You know you’re a WAHM when you type in “Toddler Tuesday,” then think, “Wait. It is Tuesday, isn’t it?” Not that I’m complaining, when it comes to business, if you’re not busy, you’re probably not making much money. Likewise, when it comes to being a mommy, if you’re not multi-tasking, you’re probably neglecting some tasks.

Behind and Bug

This last week, my little bumblebee and I took some time do some physical learning activities, rather than cognitive learning. Okay, so, that was a total stretch. Actually, I split last week between cleaning the house (fall cleaning) and writing that book I told you guys about last week. (You know, the free one that now I don’t want to give away for free. Unfortunately, I’m a person of my word.)

So, now my LO and I are transferring “B” over to this week.

Today we took a long walk and looked for bugs. One of which was a huge caterpillar with a rather ferocious looking spear on its behind. While I wasn’t sure what kind of moth or butterfly it would turn into, I did get the opportunity to use the letter “B” for bug and pull that into the concept of how it turns into a butterfly (another “B” word).

Tomorrow we’ll be using The Very Hungry Catepillar for our “B” book. I found some pretty fun activities for it on Pinterest. I pinned it on my homeschooling board (here).

Bumblebee

Speaking of Pinterest finds, yesterday, my little crafter and I made our own rendition of the bee we found about a month ago. Now, before you look at the picture (if you haven’t already), understand that the person who did the Pinterest bee appears to have used construction paper and had a bit more dexterity than my 19 month old.

So, to help my child have some idea what we were doing, first I showed her the Pinterest picture, and explained that’s what we were going to make.

Then, I cut a few pieces of copy paper in half. On one half, I used a yellow marker to draw a circle. I gave my little cutie her box of markers and told her to color the circle yellow (testing her colors at the same time). She scribbled in the circle yellow until she was satisfied, and then handed the paper up for me to see.

Next, we got out the Fiskar toddler scissors, to which my little girl always gets super excited and exclaims, “Cut! Cut! Cut!”

She then cut, while I helped guide the paper around in a circle, so she could stay on the line. She’s pretty good about cutting straight lines, but turning the paper while cutting a circle is still a bit rough.

Once done, I gave her a black marker and let her “draw two eyes like in the picture.” She made the two dots for eyes, and then I helped her draw the smile, but let her put a tongue on by herself.

We repeated the same task for the black rings (I drew the black outlines and let her color them in and cut them) and the wings (again, I drew, and she colored, then I helped her cut). The final half sheet she colored in yellow.

To glue them onto the empty toilet paper roll, I explained that she could use a glue stick to completely cover the outside of the roll. Then, she would simply press the roll down and roll it up. She thought that was pretty cool, to say the least.

Next, she did the same thing with the two black rectangles she colored and cut out. Unfortunately, she’s not exactly the most spatially aware little bumblebee, so in the picture I took, you can’t really see the second black ring.

Finally, then, she used her glue stick to smother the wings and head and glued them onto her roll as well.

Come on! What did you expect? She’s only 19 months old!

While she didn’t exactly create the greatest work of art of all time (or even the best rendition of the Pinterest bee), what she did end up with was a lot of pride in her craftsmanship, and she walked around saying “Bee!” all day. We even had to drive to town to show her grandmas the little bee she made.

Baler and Bulls

While today we didn’t do any standard crafts, per se, she did get to work on her dexterity. Since daddy was putting the baling tines back on the baler, she sat down and helped assemble the little parts with me. She was remarkably good at getting all the parts together, and then while I kept them together, she would carefully thread the bolt (notice the new “b” word she learned) through.

After that was complete, we took a walk and she got to point out her bulls. Unfortunately, they never came up to the fence where she could scratch their heads today (no way were we going in the fence with them), but we had fun. I would say, “What are those?” To which, she would exclaim, “Bull!” Of course, then I would ask, “And what does ‘bull’ start with?” She would giggle, point, and yell, “B!”

Bright and Beautiful

All I know is that there truly is nothing more wonderful than being a mother. I know that eventually teaching will get rougher, and my little B won’t be into quite the way she is now, but these days are so incredibly precious.

For those of you with kiddos, what are you teaching them right now? I know Casey has been playing with bears and Corey has been finishing up an entire PreK Activities eBook, but what about everyone else?

“B” is for Blog!

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