1+1+1=1

Tot School

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:17:00 +0000

~Krash is currently 42 months old~

** links to all toys and books are at the bottom of the post

It was a short Tot School week for us because my mom came to visit on Thursday!!! We took the next few days off to just enjoy Nanee! Before Nanee got here, we did have some Tot School fun!

Learning Toys/Trays

Krash is finally old enough to actually play Leapfrog Bingo. We played the shape portion and he did really well!!!
A little fun with How to Build an A...
I made him a simple tray with wooden spindles (some type of sewing gadget my mom had), and colored chips...

ABCs...

K made a snake for the letter Ss...

Theme...Dinosaurs (last week)

This was our final week of dinos, we had a few things left to do! He worked with the make a dino shape puzzle from the Tot Pack...
We made eggs for our dinos...

Pac Man's on the left, K's on the right...

iTouch Learning Fun...

Yup, a new Tot School category has entered our home. Would you believe I had never even seen an iPhone OR even knew there was a such thing as an iTouch? My mom has a new iPhone that her work gave to her and we all played with it while she was here! This gadget was MADE for someone like me, I fell in love!!! Thankfully my mom decided to spoil our family near the end of her visit and combined some of her money with some of ours to make it possible for us to get this awesome treat!!!! I feel so spoiled and so do the kids, thank you Nanee! We got the iTouch since we have no need for the phone, and the iTouch does everything we were interested in. So, I will try to share Krash's favorite App of the week here, as we are having fun learning about all the neat things that are out there for kids his age!

His favorite app so far...

Blowfish

Thankfully this is a free one ;), and one I downloaded on a whim! Of the 10 or so we have so far, this is by far the one he loves the most! You'd have to see it for me to explain it, it kinda didn't make sense at first, but once I figured it out, we all loved it (including me and Daddy!). It's a great freebie!

Life School...

A little fall leaf raking...

Mommy's Favorite...

He found his beloved froggy boots, and decided to holster his bug zapper ;)

Amazon.com Widgets

Are you wondering where to start with Tot School? Read here!
Read more about Tot Trays here
Visit Totally Tots!!!
Want to see more Tot School posts? Click HERE
Visit our Tot School Webpage HERE
Visit our Tot School Tools store HERE

If you have a tot (approximately ages 1-3) at home, join in the fun and share what you're doing with your tot! Here's how to get started if you're new... If you've never read this: Go HERE 1st for more details- please do!!! Then if you have any ideas you'd like to share, link up your exact post to MckLinky (if you have questions about how to do that, let me know in a comment or email-links to homepages will automatically be deleted).

When you add your name(blog name) to MckLinky will you put your tot's age (in months) after it, like this: 1+1+1=1 (41 mos)? I think this will help new readers a lot as they look for ideas for their specific aged tot!

If you are NEW will you please leave a comment letting us all know so we can be sure to visit you?

Also, if you have not commented on my "Tot School List" post, please do ASAP so I can get the official list updated! Also ~ there was a great suggestion for us all to add our tot's bday month/year to the list. If you would like to do that, I would be glad to add it to those of you who comment there (yes again...sorry). Just put your blog name and then the age like this (6/06).

Thanksgiving Ideas

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:49:00 +0000

Looking for some great Thanksgiving or fall ideas? Here's a few for ya...

Gobble, Gobble...turkey crafts from Totally Tots
Fall Crafts from Totally Tots
Thanksgiving books we love from our theme bookstore
Our Thanksgiving Lapbook
Our Fall Lapbook
Fun Thanksgiving Crafts from Oriental Trading
Great ideas from Wisdom Begun-I plan to do more with Pac Man from these ideas!
Great ideas from Little Blots of Faith

We also have another Thanksgiving Crafty Corner post going up on Totally Tots next week!

From My Inbox

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Here's the latest batch of questions from my inbox!!! If you want to browse through past From My Inbox posts, you can find them all here!

Where did you purchase the bookshelf that display the trays?

Target...they still have them I think! It's a 9-square shelf.

Do the trays stay out the whole day? And are they at the kid's level ( for them to take at will) ? Or not?

The trays are in our schoolroom and available to Krash during "school time." Although sometimes I am more slack and if he asks me later in the day if he can go do Tot School, I grin and say yes!!! I think everyone has to find out what works best for you, your home and your kids!

How much involved during Tot School is Pac-Man? I read that sometimes he participates (more like a secondary player) and sometimes he's off somewhere else (doing his own work, something else, etc.)

He would love to be involved the entire time, and sometimes this is a battle. I remind him almost daily that he is not in Tot School, and he has 2nd grade work to do! But, I do let him participate whenever I can...when he is caught up on his own work and having a lovely attitude. Mostly he is sitting at the school table doing his work while I am on the floor with Krash for about 30 minutes a day. The other times they are together or I am just with Pac Man.

It's hard to find the time to devote an hour to him (19 mo. tot) during school time.... How do you manage this in your case? Do you do tot school every day? I think you do now, but back when Krash was younger did you do it everyday or just a few days a week?

