Alongside these books, if you are looking for some intentional Thanksgiving learning activities to do with your little one, I have a Thanksgiving Curriculum, specifically designed for 2-3 year-olds that you can purchase for just $5! It is a really fun week of learning! Some of my favorite activities include the Feed the Turkey Game (works on alphabet recognition) + the Thanksgiving Plate Activity (works on naming pictures).
Wishing you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Last week, we wrapped up the letter G! Yet again, we did not get a chance to get to ALL the wonderful resources, but I still wanted to do a quick summary of the learning activities and books we did engage with!
You can purchase this full week of Letter G Curriculum on my TpT shop for just $5. If you want to buy the whole ABC bundle + save money, you can buy the growing bundle here!
This post contains Amazon Affiliate links! All that means, is that if you make any purchases through the links, I earn a small commission. I put a lot of work and love into these posts and curriculum and I really appreciate your support!
If you would like to download the alphabet book I created, you can purchase it for just $2 on my Teachers Pay Teachers Store! The book is bright and colorful and image based. I intentionally made the letters extra big and it is perfect for your little learner.
You can purchase a full week of letter G curriculum for just $5 on myTpT shop! Within this curriculum, you will be given the calendar pictured above + all the activities I made for the week. The early learning standards are also included. The main intention behind this weekly curriculum is to give you some inspiration and structure! It is easy to get lost in the rabbit hole that is Pinterest, so I do the hard work of planning and brainstorming for you! All you need to do is print and have fun with your little one!
Gardening Activities
This boy loves gardening! Most of our week was spent focused on garden-themed activities. His favorite thing about gardening is all the different tools. For that reason, he loved Joanna Gaines’ book, We are the Gardeners. He really enjoyed pointing out all the different gardening tools. Along with some great gardening books, H really enjoyed playing with the garden sensory bin. For this bin, I used pinto beans and lentils. I put a planting pot, shovels, and used the garden name sensory bin printables in my curriculum. This is an easy and hands-on way to help work on name recognition with your little one. This sensory bin proved to be the hit of the week. He plays with it almost every day.
For letter G decorating, I let H paint with gardening gloves. I bought these gloves at the Dollar Tree, so I was fine getting some paint on them! It turns out H was more interested in painting with the paintbrush. It was worth a shot.
Ghost Activities
With Halloween right around the corner, we had to do some ghost-themed activities for the letter G. H is very into ghosties right now, so this friendly/spooky ghost decorating was a hit. We also did some ghost in the house counting, which H enjoyed.
Garbage Truck Activities
Not only does this boy love gardening, he is even more obsessed with garbage trucks. Naturally, we had to do some garbage truck activities. H has been getting a bit bored with the classic letter do-a-dots, so I have been working on mixing these activities up. He really enjoyed this letter G do-a-dot that used garbage bags instead of dots. As he was working on this activity, he told me he wanted to give it to our garbage truck drivers, Manny, Chad, and Brian! There is also a fun garbage truck and bin shape matching game included in this curriculum!
Giraffe Activities
We just did this giraffe spot counting activity this morning and H loved it. I have been trying to create counting activities that are more interactive beyond simply counting and tracing the number. H is a very hands-on kid. As I am modeling how to count something, he needs something to do with his hands. That is why this activity was perfect for the way H learns. He was very happy coloring in the spots, while we worked on our counting! This activity is the perfect pairing to the book, Giraffes Can’t Dance!
You can purchase this week of curriculum for just $5 at my TpT store! Like last week, this week of curriculum is full of great activities and book suggestions! We just got the chance to do a few of the activities. If you are working on teaching the alphabet to your toddler, I really hope you purchase and love this resource!
We have gotten a bit behind in our letters of the week, but we finally wrapped up the Letter F Week, so I wanted to give a brief summary that will hopefully inspire you as you work on the letter F with your toddler!
You can purchase this full week of Letter F Curriculum on my TpT shop for just $5. If you want to buy the whole ABC bundle + save money, you can buy the growing bundle here!
This post contains Amazon Affiliate links! All that means, is that if you make any purchases through the links, I earn a small commission. I put a lot of work and love into these posts and curriculum and I really appreciate your support!
If you would like to download the alphabet book I created, you can purchase it for just $2 on my Teachers Pay Teachers Store! The book is bright and colorful and image based. I intentionally made the letters extra big and it is perfect for your little learner.
