Preschool Trays

Before this school year started I thought and thought and thought about what I could do to keep my three-year-old happily occupied while I taught my easily distracted first grader. Last year (for Kindergarten) we did the more difficult school work during nap time, but I knew that this year we needed to do more in the morning.

I liked the idea of Tot Trays, so I started looking around my school room to see if we had a place to do this. I had to box up all of the contents of one shelf from this bookshelf to make room for the trays, but it has been well worth it.

I usually put educational activities in his trays for him to do, but sometimes I will put a favorite toy in one of the trays. Most of these activities he is able to to independently, but I am also available to help him if he needs it. I usually give him all new activities at the beginning of the week changing them out in the evenings if he is uninterested or finished with them. Most days he is excited to see what is in his trays, and he often asks me, "Can I start my trays now?"

His first tray on this particular day contained stacking pegs from the Lauri Toddler Tote. As much as he likes to make towers I would think he would enjoy these, but mostly he just pretends they are guns.

I found these Highway ABC Cards over at makinglearningfun.com. He spent about 30 seconds driving his cars on the Letter L and the rest of the time lining his cars up in a row on the table. And that's perfectly OK with me, since this is about him having fun while he learns.

I love these Lauri Alphabet Puzzle Boards! They are made from the crepe rubber that feels so nice to work with and is also quiet on the table while big brother works on his school work.

My preschooler seems to think he is above playing with this stacker toy, but my first-grader and I both love to play with it. It usually goes untouched if I still put it in his trays.

As I mentioned above, the original idea was to keep him happy and busy while I did "real" school with my first grader, but I have enjoyed finding fun and educational activities to put in his trays. I am also pleased to say that this system really works well for us in so many ways. If I am feeling creative I can find specific activities to emphasize a letter he is learning or a skill like cutting. But if I am busy with other things that week I can just grab a puzzle, some books, and a couple other educational toys.

Tot School can give you many more ideas for teaching little ones. Check it out!

Do you ever have days like this?

If you look at the top of the picture you will see an empty bin -- that's where the books belong. My house looks like this a lot. Some times I am too occupied with other things or just too tired to even remind the boys to put their books away (and make sure they do it).

Some times I get discouraged about the state of my house. It is mostly clean, but it is almost always messy. Especially after two weeks of me being really sick, Christmas, and family visiting. Yesterday I was thinking that maybe it is because I am just a messy person and don't prioritize keeping the house neat and tidy. Of course, my husband would argue with that because he thinks that I am the most organized person he knows. I do like to organize everything, and I like to have everything in its place. The clutter filling every room of my house, however, may not say the same about me.

Today is one of the days the disorder in my house bothers me. Well, really it bothers me most days. But some days I am busy doing school with my kids, and some days I am too tired, and some days I am getting ready for a birthday party, and some days I just think the mess can wait. It won't go away, you know. From my vast experience with messy houses, I have found that the mess will always be there tomorrow. I guess the mess does bother me, just not enough.

I am not sure how to explain this picture because I am not sure it will express to you what it does to me. The scene is a room full of laundry and suitcases that need to be packed and the general clutter that usually occupies my living room. I can't remember why, but my son had put a huge pile of stuffed animals on the floor. He asked me something, and I fell down onto the animals and started playing with them. It was a wonderful moment, and one I might have missed if the baskets of laundry bothered me too much.

I am thankful that I have learned (at least partly) that there are some things that won't be here tomorrow. My kids are growing up so fast. When they are gone, I will worry about my house. Until then I hope to be enjoying them, even if there happens to be work waiting to be done in the background.

Sneak Peek

Can you guess what I have been up to lately?

Here's another hint:

We have a birthday party coming up, and I have been busy making special things for it. Stay tuned for more to come!

January Sensory Bin

Here is our Sensory Bin for January. I guess I didn't make it to Dollar Tree soon enough (apparently winter doesn't come after Christmas in the marketing world) because I couldn't find anything I was wanting to put in this winter themed sensory bin. I was hoping to find some snowflakes or mittens or winter animals, but I didn't. Most of the items in this bin were random craft supplies I already had on hand.

This sensory bin includes:

Cotton balls

Fake snow sprinkles

A little tinsel

Bells

Blue pom poms

Curls of blue ribbon

Blue striped drinking straws cut to various lengths

White plastic doves

I started the bin with cotton balls, added the various blue and silver items, and topped it all off with a little tinsel and fake snow. However, if you plan to use this type of tinsel or fake snow, I would recommend putting it in before you put in all the little items.

The boys liked these little white doves, but I don't think they realized there were so many in there because they got lost in the white cotton balls. I don't really think of doves as winter animals, but they were white and as I said, I couldn't find anything else.

I was afraid that I was going to regret putting the tinsel and fake snow in the bin, but it didn't make very much of a mess. I was also careful to put just a little of each in, so maybe that helped to minimize the mess. Or maybe I am just not as bothered by messes as I used to be.

Christmas 2010 In Review

We did several things for Christmas that I wanted to share, but because of reasons beyond my control, December did not go as planned. However, we determined to make the best of it, and what we hadn't finished before Christmas we just enjoyed after the date!

We started two traditions this year that I think are keepers. First, we did a Christmas countdown during the month of December.

Each gingerbread man's gift had a Bible verse about the birth of Jesus and a song to sing. Our boys absolutely loved doing this every night, and I was surprised at how much I liked it too. (In the nature of keeping things real, I may note that we had to do several at a time some days because we didn't get to them every day, and when Christmas came we hadn't finished it.)

Our second tradition we started this year was a birthday party for Jesus. We had pizza and cake and gave birthday gifts to Jesus. We decided to choose his birthday gifts from the Samaritan's Purse Gift Catalog. My oldest son chose to give a week's worth of milk for a child and a Jesus Loves Me Stuffed Lamb for a child in crisis. As a family we gave some other gifts also. These gifts and our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes were also our gifts to our family members -- we gave these gifts in honor of them instead of buying them something they didn't really need or want anyway.

During December they boys played in a Christmas themed sensory tub.

The tub included white beans, green split peas, red beads, bells, toy blocks, red jewels, and green pom poms (which my son had already scooped out before I took the picture).

We also made chocolate dipping spoons for hot chocolate. I originally planned to do the spoons with snowmen as I saw here, but since we didn't get them started until after Christmas we went with easy sprinkles and crushed candy canes.

We used plastic spoons for the ones we gave as gifts, but just grabbed the lesser used spoons from our drawer for treats for ourselves.

The Christmas season came and went fast this year, and now it is time to move on to other things. Does it seem to you that December lasted longer when we were the kids?

Pea Face

My husband made this grilled cheese sandwich one day for our boys. He pushed frozen peas (possibly thawed -- he can't remember) into the bread before grilling it. The apple ears and broccoli hair were an afterthought that completed the face. Our boys loved it, and I was pretty impressed with him myself. We like to make the little things in life more fun for our kids, and this is a very easy way that brings lots of smiles!

If you try this with your kids, leave me a comment and let me know how they liked it!

Good-Bye Autumn

I took down our autumn leaves today. Near the beginning of fall we made leaf rubbings. We painted them with watercolors, and then I cut them out and decorated our school room with them. We really, really loved the effect.

Without the leaves, the room looks so bare, and I can't decide what to do with it now. I guess we need to work on some winter art tomorrow.