Tot School

Andy went back today after a gloriously long break from work.  It's been so nice having him here during my break from school to let us spend time together as a family and to help out with the kids. It's nice to have a 1:1 kid to parent ratio so that each kid is getting equal time.

Lately, if Emma isn't kept occupied, major meltdowns occur (gotta love those Terrible Twos!).  It's been below freezing all morning, so I knew that getting outdoors was not going to happen.  I came across this awesome website on Pinterest that was full of great activities for preschoolers called "Tot School." Today seemed like a great day to try some of them out.

The first activity she tried was my favorite, but I was making breakfast and didn't get any pictures.  I took a blank sheet of paper and drew pink, green, and orange stars on it.  Then I gave her some leftover garage sale stickers we had from the summer.  She matched the stickers on the appropriately colored star.  She loved this and it was so easy! Here is her finished product:

Excuse the breakfast stains; she didn't want to give it up while she ate. :)

Emma loves to help me cook, and I try to let her help with as much as I can, but we're usually fighting the mad dash from work to dinner and there isn't always time to let her help.  Her favorite thing to help with is pouring.  

I gave her two cups, some macaroni, and let her practice pouring the macaroni from one cup to the other.  She LOVED this and it kept her occupied for over 30 minutes.

When she was done pouring, I gave her some numbered cups and had her count out her macaroni into each cup.  We mixed up the cups, but she wasn't fooled!

At one point she tried to take a shortcut and poured the macaroni into the number 8 cup. :)

We continued with the pasta theme and strung penne and wagon wheels onto ribbon. This thrilled her beyond belief and I decided that I'll dye the pasta next time and let her make a necklace.

Check out that concentration!

So proud of herself!