Linky and Praying Mantis Play Date

Because we were on vacation last week, I didn't do any Brain Building Boxes for Xander.  For those of you wanting to link up, I still added the linky to the end.  Since a post isn't really a post without some pictures, I decided to add some of our play date with a praying mantis grandpa caught for us.  We will be back to our normal Tot School and BBB posts next week!

Letting our friend go.

While this picture only shows him getting close, Xander did "pet" the praying mantis repeatedly...

Brain Building Linky

Since I am always looking for new ideas for our boxes, I decided to start a Linky.  Have you posted about any sort of brain buidling work boxes, tot trays, busy bags, etc?  Feel free to link up!  All I ask is that you add the Brain Building Lynky button (in the sidebar) or a link back somewhere on your post.  Thanks!

A Week of Adventure

Last week I went on my first vacation since Xander was born, so we took a week off from Tot School.

Before we left, I decided to take him ice skating.  I realize he is super young for it, but I used to ice skate when I was younger, so knew I could hold him up if need be.  He was a little nervous at first, but I eventually got him on the ice.  Every once in a while he would stand and I would hold his arms and push him around.  He wanted nothing to do with the little carts they had.  For the most part, though, he wanted me to carry him while I skated around the rink.  He also thought it was really funny when I would spin (not holding him, he hung out with Uncle Brice while I spun).  He had a great time and cried when we left.  Mommy got a good work out!

For our "real" vacation, we headed to Wisconsin Dells.  I was a little nervous because he had never been in the car that long.  He did pretty well with some toys and a portable DVD player we borrowed.  He only slept for like 20 min!

We went to an amusement/water park, and he exceeded my every expectation for him!  He is a pretty serious rider, though.  He always made these serious faces on the rides, slides, or even just looking around at people.  He had a great time though, and always signed "more" at the end of each ride.

Train Ride

Waving from the giant swing

Go Karts!

Tea Cups (See what I mean about the serious face?)

Hanging out on a Rock

Water Park

I only really got pictures of the indoor water park.  Our locker was much too far to be able to get my camera in and out at the outdoor water park.  He had a blast though.  He jumped some waves in the wave pool, rode on the lazy river, played in the pirate ship, and went down some water slides.  Now when I say water slides, I don't just mean the little kiddie slides (which he did go on), I mean the BIG three and four story slides.  He wore a life vest and sat on my lap while I sat in the tubes.  I don't know where this kid got his guts, but he is a little daredevil!  He loved the slides and woke up from naps saying "slide slide slide."  Also, once I took him on the four story slide, he no longer wanted to go on the three story slide.  The only problem was that the water was COLD.  Even though the temperature was about 90, the water was cold enough that he would start shivering, so we didn't get to slide as much as we would have liked.  We would do a couple of slides and then warm up in the sun or the hot tub (more like a warm tub).  

An example of the size of slides he liked.

More Go Karts!

All in all it was a great trip.  He did really well and we had a good time.  He had so much fun, I may have to look into taking him to some of the indoor water parks that are closer to home!  Although it will be a lot easier when he no longer has tubes in his ears!  Anyway, I am excited to get back to a more normal schedule next week!

Best Books

Best Books

Best Books is my series of posts that highlights books we find during our book challenge!
These are our finds from week 28.

(Note:  We try to read a minimum of 28 books a week.  The books we list here are our favorites that we found in each week, not necessarily our favorites overall.  Some weeks we find some fantastic books, other weeks we read a lot of fluff.)

Xander's Favorite:

That's Not My Lion by Fiona Watt

We rarely pick up board books from the library, but I grabbed this one on a whim.  Xander absolutely loved it.  We had to read it 5 times in a row, and then he took it to his Granpa.  Basically it is a super short story about why different lions are not the right ones.  It has different textures to feel also.  We are big fans of this series.

