Tot School Week 2

Here was our lesson plan for week 2. I decided it would be easier for me to just post about the whole week instead of individual days. Less work for me I should say.

Our focus this week was the letter B, the sound of B, Big B little b, B is for Bear, the color blue, the shape square and the number 2. We took Addison to the local sporting goods store to see the big stuffed Kodiak Bear she loves so much. We watched videos on all different bears. Our Bear craft this week was coloring and gluing a bear face to create a large magnet for the refrigerator. She really enjoys hanging her projects on the refrigerator so she can show daddy when he comes home from work. She loved the videos of polar bears climbing out of their dens with their cubs. I also incorporated a fun craft with glue and cereal into our week even though it wasn't on the lesson plan. I drew a big B and a little b on a piece of paper and she glued cereal around the letter. She loves when I put the glue dots and she attaches the cereal. We also learned about bananas this week. I didn't end up baking with bananas though because this pregnant momma had a craving for chocolate. We made some cracker candy instead. I know it had nothing to do with our lesson plan this week but we had fun making and eating it. Here are a few pictures from our week...

Tot School - Week 1, Day 2

Today A is for Apples so we learned all about apples and since our shape of the week is circles we also focused on circles. Today is our second day of Tot School. Since we are only doing 4 days a week we took yesterday off to play with friends. We had a very busy day yesterday. This morning we went swimming at the indoor pool on the Coast Guard base so we did our Tot School in the afternoon.

Since our focus today was apples, circles, the color red and the letter A we did some apple and circle painting with the color red, looked at pictures of apples on the Internet and had a lesson on how apples grow. We also worked on the sound A makes. If anyone is interested in teaching their tots phonics I highly recommend purchasing the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD. It's amazing! They have a song to teach the kids the sounds each letter makes. My daughter has been watching it for a while now so she already knows most of the sounds and she is only 2 1/5.

Here are some pictures of our lessons today...

Tot School - Week 1, Day 1

I decided I wanted to start teaching my daughter early preschool at home. She is 2 1/2 and very smart. I am a stay at home mom with another baby on the way, due in early February. I decided I needed to get organized and come up with scheduled lesson plans. I have been teaching her already but it wasn't consistent and I felt she needed more structure. I have planned out the next 8 weeks so far. I have lesson plans for 4 days a week and each week we are focusing on a letter, number, shape and color. Mixed into those lesson plans are different animals and foods that go along with the letter of the week. We are only spending about an hour a day on school which is perfect for her age, any longer and I loose her attention.

Today was the first day! I was excited to start with her and she seemed just as excited to learn! Here is my lesson plan for this week...

Today we focused on the letter A and A is for Alligator! She was very excited. I found some Alphabet Animal coloring sheets online and blew the letters up to one per page. Here is a link to the site where I found the coloring sheets... http://alphabetimals.com/

After she colored her Alphabet Animal we watched two videos online about alligators. I found ones where the alligators were being fed at a zoo. I didn't want anything scary. We talked about what the alligators were eating and where they lived and the differences between alligators and crocodiles, since she seemed to think they were the same. Daddy helped explain their differences.

Next, we did an alligator craft I found on Pinterest (one of my favorite sites). We made little alligators out of clothes pins. She painted them green and we glued scales to their backs, eyes and a magnet to them. Once we were done my little student decided it would be extra fun to glue a bunch of eyes to a paper plate. She had a blast doing that! After everything was all dry we hung her projects on the refrigerator.

I think today was a success for our first day! I hope she continues to enjoy each day.

When we were all done she got to put a sticker on her reward chart for doing such a great job!

Where has the time gone?

My little girl is growing so fast and learning a mile a minute. It's a little bitter sweet. While on one hand I miss my baby it's also very exciting to watch her grow and learn. She is so smart and she amazes me every day with the things she says and knows. We are expecting our second child, due February, and it's a boy! We are very excited and I guess it's a good thing that Addison is growing so she can be mommy's little helper. She is now 2 1/2, potty trained, sleeping in a big girl bed and talking up a storm. She can verbalize just about anything she wants or needs to tell me. Sometimes it may get tricky understanding her but most of the time I have no problem. She is very excited for baby brother. She has always loved babies so I'm hoping she adjusts well to the new addition. I just hope I can devote enough time to each of my children. I bet that is a fear of a lot of moms.

