*This post includes what we did last week, too, since I wasn't able to post it while away!*

Once again Taitum joined us for many of the things I had planned for Piper. Some things interest her, others not at all and sometimes she has her own idea of what to do! She is getting busier and busier by the day! Usually, its in a good way. She wants to explore and try new things and is very curious! Sometimes though its not so fun for me...I've had to wash her hands numerous times this past week since I find them regularly in the toilet. She has also figured out how to get up on her sister's bed and that jumping on it is fun! Needless to say, she keeps things happening! I'm finding myself having to say 'No' far more often! On the other hand, I enjoy sharing new discoveries with her like learning to jump without holding onto anything and how to crawl around on all fours and growl like a lion! This is an age of non stop energy but I wouldn't have it any other way!

 

Taitum made a texture collage like her sister. She especially loved feeling (and tasting) each item before adding it to the paper!

This is a new toy we just purchased - Counting Bears. Taitum is learning to sort them according to color.

And she really likes this activity! :)

Of course, she liked water play. Most of her play was pouring the water into her lap! But that's why I put the towels on the floor! Otherwise, we might have had a bit of a flood on our hands!!

At first, Tait didn't realize what she was painting with...

Until she saw her sister tasting it and followed suit. She was one happy girl when she made this discovery - pudding painting!

Being a sticker lover, this activity was right up her alley!

She really enjoyed making music with all kinds of instruments but especially the triangle!

Bubble painting was fun, too, but she just HAD to get her fingers in that paint!!

The next week: Swimming!

This girl LOVES to be in the water! She is just itching to be able to swim on her own and being dunked under doesn't fizz her a bit! In fact, she comes out of the water clapping!

Both girls really liked hanging onto the side of the pool and kicking their feet.

And Taitum loved being queen of the pool sitting up on this mat with a ball in her hands!

Although I'm sure she has no idea what money is, she was still excited to find a toonie in her Shrove Tuesday pancake!

My 2 little travel buddies and I had a great time together taking a break from school and the everyday routine! We're off now to start a farm theme next week!

Linking up to:

With it being the week before March Break for us, I decided to plan to work on a letter that Piper already knows - 'F'. She knew it simply because every day of Februray we talked about what letter the month started with when we did our calendar time. I figured it wouldn't take her long to catch on to the phonetic sound so a week would be more than enough time to concentrate on it. I chose 'fish' as our theme and pulled it all together rather quickly. In the end, this week turned out to be very successful despite how fast I threw it together!

So here it is: Letter 'F' and the cut and collage printable that we do for each new letter.

Piper didn't know what our new theme was going to be so I left a 'F' is for fish puzzle on the table for her to do Monday morning while I got breakfast ready. In order to discover what the theme was, she had to complete the puzzle!

Piper also spent lots of time tracing the letter 'F'. I kept this printable out on the table for her to whenever she wanted. She loves these tracing sheets so I found her working on it frequently!

And filled in the letter 'F' with foam fish stickers!

She also did this letter poking activity, an idea I got from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I simply drew out the letter 'F' for her and placed the paper of some craft foam. Then I showed her how to poke little holes in the paper using a tack! She was very intent on making sure she made the pokes on the line and not outside of it!

Learning about the letter 'F' and fish was a lot of fun! We also watched 'Finding Nemo' and went to the pet store to check out the fish there!

The highlight of our week, though, was finishing up learning about the 5 senses! Piper LOVED all the activities we did and was dicussing her 5 senses with me all week long! She also took upon herself the task of teaching her sister all that she had learned which was pretty cute!

Finally, we made this 5 senses mini book from Homeschool Share. Piper cut out pictures from a magazine of the body parts we use for our 5 senses and then glued them to the corresponding page. She was delighted with the result: her own book she made and can 'read'!

We also did some random activities:

A friend gave us some lapbooks she had put together. Piper worked on this one - a sunny alphabet match!

I also made her this printable so she could practice writing her name. I figured she'd enjoy it since she is forever asking me to write her name out for her so she can copy it. She did like it but...

Especially liked being able to make her own doodles! Which is OK too of course! She's really starting to enjoy drawing her own pictures and designs!

After playing outside one day, we brought in some snow to see what would happen to it. It was a good chance to explain what was going to happen to all the snow in the spring and to take a look at all the impurities found in snow (at which point I injected an expalnation as to why its not a good idea to eat the snow off the driveway!! Or off the bottom of peoples boots, in Taitum's case!!)

That's our week! A busy, jam packed one but a wonderful way to end the harsh, winter months and head into a relaxing break! We're looking forward to a trip out of town and a few lazy days! 

I'm linking up to ...

More and more I am finding that Taitum is a social learner. All of my attempts of sitting and playing with her alone were rejected this week. On the other hand, every single time that I sat down to do something with Piper, she demanded to be a part of it! Since clueing into this, I've made a habit of having something ready to go for her, too. Usually its the things I had tried to do with her before but to no avail. In some ways, I'm disappointed by this. I really would like the opportunity to spend time with her alone. I also realize that I need to just appreciate the fact that she truly loves being a part of our school time. I know its really not a terrible thing that she prefers to spend her play time independantly. She's just drastically different from Piper who is more likely to want my attention constantly! I am thankful for how much these girls enjoy each other's company and am learning to take advantage of the times Taitum accepts my sole attention such as at bedtime storytime! In the end, that is just one of the many reasons I am choosing to homeschool - so I can tailor my children's education to the way that they learn best!

Enough rambling. Here is our week in Tot School:

Taitum sorted some blocks by color. We do a lot of this and its cute to watch how sometimes she stacks the blocks, other times lines them up - whatever suits her fancy that day!

Daddy helped her to participate during our milky rainbows experiment with Piper.

Taitum is obsessed with this activity - pushing pom poms through a hole cut in the lid of a yogurt container! So simple yet so fascinating!

She LOVED painting with vegetables! I think this had more to do with the mess factor than anything else!

Oh the joy!

She also enjoyed getting her hands dirty in the Goop we created, too!

Taitum is starting to get the hang of the Do-A-Dot markers and choosing to play with them anytime we have a free craft time!

This week's challenge? Well, look and see...

Something in her mouth constantly! She walks around like this! Her favorite is that cylinder block you see but she was quite content to have that plastic hamburger patty in her mouth quite often this week! I know she's teething and all but this is getting ridiculous!!

Taitum's successes of the week were 1) returning to her regular cheery ol' self and 2) appropriately responding to me when I ask her to come see me for some reason. We've really been working on obedience in this area since her usual response has been to run away or shake her head at me. It was so rewarding to see my consistency in correcting her when she didn't obey paying off! 

That's all for this week!  For more ideas to do with your tot, click on the button below!