When K was younger (we began Tot School around age 22 mos), I did it just a few days per week. It was harder back then to find the time to devote to just him.
Now we do TS every day, and it has become a part of our routine, he is 3 1/2 now though so it is much easier, also with Pac Man being 7 1/2 that makes it easier too.
I will begin the TS journey again with Ladybug who is 6 1/2 months right now...stay tuned this spring to see me go through the process all over again with her!

My first question is: what kind of things do you do with your youngest to work with her?

Ladybug is just 6 1/2 months and I do nothing (out of the ordinary baby stuff) to work with her and don't plan to until she reaches about a year. Even then, it will just be intentional playtime with her, which is all Tot School is, especially at that young of an age. Ladybug soaks in so much just being around us all day long!

Can you recommend a few options? I took a look at your Tot Trays and I feel a bit overwhelmed as I'm not very creative?

Go here and read my Where Do I Begin post! This is my best advice all in one place! ;)

How do you schedule in time to make these games? Do you set a goal to do one a week? How long does it normally take for each activity you create on average? I am just trying to figure out how much time I should schedule and trying not to overwhelm my self with great ideas!

I make things randomly. I like doing it, so it is not a burden for me. Sometimes I get on a big kick and make tons of stuff at once, sometimes I just make only what we need when we need it.

Question.... where do you store all this stuff? Is your school in the basement or at the kitchen table.... I am really wondering how to begin and where to "set up". :)

Our schoolroom is a small room off the back of our house. We live in a very old row-home in the city. I store almost everything in the schoolroom and we do school in there too. Sometimes we do use the kitchen table and the living room floor ;).

Do you still have Pac in the cyber charter school?

Yes, it continues to work for us. I get asked a lot about this and how we get Calvert for FREE ;). You have to Google (I guess) to see if your state is one of the 13 or so that offer free cyber charter schooling. If your state is one of them, you then need to find a list of the specific cyber charter schools and then check each one out to see if it might work for you. The state I am in has several and I have heard bad things about some of them. The one we use is AWESOME (very flexible and supportive of how I do things with Pac Man). Basically cyber schools are NOT all created equal!!!
As for Krash, I am not sure what I am going to do for him. Pac Man enrolled for Pre K, and with Krash I am not sure at this point what I am going to do, although I am leaning towards enrolling him and then adapting the curriculum to fit his needs, like I did with Pac Man.

Do you have a separate blog about the things you do with your older son? I love your ideas, but my son is closer in age to your older son.

No I do not, this is my only homeschooling blog. I write more about my tot because that is my area of "expertise" since I am actually educated as an early childhood-K teacher! I feel I have more to share in this area. I do write about Pac Man some, you can see all posts about him here.

Anyway....I am struggling with organizing a set 'calendar time' for my kindergartner. I have limited space and honestly don't want the huge obnoxious calendar I used as a ps teacher to be in my house. I have seriously thought about using a tri-fold foam project board for all our calendar stuff, but am just having trouble visualizing it and putting it all together. I'm very curious to see what you do for your calendar time. The biggest challenge I'm having is figuring out how my sons can see the date written each day. What do you do?

Ooooh I have your answer coming very soon! I have an entire homeschool calendar webpage that is almost done...videos, printables and all! I plan to post the link to the page in just a few days!!!

My question is do you keep an inventory of all of your tot tools and supplies? I am trying to make some kind of inventory sheet that lists activities, games, and supplies I own that I can use in workboxes, etc. I find that I forget about things I have! I would love to hear how you do it, and if you have a sheet or something to share, I would love to have that, too!:)

I tried to do this and it was overwhelming for me so I stopped. I have a pretty good mind about the stuff we have and try to organize it well. I do *forget* about things sometimes though-it's hard!

If I missed your question, and haven't replied to you in an email, please feel free to email me again! I try my best, but I am a scatter brain sometimes with too much going on!!! I hope these answers help those of you who sent the emails and anyone else who might have had the same ?s!

Again, thanks to all of you who read here, and send me kind comments and emails, I really appreciate your thoughts and SO wish I had the time to reply to each and every one of you.

Christmas Lists are Starting...

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:11:00 +0000

I know I'm not the only one thinking about what we might get the kiddos for Christmas this year (or ask the grandparents to get), and actually I have gotten quite a few emails and comments asking what I would recommend for YOUR kiddos!

So, as a part of my new website, I created a page showcasing our very favorites. They are in no particular order, and not sorted by any certain category. I went through almost every Tot School photo I had, and many other photos to see what I KNOW are the very favorite items we own.

Here's a link to the new page, What We Love!

I was picky about what I put on the page, trying to choose only the items that are played with repeatedly and usually by both of my boys. I also chose toys that stand the test of time (for the most part), and mostly open ended types of things that allow for tons of creative play. A few things shown are learning toys that we absolutely love and use all the time, many items are just fun toys!

Have fun browsing through our suggestions and leave me a comment of a toy you recommend for my children for Christmas as I start making lists for them! At the bottom of the webpage there is a link to our family wish list *store* where you can see the beginnings of potential Christmas lists!