Quiet Book

I made my daughter a quiet book. I had no idea just how much time and work it would be to make. It took me about a week solid working on it. That may not sound like a lot of time but I worked on it as much as a I could during the day and several hours every night when my daughter went to bed. I made the mistake of making most of the book standing over the kitchen counter. My poor 6 month pregnant body was not happy with me and I was very happy to have completed the project.

This is my daughter holding her book. She was so excited and seems to love it!

I ended up using several methods to construct the book. I used my sewing machine, hand stitching and my trusty hot glue gun. The cover ended up being completely glued together since I couldn't figure out a good way to sew it. I think it turned out pretty good.

Each page has something for my daughter to do and each page helps teach her something. My goal was to make something that would entertain her and be educational at the same time. I did a lot of research on Pinterest for different ideas. I tried to take ideas I found and make them my own. There are some incredible quiet books out there!

Here are my pages and what I did...

The first page is a flower page. The flowers are hand sewed (2 layers of felt sewed together). The flowers are attached by Velcro to the page and can be removed and placed into the pocket the stems come out of.

The shapes page and number flower page have a combination of hot glue, hand stitching and machine sewing. The shapes can be removed by Velcro and reattached to their matching shape. The flower petals can also be removed and placed into the pocket created in the flower pot.

The tent and barn pages are my favorite pages and possibly my daughters favorite too! The tent has a zipper and can be unzipped to see the black bear hiding inside. The barn doors open to find three little finger puppet animals to play with. I used the sewing machine for most of the construction of these pages but hand stitched the finger puppet animals.

The piggy bank is another one of my daughters favorites. There is pocket with real money hidden inside. I attached some Velcro to keep the pocket closed. The Christmas tree has ornaments attached with snaps. These are a little tricky to take on and off but I think once my daughter gets the hang of it she will have an easier time.

Next we have Mr. Potato head and snow cones! Mr. Potato head's face comes apart by Velcro to play with. The snow cones are little pockets where the tops can come out. These will help my daughter learn her numbers and what they mean. I used a combination of hand stitching and my sewing machine with these pages.

The last page is a fish tank. The fish can be removed and placed inside the pocket created out of the tank.

I hope my daughter can enjoy this book for a long time and we can hopefully pass it on to our son when he is old enough. I can't guarantee how well it will hold up but I'm hoping with all my glue and sewing it will last through two toddlers. This was a very fun project but also very time consuming. So far my daughter really seems to enjoy it and even asked if we could go home and play with her book when we were out today.

Fall Leaves Craft for Decoration

This is a fun and easy craft that the kids can help with. It creates a cute fall decoration for your house as well. Give your child a bucket (I used a pumpkin Halloween bucket for my daughter) and take them on a scavenger hunt in your neighborhood for fall leaves. Let them pick up all the pretty leaves and talk about the different colors as they collect them. Once you get home go through the bucket and pick out the best leaves. Find an old book and place the leaves in between the pages. You can use wax paper if you are afraid the leaves will hurts the pages of the book. I used a large, heavy craft book but if you don't have a heavy book you can place a heavy object on top of the book to apply pressure. Once you have your leaves in the book set it aside for a few days (I did 6 days, only because I forgot about it). Then find an old picture frame or buy a new one (I used an 8x10 frame) and lay the leaves out on a white piece of paper. You can use a little tape rolled for the back of the leaves to stick them in place. Once you have the leaves the way you want insert the page into the frame and hang or set in your house. Let your child pick which leaves should be dried and they can also help arrange them on the paper for the frame. Your child will be excited when you hang up their leaf art.

Toddler Fun with Homemade Goo

I've been trying to find new ways to entertain my 2 year old. Thanks to Pinterest we made goo today. My daughter LOVED it. She played with it for about 45 minutes totally entertained. It was very easy to make. Take equal parts of clear glue and liquid starch and kneed together with your hands. It will take a little while to get the right texture. Once you have it how you want it separate it into piles and add a couple drops of food coloring to each pile. Mix it together and let the fun begin! We will be making this again.

How to Entertain a Toddler on a Rainy Day

Today was another rainy day and daddy was at work so little Addison and I were pretty bored. I decided to pull out some beads and work with her on stringing them. She was having a hard time stringing them and before I knew it she was sorting all the beads into little piles by colors. That is when I had a brilliant idea to give her an ice cube tray to sort her beads. It kept her very busy and it was fun to watch her little mind hard at work sorting and organizing the beads. Not only was this a time consuming project but also very educational.

