What's going on with Tot School??? and life in general

You may have noticed over the past few weeks, well maybe the past month we have been slacking on Tot School.  This is definitely my fault.  We went to visit my parents, and I've had a tough time getting back into the "swing of things."  Part of this is I am trying to focus on so many things right now, that I haven't really had a chance to work on the curriculum I was creating for Sprout.

(We are now going to pause for a Blogger identification break.)

I haven't mentioned any of this before, but I'm feeling the need to share, so bear with me.  In December JGD lost his job.  So we've been coping with the fact that our originally 2 income household, which dropped to 1 when Sprout was born is now.... um.... in trouble...  JGD has been working very hard to find a job, and I have been working very hard to figure out how I can help.  I've decided that I will be opening an Etsy shop where I will sell crocheted products.  Here are some of the blankets I have made.

I am currently working on a basket weave pattern for Sprout and I will upload pictures of that when I'm done.  I think my plan for right now is to load pictures of the blankets I have completed and make them to order.  Based on my time right now, I think this is best way.  If you have any suggestion I would love to hear them. 

In addition to that, I am working on creating and sticking to a budget.  This has included couponing and meal planning.  I am currently, really into one man's story of living on $1 a day.  He has shown me that if he can find food and other products to donate while living on $1 a day, then I can get some products to donate to the local shelters and food banks.

I am also trying to decide if I can work from home, and what I can do that will fit into our lifestyle.  It's important to me that anything I take on not interfere with my time with Sprout.

I will say that on the plus side of this JGD has finally been given the push to really pursue the career that he has wanted since graduating college and receiving his Masters.  This will probably mean a move for us, which I wouldn't mind (I think) as it would probably move us closer to my family.  I'd love to be in driving distance to my parents and brother.  I feel very far removed from them down here.  Especially, considering that JGD isn't all that close to his family, who does live here.

Anyway... thanks for listening to my babble...

(Now back to our regularly schedule program.)

I think I've decided to use established "curriculums" and enhance them when I can.  Several months ago I downloaded ABC Home Preschool - Age 2.  So that is what we'll be using, with addition and enhancements from other areas.  It is a 9 month program, but I may extend it seeing as how we are starting in June.  We'll see how Sprout does as we go along.

The first month is working on A, B and C and 0, 1, 2 and 3, transportation, and general good health practices.  I will continue to give a guideline of these activities on the side.

We Did It!

We finished our blankets for Project Linus this week.  Jolly Green Daddy made a No-Sew Fleece blanket.   While I used the crocheting skills I learned in high school to make mine.   Even Sprout thought she would help out!

She was a great help as JGD trimmed the ends off his fringed pieces.  (And then we added them to her Sensory Tub for this week.)

So what is JGD doing?

Now this wasn't what we had planned originally.  We were going to knot the fringes, but after a phone call from the Jolly Green Uncle (who was making his own blanket for Project Linus and Disney's Give a Day Get a Disney Day) we decided to cut very tiny slits and tuck the fringes through there.

Here is JGD's final project.

Mine has taken a little longer.  I started on February 14th and just finished it today.  In retrospect, I probably should have picked an easier pattern, especially because I had to double the size of the original blanket, but that's okay.

I love taking pictures, but am not a big fan of being in them, but to get credit for the project, I need to have a picture of me working on the blanket.  Here I am working on my final square!

This is what all of the squares look like piled up.

I needed to lay out all the squares to make sure I had the order right as I sewed everything together.

Here is my final project.

I really want to thank Disney for this project.  As it has made me feel really good, and I know that I want to make more blankets for Project Linus in the future.  I also think that I will try to make some blankets for Etsy.com.  I just need to figure out how I want to do it.  I would love to make them by request, but I'm not sure how long they will take me to finish, and how that fits into the real world for buyers.  I would love to hear your thoughts!  

Tot School - Week 5

Sprout is 20 Months

This week's theme was "All About Me."  This theme incorporated body parts, family and home/community.  We will be getting together with JGD's family for Passover shortly and want to make sure that Sprout is well acquainted with the family members she doesn't see as regularly.

Sprout and I are finally getting rid of our colds and getting back to normal. 

Tot Trays

This week's Tot Trays were 

• House Shape "Pattern" Blocks
• Family Matching
• Play Dough with people, body parts and house cookie cutters
• Boo Boo Bear
• Lacing Beads
• Transferring

I added velcro to the House Pattern to see if Sprout might be more interested in using this "correctly" with it.  Not so much, but she did enjoy pulling everything off the velcro and walking around the house with the pieces.  

I made a family matching for Sprout using her immediate family.  I made this using half a fold and laminated one set of the pictures on.  Again, this was an experiment to see if this would get Sprout's attention more than a traditional matching game.  She did 3 pics and then was on to something new.