You can purchase a full week of letter F curriculum for just $5 on my TpT shop! Within this curriculum, you will be given the calendar pictured above + all the activities I made for the week. The early learning standards are also included. The main intention behind this weekly curriculum is to give you some inspiration and structure! It is easy to get lost in the rabbit hole that is Pinterest, so I do the hard work of planning and brainstorming for you! All you need to do is print and have fun with your little one!
Firefighter Activities
This week of curriculum has so many fun firefighter-themed activities. We definitely spent most of our week focused on all things firefighter-related!
For the letter of the week decorating, we kept it really simple and decorated it with fire colors. We used red, orange, and yellow do-a-dots.
In the middle of the week, I set up an activity mat that was firefighter-themed. These are super simple to setup and make for a great activity that offers variety and options. Tracing is still tough for H, but he has been enjoying using cars/trucks to follow the dotted line. This is a great way to work on beginning tracing skills! These activity mats are also perfect for displaying a few themed book options. We checked out SO many awesome firefighter books from the library. The favorites were definitely My Mom is a Firefighter and Curious George and the Firefighters.
This week of curriculum also included some name recognition practice! This is a skill I have not focused on much with H, but is something I want to work on and get him to recognize by the end of the school year! For this activity, I wrote his name on the fire truck template. I then wrote each individual letter on the fire templates. I laminated these and cut them out. I hid them around the house and had H look for them and bring them to the truck. It was fun! While he was not super into ordering them to match his name on the truck, this is a great start to getting him to recognize the letters in his name. Not to mention, name recognition is a great way to get your little one to learn the alphabet.
Fall-Themed Activities
The perfect time of year to do fall-related activities for the letter F. The curriculum includes some leaf size sorting and a fall leaf do-a-dot. For do-a-dot letters, I have been enjoying using other objects besides dots. This is a fun way to mix up the ordinary do-a-dot and makes it more tied to a specific theme.
Farm Activities
This week, we visited Underwood Family Farms. We got to see all the pumpkins, ride on a wagon, and see lots of farm animals! H loved seeing all the animals, especially the pigs and chickens. To pair with this field trip, we read the bookOn the Farm (which is pretty simple, but H really loved it). In the curriculum, there are farm animal puppets that match with all the animals in the book. I laminated them and attached a popsicle stick. I spread them out and as we read the book, I had H pick up the correlating animal. It turned out to be a fun and engaging way to read the story. Also, great for imaginative play.
You can purchase this week of curriculum for just $5 at my TpT store! This week of curriculum is jam-packed with tons of great learning activities. This blog just scratches the surface! There are so many activities we did not even get a chance to complete. Hope you enjoy!
This week we learned about the letter E! It was a week full of elephants, excavators, and eggs! We started off our week with a trip to the San Diego Zoo to say hi to the elephants! My Letter E Curriculum is jam packed with SO many fun book suggestions and activities that we simply did not have time to squeeze everything in this week. Therefore, I am going to keep this post short and sweet, but I would love for you to check out the curriculum so you can learn and play with your little one at home!
You can purchase this full week of Letter E Curriculum on my TpT shop for just $5. If you want to buy the whole ABC bundle + save money, you can buy the growing bundle here!
This post contains Amazon Affiliate links! All that means, is that if you make any purchases through the links, I earn a small commission. I put a lot of work and love into these posts and curriculum and I really appreciate your support!
If you would like to download the alphabet book I created, you can purchase it for just $2 on my Teachers Pay Teachers Store! The book is bright and colorful and image based. I intentionally made the letters extra big and it is perfect for your little learner.
You can purchase a full week of letter E curriculum for just $5 on my TpT shop! Within this curriculum, you will be given the calendar pictured above + all the activities I made for the week. The early learning standards are also included. The main intention behind this weekly curriculum is to give you some inspiration and structure! It is easy to get lost in the rabbit hole that is Pinterest, so I do the hard work of planning and brainstorming for you! All you need to do is print and have fun with your little one!
