Besides not sleeping we haven’t been doing a lot of tot school, but we sure have been busy! Caden has been in this routine of waking up once in the middle of the night and then again at 4am. So needless to say we have been walking zombies around here lately. And cranky ones at that! But I have tried to do a few Christmas related activities every week and we have managed to read a Christmas book or two everyday.
Here is a glimpse of what we have been up to in the month of December:
The Crafts
I had a lot of fun planning our activities and we started out strong with daily Christmas crafts.
We attempted to make a wreath with foam stickers that I found at a craft store. But Caden had trouble with the first sticker getting stuck to itself. He decided this craft wasn’t worth the trouble and gave up. I finished it for us.
One day we made salt dough ornaments using cookie cutters. The next day we painted them. Caden enjoys painting so he really liked this craft.
Another afternoon we got out some white and glitter paint. Caden had fun painting, but you should have seen Daddy’s face while Caden was making a paint mess. Daddy isn’t used to fun messes.
I had fun creating our own foam tree for the bath, but Caden wasn’t to interested in playing with it. He wasn’t interested in playing with the felt tree I made either. 🙁
Tot School
Tot school was very light this month. I focused on reading and crafting daily (which was a hard-fought battle with the sleepless nights). But Caden did some tot school.
Caden played with the Christmas Sensory Bin a lot. He liked to scoop and pour the peppermint scented rice and jingle the bells.
I printed and laminated a few pages from 1+1+1=1 and started his Tot Time Notebook. Right now he just scribbles in it, but I have noticed that he tries to color the pictures. I use it to introduce letters, numbers, shapes and new vocabulary. He really enjoys this activity so I plan on added more pages.
I found these fancy appetizer toothpicks at the Christmas Tree Shop and knew they would be great for fine motor skills. At the time I wasn’t sure how I would use them, but I just knew I could come up with something. What I came up with was a fine motor activity. I used an empty shoe box, taped on a tree cut out from construction paper and poked holes in it. Caden could then use the toothpicks and insert them into the holes and decorate the tree. He really enjoyed this activity and it would keep him occupied for a good length of time.
I also found a silicone snowflake muffin tray and mini tongs at the Christmas Tree Shop. I added some large pompoms and voilà! Caden loved to use the tongs to take out the pompoms and put them back in. He was surprisingly good at this.
Caden loves to color so I printed off some of these Christmas themed coloring pages from Royal Baloo. I think he colored the four or five that I printed out in a couple of days. Once he finished he would ask to tape them up on display and say “ta-da!”
He played with this colored lights magnet board once. And he matched up the green correctly! Caden hasn’t mastered his colors yet and isn’t interested in magnets much so this activity didn’t hold his attention. (The link for this colored light printable is found in my Christmas Tot Tray post.)
I picked up some peppermint scented bubbles at a craft store and we took them outside one day. Caden asked to try to blow the bubbles and was very excited when he did it! (By the way, the bubbles smelled more like Windex than peppermint.)
Over the month of December Caden helped Grandma in the kitchen a couple of times. In the first picture he is mixing some dough for bread and in the second he is watching Grandma make some shake and bake chicken. Both tasted good!
Happy 2nd Birthday Caden!
In the middle of December we celebrated Caden’s second birthday with a party at our local Gymboree. Caden had a great time playing with friends, eating Shaun the Sheep cupcakes, and opening his presents.
(I made the cupcakes using a free printable from Hello Little House.)
New Toys
After his birthday and Christmas Caden had many new toys to play with and that is just what we have done for the rest of the month!
Caden loves his new Melissa & Doug vehicle stamps that Daddy picked out for him.
The play kitchen from Gramps and Grandma was the hit Christmas present. He loves cooking in his new kitchen and pressing the microwave buttons!
Uncle Ryan and Auntie Victoria got him some Duplo blocks. He enjoying playing with them, especially the Duplo car and the window.
We also have played a lot with the Melissa & Doug nesting/stacking blocks and the letter puzzle.
Winter is Here!
The other day we got the first good snow storm on the season and Caden and I enjoyed a walk out in the fresh snow.
We are looking forward to playing out in the snow this winter and restarting tot school in the new year!
Happy New Year!
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