From My Nightstand

For a while I really avoided reading. It just wasn't very fun. Now that I have adjusted to seeing the world a little bit differently that I used to, I have gotten back into reading again. Here's what's been on my nightstand lately:

7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker
This one is a must read! We were already on our way to simplifying, but this book really made us think. Yes, even Bryan read this one. It is that good!

Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption by Katie Davis
This true story was so inspiring and convicting.

The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden
I felt like reading a classic. It was a cute story. Not my favorite book by any means, but I am glad I read it.

The Rhythm of Family: Discovering a Sense of Wonder through the Seasons by Amanda Blake Soule
I was looking forward to reading this one so much and ended up not being very impressed. It was alright, but I'm glad I checked it out from the library and didn't actually buy it.

The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove by Cathy Erway
This was a fascinating read. It motivated me to try to cook even more.

The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin
I read this book because it was recommended by a fellow blogger. I would like to think I am generally a happy person, but this book has really helped me to be intentionally happy.

Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus by Kyle Idleman
I'm reading this one right now. So far it's been really good.

Some of my favorite kid finds have been these lately:

Groundhog Weather School by Joan Holub

and

The Big Red Tractor and the Little Village by Francis Chan


Have you been reading any good books lately?

Tillery Tot School- Letter A

Last week we learned all about the letter "A"! We focused on apples, ants, alligators, and airplanes. We had a lot of fun and did lots of activities!
Here's a look at our Tot Board:

We decorated an "A" with apple stickers.

We cut an apple in half and made some apple prints.

With the other half we made a peanut butter and apple sandwich for our snack.

We used a small paper plate and made a half eaten apple.

I made a felt apple tree and we went apple picking one afternoon.

We turned a lower case "A" into an apple.

We used a bingo marker to make some more apple prints.
We also added green leaves to them to make them look more like apples.

We practiced pouring ants. This was a big hit!

I get most of my Tot School ideas from Pinterest. It's not very often that I come up with my own ideas anymore, but I did create this alligator on my own. We used a plastic tuna fish/crackers container, some green construction paper, green pom poms, googly eyes, and white paper for the teeth to make our alligator.

I think he turned out pretty cute!

We used tweezers to place apples on our apple tree.
We counted them and then we glued them in place.

We read about an airport and talked about airplanes.
We made paper airplanes and practiced throwing them around the house.
We also practiced building a snowman this week using
our felt snowman set that I made for our Winter Celebration...
and we played with a magnet and pipe cleaners.
It was a fun, filled week!
Next week we are moving on to the letter "B"!

Silas: 6 Months Old

Today our sweet Silas is 6 months old! He brings so much joy to our lives. He is our happy, smiley boy. He still absolutely adores books. His favorite toys are his red ball and his giraffe. He has decided that eating cereal isn't so bad after all. He can roll over in both directions and he will immediately roll off of his belly. He HATES being on his belly. He is so close to being able to sit up all by himself. He can stay upright for a few seconds at a time and then tumbles over. He loves being in the exersaucer and he still loves his bouncy chair although he has almost outgrown it. Silas will sleep most nights for about 8 hours before waking up to eat. He likes to be put in his crib and he falls asleep within a couple of minutes usually. If we try to hold him when he is sleepy he will cry and cry. Other than when he is hungry or super sleepy, he stays mostly content. His happy spirit is contagious. We are so thankful that he is part of our family.

Tillery Tot School- Letter Y

This week we learned about the letter "Y"! We focused on a few words in particular this week like yarn and yak since there aren't a lot of words that start with "Y". We also did lots of activities that involved the color yellow.
Here's a look at our Tot Board:

We started the week off by using our yellow paint pen to fill in our uppercase and lowercase 'Y." We really focused on staying inside the letter and Seth did amazingly well since he usually just likes to scribble all over it.

We made a yellow collage with some stickers and art supplies.

We played with yellow Playdough and even got to use our "Y" cookie cutter.

We looked online at some pictures of yaks. We watched this video and then we made two different yaks using printouts and a toilet paper tube.

While we were playing with shaving cream we practiced making the letter "Y."

We made a yarn covered "Y."

We also went on a yellow hunt using these items.

I hid them around the living room and Seth had to find them... and put them in his yellow bag. We did this several times and he kept begging for more.

Throughout the week we also practiced lacing with these Melissa and Doug lacing cards we received from Granna and Papa.

We practiced 1:1 correspondence by using our large dice and placing the candy on the dots. After he counted the candy he got to eat it.

Here's a video of Seth in action.

We also did some letter hammering by using an egg carton and a small hammer. I just wrote the letters we have learned so far on the bottom and Seth got to pound the letters when I called them out.

When we were done hammering Seth asked for the dropper. I didn't know what in the world he was talking about at first until he told me he wanted to put "water inside." So we got out the eye dropper and a small bowlful of water and we practiced some fine motor skills by transferring water back and forth.

Now that we've made it through all the letters in Seth's first and last name we are going to make our way through the rest of the alphabet. So this week we will start at the beginning and focus on the letter "A." It should be lots of fun!

Playing with Shaving Cream

Tonight we played with shaving cream for the first time.

It went a little something like this...

The end.

Tot School- Winter Fun

Our Tot School has been very relaxed around here lately. We have returned to Toddler Time at the library and we have enjoyed a few play dates with friends, but we haven't been focusing on a letter of the week for almost a couple months now. When we do take some time for crafts it has mostly been Winter themed. Here's a look at some of our fun...

We played with some winter themed foam stickers.

We played with snowflake stamps (a set of 6 from Mighty Dollar).

I put the items from our Winter Celebration sensory bin into a smaller container
and Seth has been having fun playing with it almost everyday.
I found fake ice cubes at Hobby Lobby and they have been the biggest hit.
I am always amazed at what things become the most played with items.

We took an empty Pringles can

and turned it into a snowman.

We filled a plastic storage bag with shaving cream...

squished it all around...

and made it into snowman by gluing eyes and a nose onto it.

We also used an empty toilet paper tube to make a snowman. We dipped the end of it in paint and it made three perfect circles for a body. We added a hat, eyes, nose, and mouth. Then we used a Q-tip to paint snow.

Next week we will resume our letter of the week Tot School. We will be learning about the letter "Y" (the last letter of our last name in case you were wondering where all these random letters are coming from). Then we will make our way through the rest of the alphabet.