If you have any questions about anything on the list, or anything that you know we own that didn't make the list, feel free to ask!

I also get asked a lot how we have so many toys and school items...because this is all we ask for when birthdays and Christmas rolls around and we are blessed with family members who buy these types of things for our kids!

Raising Rock Stars ~ Noah's Ark

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:00:00 +0000

Bible Story...Noah's Ark

Daddy began by reading the kiddos Noah's Crew Came 2 by 2, which they all love!

Then it was time for a little Noah's Ark play time! We are blessed to have 2 toy arks. One is Melissa and Doug, the other is hand made!

I also set out ALL of our Noah's Ark books and Krash enjoyed looking through a few of them...
Then it was coloring time...
We always love coloring together, this has become a regular part of our Bible time each week!

After coloring time we watched the Noah's Ark story on our Read-n-See DVD Bible, and also enjoyed singing Arky Arky together! (also on the DVD)

Throughout the week we re-visited Krash's Noah's Ark Tot Book, but I forgot to take any pics of him with it!

**I will not be posting our weekly verse here anymore, as we are a bit off on my posts, due to the Halloween posts I did. I will leave the link below so you can always find the most recent printables which go up each Monday on Totally Tots!

Resources used this week:

Noah's Ark Tot Book
Noah's Ark on CPP
Noah's Ark Coloring Pages
Noah's Ark Books/Toys (from our theme bookstore)
Bible Memory Verses
Songs for Saplings CD

Visit the Raising Rock Stars Webpage to download your own notebook pages and to see links to previous Rock Stars posts! Please read there or here before you add your link!

Tot School ~ Pumpkins & DInos!

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:16:00 +0000

~Krash is currently 41.5 months old~

** links to all toys and books are at the bottom of the post

Learning Toys/Trays...

Krash loved his Play Doh tray! I put a pumpkin and a cross cookie cutter on it, along with some orange and yellow play doh. This kept him busy for a long time! We had fun making different shapes for the Jack O Lantern's eyes, nose and mouth.

Here he is sorting by shapes. I gave him 4 different shapes (from a Dollar Tree bucket of foam shapes), along with 4 little craft cups that each had a shape drawn inside (I drew them with a Sharpie). He did well with this as it was his first time sorting by shapes and not color!
Here he has a Styrofoam circle (AC Moore), 4 pick-up-sticks, some colored bracelets and mini tongs (from Target...in a bug kit we got). I had him transfer the colored bracelets to the matching stick.

Nothing quite as fun as cutting the Play Doh dude's hair, huh?
Pac Man taught K how to play Hyper Dash (this is a great game if you don't have it...good for Christmas!)

A bit of Connect 4 with Daddy...

The boys LOVE when our seasonal Little People toys come out. A favorite is the Mayflower!

He had tons of fun playing with his bristle blocks and peg set...

Theme...Dinosaurs!

Krash was a dino for Halloween!

I surprised Krash with a new Melissa and Doug Dino puzzle. He loves his other set like this so I splurged on Amazon for him!

We all worked together to color some sheet from Pac Man's dino lapbook...

We were inspired by Our Crafts n Things to make special dinosaurs...

Life School...

We got a special package from a great blogging friend, Julie, who is also a missionary in Hungary! K is in love with the pencil she sent to him!

We went to the pumpkin patch!!!!
He was such a big by running around and playing all by himself!

He even fed chickens!
We don't have leaves in the inner city, so this was a BIG treat...

Mommy's Favorites...

First this was my favorite...
then I thought it might be this one...
but finally decided on this one!!!

Amazon.com Widgets

Are you wondering where to start with Tot School? Read here!
Read more about Tot Trays here
Visit Totally Tots!!!
Want to see more Tot School posts? Click HERE
Visit our Tot School Webpage HERE
Visit our Tot School Tools store HERE

If you are NEW will you please leave a comment letting us all know so we can be sure to visit you?

Featuring Apple Cheeks!

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:37:00 +0000

Doesn't Ladybug look cute? ;) I know I am a bit biased, but still...

Want to win something she has on? Head on over to see our latest review and giveaway!

Raising Rock Stars ~ The Pumpkin Patch Parable

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:03:00 +0000

Bible Focus...The Pumpkin Patch Parable

We had fun talking about Halloween again, and what it means for our family as Christians. I made the boys a coloring book based on the book, The Pumpkin Patch Parable, to help illustrate the meaning of the story for them.

First, Daddy read them the book (Ladybug was napping)...
Then we headed to the table where I told them the story again using the coloring pages I created for them. We all colored them together as we talked all about the meaning. Even my Dad joined us!

I also had Pac Man make a Memory Cross to illustrate the story, he did a great job!
It was a fun night, and we are all looking forward to bringing the lesson we learned to life when we select and carve our REAL pumpkins this week!

Weekly Bible Verse...
Songs for Saplings ~ Ee
We work on our verse every day during calendar time, and we also listen to the entire Songs for Saplings CD during recess at least 1-2 days per week!

