After a crazy fun visit from my mother-in-law, I'm refocusing on tot school and getting back on track. As it's a Friday today, I thought it would be fitting to have a review on all the colors Emma learned about during our first two weeks of lessons.
I dressed her up in the only outfit that I could find with rainbows - that has My Little Pony's Rainbow Dash on it - and started our lesson with the rainbow song, the reading of our color books, and had not just one, but two featured books of the day. The Rainbow Fish - which is just a beloved classic - and a super cute book called The End of the Rainbow by Liza Donnelly.
I found our adorable craft idea here. Emma is obsessed with the glue stick and she always throws a big stink when I don't let her touch it. So today I let her help me glue the stripes of construction paper to the cloud I cut out AFTER she identified the right color. She was very pleased with this arrangement and, for the first time, we both had an enjoyable time with the craft. It turned out awesome! (Though, as you can see, she's more excited about holding the glue stick than anything else, ha!)
Afterwards, I grabbed some skittles and m&ms from the ginormous pile of candy we acquired at Mickey's Halloween Party to play a matching game. I got paint sample cards from Home Depot the other day for this (a perfect FREE activity) and had her match the candy to the cards. She did really well, I was so proud! She also liked the fact that she could snack on the m&ms afterwards (not a fan of skittles, apparently). This was probably the funnest tot school lesson yet!
After much consideration, next week's tot school lessons are going to be focused on the Fall season. I've already gotten my library books reserved and have a special field trip planned for the end of it. I just have to decide on which crafts and activities I want to include - there are so many options! It should be a fun time!
This past Friday, we decided to drive down to Disneyland to attend Mickey's Halloween Party. For those of you who've never heard of this before, it's a special event that Disneyland (and just Disneyland - not California Adventure) throws at the end of September and through October to celebrate Halloween! Everything is decorated for the holiday throughout, there are seasonal treats, and a couple of the rides (Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain) are transformed to go along with the theme. Take a look at them below!
It requires separate admission into the one park (it ranges from $79-$99 this year, depending on the day, plus $18 parking if you want to drive there), and you can enter it at 3 or 4 p.m., depending on the day, and stay there until 11 p.m. or midnight. You can even wear costumes (though there are a few rules about that), so Emma dressed up as Minnie Mouse and Phil wore a Batman shirt with a cape (adults can't wear masks, so he had to leave that at home). This is a great time to go as there are only a certain amount of tickets for the event, so it's a lot less crowded than it usually is (they kick out the public as soon as the party starts, which is 6 or 7 p.m., so you only have to deal with bigger crowds for the first three hours)! There are five days still available to purchase, so I highly encourage you to go if you can!
This was Emma's first time to Disneyland, so we thought it would be the perfect test run for her with the shorter hours (and for us with the cheaper admission - added bonus, she was free as she's under 3). The 7-hour drive went smoothly for the most part (we ran into a bit of car trouble, but duct tape fixed it right up - ha!), though the drive through LA is never fun. Emma was sooo good on the drive, so that was a blessing.
We stayed at the Anaheim Lodge. It is super affordable (only $62/night), clean, quiet, and a 15-minute drive to Disneyland. It doesn't serve breakfast, but it does provide a microwave and a mini fridge in the room - plus, free WiFi! We had packed food to save money, but when we arrived, Phil realized we never put the food in the car, which stunk. That was a spendy mistake on our part! But, we remembered our snacks at least. Anyway, I totally recommend this place if you're visiting the area. That being said, parking at Disneyland is a nightmare! I think the next time we go, we'll try to go somewhere that's in walking distance. We left for the park at 3 p.m. as we could enter at 4. I had prepaid for parking, thinking that it would quicken the process - it doesn't. Plus, my confirmation email wouldn't pull up, so we had to repay for parking (I got a refund later). So, if you're planning on visiting, don't bother with prepaying for parking.
In total, it took us an hour to get into the park because there were so
many other people coming in at the same time (this includes driving
there, waiting to get into the parking garage, waiting for the tram, and
then waiting in the bag check line). In all the blogs I've read (I did a LOT of research for this trip), they recommend getting to the gate a half hour before you can enter, so to aim for that, you need to get there MUCH sooner! Because I hadn't considered how much of a hassle it would be to get in, we were an hour and a half behind my perfectly written itinerary by the time we actually got through the gates. (And, even when we got through, the machine that prints the tickets ran out of paper, so we had to wait even longer while they found someone to refill it! Gah!) At this point, I was very grouchy and did not consider this to be the happiest place on Earth! But, we made it in at last.