Teaching My Toddler Numbers

My 2 year old (26 months) is truly a little sponge. She is learning at an alarming rate and every day she surprises me with new words and things she knows. She can recognize and say every letter of the alphabet and she knows some of her colors. She can also recognize and name more animals than I knew she even knew. It's actually amazing to realize and see how much she knows. I have been excited about her growing intelligence and it has inspired me to teach her even more. A few months ago I ordered some blank board books with the hopes of making her some fun new books. However, I couldn't think of anything to make so they got lost in closet. Well today I decided to use one and make her a learning numbers book. She knows a couple numbers but not many and has no idea their meaning. I wanted to make it very simple so she can learn and count in a very simple way. I can't wait to show her and see how fast she learns her numbers.

Sea Glass Picture Frames

Since moving to Kodiak, Alaska I have discovered a new hobby, collecting sea glass. The beaches here are covered in the beautiful glass, some more than others. We found one beach that gets a beating from the ocean resulting in the roundest pieces of sea glass I've ever seen. There is so much you could spend days collecting. I have been crafting with my piles of collected sea glass. They make very pretty picture frames. I used hot glue to glue the glass on the frame and then paint a clear nail polish over the sea glass to make them shiny. I'm really happy with how they turned out.

Homemade Taggie Blanket

A good friend of mine is about to have her fourth baby. She was actually due last week but the little guy just doesn't seem to want to come out yet. I wanted to make her something special for her new little man so I decided to make a taggie blanket. I went to our very small fabric store in town and chose from their small inventory the fabrics for the little blanket. I love minky fabric because it is so soft. I went with a turquoise for the front and white for the back. I picked out some tan and brown ribbon for the sides. I had some felt at home that I used for the "A" and the squares on the front. It didn't take very long to make and I was very happy with the outcome. I hope baby "A" enjoys this little blanket. I can't wait to mail if off.

Newborn Photo Shoot

Yesterday I had the pleasure of photographing this beautiful baby girl. I spent all afternoon with her mom shooting away. Unfortunately when I went to take the photos off of my memory card something went wrong and all of the files were corrupt and then deleted from my card. I was devastated! Not only was I so upset that I lost all of the pictures but I had to call her mom and tell her what had happened. Luckily she was very understanding and agreed to come re shoot today. Well maybe that was meant to happen because today I was able to capture even better photos than yesterday. This little beauty slept most of the time for me and was such a pleasure to photograph. I have to say I'm actually glad we had to take the photos again. However I hope this never happens again because some things you can not redo.

Kodiak Seashells

This morning it was low tide so we went to the beach. It was simply AMAZING!!! The tide was so low it seemed like you could walk forever. There were tide pools and little rivers running all over the place. The sand was covered in shells. Addison and I had fun hunting for the perfect shells. Our dog Angel had a blast running all over the beach chasing seagulls and jumping in the ocean. It's a good think she didn't spot the otter running around the beach because she would of been in for a surprise. Joe had his metal detector and was on the hunt for hidden treasures. He found a coin, some old rusty stuff. When we got home I cleaned up all of the shells we collected and put them in a vase for display. They look perfect in our downstairs bathroom. Next time we are taking a bucket so Addison can have even more fun finding beach treasures.

Potty Training for Jelly Beans

We are in full force potty training mode! Addison loves her potty but she seemed to need some motivation. Jelly beans were our answer! She gets one every time she goes potty in her potty. We do a little song and dance and clap when she goes. It's all very exciting. A friend of mine did tic tacs for her little one as a potty reward. Addison didn't seem to like tic tacs so I went with jelly beans. We also found if we keep her potty in the living room she has a tendency to use it more. When she has to go she has to go right then so having the potty in the same room as us has helped. I was slacking in the potty training department because we were all sick but now we are really focusing to mastering this task! It's a fun new adventure for our little one.

My Website

I've been working on changing my website with my mother's help. She is so talented on the web. I have designed the pages and she has put them online for me. I am trying to generate more work now. Now that Addison is becoming more independent and doesn't need me to entertain her every second of the day it would be nice to work more. The money would be nice and just getting my creative juices flowing always feels good. My mother is a very talented author and has published many books. Most of her books are offered as ebooks, which are selling like hotcakes. I'm so proud of her. She has given me the idea to branch into doing more cover designs for ebooks. With her help I hope to get in touch with all of the creative writers out there that are in need for covers for their books. I feel like this would be a great opportunity for me.

