Tillery Tot School- Letter D

Last week we studied the letter "D."

We had lots of fun learning! Here's a look at our Tot School board:

We decorated our letter d's with dots.

We made a dinosaur out of a small paper plate.

We made a Dalmatian "D."

We played with another magnet set (borrowed from my mom).
This one was dinosaur themed.

We decorated a paper plate doughnut.

We made our own doctor's kit.

Inside we put a band-aid, a Popsicle stick for a tongue depressor,
a cotton ball, and a couple of q-tips.

We made a duck using a capital "D."

We made a daisy using a lower case "d."

We made another dinosaur using the letter "D."

We stamped dinosaurs and dolphins.

Then on Friday we celebrated Dr. Seuss' Birthday by going to a Dr. Seuss party. We had lots of fun with our friends. We listened to Hop on Pop, ate popcorn for our snack,...

and even got to hop on Pop!
The kids loved hopping on a big Pop that was drawn on a sheet.

During one of our crafts we made Thing 2 using hand prints.

And it wouldn't be a party without a hat. We made hats using a paper plate and red strips of paper. Seth was a kind brother and let Silas wear it for a little while once we got home.

It was a fun week!
This week we are learning about the letter "F"
(since we have already learned "E").

DIY Finger Puppet Theater

When I see simple, crafty things on Pinterest, I have a strong urge to make those things. So recently when I pinned a finger puppet theater that was for sale on Etsy, I knew I could easily make my own. After gathering a frame, some red fabric, two tassels, and some gold fringed trim, I had my own DIY finger puppet theater within minutes. All it took was a bit of cutting and a little hot gluing.

I love a simple project and it has proven to be very fun!

Making Baby Food

I am not sure what it is about this season of mommy-hood that I love so much,

but making baby food is so fulfilling for me.

Maybe it's because of the beautiful locally grown produce...

or the simplicity of steamed vegetables.

Maybe it's because of the experimentation of new techniques and tastes.

Whatever the reason, I love making baby food.

Tillery Tot School- Letter C

This week we learned about the letter "C"!

We did lots of fun stuff!
Here's a look at our Tot Board:

Like always we decorated our big "C" and our little "c" as they were called all week.
We just used lots of colors this week to decorate them.

We made a clown using a small paper plate and some pom poms.

We made a letter "C" crab.

Using a glass cup, we filled it with water and then put shaving cream on top. We talked about clouds and how they were made by God and that they were in the sky. Then we talked about rain coming from the clouds. That is when I added the blue food coloring on top of the shaving cream. After a few seconds we were able to watch it "rain" from the "clouds." It really was neat!

We also glued some clouds made out of cotton balls on a blue piece of paper.

We played with some foam cookies I made a couple of months ago.

We made some real chocolate chip cookies.

Seth was so anxious to dig into them!

We played with construction stickers...

and a little magnet construction set borrowed from my mom.

We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar lots of times this week.

Then we made a caterpillar out of an egg carton.
We painted it green and made the head red just like in the book.

We also made a caterpillar using our bingo markers.

We made a cow using paper plates and construction paper.

We decorated a piece of paper with foam cars.

We practiced counting with our Usborne Counting Flap book...

and with this matching number game I made. It's just a box with 12 slits cut in it. The slits are big enough for a large craft stick to fit in it. I found these wooden craft sticks at Mighty Dollar a while back that had a circle at the top of them. I wasn't sure what to do with them, but they worked perfectly for this game. I just added some foam number stickers to each circle.

I would take out all the sticks and Seth had to match the number on the stick to the number written below each slit on the box. We still need a little more practice to get them all correct, but he did very well with most numbers.

So we had a lot of fun this week!
Next week we are moving on to the letter "D"!

Favorite Unposted Photos

Every day this year I have taken at least one photo. I post the frame of the day in the sidebar each night before I go to bed. So far I haven't missed a day. In case you didn't know that and you would like to see all of the photos that I have chosen as the frame of the day, you can click here. Some days I have a really hard time choosing just one photo to post. So here are a few other favorites...

Yesterday I saw this little construction cone in our vase of pine cones.

You never know what you might find in a house with a toddler.

Cooking with Cast Iron

A few years ago, I remember donating a cast iron skillet to Goodwill. It had rusted and I naively thought that it was ruined, so I got rid of it. Boy, have I come a long way in my thinking since then!

A few months ago, I received a medium-sized cast iron skillet that had been my grandparent's. I have learned a lot about caring for it and keeping it well seasoned. I love cooking with it so much that I have been on the lookout for a larger skillet at all the local thrift/consignment shops.

A few days ago, I found this 12 inch beauty sitting on shelf at a local consignment shop.
With a price tag of $12.50, I knew it was just perfect!

When I got home, I got to work scrubbing it with a mixture of salt and water to remove the rust. Then I oiled it and baked it at 350 degrees for an hour. Then next day I baked it again. It came out looking glossy black. To try out my skillet, I made a batch of Nutella pancakes. I poured the batter in and they flipped perfectly.
I made the rest of my pancakes with a huge smile on my face.

*To make Nutella pancakes, just add one tablespoon of Nutella to any plain pancake batter recipe. I like to serve mine with some whipped cream and just a sprinkle of shaved chocolate.

Tillery Tot School- Letter B

For the past two weeks we have been learning about the letter "B." I only intended to spend one week on "b" but we were all sick last week, so we decided to spend a little more time on "b." We focused on butterflies, bats, birds, bugs, and bumblebees. Here's a look at our Tot Board:

We decorated the uppercase "B" with bug stickers.
We decorated our lowercase "b" with baseball and bat stickers.

We practiced sweeping black beans inside a box I taped on the kitchen floor. We tried this a while back and it was a disaster, but this time around Seth was able to sweep gently and get all the beans inside the taped box.

A little while later during snack time,
Seth decided he wanted to play with some blocks inside that same taped box.

We painted a yellow and black bumblebee.

We made a butterfly using a lowercase "b."

We also made a butterfly out of an empty toilet paper roll.

One night before bedtime, we played Elefun. The elephant blows butterflies out of his trunk and you try to catch as many as you can in your net.
We had butterflies flying everywhere! It was super fun!
(I found this game at Goodwill for $2.00.)

We read Five Little Bats Flying in the Night.

Then we made a Five Little Bats craft.

Next week we will move on to the letter "C"!