Mommy's Favorites:

Bread and Honey by Frank Asch

This book has a bit more history as to why it is my favorite.  When I was really young there was this story that my grandmother read me from a Highlights magazine.  I had loved it so much that she put it in plastic and had to read it to me constantly when I went to visit (only Grandchild and first girl in a family of all boys, I was spoiled rotten adored).  After she died, I never saw the story again (must have gotten lost when my Grandpa moved).  Anyway, I looked for it for the story for YEARS.  I didn't know the title, author, or even if it was a real book rather than just a short story in a magazine.  All I knew was that it was about a bear named Ben who was painting a picture for his mother.  A couple of years ago while I was getting books for my step daughter at the library, I ran across a story with a bear that looked just like Ben. I started looking into the author and eventually found Bread and Honey.  Apparently there is a whole series of books by Franch Asch with a bear called Moon Bear, who is usually pretty dumb.  This book, however, features Ben, and the story I fell in love with when I was little.  I am so happy to have found it to read to my little guy, and will someday share the memory of his amazing great grandmother.
 
  Book Store:

I added an Amazon Store to the blog.  In it I included a shop for our favorite books and will be adding the books from the Best Books posts to it.  I hope having them in one place will make it easier when looking for book suggestions.

Tot School and BBB - 4th of July

Tot School and BBB

 Xander is 20 Months

With the holiday and having friends in town, we decided to take a break from our normal shape themes last week.  Instead we did some Independence Day themed activities.  Also, since it was such an odd week, I decided to combine the Tot School and Brain Building Boxes posts into one this week.  I will just make the linky early and keep it up longer, so anyone who wanted to link up is more than welcome!

Ok, so not that impressive of a set up this week.  I didn't make it to the library on time, so I only had our own books.  We had the 4th of July booklet I made, The American Flag, and The Statue of Liberty.

Xander loved the 4th of July 3 part cards.  Some of the monuments were a little hard for him, but I expected it.  I also used most of the same words in a Little Reader lesson, which also ended up being a big hit.  He can read some of the words, but not as many as in the past couple of themes.

Flag Craft

To stick with our patriotic theme, I set up this foam flag craft for Xander.  I used a large sheet of red foam and cut strips of white sticker foam.  The blue rectangle was also peel and stick.  The stars were sparkly foam stickers.  The kid loves stars, so the star stickers ended up being his favorite part.

Glow in the Dark Star Container
When I took the glow in the dark stars down from him space theme, I decided to keep them out for the 4th of July also.  The stars and an empty cheese container ended up being lots of fun.  We are working on opening and closing the container.  He is particularly fond of shaking the stars out once he has them all in.

Nesting Stars
This was another recent activity since we did it a few weeks ago during our star week boxes, but Xander didn't seem to mind.  This box had our star cookie cutters that we used for nesting and sorting by size.  He was excited to see them again.

North American Animal Matching
Xander sure loves his Toobs!  This box had animals from his North American Wildlife Toob.  Since none of our animal flash cards had the right animals, I made some North American Animal 3 Part Cards.  I really only needed the animal picture and name, but figured I might use 3 part cards in the future so went ahead and made them.

Flag Magnet Sheet
This box had some pom pom magnets and a flag sheet from Making Learning Fun.  I think I used the bingo marker page instead of the actual magnet page because it had fewer dots on it.  While Xander can line the magnets up in the dots when he feels like it, he mostly just wanted to throw the magnets on the page and watch them stick.

Red and Blue Counters
I pulled out our red and blue counting bears and Minimotors counters and made some quick cards to go with them.  We had fun talking about the different shapes, and he even did some sorting.  He could read some of the words on his own, others he needed help.

Puzzle of the Week

Unfortunately, I didn't have a good 4th of July themed puzzle for this week.  Instead I just pulled out a puzzle that hasn't seen much action in a while.

He was "tweeting" for the bird, which is why he has a funny expression.

Fireworks Activity

We did an eye dropper "fireworks" activity, which ended up being lots of fun.  You can read the post here.

At the Fireworks

Xander got to go to the fireworks for the first and second time this year.  He loved them and still walks around asking for more and saying "booom booooooom boom!"

Brain Building Linky

Since I am always looking for new ideas for our boxes, I decided to start a Linky.  Have you posted about any sort of brain buidling work boxes, tot trays, busy bags, etc?  Feel free to link up!  All I ask is that you add the Brain Building Lynky button (in the sidebar) or a link back somewhere on your post.  Thanks!