Out of the Mouths of Babes: Cute Sayings

I love this age! My daughter has so many cute sayings that I wanted to remember them forever. I have tried video recording them, however she refuses to say it again for the camera. Writing it down it not the same thing as seeing it first hand, but at least I will have it for prosperity. This post will be updated whenever she says something new. So make sure to keep coming back to see what she says new! If your little one says something super cute, feel free to comment and tell me!

While Mama Bear is driving:
"Mama, look at my hand! Its empty, I need the phone please."

While Mama is playing a video game:
With her hands on her hips, "Mama, I told you. Do not kill the wild animals, if you do it again, I will be mad at you."

(Feb 2014) When I mentioned getting Little Bear's backpack ready for her sleepover, in case mommy goes into labor at night. "Mama, are you making the baby today?"

(Feb 14, 2014) When I told Little Bear, her little sister is getting ready to come out: "Yea, she has to grab her jacket and backpack first."

Cub School: Coconut Tree

We are getting closer to starting Cub School! Today I made the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree. For those that do not know, the book  Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault, is an alphabet book. In this cute little book, the little letters race each other to the top of the coconut tree "will there be a enough room?" My daughter loves this book! So when I decided to start Cub School I knew we had to have our own coconut tree! Each week when we start a new letter, I will give a little letter to Little Bear. (not sure if going to be magnet or paper, or velcro yet, although I am leaning towards velcro) Then Little Bear can put the new letter on the tree! I am hoping to get a nice little bean bag or something to put under the tree so that we can read our books there.
So here is the corner in our Cub Room:

Very bare I know. So, lets change that! I cut tree trunk pieces out of brown construction paper. I used about 4 pieces of paper. Then I cut out 3 circles in brown construction paper and colored them in with a brown crayon. ( to make them stick out and not be the same color as the trunk.) For the leaves I cut green construction paper in half and then cut out a moon like shape. Then I taped it all together on the wall! Here it is:

If you do not want to make your own Amazon has a GREAT coconut tree for only about $15. Check out my Amazon Favorites to check it out!

Little Bear was so excited about the tree, she ran to get her Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book and sat down under the tree. Then she asked me to sit and read with her! Best idea ever!

ABC Circles Cont...

Yesterday I posted about this awesome site I found, Little Family Fun. One post I was very excited about was the one on ABC Circles, click here to see details! We did two yesterday and two today. The ones we did today are a little different from the website. I took her idea and made it my own. The first one we did was spelling. The website used balloons, which was a great idea. However, since my daughter loves dinosaurs I thought I would make them hold the balloons!

I am so happy how it came out! I can not draw, so I cut out a couple of pictures from a coloring book. I also laminated it since I glued all the pieces and I wanted it to stay together. Little Bear was so EXCITED to see this. She had so much pride telling me what the dinosaurs where: T-rex, Velociraptor, and Struthiomimus. Yes, she even said Struthiomimus!

I laid out all the ABCs and then I told her we would be spelling 3 letter words. Of course she wanted to spell "dinosaur" but told her it was to big. I picked a word to spell and then I told her which letters she needed.

She liked looking for the letters, but eventually she did get tired of spelling. We will have to work on this one slowly I think.
The next activity we tried was matching the little letters with the big letters. We did this with a bus. On the website, she uses a car, however my daughter's favorite song is "Wheels on the Bus" so I thought it would be more appropriate if we used a bus.

We started the activity by singing "Wheels on the Bus" then I set up the letters in two piles; one with the little letters and one with the big letters. She picked a letter and then I asked her to find the match.

She had a lot of fun with this activity. Sometimes I picked the letter and sometimes she did. She liked singing the song while we were doing this too. These are great activities for learning your ABCs! She liked these so much, I can not wait to make more!

ABC Circle

I was browsing on pinterest when I came across the Little Family Fun blog. I recommend checking out her site, she has some GREAT activities and crafts for kids! One I really loved was the 5 ABC circle games, click here for all the details. Genius! No templates, just construction paper and markers. So of course I got out my paper and scissors and went to work! I did change a few things. I used scrapbooking paper instead of construction paper. I liked the way it looked better, however it does distract from the letter sometimes. On some of the other activities I added more, but I will post more about that later. (the glue is still drying and my daughter can not do all 5 right away). After cutting out all the circles and writing all my ABCs many times. We started with the caterpillar.

I set out all the little ABCs and asked Little Bear to put them in order. We started with the little letters, which she has more problems with. It was so cute when she was signing the song to figure out what comes next!

As you can see the caterpillar is very long!

The next activity was the ice cream ABCs. I set out the little cones with the big letters and the ice cream as little letters. I asked her to match up the big letters and the little letters.

She had so much fun running around the table, pushing the circle while looking for the right spot!

She had a lot of fun with this activity. Although, I never understood why she had to sit upside from the letters. I am worried this might teach her the wrong way. However, she was getting the letters right, so I guess it works for her.

Patterns and Beads

Little Bear told me she was bored. So I thought we should do something new, beaded bracelets! I got out the beads and the pipe cleaners and away we went. Little Bear was so excited!

I showed Little Bear how to put the beads on the pipe cleaners. I then made my own bracelet (the green and white one) and told her to make her own pattern.

As you can see, Little Bear did not make a pattern. However, she was super sweet in giving me her bracelet to wear. Then she really got to work. She started making bracelets and would not stop. Eventually she started making her own patterns.

As you can see, she likes the more complicated patterns. She had so much fun she wanted to make bracelets over and over again!