Monday: Elephant Activities
As I mentioned above, we went to see elephants at the San Diego Zoo! Along with this fun trip to the zoo, we did a few elephant-themed activities. In terms of books, H was not interested in reading Elmer, but he really enjoyed What to Do if an Elephants Stands on Your Foot. Along with these books, we made our letter E looks like an elephant + did some Elmer coloring pages. All the Elmer-related activities can be found in the Letter E Curriculum on my shop. I also included some colorful elephants cards that are perfect for color or sorting or to use as a collage! H really enjoyed gluing the elephants on paper for an additional activity.
Tuesday: Excavator Activities
Excavators are one of H’s favorite construction vehicles! We did a fun size sorting excavator activity. H enjoyed these excavator cards and he liked sorting them on his own using the chart provided. Later in the afternoon, I made an excavator letter dig sensory bin for him. I shoveled in some dirt and threw in a set of his plastic letters. I encouraged him to find all the letters by using the excavator to dig them out.
Wednesday: The Empty Pot Counting
If you are looking for a good story that teaches about honesty and hard work, I recommend the book, The Empty Pot. This is a Chinese story about a little boy that plants a seed from an emperor and his pot stays empty the entire year. He tends to the seed with great care and consistency but nothing grows. Instead of being dishonest, he shows up to the emperor with an empty pot and explains to him that he tried his very best. I don’t want to ruin the ending, but this is a great story especially for older kids too! We did a simple counting activity to pair with this story. I gave H coffee beans to act as seeds to place and count in each pot!
Thursday: Egg Activities
We read the book, The Extraordinary Egg. We then did the line tracing activity that pairs perfectly with this book. Again, line tracing is still pretty advanced for H, but this is great exposure for him. This week he was eager to attempt this skill, which was big progress!
Friday: Eating the Alphabet
We ended the week with Eating the Alphabet by Lois Elhert. I created a do-a-dot activity that goes along with the fruits and veggies in abc order! This is the perfect do-a-dot to pair with Elhert’s book. In the Letter E Curriculum, I also included some veggie and fruit letter matching cards that would make another great activity to pair this book with.
Letter E Sensory Bin
It was one of those weeks, so I don’t have a picture of our bin, but it looked very similar to previous weeks. Again, these sensory bins are perfect to throw together at the beginning of the week and leave out all week for your little one to look at and interact with.
You can purchase this week of curriculum for just $5 at my TpT store!
This week we learned about the letter D! We did a bunch of fun activities full of dragons, donuts, and dump trucks. You can purchase this full week of Letter D Curriculum on my TpT shop for just $5. If you want to buy the whole ABC bundle + save money, you can buy the growing bundle here!
This post contains Amazon Affiliate links! All that means, is that if you make any purchases through the links, I earn a small commission. I put a lot of work and love into these posts and curriculum and I really appreciate your support!
If you would like to download the alphabet book I created, you can purchase it for just $2 on my Teachers Pay Teachers Store! The book is bright and colorful and image based. I intentionally made the letters extra big and it is perfect for your little learner.
You can purchase a full week of letter D curriculum for just $5 on my TpT shop! Within this curriculum, you will be given the calendar pictured above + all the activities I made for the week. The early learning standards are also included. The main intention behind this weekly curriculum is to give you some inspiration and structure! It is easy to get lost in the rabbit hole that is Pinterest, so I do the hard work of planning and brainstorming for you! All you need to do is print and have fun with your little one!
Monday: Dumper to Digger Tracing Line Practice
This boy loves dump trucks and really any type of truck. I knew we had to have some type of dump truck-themed activity. We started by reading Digger, Dozer, Dumper. This is another hit for H and even though it is a longer book it is perfect for flipping through and finding the trucks that they are most interested in.
For the activity, we did the dumper to digger tracing line practice I created. This is one of the activities included in the Letter D Curriculum. H is 27-months and tracing lines is a bit advanced, but it is still great early exposure. I model what it looks like to trace the lines. And we did a few lines together. I let him try on his own after a fair amount of modeling and he did a lot of scribbling, but did a pretty good straight line. This is all just for fun, but I do think this early practice will help him in the next year when we focus on this skill more!
Tuesday: Dino Activities
There are so many good dinosaur books out there, but for this activity, we read When Dinosaurs Came With Everything. This is a great story, super fun, and amazing illustrations. We both enjoyed it. After reading through a couple times, we did a couple themed dinosaur activities. We did the “Color and Count Dino” activity from my curriculum. These are similar to my previous counting mats, but I added a coloring element. This is great for early counting exposure and for continuing to review colors. H is still very much a scribbler, but having smaller dinosaurs to color gave him a bit more focus and target while coloring. Every week he seems to be a little more invested in these counting activities, which makes his mama happy.
