Perfectionism

As I was commenting on another person's blog I thought about something that I wanted to write about on here. Growing up I was a perfectionist. If I did something it had to be done right. Schoolwork and painting were some of the few things I really took seriously. This perfectionistic attitude still lingers although I have become more lenient to keep my sanity. My confession is that I have such a hard time watching M&M doing a craft or coloring and especially painting. I have to physically keep my hands behind my back so that I don't interfere with her learning process. We still clash with this sometimes because I don't want a big mess in my house, although my house is always messy anyway. *sigh*

When M&M tries to do something and she is unsuccessful she gets very frustrated and wants to quit. I can see myself in her; if I can't do something right then don't do it at all. I'm trying to teach her that she just needs to keep trying and she will eventually do it. As I've introduced the potty to her she has gotten frustrated that she can't do it every time she sits down on it. I can sense that she might have some perfectionism in her personality, I only hope that I can help her see that everything doesn't have to be perfect earlier in life then when I figured it out.

By the way, I am cracking down on potty training on Monday. I'll finally have a slow and relaxed week so that we can buckle down at home to get this thing done. She's been doing great actually and has even told us she needs to go a few times and will run to the bathroom. Her problem is that she doesn't want to stop what she's doing to go to the bathroom. I'll update about this later on when we have some progress to report.

For those of you who read this post I want to report that I have Bubba totally weaned. I just decided to do it cold turkey. He took it like a champ because he is so easy-going. There was a lot of pain on my part, but that is over now. I know that breastmilk is best for babies, but for the sake of my health at this time I needed to wean him.

Also, M&M went to her first day of "school" as she calls it. I call it FREEDOM! Although the technical term would be "Mother's Day Out" program. It was so wonderful to just have a few hours to get some stuff done at home that I usually can't do during the day with M&M around or at least I got it done a lot faster than I could have. She had a great time and the teacher said she was fabulous. When I dropped her off I stayed in the room for a few minutes, but then I gave her a hug and kiss and said I'm going now and she said okay. I'm excited for her to have this experience because she wants to be like her older cousins so bad. When we got home she wanted to do "mommy's school" as well. Her little Dora backpack is her constant companion now and it is always filled with all sorts of things that M&M thinks she will need for school.

Nostalgia

Whilst surfing the internet I came across a website that had some books on it that were very familiar. Memories came flooding back about how I used to LOVE to read and would read some books maybe 10 times a day. Now that I have my own kids I want to share the same joy with them that I had when I read these books. I didn't even think until now to look for them online! What a concept huh!? I'm thinking now maybe my mom might still have some of these and more in a downstairs closet where she keeps all of her children's books. The search is on! I will be on the lookout for more books that I recognize and loved as a child.

In the meantime I am putting these books on my list of ones to buy:

Popcorn by Frank Asch












Milk and Cookies by Frank Asch













Bears in the Night by Stan Berenstain











The Very Bumpy Bus Ride by Michaela Muntean











What were your favorite books as a child?

Tot School-Letter R

M&M is 3 years old

I had soooo many fun activities planned for this week, but I think we only got to about 1/4 of them. If I had known what a busy week for other things this would have been I wouldn't have planned the letter R for this week.

The letter R is for rainbows. There are so many cute rainbow activities out there, but here is just a few that we got to this week. We first read, "What Makes a Rainbow?" by Betty Schwartz. It's just a cute book.

We did a lot with construction paper and our first order of business was ripping or cutting different colored paper so that we could glue it onto a rainbow that I had freehanded. I labeled which line should be which color so she would know where to put it. This didn't last very long and we only got one line done, the purple one of course. I don't have an after picture. You can see a complete one at My Montessori Journey, where I got this idea from.

Another cute and easy craft from My Two Happy Homeschoolers. Again I don't have picture of the finished product. Check out the site to see what it looks like.

I cut out strips of rainbow colored paper and had M&M glue them onto a piece of paper. When it dried I cut it out into the shape of an R. Check out No Time for Flashcards to see the end result because I was very forgetful this week.

I found this cute template at Making Learning Fun to use with Fruit Loops to make a rainbow. M&M didn't actually finish this, I did because she was too busy eating the fruit loops. We have one stray yellow because she had eaten the rest of the blues.

These next activities aren't about the letter R, but I found them this week and wanted to try them out. I found the size board at Montessori Mom.



This magnifying glass activity looked really cute. There are boards with 12 pictures on them and the cards have the pictures on them, but they are shrunk down really small so you have to use a magnifying glass to see which picture to match it to. M&M was really smart though and could figure out what they were by just looking at the small picture. I can't find where I saved this one from, but I know it came from either Montessori Mom or Montessori for Everyone.

