Doggies! Wednesday Tot School week 2

Monkey got to spend some time with his grandparents today!  He had a blast!  Grandma brought some fun books for him to read which we plan to talk about soon here :).  After they left we enjoyed some Butternut Squash soup I made (I found some Butternut squash at the grocery store Monday and got really excited).  While it was boiling the squash in spices and water we watched Signing Time volume 1 (First Signs).  After dinner we read a bunch and looked at our Brown Bear tot book (I'll talk about it in a bit as well as where to get the stuff!).

Books we read:
Alphatales D: Detective Dog and the Disappearing Doughnuts (see my materials we use for more info about Alphatales-you can also check out all the threads with the Alphatales tags.
Puppy Love-This was my first book that I "read" as a child (I memorized it and told the whole story almost word for word).  It's a fun story about taking care of a puppy (puppy-sitting).
101 Dalmatians-based on the Disney movie.  Fun to read the story!
Clifford Barks!  We liked this one.  Monkey had to keep yelling out "doggie" throughout the whole story
Clifford's Peekaboo-Monkey's favorite Clifford book so far (but we borrowed it from the library).  He loves to cover his eyes with his hands or a playsilk or whatever and say "Baby?" or "Buddy?" and then uncover and yell out "BOO!"  He thought it was funny that Clifford puppy played peek-a-boo.
Tails Are Not for Pulling-great book for toddlers to teach them to be gentle with animals.  I'm considering purchasing it since Monkey is at the stage that he likes to stomp on tails and poke in eyes.  He thought all the different pets were fun.  The book includes tips for parents to teach their toddlers how to be gentle with pets.
Before bed we read Adventures of Biscuit which is a bargain book from Barnes and Noble (we just barely bought it last week).  It includes 5 stories: Biscuit, Biscuit Finds A Friend, Bathtime for Biscuit, Biscuit's New Trck, and Biscuit Wants to Play.  Monkey got a TOTAL kick out of these.  He loves how Biscuit says "woof woof!" over and over.  He had to start saying woof in anticipation of me reading woof!  Biscuit is an I Can Read! My First reading level. 
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

I finished the Brown Bear tot book today!  I found that rubber cement + packing tape hold things that are laminated together.  Here's where we got the materials.  We printed the color book (I colored it and we laminated it so Monkey can learn colors-it's attached with sticky back velcro in case we want to put in one for him to color.  We also put in the heads and tails matching, the ABCs (we put ours in on two seperate things rather than front to back-I will post pictures when I can).  We also included the counting one.  We didn't include the shape one because we're putting it in our shapes and colors book I'm working on.  We're making the heads and tails for the felt board also.  I also am doing the sized bears for the felt board.  Monkey thought the lapbook was fun!

For anyone interested on what's going on with ME...I got the coolest paper in the mail today (FINALLY!).  Drum roll please....my Bachelor's Degree!  When I was pregnant with Monkey I found out that if I took 21 credits my last semester and 18 the one before I could graduate and walk 2 weeks after he was born.  I ended up on bed rest a couple weeks before Spring break (maybe only a week) on (32 weeks-37 weeks) because of preterm labor.  I had two incompletes to finish after walking.  My professor for the one was great and let me finish my paper and turn it in.  My other one agreed to let me come to a summer class but wouldn't allow me to nurse my baby or have breaks to pump so I asked what we should do.  She agree to let me do a homestudy course and two weeks later came back and said never mind.  I ended up taking a class from another University that is seen as an equivalent.  After finishing that (online) I STILL had to jump through hoops but the good news is that the paper is here and it's getting framed tonight.

Oh and I started a book I want to read besides the one I'm reading to help my hubby (which by the way I really don't enjoy that book!).  Here's a link to the book: Playful Learning.  If you have a local La Leche League go buy it from your group!  Procedes go to help the group (all the mamas are volunteers-the money goes straight to the library and any rental charges or other costs the group acrues).  I got it in a swap otherwise I would have bought it from my group.  I'm starting chapter 1.  Although we've made the decision to homeschool I think it would be of benefit to read it cover to cover still.

Wednesday Tot School: BUSY day

Books read:
Alphatales Bubble Bear book
Arthur Meets the President (I love Arthur books and we checked it out from the library-nothing to do with our theme but a fun book anyways)
The Indoor Noisy Book by Margaret Wise Brown (also not related also checked out from the library but we LOVED this book-Monkey repeated every sound in it)

Watched Baby Signing Time Volume 2 (hat, shoes, socks, jacket, please, thank you, sorry, hurt, etc)

We went to library story time and enjoyed learning about chickens and the letter C. I got a handout from them and checked out some chicken books for our animal theme next week (we have a farm theme in the future). We also went to the bookstore (Barnes and Noble) today and found some really cool classic books like The Jungle Book and a big book of Harold adventures (an I Can Read book-level 1-there are 4 in there) and a book of Biscuit stories (5 of them). The two I Can Read books were under $8 which is great considering the paperback ones are $4 EACH!

Some other books

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? by Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle
Fun book to teach about animals and colors-we read this one multiple times per day (still the one we read the most right now is the Very Hungry Caterpillar and Where is Baby's Bellybutton). Monkey got this from our friends for his first birthday (with the Very Hungry Caterpillar)

Little Bear by Else Homelund Minarik
This is a level one I can read book. I remember reading this book as a child. It was just as fun to read it to my son! This is a classic and a must read!

A Picture for Harold's Room by Crockett Johnson
We love Harold. In fact Monkey reminds me of Harold! He looks a lot like him. We also like the tv show. We recorded a bunch of episodes on DVR when we had free HBO. This book is another level one reader. It's a fun book. Harold starts drawing a picture and steps in to it. He realizes he's bigger than everything and eventually is smaller than everything. He remembers he's in a picture and checks to see if his door (which he draws) is the right size. A fun book to help little imaginations grow!

Harry and the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion
We have the board book version but it's the same book. This was one of my mom's favorites so she had to read it to Monkey yesterday. If you haven't read it GO GET IT NOW! I love this book. It would be great to read to any kid but especially one who won't take a bath :)

Going to the Firehouse By Mercer Mayer (A little critter book)
This is a My First reader. This is a book to help kids learn to read by reading it with your child. The pictures are a lot of fun and the book was really cute. Little Critter and his class go to a firestation. They get to see what happens there. Cute book.