For the letter D in the alphabet book we are working on, I setup some paint and small dinosaurs for him to make dino tracks on the letter. This is usually an activity H would love, but this afternoon he was not as interested. So he did a few marks and then quickly moved on to playing in the dirt with his dump trucks!
Wednesday: The Dot + Do-A-Dot the D
This was our first time reading The Dot and I really loved it! I really loved the way the teacher hangs Vashti’s single dot in a special gold frame. This framing was the very thing that encouraged Vashti to more seriously pursue being an artist. It is a wonderful reminder of the important role we as parents and teachers have to encourage and motivate our children to dream big.
There so many fun dot-related activities to pair with this book. We did a do-a-dot for the letter Dd and I gave him a printable to create his own masterpiece. I put out watercolors, crayons, and do-a-dots and let him be creative with this open-ended activity.
Thursday: ย Make a Dragon a Taco
We read Dragons Love Tacos, which was the favorite of the week. We definitely read this book the most out of all of them! The activity I designed to pair with this book, really works on fine motor skills (folding, cutting, tearing). Using the printables included in “Make a Dragon a Taco” activity, simply cut out the tortilla, tomato, lettuce, cheese, beef, and hot sauce. To make this activity even more interactive, I also cut out the instructions for each one and put it in a separate envelope. This allowed for H to get the chance to open 6 different envelopes, which increased his overall excitement and engagement towards the activity. We worked on folding skills (tortilla), cutting skills (tomato and beef), and tearing paper skills (lettuce and cheese). Some of these skills are still tough for H, but he really enjoyed the concept of pretending to make food and even enjoyed pretending to feed it to the dragon! This is a fun, hands-on activity, that really encourages imagination and creativity!
Friday: Donut Activities
We started our donut-themed day, with a late morning snack of “healthy donuts.” Instead of fried dough, think apple slices, and instead of sugary frosting, thinking pink cream cheese with sprinkles on top! These turned out yummy and H was totally obsessed with them. I felt so much better with him snacking on these donuts over real ones. To H, as long as there are real sprinkles, these treats are just as good as the real thing.
As we munched on these, I read If You Give a Dog a Donut. We loved this book and especially love that there is a part about baseball!
Later in the afternoon, I made H an activity mat using butcher paper that had more fun donut-themed activities! I had a section for him to build-a-donut with a paper plate, paint, and colorful pipe cleaners. There was another section with the donut printable from Letter D Curriculum. I gave him crayons and encouraged him to color “sprinkles” on the big letter D’s and to color the small letter d’s brown to be the “dough”. He mostly just colored it the way he wanted, but this printable is still great for letter recognition as the donut is covered in the letter Dd!
Also, I want to note that for some reason, this week H was not interested in sitting down and participating in any of the paint-related activities. He had no interest in creating a donut. He was also just not interested in a lot of the things I presented to him this week. That is ok! It can be frustrating, but just like adults, toddlers have tough weeks and they are not always going to feel like doing things they normally enjoy. I am slowly learning to be okay with this. My hope is to always keep learning at this age light, fun, and flexible!
Letter D Sensory Bin
This is what our letter D sensory bin looked like this week! Again, these sensory bins are perfect to throw together at the beginning of the week and leave out all week for your little one to look at and interact with.
You can purchase this week of curriculum for just $5 at my TpT store!
We are holding onto these final days of summer for as long as we can. The summer of 2020 has been strange to say the least. It was not the summer we expected or even the summer we hoped for, yet still, somehow, it was the one we needed. It was simple. It was full of sunshine and salty air. It was the summer we learned to let go. The one in which we shared the joy of our pregnancy and also shared the grief as we lost our sweet babe.
Summer 2020, you were beautiful and hard, you were joyful and sad, and you were long and short.
