what the color wheel was. I showed him a picture on the internet and we talked about primary and secondary colors.

At the easel I put out a red marker, a red crayon, a red piece of chalk, red paint with a paintbrush, and red finger faint with a sponge.

Sawyer started by using the marker and crayon.

Here is Sawyer's finished project.

This one belongs to Jaxon. I will cut them out and add them to our wheel.

Tot School: Snow and Ice

The boys and I are slowly getting back into some sort of routine. I am doing a winter theme with my MDO class as well as at home with the boys. It has been really cold here and it actually snowed last Monday. It rarely snows here, so it was a nice treat.

The boys were so excited. I bundled them up and went outside to play in the snow. These southern boys are not used to the cold and didn't want to stay out very long. Sawyer was ready to go inside after about 5 minutes of playing in the snow.

We went inside and had hot cocoa with whip cream. I think this was their favorite part of the whole experience.


I decided to make some shaving cream snow for the boys to play with. We have done this several times before. I just mixed equal parts glue and shaving cream. They finger painted with it for a while. When it dries it has a nice soft texture like snow.

We also made ice burgs last week. I helped the boys put water and a toy inside a cup. We then put them in the freezer. I had the not so bright idea to add glitter to the mix. It made a huge mess as it was melting. I decided to try it a second time without glitter. This time after the water froze I let the boys explore the ice. They used spoons to chip it away and even tasted their creations. Eventually they put them in the sink with warm water and let them melt. This is also fun in the bath tub.
We also made these with my 3 year old class. They had a blast chipping away at the ice and putting what was left into the water table.

The last snow activity of the week we did was painting snow men with q-tips. I found the idea here.

Much of our time has been spent playing with new toys.

Here is Jax playing on his new plasma car with his friend Naomi.

Sawyer is pretending to chop down this tree at my Grandma's house. The boys got a new tool bench as well as a few "power tools" for Christmas. They have been making repairs all over the house.

Another favorite has been this Melissa and Doug see and spell puzzle. I got it for Sawyer, but both boys really like it.

Sawyer has been spending a lot of time playing with his Leap Frog Tag books. He was sick last week and spent hours lying around reading these books. I am really impressed with this toy. It is so cool! Jax has the tag junior and he likes it.

Head on over to Carissa's blog to see what other tots learned this week.