Resources used this week:

Pumpkin Patch Parable Coloring Book (this links to the new website, I disabled the main navigation since the rest of the site is still under construction...you can get to the Halloween page though!) There are 2 options for the clean the yuckies page...one has a photo of Pac Man and the other is generic! Feel free to use either!
Christian Halloween Books (from our theme bookstore)
Bible Memory Verse, Ee
Songs for Saplings CD
More Pumpkin Patch Parable ideas from Totally Tots

Tot School ~ Life School

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:22:00 +0000

~Krash is currently 41.5 months old~

To say it was an off week would be an understatement! I had planned on having a normal week of school but decided by Tuesday to take a week off. One of our *children in Christ* got married yesterday. This is a young man who we met over 5 years ago while he was still in college. He grew up in the neighborhood we serve and soon after moving here he became a part of our family. My husband was the best man in the wedding and we did a lot to help prepare and to love on them during this time. It was a joyous occasion, and also one that took us completely out of normal routine last week during the final push to wedding day! So, Tot school went on hold, but Life School was in full force!

Theme ~ Dinosaurs!

We did have one day and just 2 pictures of actual Tot School, from our Dino Stuff!

Here K is matching up the dinos to the ABCs. This activity is for the episode called "One Smart Dinosaur" where the conductor sings the dinosaur ABCS. I copied the entire song and made little cards to go with it, both boys love it!Here he is working on 1-10, and also patterning...
Life School...

Nanee sent the boys an ant farm (oooh goody ~ I hate ants)...

Krash has a chore he loves (and I love it too), he takes the cloth diapers off the clothesline for me now!

Camping in the basement..

Krash, Krashing....and loving it!

Sharing with brother... (oooh my heart is melting, so glad I caught this on camera for proof!)

Mommy's Favorite...

A little taxi service with the Plasma Car! (don't forget to enter to win one! Winner will be chosen later tonight!)

Are you wondering where to start with Tot School? Read here!
Read more about Tot Trays here
Visit Totally Tots!!!
Want to see more Tot School posts? Click HERE
Visit our Tot School Webpage HERE
Visit our Tot School Tools store HERE

If you have a tot (approximately ages 12-47 months) at home, join in the fun and share what you're doing with your tot! Here's how to get started if you're new... If you've never read this: Go HERE 1st for more details- please do!!! Then if you have any ideas you'd like to share, link up your exact post to MckLinky (if you have questions about how to do that, let me know in a comment or email-links to homepages will automatically be deleted).

If you are NEW will you please leave a comment letting us all know so we can be sure to visit you?

Tot School List

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:30:00 +0000

I am working on the new website and am almost done with the Tot School page. This is my current list of all blogs that participate in Tot School (although I have not added any new ones in about 3 weeks). I will be doing some serious editing to this list, SO I need you to leave a comment ...

if your blog IS on this list and you are still participating in Tot School. Just say (or copy this), I AM on the list and I am still doing Tot School, the name of my blog is:
if your blog IS NOT listed and you ARE doing Tot School, please comment telling me that and give me a link to either your homepage OR your labeled Tot School posts (that is preferred). My blog is not listed and I do Tot School, here is my link:
if your blog is on this list and you are NO longer doing Tot School. We have moved on from Tot School, my blog is listed as:
if your blog is on this list and I have something wrong (spelling, name, link, etc.). Tell me what corrections need to be made in your comment!

I will be removing ALL blogs who do not comment here on this post, as a way of updating the list (as I know some of the blogs are old and no longer participate in Tot School), unless I know for sure that you are still a fairly regular participant!

A Boys Life 4 Me

A Family Academy

A Large Room

A Mom Learning More Every Day

Adventures in Mommydom

Charlie & Henry Homeschool Ideas

Homeschooling Two Girls

Homeward Bound

Izzie, Mac & Me

Jacqueline's Jabberings

Memories are the Scraps of Life

My 2 Happy Homeschoolers

My Life on a Taffy Pull

My Quivers Full

Nifty Thrifty Mama

One Little, Two Little

Our Crafts n Things

Our Happy Hearts Will Never Roam...

Our Homeschool Creations

Our Homeschool Fun

Our Little Nook

Our Worldwide Classroom

Painting Bridges

Philly Five 4 Him

Platform 9 3/4

Princess w/A Half Price Tiara

Psalm One School

School in R Home

Second Star to the Right...

Seeking to Glorify

Sew Can Do

Spell Outloud

Spinners End Nursery School

Striving for Simplicity

Suburban Composition

Taking off My Shoes

The Adventures of Bear

The Fifth Street Palace

The Lives we are Given

Training Up My Children

Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary

Wiggle Worm's First School

Wilson's Ramblings

Winding Road Academy

Top 5 Friday ~ Mom's Wish List

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

I am not a big participator :) in weekly carnivals/memes, due to lack of time, however I found a VERY simple one I like, that would give me a good Friday post for ya! (since I don't have another one and usually don't on Friday's)! This may be the only Friday I join in, but we'll see...you never know what a new week will bring.

