T is for TOY STORY!

This has been a wild and crazy week for Triple Smiles. All 3 kiddos are taking swim lessons, I decided to start the 3 day Easy Potty Training Method with Ava, and we need to learn the letter T this week.

So to the most important thing of the week:

Letter T for Toy Story

We didn’t really do anything new and exciting with the letter T other than the wooden blocks, play dough, and the stampers, but I did throw in a few fun Toy Story Elements to keep it interesting.

This is Zach writing his letter T on his Toy Story Dry Erase Board. ($1 spot-Target)

Practicing the T-Formation on his Letter Highway Card with a Buzz and Woody Car!

Just having some FUN!

Our Fun Toy Story Dinner

Buzz and Woody Mac and Cheese,Pizza Planet Bites, Green Alien Jell-O in the shape of a T and a Boot, Toy Story Fizzy Drink…AKA Sunkist!

Whew….that was a week…..Goodnight!

Thanks to Miss Olivia for coming over again this week to help me “survive” all the things we had going on this week!

He’s a Big Boy Now!!

Well, its been almost a year since I posted this very first post about potty training my middle child.

http://triplesmiles.blogspot.com/2009/07/potty-training-expressor-not.html

I have learned a lot in this journey. This has not been a fun journey.

About half way through this journey Levi discovered the movie Toy Story at his Nana’s house. He went nuts over Woody especially. This became my motivator…and finally he began to show progress. So,this last week we have been at a local Vacation Bible School. I made Levi a special VBS Potty Training chart and told him if he could go 5 days in a row with no accidents, we would take him to see the new Toy Story3. Each day when I picked him up from VBS, he was excited to share his success with me! Everyday…we put a sticker on his chart after VBS. I also threw in a Dr. Pepper, Toy Story “treats” and popcorn to his “Reward Package”

So today, Levi and “buddies” got to go see Toy Story 3!

I love this picture his feet are literally off the ground, he is so excited.

Mommy packed a very economical snack bag for each child…we refilled it with popcorn:)

Another thing that I love, is he didn’t mind at all about sharing his reward with his siblings.

Now….for THE GIRL!!!!!

Dear Daddy, Papa, and Grandpa….

Our mama just realized the other day that Sunday is Father’s Day. So please consider this blog your “Happy Father’s Day” from us right now. We just wanted to tell you though we had the most wonderful time this past week at Vacation Bible School. Mommy was a teacher in the 4 year old class. She had to get her class ready each day and in order for her to do that, she had to have us cowpokes up and at em by 7:00 am for 5 days in a row!! That was quite a beating for her…but we sure appreciate her effort because we had so much fun at Vacation Bible School. So we hope that you knowing that we were learnin’ about Jesus is enough Happy Father’s Day for you right now! We learned that we are wonderfully made by God. Now, mama was teachin’ her own little wranglers, but she had a friend snap just a few pictures of us!

Hey Daddy, its Zachariah…I loved my smores! YUMMO Smores!!!

Papa, this is me (Levi ) I’m sitting in the teacher’s lap. She loved me so much, I got to sit her lap!

(Mama’s side note: Isn’t the one in the teacher’s lap..usually the one in trouble?)

The following pictures mama scanned from our VBS scrapbooks!

Papa, I do promise we were at a Baptist Church, but we sure did a whole LOT of dancin’ movement.

Grandpa, I am busy stacking chairs in this picture, but I wanted you to know I did lots of work this week too. See below of all the wonderful things I made. Love, Ava

So for now, Happy Father’s Day to our Daddy, Papa and Grandpa! We love you!

Loving Em One At A Time: Get Help!

I blogged a while back about thinking of ways to help and work with each child one at a time. Well…now that summer vacation is here….its a great time to snag some help!

Last week, one of my former students sent me a note on face book that she was BORED! BORED? Well…come on over, and I’ll put you to work!

“Miss Olivia” was in my last class that I taught before becoming a stay at home mom. She is excellent with the children and I totally foresee teaching in her future!

In theory, having “Miss Olivia” to work with 2 children, while I give one on one attention to one should work! However; all the kids want to work with “Miss Olivia” instead of me:( So we are going to have to have her over more often so that she becomes part of their routine. We did however get some work done…..

PS…Triple smiles is taking a Vacation Bible School Break this week…..stay tuned for our Toy Story 3 Celebration week next week! I’m not sure who is more excited….the kids or me??

Moving On…..

to Letter F……after working with the kids about 2 hours today, Zachariah says “Mom, when are we going to have learning time?” That is the goal! Yeah! Zachariah loves fire trucks…so this weeks focus is Letter F…and fire trucks. I’m probably going to throw a few fishy things in later this week….but for now…. I start each day with THE BASICS that I blogged about a few days ago.

This weeks toy trays are……

Learning Enhancements are…..

peeling and sticking fire truck stickers

working a great fire truck puzzle

THANKS Carissa from http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/

for sharing this amazing site http://www.makinglearningfun.com/

for these awesome highway letter cards..

HUGE HIT today:)

And of course….FUN FOOD

We had a RED HOT lunch tray that Firefighters Zachariah, Levi and Ava used to Fight their hunger:)

Pasta with Red Sauce, Strawberry Milk, Red Jell-O, Strawberries and Watermelon! Yummy!

After our morning, we went over to have some fun with cousins who live nearby! They were so kind and prepared their backyard for a fun water adventure. Thanks so much guys, we had a blast!

Summer Learn and Move…Day 2

Who Hooo! Today went so much smoother than yesterday as far as keeping all 3 kids engaged. I was reminded by a friend in blog world that this time should be FUN and not FORCED! My goal is to have “Learn and Move” for 90 minutes each day! Today we did 45 minutes in “round one” and 3o minutes in “round two” So I was pleased.

So today, we did the same BASICS that I blogged about yesterday. I added a few more

Learning Enhancements-

Dot painting Letter L

This and many other wonderful activities are available from http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2010/02/letter-of-week.html

Cutting practice-

Side note: I went to a parent training recently and learned children learn best by cutting while sitting on the floor, not at a table.

Cars Tot Book…focusing on “Name” today.

(I mix all the letters of his name up with a few extra letters. I tell him what letter comes next and he finds it..poor boy has a long name to learn!)

While I am doing “The Basics” with one child…the other 2 are working on Learn and Move Tray Activities.

Today’s trays were…

Matching ABC Letter Cards to ABC Blocks.

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Donaldson for digging these blocks out of their attic and sending them to us! Thanks to Nana Liner for the ABC Cards.

Stringing Block Beads-

Lightning McQueen Art Tray-

(all red materials) thanks to our sweet friend Isela for the Lightning McQueen Extra Large Coloring Pad

CARS Mini Puzzle-

$1 store has amazing low cost items that are perfect for a learning tray.

At the end of today’s “session” both boys were able to write the Letter L…this is with no help from me except by saying “We start our letters at the top” “Big line down” “Little Line Across”

Mommy is so proud!