Liam's ABC book

Liam is 19.5 months old

With summer in full swing, and Liam just beginning Tot School, I have decided to start spending 2 weeks per letter as we go through to alphabet. I think this gives him (and me) a little bit more flexibility with our learning and a little more time for us to fit everything in that I want to do. Week one will focus more on the identification and phonics of the letter, and week two will be more games and projects including the letter. That is my plan at least :-) I will post our full post on each letter at the end of the 2 weeks so I can share all of the highlights.

So, this week I just wanted to share a little project I made for Liam to help with our alphabet learning. His own personalized ABC book! This was such a fun and easy project, and Liam LOVES it! First, I just went through all of my pictures and choose one for each letter of the alphabet. I was amazed that I had one for every letter except for x and z already on my computer! I just saved them all in a folder on my desktop and renamed each picture by the coordinating letter to make it easier for me to see which ones I had, and which ones I still needed. After I had chosen all the pictures I uploaded them to Picnik to add my Letters to them. If you haven't tried this program, it is AWESOME, and FREE!! Then, I just sent them on to Wal-mart's 1-hour photo and picked them up later that day! I put them in a little photo album, and Wha-La, Liam's very own personal ABC picture Book! LOVE IT!!

Here are a few of my favorites from the book

I have made a "family" book like this for him as well that has pictures of everyone in our family including all of his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and pets :-). Another one of his favorites!

Review Week- "A" and "B"

Liam is 19 Months Old

This week we reviewed the letters "A" and "B". I did not introduce any new letters or material this week, but took time to go over some of the fun letter "A" and "B" activities we have done over the past couple of weeks. We did have the opportunity to have a "Tot School" day with a couple of other mom's who are Tot Schooling, too! It was a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to our regular get togethers with the kiddos :-)

Our theme for our Tot Day was the letter "B" and "Bugs". Jenn did a GREAT job lining up activities for us to do.

All the kiddos. A mess, but having a ball :-)

Making hand print spiders to go along with the "bug" theme

Loved this project! Contact paper collages with torn paper. We then cut the final master piece into a letter "B" to go along with our theme of the day.

Our lunch went along the bug and "B" theme as well, hotdog butterflies. I got the idea from this blog, which has tons of super fun food ideas.

For dessert Jenn made "dirt pies" with hidden gummy worms and bugs for the kids to find. You can tell Liam didn't like this one bit :-)

This was a new Tot Tray activity we did this week. I found these little containers at Joann's for .99 cents. I love that they have clear tops! I have colored pom poms down in them and I had Liam open the containers and take out the pom poms and put them in the ice cube tray. He is all about taking lids on and off of things ALL THE TIME, so this was a hit!

Next week we are moving on the letter "C"!

Be sure to check out all the other Tot Schoolers here!

Tot School- The letter "B"

Liam is 19 months old

Week two of Tot School :-) This week we focused on the letter "B" and reviewed the letter "A". We did a lot of running around this week, so structured time didn't go as well as last week.

**Tot Trays**

Here are a couple of the highlights of our Tot Trays this week.

Coloring "Brown Bear"

Lacing Blocks with pipe cleaners

Liam isn't quite old enough to use the string yet, but he is pretty successful with the stiffness of the pipe cleaners.

**Letter "B" Activities**

Finger Painting the letter "B" and gluing Blue and "B" things to it.

We painted a coffee filter with water colors and made a Butterfly :-)

He was excited to show Aunt "E" his butterfly :-)

**Memory Verse and Sign Language Review**

Our memory verse for the week was taken from this book.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Matthew 5:9

I try to read the verse to Liam at least 3x a day just so he can become familiar with God's word.

"B" signs we used this week

1. Ball

2. Bear

3. Bread

4. Book

5. Boy

6. Bird

7. Bath

8. Blanket

9. Bed

10. Bubbles (Check out this fun song to go along with the "bubbles" sign)

Liam already knew almost all of these signs, but I just made sure to emphasize the "B" and say the "B" sound each time we used them this week.

Additional B Activities we did this week (minus the pictures)

1. Starfall letter "B" Activities

2. Played with Bubbles

3. Played with Blocks

4. Played with Balls

5. Alphabet Flash Cards

**Things Liam Learned This Week**

1. Sign for Bubbles

2. Letter "B"

3. Recognize the sign for the letter "B"

4. The sound the letter "B" makes

**Things Mommy Learned This Week**

1. Liam's memory verse :-)

2. Finger paints will end up everywhere regardless of precautions taken

3. New bubble solution recipes

4. Liam LOVES Flash Cards (weird, I know)

Next week we are going to continue reviewing A and B and doing some more fun activities I didn't get to this week. We also have two Tot School Play dates planned for next week :-) Fun stuff!

Check out more Tots here

Tot School- The letter "A"

This was our first official week of Tot School , we started with Tot Trays and the Letter "A". We had a lot of fun projects and we both learned a lot this week :-)

**Tot Trays**

Here are some of the highlights from our Tot Tray fun

Play dough and shape cookie cutters

Pipe cleaners and spice shaker
Daddy and Lucy even got in on the fun :-)

This one started out well...

I put rice in two bowls and hid some letters and numbers for Liam to find. He liked digging for the "treasures" but I guess I didn't take into account Liam's current obsession with throwing things...

Yes, this one ended very poorly...

Rice will not be making an appearance on our Tot Trays for a while :-)
I just love his face here, "What, Mom? Did I do something wrong?"

**Letter "A" Activities**

Paper tearing and gluing

My friend introduced us to Starfall, we really enjoyed their Alphabet activities! I would highly recommend it! One thing I especially like is they incorporate signing in with the alphabet. I have been signing with Liam since he was about 9 months old, and love that he is able to use this to communicate with us.

Doing an Alphabet activity on the Starfall website. Finger painting the letter "A" with Aunt Emily :-)

**Memory Verse and Sign Language**

Our memory verse for the week was taken from this book.

~ A soft word turns away wrath. ~

Proverbs 15:1

Liam isn't old enough to really memorize anything yet, but just intorducing him to God's word is important at any age. I made a page with the verse at the top and made it more of an activity, playing on the word "soft" and adding soft things to the page throughout the week.

Things Liam Learned This Week

1. Letter A- He can recognize the letter and say "A" if we point to it and ask what it is :-)

2. How to sign the letter "A"

3. Recognize the sign for the letter "A"

4. Learned to sign Airplane and Apple

Things Mommy Learned This Week

1. Liam's memory verse :-)

2. I am blessed beyond belief to be here to teach my son

3. Rice is not a good Tot Tray activity for Liam

4. I need a better storage area for my Tot school activities

Next week is Letter B!

Check out what other Tots are up to here :-)