I love short, to the point blog posts sometimes, and I also love knowing what other moms love, that is why I am joining in with Christy from Superheroes and Princesses with her new Top Five Friday's!

This week she's sharing her Mommy Wishes ~ I have a few of those too. No needs, just wishes!

My Top 5 Mommy Wishes...

My husband home more (a little less busy). He hasn't been home a lot lately due to a hectic ministry schedule right now. I miss him, so do the kids, and he misses us. I LOVE it when Daddy is home!! This is my #1 wish for so many reasons-the help, the joy, the fun, and much more! We LOVE Daddy!
A bathroom. As missionaries, we live in the inner city in a VERY old row home. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE our house-it is really cool and I feel very blessed. There are however, a few quirks about it that I dream of changing! One is the bathroom. We all (2 parents and 3 kids) share one tiny bathroom. We lived in a brand new typical suburban family home right before we moved here over 5 years ago and it had an awesome master bath-like most new homes do nowadays. I miss my master bath so much. We have a dream of saving $ and building a master bath onto our bedroom...we'll see!
Shelves. I love shelves, I want lots of them, I want them all to match and look pretty. I never can have enough shelves. Currently I am trying to convince my husband that I need just 1 more bookshelf for our school book storage...we'll see!
Less Stuff. I want a week or 2 to go through every area of my entire home and get RID of stuff. I have been doing this and we have decreased our amount of life-baggage significantly over the past 2 years or so. But, I am desperate to have the time to completely finish and know that every drawer and box has been gone through.
A Big Desk. I want one of those fancy wrap around the corner desks with incredible storage (something like this-although I could never afford to shop at Pottery barn!). I want shelves up the wall, big drawers with little storage compartments. I work on an Ikea desk, that is in the middle of my "closet." It is fine, I am blessed to have it, I just wish I could have a Mommy-office that ROCKS!

Wanna share your Top 5 Mommy Wishes (or anything else that you love right now)? Head on over and join up!

Dinosaur Tot Pack

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0000

It's done! I have been working on this Tot Pack for a long time now, trying to make tons of fun stuff for Krash! We are in the middle of using the pack right now, so you'll be seeing more of the dino theme in the next couple of Tot School posts! We are having SO much fun!

Download the Dinosaur Tot Pack Here!

*the Dinosaur Tot Pack webpage is standing alone without top navigation until the rest of the site is complete--hoping a couple of more weeks!!!

Moving on Up...

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:00:00 +0000

As our Tot School continues to grow, and now that it has been online for over a year, many of us have older tots that will soon be moving on up! I have recently gotten a few emails about the age range for adding posts to Tot School each week, and thought I would take some time to address this question!

The "set" age range for posting to Tot School is 12-47 months, however that range may vary a bit for differently abled children. Your 10 month old may be ready for some Tot School type stuff and that fine...feel free to link up early! Or, your older child may have special needs that make Tot School the perfect match for his/her abilities...that's fine too!

If you are doing Tot School type stuff with your child, feel free to link up! Tot School type stuff would be defined as...purposeful play to expose early learning skills.

What if your Tot is progressing normally and will be moving on around age 4? I then would ask you to switch your links to the Preschool Corner!

My friend and Totally Tots partner, Jolanthe hosts the next step - The Preschool Corner on her blog. She offers wonderful ideas and puts up a weekly MckLinky for all families who want to join together in home-preschooling!

I hope that helps and when you move on to the Preschool Corner, please let me know if you think about it so I can remove your blog from the Tot School blog list, and also so I can say farewell! Krash will be moving up to Preschool when he is 4, and I will begin linking up on Jolanthe's Preschool Corner then. Only 6 months or so and my Tot School posts will be featuring Ladybug!!!

1000 Subscribers Celebration ~ Grand Finale #4

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:04:00 +0000

Need a place to plop your tot in your schoolroom or other various locations? Head on over to see the cool baby gadget we have for giveaway now!

Raising Rock Stars ~ Halloween

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:08:00 +0000

Bible Focus...Sharing God's Love on Halloween

We took a break from our weekly Bible stories to spend some time talking about Halloween and what it means for us as Christians. In the neighborhood where we live and serve as missionaries, the scary part of Halloween is everywhere. People decorate like crazy and there is no avoiding it. We feel it is important to not just ignore this holiday but to find a way how we as believers can share the light of Christ on this day that is often focused on the evil and darkness of the world.

We personally allow our children to dress up and have fun on Halloween, usually spending the evening at our church for the fun party! Our house is all decked out in fun fall stuff and also TONS of Jack O Lanterns. (The Jack O Lantern-God takes all of our yuckies out and puts His light in us- lesson is on the agenda for next week!)

We began by reading the book, Let's Shine Jesus' Light On Halloween, which is filled with Bible verses that we really focused on.

We then came to the table where the boys each made their own "Christian Pumpkin."

First they colored them orange...

Then we cut them out and glued the poem on the back...

Finally we added the symbols to the pumpkin, and talked about what they mean...

