Old McDonald Had a Farm

First, I made the Eensey Weensey Spider to use when the kids and I sang songs (You can check it out here)

So, since Josh loves to sing E-I-E-I . .. . . .. he tends to forget the OOOO!  I HAD to make this adorable song visual to go along with it.

Here's my finished product :-)  I got the animals at Hobby Lobby and just hot glued them to Popsicle sticks.  The barn is scrapbook paper and ribbon - I used modge podge to adhere the paper to form board and than hot glued the ribbon on top of that.  I should have cut the form board first instead of gluing everything on and THAN cutting it out - it isn't as neat as I would have liked it to be but I'm trying to let go of my perfectionism or I'll never finish anything. :-)  I store the animals in a ziplock bag.  We sang the song the first night I made it and Josh loved it.  I would like to find a pig and a sheep but didn't see any the day I was at the store!

This, of course, is not my original idea.  I found the idea over at (can you guess?) Oopsey Daisy.  Here is a picture of her finished product.

This would make a great teacher tool and is super easy to make!  It would also be fun for kids to make and take home to practice their animal sounds/recognition.

Tot Time Activites

We had more fun this week with some of our new activities!

This week, Josh has really enjoyed these little Lap Books that I found over at 1+1+1=1.  He played with both the Nemo book I created last week as well as the Thomas book that I put together on Monday.  He saw me putting it together and kept saying "Choo, Choo! Choo Choo!"

In the picture above he is playing with the shape cards.

He also really enjoyed looking at the pictures of all of the trains from Thomas.  These books entertained him for well over an hour and led to other play.  While playing with the shape cards, he got up, went to his room and brought back his bin of puzzles and played with those.  Than he came back to the book and looked at the pictures - from there he went and got the bin with his train set in it and started playing with the Thomas trains.  All great learning tools!!

Another great learning tool that we use is the book Little Visits with God.  Each night, after bath time, Darryl reads one story to Josh (Nate is usually already in bed).  Josh loves the story - his favorite part is when Darryl says "Lets Pray".  He folds his hands and talks right along with his dad and than says "and amen"! LOL  Sometimes Josh will pull this book off the table during the day and bring it to me to read more stories.  One day I saw him looking through it - he would turn a page, say some words and then I'd hear "and amen", he'd turn the page and do the same thing over again.  If that isn't teaching by example, I don't know what is!! 

I also wanted to share another great Packet of information for you!  Oopsey-Daisy has put together one of her wonderful Mommy School Packs again :-)  There are tons of great ideas in this pack so check it out and make sure to leave her a comment if you use it!!

Another site that has some cute St Patricks Day activities is 2 Teaching Mommies.  I few I had already planned but I might throw in the M & M rainbow, doing the chocolate coin hunt and, of course, doing an Irish Jig!!

Enjoy another week of fun with your kids :-)