I want to write this down here because I do not want to forget how this summer made me feel.ย It has been filled with some of the most painful days, but somehow, through the grace of God, I have laughed and enjoyed these summer days more than I have in a long, long time.ย ย
Here is a list of what this summer meant to me:
A Positive pregnancy test
Joy, joy, joy
Bike rides
Fireworks that lasted all night long
Yosemite with good friends
Hikes and waterfalls and skipping rocks
Trash trucks
4 mile runs
New friendships
Loss and waiting rooms and ultrasounds that make your heart drop
Grief, grief and more grief
The couch
Family and friends showing up and loving us in such tangible ways
Malibu
Pickleball
Kayaking in the bay
Margaritas that make you sad that you can drink them
The beach almost everyday
Spontaneity
Ocean swims
Letting go
Loosening up on bedtime
Drives to San Clemente and San Diego
Golf cart rides after the beach
Boat ride with dear friends
Outdoor Church gatherings
Scooter-Walks as a family
Afternoon reading on the couch
Riding in the back of a pickup truck of newlyweds (true story, and something I will never forget)
Adjusting expectations
Leaning in
Staying present
Long hair and very tanned legs
This was our summer. It was weird. It was hard. It was beautiful. It drew me closer to the Lord, it brought me to my knees, and brought us to the ocean again and again and again.
As a former English teacher, I always love pulling out a theme. And after reading over this list a few times and thinking of the big moments of our summer, I found a pretty strong and important theme. It is one that I think I needed to learn and figure out this summer. It is something especially helpful to have when walking through painful seasons, but important to have in your back pocket regardless. Ready for it?
This summer I learned the importance of finding a place of peace, purpose, and play.
Before we walked through our miscarriage, I do not think I had strongly identified what these three places in my life were. I had peace, but not a specific place. I had purpose, but I never named it. I had play, but never for myself.
This summer changed that for me. And I feel like I actually figured out my place of peace, purpose and play. Do you know yours? Think about it. Name it. Figure it out. For me personally, it has been so essential in my healing process. We all are walking through stuff. Maybe this summer for you was about the joy, and thatโs great, but can you name your place of peace, purpose, and play? And if this summer has just been plain hard, do you know what these places are for you? And if so, I hope you can go to them again and again.
In case you were curious, here are mine.
My Place of Peace
The ocean. No questions asked. The beach has been our place of healing. It has been one of the few places that make sense. It is our peace place. Our morning spot. Our late afternoon spot. Our Sunday evening post-dinner spot. It is where we come to exhale the anxiety and inhale Godโs peace.
My Place of Purpose
Purpose has always been something really important to me. In high school and college, my purpose was mostly running/performance-based. Post-college, it was teaching-based as I started a new career as a high school English teacher. Postpartum, my purpose seemed to get fuzzy. Of course, it was within motherhood, but I did not even know who I was as a mom, let alone my purpose in being that mom.
Two years and one miscarriage later, I finally feel at home in my purpose. It is pouring into my son. It is teaching and guiding and showing. Right now my purpose is in being my sonโs teacher. This is my full-time job. And I am proud of it. I might not get paid for it, but this is where my heart is and I know it matters deeply. This all clicked for me one summer evening, when I walked into Lance asking Hudson who his teacher was. Hudson without even thinking, instantly said, โmommyโ. And my heart melted. We never talked about how I was teaching him different things, but just based on our days together, he instinctively knew I was the teacher in his life. This has changed a lot for me. I have a newfound purpose. Yes, motherhood, but it really is much more specific than that.
My Place of Play
This summer we carved out more play into our days and it made all the difference. It was a week or so after my D & C procedure that we picked up my mom’s pickleball set. We brought it with us to rally together after dinner. We went down by the ocean and rallied back and forth. We laughed. We were competitive. And we were focused on something outside of our sadness. Playing pickleball brought back laughter into our days. It drew us closer in a season that easily could have caused drifting. It was a simple source of joy. When you are going through hard things, picking up pickleball might not always make the most sense, but for us, it was one of the best decisions we made in our grief. Pickleball brought healing. It brought back play into our lives.
If you too had a hard summer, one full of unmet expectations and disappointments, know that I am right there with you. Even in the hard, my hope is that you too can find some silver linings and that this time of heartbreak can allow you to fully lean into what is right before you.
This week we learned about the letter C! We did a bunch of fun activities full of cars, cows, and cupcakes. You can purchase this full week of Letter C Curriculum on my TpT shop! And if you are eager to jump ahead to the Letter D Curriculum, you can purchase that now as well!