Here's our finished Christian Pumpkins...
Krash was SO very proud of his, it was the sweetest thing. At one point he said, "I got to make mine all pretty like Pac Man's." He colored forever to get it all orange!

Weekly Bible Verse...
Songs for Saplings ~ Dd
We work on our verse every day during calendar time, and we also listen to the entire Songs for Saplings CD during recess at least 1-2 days per week!

Resources used this week:

Pumpkin Poem Printables (this links to the new website, I disabled the main navigation since the rest of the site is still under construction...you can get to the Halloween page though!)
Christian Halloween Books (from our theme bookstore)
Bible Memory Verse, Dd
Songs for Saplings CD

**If you're looking for more info about how to handle Halloween, head over here to read Hallow-What...a great collection from many ladies!

Homeschool Blog Awards

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:34:00 +0000

It's that time again! Last year was an exciting year for us personally, as 1+1+1=1 was nominated for the first time and took home 2nd place in the Crafts, Plans & Projects & also placed in Nitty- Gritty! I was so honored and met so many wonderful new readers as a result of these awesome awards! Homeschool Blog Awards has an awesome new nomination form this year for you to nominate your favorite blogs. It will be much easier for everyone involved this year!

{Click on the button to start nominating}

Here are a few new guidelines for this year:

~ Nominate only one blog per category – once. That means once you have logged in and nominated, you can’t come back and do it again… unless you didn’t nominate all 25 categories. Once you have all 25 nominated, you are finished.

~ Do not nominate one blog for MORE than one category. Sorry, but no more nominating your mom’s blog for all 25 categories.

~ If a blog does not get nominated in the same category at least three times, it will not be in the final voting stage for that category. You will find out who made the finals in November.

Go nominate some of your favorite blogs. This is such a neat way to learn about new homeschooling blogs each year! I plan on nominating several of YOU!!!

Tot School ~ Dinosaur Week!

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:00:00 +0000

~Krash is currently 41 months old~

** links to all toys and books are at the bottom of the post

Learning Toys...

We were sent this awesome toy(Guidecraft Shape Sorter) for review (and upcoming giveaway) and Krash loves it!!! It's an awesome Tot School tool!

He still loves his sound puzzles, even though they are way too easy for him now! (in the Amazon carousel below I added one that is similar to ours, as I couldn't find our exact puzzle)

He always loves when the eggs and spoons come out. We have so much fun with these when we play with them!

A little bit of lacing fun...

Theme...Dinosaurs!!!

I have been planning our dino theme for awhile now in honor of our new favorite show, Dinosaur Train. Both boys LOVE it, so it was time to learn a bit more! K was thrilled to see brand new dinosaur puppets on his trays when he came down for Tot School last Monday morning! My mom got them for him at Costco (recently), just for dino week! We also read a Creation book to talk about how God made dinosaurs. We discussed which day God made them, and talked about this more and more throughout the week.

I got him a dino coloring book from the Dollar Tree, he thought that was cool too ;)

Of course we had tons of cool dino books, his favorites form the week are below in the Amazon carousel. Here he is reading his absolute favorite, Dinosaur, Dinosaur. He loved this book!

He also loved this stereo book (also from Costco recently). The written facts are off in the book (as most are in dino books), but we didn't read those words ;). He loved pushing the numbers to hear sounds, and we learned the names of all of the dinos. It is a book more for older kids (on one page there's a dino eating a dead dino), but Krash is into stuff like that so he liked it a lot!

Of course I made him a dinosaur Tot Pack, which will be available for you soon ;), he loved these color matching cards...

We put the colors in a row like a train, he had to find the right "seat" for each character. Then he got his own seat (Ladybug's Bumbo), and hopped on the train!

He loved spelling his name...

We worked on size sequencing, and 1:1 counting as he fed each dino a pom pom ball ;)

A little Heads n Tails matching (they were hungry too)...

He loved the dino felt set/book my mom also got for him!!!

Fall Fun!!

We love talking about Jesus being the light inside of us during the month of October. Therefore we have tons of Jack O Lanterns around. We focus entirely on the idea of God scooping out our yuckies and putting His light inside of us to glow for the world to see. We played a few games with one of our pumpkins...

We had fun talking about body parts as we stuffed pom poms in his face!!!

Life School/Mommy's Favorites ;)

I couldn't possibly pick a favorite, so all of his life school pics are my favs this week! They were just all so sweet and bring back great memories from the week! Here Pac Man was reading to Ladybug and K walked up to join in. What a precious sight to a momma, huh?!

As if the above wasn't sweet enough, here he's reading the Bible to Ladybug...
you know, upside down. My kid is a genius, yes he is.

Below are shots from my fun day alone with Krash, I played and played with my sweet boy. No housework, no computer, no interruptions...just me, my little guy, and a few people...
yup, just a few ;)

Are you wondering where to start with Tot School? Read here!
Read more about Tot Trays here
Visit Totally Tots!!!
Want to see more Tot School posts? Click HERE
Visit our Tot School Webpage HERE
Visit our Tot School Tools store HERE

If you are NEW will you please add the word NEW to your link so I can be sure to welcome you? My memory is failing me now with so many wonderful links!!!! I am excited to see Tot School growing like it is and want to be sure to visit each one of you at some point.