R is also for Rabbits. This cute bunny rabbit came from Making Learning Fun. M&M liked how it could stand up on it's own.

Then we made rabbit ears for M&M to wear and then we hopped around the house like rabbits. M&M thought this was way fun because mommy actually got down on the floor with her and hopped around too. These cute ears came from DLTK.

We also did a Tangram rabbit found at Making Learning Fun as well.

R is for Rectangles. We made rectangles usinga geoboard.

M&M used Do-A-Dots to make this rectangle found at Childcareland.

Then she made a rainbow with the Do-A-Dots.

For our last letter R activity of the week we did Rubbings. M&M helped peel the paper off of some crayons so we could use the sides of them to do the rubbings. We used a comb, 2 leaves, pennies and a cell phone.

Random fun. M&M used her blow-up microphone from Chuck-e-cheese to dance and sing.

I got some plastic bugs, butterflies and dragonflies from Target. I throw them all over the yard and she runs and "catches" them in her net.

I don't have anything planned for next week, but we only have two days to really do anything because of a family reunion. I hope to get to some of the thing done that we didn't do this past week and the rest is going to be LOTS of fun with the cousins. (She only has 19 cousins on one side alone.)

Spaghetti Pie recipe

This blog is not all about Tot School although that has been my main focus lately because that is the part of my life that needs the most attention right now. Even before having Bubba I was not doing so well in the cooking dinner area and my husband can vouch for that. He has been so patient in having to come home some nights and make dinner for himself and M&M. This past week we had guests for dinner so I cooked up one of my favorite recipes: Spaghetti Pie. I got this recipe from my mom. Don't moms always have the best recipes? Thanks mom. This is one recipe that I can do almost from memory because I've made it so much. Here it is:

Spaghetti Pie

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef (I almost always use extra lean)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
2 (8 oz.) cans tomato sauce with 1/4 tsp. garlic powder mixed in
1 1/2 c. low-fat sour cream
1/2 cup chopped green onions (Sometimes I leave these out because my hubby doesn't like them as much)
1/4 c. 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
4 cups hot cooked spaghetti (8 oz. uncooked pasta) (I never measure, I just put a bunch in)
1 1/3 c. shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cook meat in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until browned. Drain well and return mean to pan. Stir in salt, pepper and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer for 20 mins. Combine sour cream, green onions and cream cheese in a bowl, set aside.
Place spaghetti noodles in a 2-quart casserole dish coated with cooking spray. Spread sour cream mixture over spaghetti noodles. Top with meat mixture. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 25 mins. Uncover and bake an additional 5 mins. or until cheese is bubbly.

Picnic Table Talk-ABC's

The topic for this weeks picnic table talk over at ABC and 123 is the ABC's. One of the suggested topics to discuss is to make an ABC list centered around a theme of my choosing. I chose to do a list about my daughter M&M's favorite things. I couldn't choose just one for some of these.

A: apples, alphabet, animals
B: balloons, butterflies, balls
C: cookies, Care Bears
D: dogs, drawing
E: eggs (scrambled)
F: flowers
G: games,
H: high fives, happy faces
I: ice, ice cream
J: jumping
K: kites
L: laughing

M: M&M's (of course!), Mickey Mouse

N: noodles
O: (being) outside
P: princesses, painting, purple
Q: quarters
R: rainbows
S: swimming, stickers
T: toys, Tot School, trampoline
U: umbrella
V: violin
W: water
X: xylophones
Y: yo-yos
Z: zoo

I also want to share my favorite and M&M's favorite Alphabet game. It's called Letter Hide and Seek. Click here for my post about what we did and click here for where I found the original idea on the Childcareland website. Scroll down on each of these pages to find the actual activity.

Tot School-C week

M&M is currently 35 months old

I've seen a lot of people doing workboxes with their children when they do homeschooling. I wanted to take this idea and make if fit for what I am doing with M&M in Tot School. I tried it this week and it worked really well. It gave M&M a chance to choose what activities she wanted to do in whatever order she wanted to do them in. I'm trying to give her choices in everything I can in things that don't matter so that she can exercise her independence as much as possible. I don't have a shelf to put the boxes on yet so they are on the floor for now. Also, I have not read anything about how the actual workbox system works, I'm just taking ideas of what I see and putting them into ways that will work for me. This system keeps me organized as well and makes it so that I put together all materials needed for one activity into one box.



I had a lot of activities planned for the letter C this week. We started off reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. Bubba joined us for this part.

I found this flannel board story for The Very Hungry Caterpillar on the DLTK website. I put felt on the back of them, but they don't stay very well, but I got a lot of great comments saying to use sandpaper instead and I think I'll try doing that next time. At first I read the story while she put the pictures on the board and then I told her to read the story and I would put the pictures on the board. I was amazed at what she remembered from the story after just reading it a couple of times.


