The Toy Box Years: Tot School

The Creators of the Toy Box Years

The creators of the Toy Box Years are my two beautiful daughters and wonderful, handsome soldier husband.

"Nani" (our oldest) is a 11 year old 6th grader who loves Taylor Swift, ballet, books, fashion designing and sewing. Ask her what she wants to be when she grows up and it changes daily to anything from "an artist" to "a teacher" to "a singer/dancer". Nani is also currently fighting a battle against brain cancer -- recently diagnosed in June 2016.

"Nudgie" (our youngest) is a very smiley, very happy, very giggly, very spirited 8 year old 3rd Grader who's favorite toys are anything that gives mommy an anxiety attack - ladders, stepstools, the climbing wall at the playground. Like her sister, she has a love of reading and coloring, loves gymnastics and still provides mommy lots of snuggle time!

"My Marine" is my high school sweetheart. We've been married over 20 years and met when we were 17. (You do the math....) His favorite toys are Blackhawk helicopters, the lawnmower, our steam cleaner, and microbrew beer bottles. My husband is also my hero in that he proudly serves his country as a Blackhawk crew chief (hence his favorite toy!). And need I say that there is nothing hotter than my man in uniform!

All About Me......

Once upon a time I had a career and worked in the corporate world. Once upon a time, I dreamed about leaving that all behind to follow my true calling -- being a wife and mommy.

The first part of my calling was fulfilled in 1995 when I married my Marine (now soldier) and my love. Little did I know that being a military wife would change me in so many ways and that because of that, I would have an extended family all over the world from Japan, to California, to North Carolina.

The second part of my calling took a little doing, but I finally achieved that dream in 2004 with the birth of our first child, followed 4 years later by her baby sister.

So now, when someone asks me what I do for a living - I simply smile and say proudly that I'm following my calling - I'm a mommy and a wife -- and I couldn't be HAPPIER -- I'm living in the Toy Box Years!!

(Nudgie is 27 months old) (To see what others are doing at Tot School, click on the "Tot School" above!)

We had a really great week here for Tot School! We continued working on the letter "C", colors, circles, and Thanksgiving.

I started the week off by rotating some of Nudgie's trays. I made a new sensory tub for her for November/Thanksgiving. I have to say that even My Marine and I have enjoyed a few minutes here and there digging through it! There's something very "zen" about it!

I also took some of the leftover Thanksgiving decorations I had and put them on a tray for her to play with. The turkey actually gobbles when you squeeze it, and later in the week we added a squirrel that chirps.

We started off the week reading "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" and putting the "C" on our tree.

Then we read "The Clumsy Crab" and did an art project related to the story. I cut out a "C" shape out of red foam and then cut out the claws, arms, and eyes. I let Nudgie glue hers on any way she wanted -- even if it wasn't the "right" way.

You can see that Nudgie was channeling her "inner Picasso" when creating her crab!

We did dot painting....

We did circle painting

We learned our colors using this game I made for Nudgie out of recycled toilet paper rolls and clothespins.

And we had lots of fun with the sensory tub!

We did a color mixing experiment after reading "Mouse Paint". This is one activity that we waited for Nani to come home from school to do. They both enjoyed mixing the colors with the paint droppers -- so much that we did this activity a couple more times that afternoon!

We finished up the week with caterpillars - making a caterpillar out of the letter "C", played a color match game with a caterpillar, and had a "caterpillar" snack!

Mommy's Favorite Moments:

Cheesing it up for the camera!

First snowfall

A quiet moment reading with sissy

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Hope everyone has a great week!

9 comments:

Elle Belles Bows November 14, 2010 at 9:44 AM: The cheesing it picture is way too adorable! Great week! Kerri
Förskoleburken November 14, 2010 at 11:41 AM: I especially love the colour matching made of tp rolls! (Visiting via No time for flashcards.) Thanks!
Unknown November 14, 2010 at 4:10 PM: I love your color matching activity. What a great way to reuse the rolls!
Kate November 14, 2010 at 4:26 PM: Great week. I LOVE that toilet paper color matching game. I just set the photo as my desktop background to remind me to DO that! What a great and easy idea!

Did you draw the tree for the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom activity or download it off the web?

Thanks for sharing your week!
Peterson Party November 14, 2010 at 7:33 PM: Great, great ideas! I especially like the toilet paper roll/color matching game. I am teaching my two year old colors and I bet she would love that activity.
Danifred November 14, 2010 at 7:34 PM: What a fun week, love the color matching.

(And, I can't believe you've gotten your first snow, I'm so jealous :)
Tracey M. November 14, 2010 at 11:37 PM: Looks like another wonderful week in your home! The toilet paper roll craft is just great. So far my son uses them as a trumpet but this is MUCH more creative ;) Sensory tubs are such a fun thing to do with my son and I love your Thanksgiving tub. Great ideas! Oh, and I shared a link to your blog in my Tot School post for the flower arranging idea!
maryanne @ mama smiles November 15, 2010 at 7:13 AM: Snow already?!

I love your toilet paper roll color matching game. And that shape crab cracked me up - it looks almost like a red bunny rabbit!
Deb Chitwood November 15, 2010 at 9:02 PM: Great activities! Your sensory tub looks so aoppealing that I wanted to dig through it! I also love the color mixing and matching activities. I was always a fan of using droppers to mix colors.
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