1000 Subscribers Celebration ~ Grand Finale #3

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:37:00 +0000

Want a ride? Head on over to check out our latest GRAND FINALE giveaway!!! We're almost done with our celebration...almost time for our 2000 Subscriber Celebration! ha ha!

From My Inbox...

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:33:00 +0000

Please forgive me if you have emailed me and not heard from me!!! I am truly sorry, and am trying to figure out how to balance it all. Blog growth is wonderful and I am so thankful, it is just relatively new to me and I am learning how to navigate my online life now that it is bigger. ;)

I have an overflowing inbox and I so desperately want to give each one of you the detailed answers to your questions, I just do not have the time right now. Our family is really busy in ministry for about the next 2 weeks and I am working my tail off to get the new website up and running! I am saving the emails though and hope to get another From My Inbox post up soon.

Thank you for reading and for being patient with me when I don't reply. I promise I am not ignoring you...just searching for time!

For now, if you haven't yet, check out my previous From My Inbox posts, and also my Behind the Scenes posts...they often have the answers to the ?s many readers email me about!

Raising Rock Stars ~ Week 3

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Bible Story...Adam & Eve ~ The Fall

I found a great Adam and Eve book at Dollar Tree a couple of weeks ago, that's what Daddy is reading to the kiddos...We then moved in to work on a coloring book featuring the story of The Fall...
Coloring time is great because it allows a lot of time for discussion about the story. Just at week 3 I can see growth in the boys.

Even Ladybug joined in...

Krash was in charge of coloring the "sad picture" when Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden. He made sure he got it all colored...

Weekly Bible Verse...
Songs for Saplings ~ CcWe began something new this week, having the boys recite their memory verse(s) for Daddy. We are using the Songs for Saplings flashcards I made up to go through all of the verses learned so far. Here they are "performing" A and B for Daddy! I just love the way Krash is looking up to Pac Man in this shot...

Now it's his turn...
Then a little solo by Pac Man...We work on our verse every day during calendar time, and we also listen to the entire Songs for Saplings CD during recess at least 1-2 days per week!

We have been consistently praying together as a family Monday-Saturday mornings, and keeping our prayer journal. This has been such a wonderful time for our family. I must admit though it was HARD at first with Krash...he was not interested in sitting still, to say the least. But now, weeks into it, he can sit the entire time. Train them up, train them up... Easier said than done-but I am so glad we stuck to the training.

Resources used this week:

Adam & Eve Coloring Book
Lapbook (we didn't use these, but they are neat!)
Bible Memory Verse, Cc 2 Corinthians 3:18
Songs for Saplings CD
Adam & Eve Books (from our theme bookstore)

Coming Up...

Bible Story...Noah's Ark
Memory Verse...Dd ~ Zephaniah 3:17

Visit the Raising Rock Stars Webpage to download your own notebook pages and to see links to previous Rock Stars posts! Please read the site if you are linking up for the first time, or if your link was deleted last week. Be sure to link to your DIRECT Raising Rock Stars post, which includes the button, linked back here.

Workbox Fun for Pac Man...

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:47:00 +0000

We are still using the Workbox System and it works for us. Currently Pac Man uses 9 boxes per day, which means I add in 1-3 extra items a day on top of his regular curriculum (Calvert 2nd grade). One of his favorites was this ASL file folder game I made for him. He is very into sign language, and had fun using the folder, and the book The Handmade Alphabet, to match them all up.

Tot School

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 19:31:00 +0000

~Krash is currently 41 months old~

** links to all toys and books are at the bottom of the post

It was a fun week at our house, but I forgot to have my camera close by for most of it! I just kept forgetting it, which is very unlike me. But we had fun anyway and I reminded myself what I always tell other moms, the moments are more important than capturing them! Our tots could care less if we have any photos of Tot School, we do that for each other...and for Mommy-memories right? So, I spent most of our week just in the moment with Krash! Here are a few of our captured moments...

Learning Toys

Our Bottle Top Name Cards made an appearance this week. Krash still loves to spell Pop Pop's name first! He did really well with this, as always...it's one of his favs!We LOVE our Bloem and Grow Blocks. Krash can spell his name now, and he adores lining the letters up with his special block set. He played with his blocks tons this week, since he just recently learned to spell and recognize his name...he's so proud and goes around spelling it for us all the time!

We haven't had our latches board out in awhile, so he loved this! I couldn't believe how much better he was with it!

Another hand-made favorite is this awesome Itsy Bitsy I Spy bag, which we WON from Baby Love Blankies, back when Itty Bitty Bookworm had their blog celebration! This is an animal bag with letters in it also, and Krash LOVES it!!! He found animals for a really long time!!! I plan to get a few of these as Christmas gifts, they are wonderful!

Lots of packages came this week, providing us with some free Tot School tools...

Krash played with Dominoes a lot, doing many different things with them. They are a great learning tool!

