Step 2 Motorcycle Review and Giveaway

The time has at last arrived! There was a knock on our door this morning with a big box.... we received our new Step 2 Motorcycle from CSN Toys today and I can't wait to give one away to one of you lucky readers out there!

What I love about the motorcycle:

1. This is a perfect gift for boy or girl and they come in 2 colors- a brilliant red or a soft pink. We decided on the red one since we hope to use it with all of our future kiddos! And my daughter doesn't seem to care about the color, either!
2. It gives my daughter an outlet for her countless supply of energy. Anything that requires physical activity is a HUGE hit with my girl. And I know that it is important for her to stay active. Doctors have said that toddlers who get used to an inactive life style are at risk for obesity later in life. So this is a great toy to keep her going!
   
3. This motorcycle can be an inside or outside toy. We are going to keep it in since I don't want the tires dirty yet... I am sure by springtime we will be riding around the block!
4. Although the box says ages 3+, my almost 2 year old daughter is riding around on it with ease. In fact, it is just the right size for her. She has pretty good balance and a no fear attitude that suites this toy well! :)
   
5. It is simple enough to encourage a lot of pretend play. So many toys nowadays are pretty intense and require no imagination. The Step 2 Motorcycle allows my daughter to use her imagination as she "drives" to various pretend places! Pretend play may not seem that important to some people, but it's actually very healthy for a young child. It is a step in a toddler's growth and development that allows them to practice life skills in a fun, safe environment.
   
6. The motorcycle is small and lightweight- toss it in your car and take to the park, grandma's house, even a local school's walking track!
   
7. The best thing of all? The smile on my daughter's face. You just can't beat that.

WANT TO WIN IT? HERE'S HOW!!!
I am really excited to give one of you a Step 2 Motorcycle!
Leave a comment and tell me your tot's favorite toy. Make sure to include an email address so I can get a hold of you!

You might be wondering, can I have extra entries??? Why of course!!!

• If you follow The Home Teacher using Google Friend, give yourself one extra entry!
  
• If you subscribe to The Home Teacher using feedburner, google reader, or any other RSS reader, give yourself one extra entry!
• If you tweet about the giveaway, give yourself one extra entry!
• If you post about the giveaway (please include the link), give yourself one extra entry!
• and for every time you add something new to The Home Teacher WIKI, give yourself an extra entry! If you add 10 new ideas, you can get 10 extra entries!!! There is no limit!!
  

Good Luck!!! Contest ends 12:00 noon (mountain time) on October 5, 2009. Winner will be announced later that day.

Happy Teaching!

How To Get Ready for Halloween Night using Little People

I am back! Trusty old laptop is back from the cord accident and just waiting on my imac's new hard drive to be finished and we will be 100% back to blogging!
Like many of you, I grew up playing with Little People. I spent hours and hours playing with them and now I am enjoying sharing this experience with my daughter! Of course a teacher can't just play without sneaking in a lesson or two! Using Little People (or other dolls, stuffed animals, etc) you can teach your little one a lot about life skills! We have discussed sharing (when there is only one car, then the two people have to take turns), sleeping in a big girl bed vs sleeping with mommy and daddy (we are struggling w/Boo waking up @ night and wanting to come sleep w/us so I pulled out the Little People and we did some role playing!) Other ideas we haven't done YET are the steps in going to the potty, what to do after you are finished eating at the table, taking care of pets, ... the list could go on forever!

Here is a video clip of our most recent life skills lesson.... practicing trick or treating! (it's an important part of one's life, right?) Enjoy!



Happy "TOY" Teaching!

It's Official

So, it is official. My beloved Mac computer's hard drive is DEAD. Although this is terribly sad for my blogging life, it has been good for me in other ways. For example, I am reading a book! An interesting book about a man who thought he failed at climbing a mountain and instead made schools for those in need. I am also currently typing this post on my hubby's computer- and he has a completely blank keyboard so it is a test for me to figure out where the letters go! And I am not that great, it has taken me way too long just to type this short post!
Don't fear- the Mac is getting fixed and all will be back to normal. For right now- I have a crying baby who needs her momma so I am going to sign out for now~ Good Night!

UPCOMING GIVEAWAY for your Active Toddler

Who doesn't have kids that are always on the go? I have been given the opportunity to review a Step 2 Ride on Motorcyle and ONE of you lucky readers will have the chance to win one as well! This is a perfect gift for boy or girl and they come in 2 colors- a brilliant red or a soft pink.

This future review/giveaway is being sponsored by Toys and Games online. Check out their website for hundreds of toy options (if you are like me you will spend HOURS going through their wonderful assortment of educational and toddler toys!) And if toys aren't your thing (or when your tot is tuckered out from running around all day), they also have a selection of sturdy bunk beds for little kids that maximize space (and who isn't looking for more room these days?)