Since we were so behind on my itinerary, we definitely had to improvise. We originally wanted to take a picture in front of the giant Mickey pumpkin, but there was a huge line, and I was sick of lines at this point! So, we headed to Fantasyland to hit up the classic rides there first.
We weren't sure how Emma would react to the rides, but she loved ALL of them. At first, she didn't grasp the concept of waiting in lines, so she kept trying to cut to the front. Eventually, she got it and was patient. All but two of the rides we went on had a wait time of 10 minutes or less (Haunted Mansion and Peter Pan's Flight was a half hour - even that's not too shabby). After we went on a few rides, we went to the pre-party celebration in Toontown - party guests only! There were trick or treat stations throughout all the character houses, so we got to walk through them and enjoy candy at the same time (they do hand out healthy options too - you just have to ask).
Emma barely hit 35", so Phil and I decided to take her on Gadget's Go Coaster. An older mom in front of us gasped when she saw Emma and asked us if we were really going to take her on it. Her daughter laughed and said, "Mom, if she can do it, then you can definitely handle this ride!" Emma LOVED the coaster! She tried to turn around and get back on it. But, we had so much we wanted to do, we didn't repeat any rides. After Toontown, we went on a few more rides in Fantasyland. At this point, our camera died because we forgot to charge it - oops, so we weren't able to take any more pictures.
We hit Pirates of the Caribbean and a couple more trick or treat stations on our way to dinner. We decided to eat at Hungry Bear Restaurant in Critter Country. While there weren't many options, the food servings were plentiful, quite tasty, and not too expensive. I got the turkey wrap, yum. And, the crew there was so fun to chat with! I'd definitely come back again! After dinner, we went to Haunted Mansion and watched the firework show while in line (not the best view, but adequate - Emma definitely enjoyed watching them). We were pretty tuckered out at this point, so we staked out a spot for the parade afterwards and just sat there until it started. This was the first year that the Headless Horseman made an appearance in the parade, but I thought he was kind of lame, personally. All the other villains and dancers in the parade were awesome though. I was excited to see Hades make an appearance.
Finally, we went shopping as we were on Main Street and close to the entrance. Emma got a Mickey Mouse plushie, Phil picked up a keychain, I got my monopoly game, and Phil's mom got a big Mickey container full of popcorn. And, even though we only hit up half of the trick or treat stations (if that), we walked out with TONS of yummy candy. We'll be good for a month! We were there until midnight, surprisingly. Emma did so, so well. The only time she really broke down was at the end because she was exhausted. I was too - my back was killing me!
We definitely want to go again next year. I think we'll tweak a few things. We didn't have time at all to get a picture with any of the characters or try out any of the seasonal goodies the park offers. We also didn't hit some of the adult rides we were interested in, such as Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones. We'll probably extend our stay next time around so we don't feel so rushed. And, even though we hit quite a few problems at the beginning, it was a wonderful trip overall!
Today is the first day of fall! I am so excited for the cooler weather, comfy clothes, and seasonal goodies. So, of course, we had to save orange for today!
We dressed in orange, sang our rainbow song, and read our colors books. Today's featured book was Ten Orange Pumpkins: A Counting Book by Stephen Savage. It was so stinking adorable! It's a Halloween book, but 'tis the season, am I right? It put us in the right spirit anyway because tomorrow we're going to Mickey's Halloween Party at Disneyland!!! (I'll write up a special post about that this weekend.) We are so excited and hope that Emma enjoys it as it would be an awesome family tradition. Anyway, back to tot school!
After we read the featured book, I printed out this cute pumpkin matching game. It comes with 12 pumpkins, but to go along with the book, I only used 10. Emma has never really played a matching game before, so she didn't really understand the premise until we were down to six pumpkins. Maybe 10 was just too much? I think I'll save these and try again when Halloween is closer to see if she'll pick it up quicker then. It was a fun experience nevertheless.
