Tot School (and a giveaway to check out!)

First up, I wanted to share a great link where you can download some free books to help with beginning reading.  Looking at them, they are more than just for reading - you can use them with the beginner talkers to help them identify objects and learn new words.  Right now both of my boys love to imitate things - Nate does more sounds and Josh does more words but either way they both are learning from all of the things we say!  So, check out this link and download the free books :-)  Check out All about spelling for these free downloads.

This is just one of the two stories you can download.

Second, I wanted to share a few things from our week.  I don't have pictures of us playing anything only because I keep forgetting to get the camera out in the middle of our stuff.  I do have pictures of our stuff though :-)

This was my first time making a Tot Book.  I had to studied the picture 1+1+1=1 for quite awhile trying to figure out exactly how she made that lap book.  The pictures made it look bigger than it really was but after reading the instructions, staring at the picture for what seemed like forever, and just using my brain, I figured it out :-)  I thought I would share some pictures of what I did and also what I learned for next time.  The first Lap Book that I made was based on Nemo.

 This first step was the hardest for me - I finally figured out that you had to cut a regular letter size file folder in half.  (See how that 1/2 looks almost like a whole file folder - or is it just me???)

 Than, I overlapped them and used packing tape to hook them together.  By doing this, the outside flaps will fold over each other.

 You can get all of the printouts shown here from the 1+1+1=1.  I printed out each of the pages on card stock and laminated them.  Above are the Numbers with Nemo pages.  I stapled them together on the edges and than used packing tape to adhere the back page to the file folder.

 This is my finished book - I just printed that picture from Google Images. 

 Now, I put my two file folders backwards so it opens to the right first . .. oops!  The Names I did slightly different than pictured on the above mentioned site.  She had stapled them together but my weak stapler could not handle that much thickness so instead I used my trusty key rings and hooked the pages together that way.  I actually used Velcro on the last page to adhere it to the file folder that way we can actually pull it out of the book if we want to. 

 The left side has Nemo's Colors and Nemo's ABC's.  I love the accordion style folder. 

The finished "Numbers with Nemo" section.

The biggest thing I learned was that I should print the pages on standard typing paper, not card stock.  The lamination makes them strong enough to handle but not so thick for the items that need to be folded.  Also, double sided tape is a MUST for these books.  It holds things together well without folding tape over.  I did wonder if Rubber cement might hold the books to the file folder better  . . .so I might pick some up and experiment with it just to see how it works.

I love these little lap books because there are so many things for little eyes to look at!  Josh was very interested in this as I was putting it together and he recognized the characters from his favorite movie :-)

This is another activity that Josh has enjoyed - he loves to say the letters.  These come from the St Patrick's Day packet from Musings of Me.  I love that the cards are the size of 1/2 sheet of a paper.  I think I'm going to pick up some small Velcro circles so that Josh can match the shamrocks to the cards and stick them on.  He likes Velcro :-)



I also put this file folder game together that you can find at Christian Preschool Printables.  The true purpose of this game, matching odd and even numbers, is something that my kids are quite ready yet but, I like that he can do number recognition.  These games are awesome because they are so easy to put together.  Just print the pages from the site. I than laminated them and adhered them to the file folder with double-sided tape.

I used a snack size baggy adhered with Velcro to hold the gold coins.  I think I may print a second set of coins so that he can match numbers to numbers for now but we'll see :-) 

So, that's what we are working on so far.  As I knew would happen we haven't gotten through a lot this week due to being gone one day and the flu hitting my little guy on Wednesday but he has enjoyed some time with these activities.  I will try to do better with getting some "action" photos next week!!

Also, one of my favorite blogs, Musings of Me is hosting a CSN store giveaway for a gift certificate!  I've checked out the stores and there is a ton of things that you could get :-)  So check out her site and add your comments for a chance to win (Notice I put this at the end of my post . . .I hate making my odds go down LOL)   Really, check out her site - it is awesome!!

One last misc piece of info - did you know that the ABC song and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star have the same melody?  Go ahead, sing them, you know you want to? LOL Seriously - I did not know that until today; to make it worse - Mr. Music aka as my husband didn't believe me when I told him so we each had to sing one of the songs at the same time. . .. hahahaha