Sprout actually pulled the play dough off the shelf this week, so we played with it for a little while, but it didn't keep her attention for long.  She was definitely interested in the rolling pin and cookie cutters though.  In fact, she really enjoyed piling the cookie cutters on other trays and moving the piles around.

She was not interested in the Boo Boo Bear activity at all, and I don't have any picture of her using the lacing beads because I was too busy trying to show her how to lace the beads to the middle of the string and add more than one bead.  We did a little transferring this week, but Sprout was definitely not as interested this week.  I'll change this one around a bit for next week.

Projects

We only did a couple projects this week.  One was very minor, we did a dot paint house.

While doing this project, I thought I would see if Sprout could match the tops to the right markers like she did last time.  This time she was good with getting the tops on, but they weren't the right colors.  We'll keep working on that.

Our other project this week was our stART/Kiddos Create Project.

Tot Packs

I didn't make a full Tot Pack for this week, but I did make a couple activities.  The matching game that was used for a Tot Tray and book of family members.  I made the book to help Sprout start placing names with faces.  Sprout had different ideas.  She loves the books and definitely loves looking at her family members, but every picture (including the dog) was "Daddy."  (She also pointed to a picture of some kids on her shampoo bottle and said "Daddy" so maybe this is associated with pictures of people in general.)

Sensory Activities

Sprout wasn't overly interested in Tot Trays a couple days this week so I searched the house for something to use for a Sensory Bucket.  We used the decorative shredded paper used in gift baskets that I found lying around the house, both from baskets and for them.  We also added some ribbon scraps and some scraps from the blanket JGD is making for Project Linus.  

Sprout enjoyed rolling around in the shredded paper too!

The mess this made, made me really happy that I decided to use something like this which was easier to clean up instead of the rice that I had planned on using.  We'll be saving that one for a while!

Sprout also played with shaving cream this week.  She had done this before when we was younger, but it was like new again this week.  She was very hesitant to begin with, but it didn't take long for her to get into it.  This was always a favorite activity (of mine and my "students") when I taught a 3 year old class., so I'm sure we will be doing this more in the future.

Practical Play

This week Sprout thought she would help me reorganize the pantry.  She actually did this a couple times this week.  I might be able to find everything one of these days!

Sprout also tried on some new clothes this week.  We'll have to work on fit!

And front and back.

JGD hurt his back and was given some exercises to do.  Sprout thought she would help out (Sorry about the glare).

She also thought she would help JGD with his blanket for Project Linus.

We had a really great week this week, and it ended with a visit from one of JGM's closest friends since I was a little older than Sprout.  It was great spending time with a long time friend and Sprout had a great time cuddling up to make a car for Handy Manny's race and read a book or two.  Wish we lived closer!

Next Week

Nest week we will be learning about Passover as we get ready for the holiday to begin the following Monday night.  I can't believe it's here already.  I have several projects in mind, we'll see what we get to!

To see what other Tots were up to this week go to 1+1+1=1.

Life goes on

Okay, so I've been lax in posting over the past 4 months, but I'm going to try to get back into it.  The past couple days have been a turning point/starting point for me.  I started running (sometimes with D) and started my week 2 training (I said I just started) and am proud of the progress I'm making.  I am using an App on my iPhone (Get Running) that helps me to integrate running into a lifestyle that never included it before.  It does start with workouts that mix walking and running, and ends with a steady 30 minute run. I hope I can stick with it!  My hope is to run my first 30 minute run on Miami Beach!


I am also very proud to be participating in Disney's Give a Day, Get a Disney Day program.  I have always been interested in doing whatever I can to help those around me who are in need, and have felt a little lost about it recently.  Gourmet Mom on the Go mentioned making cakes for Foster kids, and I thought this would be a great thing to try to get involved in.  However, I have had a hard time trying to figure out how to go about this.  Though I do love baking and have had a lot of fun making cakes.  I found Free Cakes for Kids, but it looked like the people in my area who are on the list are professionals, and I'm a little leery about being being contacted instead of having a contact.  


I have been looking for something else to do.  Disney's program gave me the chance to explore many of the programs in the area, but the problem with most of them is trying to find a way to do something with D.  Most programs want children 6 and over and I don't blame them seeing as how D can't really do that much to help.  Though she is great at making people smile!  But I did find Project Linus.  This is a great program that collects homemade blankets to give to anyone under 18 in need of one.  I have been crocheting since high school, and would love to be able to give my time to something like this.  So I have started making my blanket, and am loving it.  JGD is even planning on making one too (he is going to make a fleece, no sew blanket).  I'll keep you posted and try to post pictures along the way to show you.  I am making a blanket using yarn I had in the house from another project I had started years ago, but didn't finish.  It is going to be grey, and off white with black and green accents.

This is the yarn I will be using.  (The one to the far left is more forest green than this shows.)

These are my first 4 "natural" squares.  I have another 9 to go.