Afterward, I wanted to try this cute carrot craft. We did something similar when we went over the color red, but Emma was not feeling it, so I thought we'd try again. She was a little better about it this time, but was more interested in the glue, which I wouldn't let her have. So, she threw a big tantrum, and that basically ended the lesson for the day.
We're driving down to Disneyland tomorrow, so I'll probably do a rainbow review in the car with her to help pass the time. We've also been watching Disney movies this week to pump everyone up for the trip. We've watched Beauty & the Beast and The Little Mermaid so far and plan to watch Sleeping Beauty tonight. Emma loves Minnie Mouse, so we're excited to see her reaction to everything!
My mother-in-law is in town for a visit, so I'm a bit behind posting about tot school. Ah, sorry! The other day we had our tot school lesson on the color purple. I was excited for this one just because purple is my favorite color!
After dressing up in purple, we sang the rainbow song, read our colors books, and the book of the day was Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes. I thought it would fun to do something completely different this time around, so for the first time ever I painted Emma's nails! In purple, of course. As Emma's never experienced this, I wasn't sure how she would react, so I painted my thumbnail first to give her an idea of what it entails. She was interested and held her nails out to me. I painted her thumbnail, and she asked for me to do more! I'd already painted half of her nails when she decided there was too much glitter on her nails and freaked out, flailing her hands about, trying to shake it off. It was a funny sight, haha! I couldn't get a good picture of me in the process of painting her nails, but here's the nail polish we used.
Emma really enjoys using the dot markers, so I decided to try to go a little more advanced and printed this cute grapes picture for it, hoping that Emma would learn to press the dot marker inside the circles. She didn't quite grasp the concept, so I helped her out. It was a fun, simple lesson!
We're on our second week of tot school, and we're still discussing different colors. (Milestone note: Even though we took a break over the weekend, Emma learned how to say yellow! So, even if you don't think your child is picking up on anything during a tot school lesson, don't worry - they're listening more closely than you think!) Today was all about green.
We got dressed in green clothes, of course. (I noticed the closest thing in Emma's wardrobe is mint green, which is odd because green is one of my favorite colors to wear. I'll have to fix that!) As we're past the primary colors, I taught her a new song today. The Rainbow Song reviews all the colors, which ties in nicely for this week. We then read all of our colors books on Emma's green blanket.
Today's Book of the Day was Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox. I've never heard of it before picking it up at the library, but it is super cute! Emma really enjoyed it too! I definitely recommend reading it to your children. After we were done reading, I printed out a sheep and had Emma color it with her green dot marker. She did so much better with it this time around.
After a while, she asked for the blue dot marker, so her sheep ended up being green AND blue. When she was satisfied with her colorful sheep, we played hide-and-seek with it! While she was in another room, I would set it down in a very obvious spot and then ask her, "Where's the green sheep?"
She didn't get too into it, unfortunately, and after a few attempts she wanted to just play with the dot markers again. So that's what we did until daddy got home - though she proudly showed him her picture as soon as he stepped through the door, so at least I know that she enjoyed herself!
For our last tot school lesson of the week, we talked about the color blue. Emma didn't seem to be too into it today. I'm thinking maybe my activities were a little too much for her? I'm trying to do something different every lesson so it keeps her interest, but today wasn't one of those days! Anyway, here's what we did.
We started, of course, by dressing up in blue, singing Our Primary Colors, and reading all of our books about colors in our personal collection. Our special book of the day was The Artist Who Painted A Blue Horse by Eric Carle (see, I told you we liked his work). This book would be really good to use for learning colors in general, so I'm thinking we'll continue to read it next week as we finish up colors.
The first activity we did was go through Emma's toys and put all of her blue ones in a box. She didn't seem to understand this concept as she kept trying to put other colors in the box, but she enjoyed doing it!
We then went into the kitchen where I had stacked our blue cups into a pyramid and tried to get her to knock them over with her blue globe ball. This really concerned her, however. She much preferred just stacking the cups. So, I improvised and put a couple of her little blue circles under the cups, mixed them around, and had her find where they were. She actually enjoyed that pretty well.
Afterwards, I tried to have her separate her blue blocks from the rest of her blocks, but she was just not getting it. I ended up doing it myself and had her stack them as that's what she's into today, apparently!