Tot School Begins- Dinosaurs and more

Boo is my brainy 22 months old tot who I can't seem to kiss and hug enough

I have wanted to post my Tot school learning for some time- have been super busy, but took the time tonight to quickly jot down what my Boo has been working on this past week!

• we started back up with our itty bitty curriculum! Boo LOVED reading books about babies, and one of the extension activities was to bathe a baby doll in your water table. Since we don't have one, we just grabbed the baby bath from storage and used that instead! My daughter can't get enough of water- this activity was perfect for her!
• I hung an alphabet strip in my daughter's play/learning room. She will know go up to the letters and say "big A, little A". I wanted to teach her capital and lowercase- but those words are a little too tricky.
• I had a small potted plant that was part of my Church lesson that has been designated as one of Boo's responsibilities. She is in charge of watering the plant- no, all the water doesn't make it in the flower pot and she still insists that the watering can is really a teapot.
• Boo spent some time working on her shape sorter- we reviewed colors and shapes with this silly Elmo toy!
• Played with my Yacker Tracker (a classroom management stoplight that will turn red when the noise is loud) I wanted my Boo to use it as a traffic light for her cars (she very recently learned what the colors on a traffic light mean and we review them ALL the time now in the car) but instead she runs up and says hi to all the colors. She is a very sociable little thing!
• We stared at lots of bugs outside- my daughter got caught trying to lick ants- SICK! and yet, very creative in an odd way...
• Boo tried her hand at tee ball. Great Grandma and Grandpa have this adorable little tee ball set and I am SO wanting to get one for my daughter! She does have a little sporty streak in her!
• Pretty much every lunch consisted of the following: peanut butter, blueberries, tomatoes, milk, and cheese. A colorful, nutritious meal! (lacking grains- my daughter is a cracker baby and so she is not deprived of grains at all!)
  
• Boo is all about large motor activities, and when I noticed she was struggling a bit with the concept of rolling a ball (she would throw it instead) we took out our CHEAP (i mean price and quality) bowling ball set and practiced setting the ball down and then pushing it towards a few pins. She seemed to catch on quickly and in fact grabbed another, bigger, ball to use instead since it knocked the pins down easier!
• the big learning chunk this week was spent learning about dinosaurs. YES my baby girl likes dinosaurs! The fascination began after seeing the big green dinosaurs at local gas stations, blow up dinos at car lots, and then recently seeing Toy Story with Daddy (which by the way I totally want to get my daughter a potato head doll for her birthday- those things were the best growing up!) I took her to a local dinosaur museum which had lots of fossils, life size replicas of dinosaur skeletons, robotic dinos (made my Boo hesitate all of 5 seconds before running up to them and saying in her high pitched, squeaky voice "hi dinosaurs!") and then there are several large dinos outside along a walking path. At the museum there is an area where kids can uncover dino bones in the dirt using paintbrushes. We had some of those sponge dino capsules that expand in water that we picked up from Target for a buck- those were a big hit! We would stare at the water and Boo says "changing" as the capsule turns into a dino! I also have a dino tub from second grade teaching days with plastic dinos- Boo was in heaven! She would have the dinos lay down and go to sleep, giving them big slobbery kisses and saying sweet "dreams". When the dinos woke up, and before they could eat she said "puh-way"- folded her arms, bowed her head and said this sweet prayer: "dadada dinosaurs. Amen." She then spotted a fishy (she can't say "f" yet) and then revised her prayer to this: "dadada dinosaurs shishy. Amen" I love that she brings the girly, sweet side to the dinosaurs!

That is ONE busy week behind us!
Happy Teaching!

Some Fun September Holidays

I recently downloaded this great calendar pdf from Tara at Raising Itty Bitty Bookworms. Tara, if you are reading this, you are incredible! I thought I would import the pdf into the Gimp and add some fun, crazy holidays that we are going to be celebrating this month! ( I just barely completed this, thats why the first week of September looks awfully boring!Happy Teaching!

Organizational Websites, Ideas and what i WILL implement

I am, as always, so impressed with the many incredible ideas I learn from you all! This post is dedicated to 6 pretty cool organizational ideas!

1. child and mommy schedule board- when you have a lot going on in your home, or you want your kids to help participate in creating their schedule, then this is the perfect tool for you. Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary made one for her 3 year old with pictures so she could see what was happening throughout the day... love it! She also posted about creating a Mommy schedule (scroll down- its at the bottom of her post) I think that is a fabulous idea and sometimes we do forget to take care of ourselves when our minds are so focused on our little ones! In that same post she shared the idea of creating a calendar with pictures so our kiddos could visualize when things are coming up- for example, I know every Wednesday I would have a picture of a garbage truck since my daughter loves to watch it!
   