Alphabet

We did Rr for Robots, using some special robots stickers I had bought just for the letter R!

Photo Learning Book

We only got to one color this week, brown. We only have white left and then we will move on to another topic! I am working on printing them all up for the boys now!
Theme...Monsters

Yup, we had one last week of fun monster stuff, honestly because I don't have our next theme quite ready yet and we had so much fun with monsters!

Matching Shape Monsters to their "Shape House".
I bought Krash a monster notebook and pencil from the dollar section at Target, it was the best $1 I have ever spent! He LOVED this notebook and "wrote" in it all week!

Recess...

We brought our riding toys up on the deck and had a blast! The Plasmacar continues to be a loved toy by all...even Mom and Dad!
Mommy's Favorite...

Not that this is the best photo, but I love what it symbolizes. Krash is VERY happy with the lunch I made for him...a concoction I came up with myself (I will share on Lil Ladybug this week). I love that he is happy for lunch and not whining.

Are you wondering where to start with Tot School? Read here!
Read more about Tot Trays here
Visit Totally Tots!!!
Want to see more Tot School posts? Click HERE
Visit our Tot School Webpage HERE
Visit our Tot School Tools store HERE

When you add your name(blog name) to MckLinky will you put your tot's age (in months) after it, like this: 1+1+1=1 (36 mos)? I think this will help new readers a lot as they look for ideas for their specific aged tot!

News and the Monsters Tot Pack!!!

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:38:00 +0000

I have been working hard behind the scenes, of more reasons than 1! You will get a sneak peek at the main reason if you choose to download this new Tot Pack! I am redoing my website, in a big fancy way and it is taking TONS, I mean TONS of time.

When 1+1+1=1 began, it was a blog for just a few people...like most blogs are when they begin! This past year has been one of substantial growth, with over 1500 subscribers now and even more that read daily. The numbers astonish me to be honest. With this kind of growth, it became time to host an official website, instead of me just throwing things I make "out there" like I have been.

Now, it will take me awhile to get the entire site redone, but I am not going to put any new stuff on the old site, so in order to share my new Monster Tot Pack, I had to get a portion of the new site ready for you! When you get there you will see the top navigation is missing, that's because none of the other pages are done yet! I promise I will be making a huge announcement here when it is all ready to go! Any new stuff will come out a page at a time, until the old stuff is all prettied up and transferred to the new site. When it's all done, the old link will auto redirect, and the new domain www.1plus1plus1equals.com goes to the old site, until I make the final change!

Now, for the new Monster Tot Pack...

I began making the Tot Packs in place of the smaller Tot Books back when I was pregnant, but honestly I haven't even used the ones I made much, as I was making them for readers! BUT, the monster one is made for Krash so I put a ton of trial into it all.

It took me the longest to come up with a storage method I liked, as the Tot Books were no longer working for us. K wasn't able to go back to them easily, as they were a bit too flimsy. I also wanted something, simple, inexpensive and Tot-proof to a degree (meaning he wouldn't dump everything out or destroy it in a second).

Here's what I came up with...

I took a simple clasp folder and a gallon size freezer Ziploc bag. I folded the bag to the right size, so I could 3-hole punch it on the folded part to hook into the clasps, like this...

I then got little Ziploc bags, whatever size was right for the item, and placed each individual item in a baggie by itself, with the cover image facing out so K could easily dig through them if he wanted to. I still need to open and shut the baggies for him, but he can easily sift through the folder without destroying it now.

I added the file folder game I made to the front pocket, as well as the mini book, "Monster Eyes." The mini book could easily go into a baggie too, I just kept it out for now. The pockets are also great for storing projects that we are partially done with, so I don't forget about them (if there's coloring involved or something like that).

When it's ready for storage, I store the tiny baggies into the bigger bag and seal it. Close the folder and it's done! Compact, sturdy, cheap, easy. Also, with a storage folder like this, you can easily add other activities you may find on the web. It's just a great way to store everything for a tot for a particular theme. AND, I like that I can easily take this with us if I want to-like to church, a doc appt, etc. Since it's all separated, I can grab a folder and go, with pre-made games inside to play with!

If you'd like to make your own Monster Tot Pack, you'll find all of the printables here on the new site. You'll also see Pac Man's monster's as a part of the Tot Pack! This was also my first time "drawing" my own clip art...I made the monsters myself in Publisher, it was fun!

Remember, if you make this and blog about it, please email me your post link and I will add it to the web page!

1000 Subscribers Celebration ~ Grand Finale #2

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:25:00 +0000

Krash has a new love and your kid will too if s/he is the winner of this awesome giveaway!!! Head on over to try to win!

1000 Subscribers Celebration ~ GRAND FINALE #1

1plus1plus1equals1@gmail.com (Carisa) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

Remember seeing this in a previous Tot School post? Were you just wishing you owned the curriculum I got the idea from? One of you is going to win it!!!!! Head on over to read more, and remember even prior celebration winners can enter to win. All Grand Finale giveaways are open to everyone!