We ended with her coloring on her little while board with a blue marker. She's been wanting to do this again since Monday, so we ended the lesson on a happy note. Again, the lesson took around 30 minutes. Overall, I think our first week of tot school went well. Having them on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays work great. My friend, Nicole, wants to start going to the park on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so this works perfectly with the tot school schedule. Yesterday, we walked through the local community garden together with our kids (a great way to review colors and talk about different types of food). Emma seemed to really enjoy herself! I think this routine will be good for her.
Today was our second day of tot school. It went so much better. Today's color was yellow. I didn't take as many pictures today because we were just having too much fun! But, I'll give you the lowdown on what took place.
First, I got Emma all dressed up in yellow, of course. We sang Our Primary Colors and read all of the books on colors from our personal collection. (Milestone: Emma learned how to say spider today while we were reading Very First Colors. Seriously, I don't know why she's obsessed with the black color page, but I'm excited she learned a new word from it!)
Our featured book of the day was 10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle. (I love reading his books to Emma!) She was enthralled with it! She loves ducks and knows how to say "quack", so she was really into it. I love how at the end there's even a button on a rubber duck that you can press to make it squeak! That was definitely Emma's favorite part.
After we finished reading it, I brought out the yellow dot marker and a duck printable (which you can find for free - along with a variety of other options - at www.getcoloringpages.com) for Emma to experiment with. This was the very first time either of us have ever used a dot marker and, though she didn't exactly grasp the concept, she enjoyed herself immensely. It's a learning process!
When she was done coloring (about half of the duck was yellow at this point), I gave her a bubble bath where she played with rubber ducks we own, as well as other yellow bath toys on hand.
While she was playing, I sang "Five Little Ducks" to her and kept repeating how yellow her toys were (with the exception of the red rubber duck - that acted as a review from our previous lesson). In total, the lesson took around 35 minutes!
Emma has been going through a lot of transitions and milestones since she turned two in August. We've moved on from binkies (which was way easier than we thought it would be) and have upgraded to a toddler bed (which she likes to hang out in, but not necessarily sleep on). She started to get bored of our usual daily routine, so I thought I would implement tot school as a change of pace.
I did a lot of research and I decided to follow Simply Learning's tot school themes. I like how it's flexible enough that you can really pick it up whenever or jump around lessons. And, I love how she has a ton of suggestions to go along with each lesson! At first, I was overwhelmed at the idea of buying so many arts and crafts supplies that she suggests, but I decided that I didn't need to follow every single activity (yay flexibility). So, I did my own thing! Michael's had an AWESOME Labor Day sale, so I picked up these items for just $20 (which is super exciting as the dot markers are typically $16 by themselves).
The first week of lessons is on colors. We start the day off by dressing in the color that we're going to be discussing. We're using these books from our own collection to be read every day we have a lesson. I also grabbed a bunch of books from the library to highlight a specific color during each lesson.
As today's lesson was on red, I introduced Emma to The Little Red Hen. See, tot school does not have to cost you a pretty penny! If you're in the market for books on colors, though, I highly suggest these from Usborne Books & More. (If you want to order one - let me know! I can help you out!)
I started the lesson off by singing Our Primary Colors. This is going to be our Song of the Week. We then read through all of our books on colors. Emma was most interested in Very First Colors, especially the black and white pages. She kept asking was certain objects and animals were. We then read through The Little Red Hen, followed by our first craft. It was very simple and to the point. I had a paper bag, cut up red construction paper, and a glue stick. I slathered glue all over the bag and encouraged Emma to put the construction paper on it - "feathers" for the chicken. Unfortunately, she was more interested in the glue stick, but after I hid it from view and a small tantrum, I got her focused on the task at hand. Here's the result.
Her favorite part of the lesson was probably coloring on her little white board with a red marker. I just kept repeating the word "red" and asking her what color she was using. It took a bit, but finally she got the hint and kept saying, "Red, red, red."
To go along with the tot school theme, we're going to have our Family Home Evening lesson on Joseph's Coat of Many Colors. All in all, the first lesson (which only took about 30 minutes) didn't quite keep Emma's attention as well as I hoped it would, so instead of having a lesson every weekday, I think I'm going to split the theme up into two weeks (I want to make sure to cover all the colors in the rainbow) and only do 2-3 lessons each week.
Questions? Comments? Let me know below! Thanks for reading!