Check out my website! It's a work in progress but I think it's looking pretty good. I wanted simple and to the point and that is what I feel I have created. 

www.elizabethmackey.com


Also, feel free to check out my mother's website!

www.mid-journey.com

Maternity Photo Shoot

I recently had the pleasure of taking some maternity photos. I have always enjoyed taking pictures and have dabbled in photography. I took several photography classes in college and have purchased a nice camera since the birth of my daughter. I am always looking for things and people to photograph.

It was raining the day we chose to take her photos so we ended up doing them inside. I think they turned out pretty well. We hung a burgundy sheet up in the living room and with all the nature light from the large windows we got some great shots. The big challenge was convincing daddy to be in the pictures and getting their toddler to listen. I had a great time editing these pictures and was very excited to show them to the expecting mama. You'd never know she was 9 months pregnant in these pictures. She is so tiny.

Owl Themed 2nd Birthday Party

Addison's second birthday party was yesterday. Hard to believe she will be turning 2 in just a couple days. Where did my baby go? The party was a huge success. Addison had so much fun with all of her friends. We are so blessed to have such a great group of friends in Kodiak.

I decided this years theme would be owls. I found an owl design online that I liked and went from there. I bought party favor boxes and made everything else. I made a pinata, stuffed owls for party favors, a banner, cupcake toppers and the invitation. I found some really cute cupcake liners from Target in their Easter section and a red two candle. I decided to just make cupcakes, which was a hit with the kids. I made yellow cake cupcakes with chocolate frosting and chocolate cake cupcakes with lemon frosting and I topped them all with sugar crystals. They were yummy!

I made an owl pinata to match the party theme. It was very easy to make! I blew up a balloon and did paper mache over the whole balloon leaving just the tie out. I used glue, water and newspaper for the paper mache. I mixed half water half glue and dipped thin strips of the newspaper in the glue water and then placed them over the balloon evenly. Then I tapped paper in the shape of ears and and wings on the outside of the balloon and paper mached them. After the paper mache was dry I cut the tie of the balloon so the balloon sucked out of the pinata (make sure it is completely dry before cutting out the balloon or the whole thing will be ruined). This will leave a little hole on the top of your pinata which you can cover up with more paper mache. I then painted the owl to my liking. When it was all done and dry I cut a little flap in the back of the pinata and filled it with candy. It was a huge hit with the kids!

I was having a hard time deciding what to put in the party favor boxes. I didn't want to spend money on junk that would probably end up in the trash so I decided to make little owl stuffed animals. I had a bunch of felt so I cut the shapes I wanted and sewed them together. I think they turned out pretty cute! I also put some candy in the boxes with the owls.

I created the banner and cupcake toppers on the computer and printed them out myself. I used my trusty hot glue gun to glue the cupcake toppers together with toothpicks and ribbon to tie my banner together. All in all I think all the decorations turned out great.

I was worried our house would be too small for 20 plus people but it turned out great! It was raining so we had to stay inside but there seemed to be enough room for everyone. We had tons of food, from barbecue chicken sandwiches (done in the crock pot), smoked brisket, pasta salad, fruit and chips. Everyone seemed to have a great time and Addison had a blast! This will be a tough birthday to beat! Guess I better start planning for her 3rd birthday! 

It's been awhile...

I can't believe how much I've slacked off on my blog! What a crazy past month and a half. We survived Christmas! It was a blast! Our first Christmas just the four of us (I'm counting Angel, our dog) in our new home in Kodiak. We were all spoiled rotten this year. I got an iPad, diamond earrings and everything else I asked for! Joe got more guns which thrilled him (don't mess with our house) and Addison got a bazillion toys including her very own kitchen. She was overwhelmed with new toys! It was wonderful just being together. I am so very blessed.

New Year's Eve was quiet. We didn't even stay up till midnight. What old people we are becoming. With the New Year came lots and lots of snow! I'm talking record breaking amounts for Kodiak. We are starting to get cabin fever and our looking forward to warmer weather. Addison and I will be traveling to California and Arizona to visit family while Joe is in Florida for Engineer school. We are very excited for our vacation but wish daddy could come too.

Addison and I did some finger painting today. Trying to pass the time inside while the snow continues to fall. I will try and get better at posting on my blog and be less of a slacker.