2. chore packs- Our Homeschool Fun shared that this chore system worked well for her! I still don't quite understand how it works (i guess i'll have to buy the book to find out) but what i LOVE is that she uses the clear name tag holders as part of the system... so cute! And a way to use all the lanyards I have hanging in the closet!
   
3. Our Homeschool Fun posted about using snack baskets for her kids- an idea she learned from Totally Tots- this is a lifesaver for parents with snacky kids! Simply place all the snacks for a week in a basket- with plenty of variety. Your child is then in control of what snack they eat (and the mommy controls when the snacks are eaten) Some ideas of good snack foods from Susana include:fruit leather, kettle corn, trail mix, raisins, craisins, rice cakes, granola bars, nutrigrain bars, yogurt covered fruit chips and pretzels, goldfish, snap pea crisps, granola bites, peanut butter crackers, dehydrated assorted fruits. She also shows pics of how she organized her incredible play/learning room. This space is a home teacher's dream!
4. lists, lists, lists! I was the teacher who made so many lists that I had to write lists of when I would accomplish my lists! I have found a few really good ideas for those listy people out there! First is the daily docket. I came across this on Carisa's blog 1+1+1=1. A daily docket is like a formatted spreadsheet for your LIFE! There are spaces for you to fill out everything from your daily menu to your daily chores. Simplemom.net has some great daily docket ideas as well. I printed one off for our weekly chores and that seems to be working really well- it helps me see on paper all the chores that need to be accomplished. Everday Celebrating shares an online organizational resource called backpackit . This is for sharing and organizing info with groups of people and there is a monthly fee. She also shares a site that will make customizable lists in pdf form for you to print and enjoy! These lists look really clean and simple and can accommodate YOUR personal needs!
   
5. dresser labels- what a great way to help your little one's help themselves to getting dressed! (as well as helping poor daddy know where to put the clean clothes away) You can buy some here or I am sure they are not hard to make... anyone have any they want to share?
6. one more random cool organizational tool- Everyday Celebrating (yes I love this site!) shared a way to store ribbon with a hanger. I love this idea so much that I am going to make sure I do this before the holidays! Not only is it simple and easy, but you have access to all your ribbon (versus looking through my rubbermaid drawer...)

So what will I be implementing? A little bit of everything. We are currently still working on our schedule and revising the daily docket to meet our family's needs. I need a better way to organize my RSS feeds- google reader is just too basic for my demands! I am esperimenting with Evernote- I need more time to get the hang of it though. I like the idea of having a calendar with weekly events that my tot would understand, snack baskets, and the ribbon hanger! So many plans, so little time... I think I am off to make a list.....
Happy Organizing!

Backup your data NOW!!

I was never one to fear losing important information off of my computer- after all, I have a mac! They are indestructible! Or so I thought.....
Thursday night after a computer freeze I was horrified to find that I couldn't boot up my Mac at all.... hubby said it could be a potential hard drive problem, and I thought of all the info I could lose- ALL my digital pics from 2007-present, all my digital videos, countless teacher files, mp3s..... I never fully realized how much I depend on my computer to store everything! Fortunately my sweetie pie hubs sat down to fix it- installed a Linux CD, we had a short power outage and miraculously the computer rebooted just like normal! PHEW!!!
After that scary moment we have spent the last 2 days backing everything up on a terabyte hard drive- so if something happens again, I can know that all these pics of my darling baby girl are safe and sound.
GO BACK UP YOUR INFO!! You never know when this could happen to you.....

Too late for a new years resolution? no way! TWO addictions that I want to stop now!

Not your usual blog post material, but I figure if I am open about these 2 habits I need to change I will be more conscious of being better! One is stealing away my time and the other is stealing away my health. These are 2 habits that I want to start changing NOW!

1. picking my split ends- this is my stress outlet- whenever I feel any anxiety I reach for my hair as a security and then pick away. It is SO gross I know! I really can't believe I am typing this, but it is very freeing to let this out in the open. Do any of you struggle with this? I am to the point that I just want to chop off my hair to remove the distraction completely. Time is precious and wasting that on picking hair is ridiculous!
2. late night snacking- I shouldn't even use the word snacking. It's becoming more of a fourth meal. As soon as little Boo goes down to sleep, I get this renewed energy to hurry and accomplish everything I need or want to do and that somehow includes eating!
   

So now you know my two crazy addictions. I am pledging to myself right now to put my tummy to bed at 8 and find a new outlet when I get stressed!