Then we colored a mini coloring book about the letter C that I found at the ABC Teach website.


I guess I didn't get a picture of it, but we made a letter C out of cotton balls. M&M enjoyed doing this and she asked to make something else with the cotton balls so I had to think quickly and came up with drawing an outline of clouds on blue paper and then she glued more cotton balls onto the clouds to make white and fluffy.


Next she chose to do a counting activity using little pompoms. I found this activity on the Childcareland website. (Scroll down and look under Pom Pom counting book for the actual activity.)



I threw in a flannel activity that my mom brought down when she came to visit a few months ago. It's really cute because it's a house that has pictures of different rooms. You are suppose to cut out each room and put it all together in a book, but I decided not to do that yet because M&M has enjoyed playing with it like this. There are tons of pieces to go with it from people to toys to furniture.


She made up a story on the flannel board with some of the pieces. I think that the people's faces are covered because there is a dinosaur and they are scared of it. M&M had to cover her face too. My mom used to work with kids a lot doing therapy and she would call this Play Therapy. M&M is acting out her own life through the flannel people.



Another day we did workboxes again.


She started off doing size sequencing with using circles. I found this idea on the Childcareland website as well. I was so happy because this time she understood what she needed to do. Thanks to the book called, "It's not easy being big." It's a Sesame Street book about Big Bird who is too big to do some things, but Elmo is too small to do other things, but they end up helping each other at the end to accomplish a task. The book also includes pages that talk about "big, bigger and biggest" and "small, smaller and smallest." I reminded her of this book and she figured out what to do with the circles based off of what she learned from the book.



Then we made a colorful caterpillar that I found here.


A Paper clip color matching game was her next pick. She had a really hard time doing this one because it's hard for her to get the paper clips on. The strips of color are made out of foam, but I've seen it where they can just be strips of paper laminated. I think I will try that because it might be easier to get them on the paper as opposed to the thicker foam. She did make piles of each of the colors though.



Next I had her color pieces for a cow puppet and then helped her put it together. Well I can't seem to find where I got this exact one from because I printed it out right when I found it. I did find some other ones over at DTLK though.


This car puzzle came from ABC Teach.


More caterpillar fun. Found here.


Another C activity not shown was a another colorful caterpillar paper activity that came from DLTK.

Extra activities include a bulletin/cork board, thumb tacks, play hammer and stapler remover activity. Warning: Do not leave child alone while doing this. I was with M&M the entire time she did this because she is handling sharp and dangerous objects. I would poke the thumbtacks into the bulletin board slightly and then she would hammer them in the rest of the way. Afterwards she used the stapler remover to remove the thumbtacks. She liked doing this a lot. I've had this activity in my head for a VERY long time and I can't remember where I got it from.



This next activity was a kit I got from Michaels for a little butterfly suncatcher. Again I was with M&M the entire time because it has such small pieces. The package says to cut one end of a straw at an angle to scoop the little bead things. This was hard for M&M so I got a little scoop out that I already had. The package says this is for 8+, but M&M liked doing this and of course I helped her a lot and we have a pretty thing to hang in the window now.

ABC and 123 Picnic Table Talk Introduction

I found this great website that is doing a fun thing this summer called Summer Prize Picnic and I want to participate. To start off I need to do an introduction. To learn more about this click here.

About our family: There are four of us. Mom, Dad, "M&M" and "Bubba". M&M will be 3 in a couple of weeks at the same time that Bubba will be turning 6 months old. My husband has a wonderful job that allows me to stay home with my kids. I spend my days, feeding, clothing, having fun, and taking care of owies. Somedays that is all I accomplish, but most often I spend my time playing with my kids and doing Tot School with M&M while Bubba sleeps.

How long have you been reading ABC & 123?: For about two months now.

How did you come up with your blog title?: I wrote a post about this very thing. To read it click here.

What activities do you most enjoy doing with your children?: I love to do anything with my kids that makes them happy. At the moment some of these include playing outside with bubbles, sidewalk chalk, swimming, and jumping on the trampoline.

What is your favorite picnic activity and food? BBQ all the way! Hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken, steak. Potato salad, watermelon and ice cream. Our favorite activity is swimming.

What are your summer plans? M&M will be in a Mother's Day Out program one day a week. Swimming lessons another day and maybe a Kindermusik class. (More about this to come.) The rest of the time will be spent swimming at Grandma's house or in the backyard. Anything to do with water to keep cool! We have two family reunions and another trip to visit family. Hopefully we will do some weekend trips as well. Anywhere there's time will be spent doing Tot School.

Links to some of your favorite learning activity posts: I just barely started doing this blogging thing for learning activities so I don't have much but here are a few.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom week

Letter B week

Random fun