This post contains Amazon Affiliate links! All that means, is that if you make any purchases through the links, I earn a small commission. I put a lot of work and love into these posts and curriculum and I really appreciate your support!
If you would like to download the alphabet book I created, you can purchase it for just $2 on my Teachers Pay Teachers Store! The book is bright and colorful and image based. I intentionally made the letters extra big and it is perfect for your little learner.
You can purchase a full week of letter C curriculum for just $5 on my TpT shop! Within this curriculum, you will be given the calendar pictured above + all the activities I made for the week. The early learning standards are also included. The main intention behind this weekly curriculum is to give you some inspiration and structure! It is easy to get lost in the rabbit hole that is Pinterest, so I do the hard work of planning and brainstorming for you! All you need to do is print and have fun with your little one!
Monday: Cloud in the Jar + Fill the Cloud Activity
After reading Little Cloud by Eric Carle, we did a hands-on science experiment by making our own โclouds.โ For this activity, simply take a jar, fill with water, and spray a small amount of shaving cream to make the cloud. In a separate dish, prepare some blue water. Using eye droppers, H dropped the blue water on top of the “cloud”. We then watched as the blue water began to โrainโ in the jar. This was a really cool visual and hands-on activity.
Using the โFill the Cloudโ printable, I let H dip cotton balls into Elmerโs glue and fill the cloud. We did this in a park, so after placing a few cotton balls, he was off to running around. Hey, at least he was engaged for a minute!
Tuesday: Car Activities
In our preschool pod this week, we read My Car by Byron Barton. This was definitely Hโs favorite book of the week. The language is super simple and the illustrations are bright and engaging.
For the letter C alphabet book activity, we used cars to make paint tracks over the letter C. You can get the alphabet book for just $2 here. Painting with cars was a hit by all the boys! We even did a โcar race.โ I simply set up butcher paper with a start and finish line and the boys โracedโ their cars.
The โPark the Carโ activity is another fun one and great for both reviewing colors and beginning to work on word recognition. For this activity, I printed, laminated, and cut the cars out. I put the colored parking lot in a plastic sleeve. I simply handed H a car and asked him to match it to the right parking spot. I even brought this activity with us to a restaurant and it was a great way to distract him for a few minutes.
Wednesday: Corduroy Do-A-Dot + Button Stringing
We started off the day with the beloved classic, Corduroy by Don Freeman. After we read this book together, Hudson did a letter C do-a-dot themed off of Corduroy. These cute little printables are included in my Letter C Curriculum.
To work on fine motor skills, I printed out the colored buttons, laminated them, and put 2 hole punches in each of them. I got a piece of yarn and put tape on one end to help with threading. This was a new skill I was introducing to H, so I modeled how to thread the string and then let him take a try. He was able to get it through one hole, but that was about it. I will continue placing this activity out to give him some more fine-motor practice. This is another great activity to review colors!
Thursday: Visit a Cow + Cookie Counting
We went to Zoomarโs in San Juan Capistrano and got the chance to say hi to a cow named Jersey. It was not exactly the cow H was picturing, but he still really enjoyed seeing an actual cow. He talked about it all day.
Later that afternoon, we read Cow Loves Cookies by Karma Wilson and did some chocolate chip counting. These are very similar counting mats to the other mats in the previous weeks of curriculum. Using similar counting mats each week is a great way to get your little one more comfortable with the skill presented.
Friday: Build-A-Cupcake Play-Dough Tray + Place the Sprinkles on the Cโs
I setup a really fun play-dough tray to go along with the book, If You Give a Cat a Cupcake. For the play-dough, I made a frosting one. I used Mothercouldโs recipe that calls for 1 cup frosting + 3/4 cups cornstarch. I ended up having to add a ton of flour and it was still was pretty sticky and made a mess! But hey, H loved it…my husband not so much!
This is a great outdoor play-dough tray since it can get a bit messy. Despite the stickiness, H loved using the ice cream scooper to scoop the dough into the cupcake tray. He also loved sticking in the candles. Again, this is great fine motor practice + open ended creativity!
We wrapped up the week by continuing to work on our fine motor skills and moving the sprinkles to cover the Cโs on the cupcake. This activity is also in the Letter C Curriculum. I printed and laminated this printable. I cut out all the sprinkles and cut each cupcake into its own card. I realized that the sprinkles were a bit difficult to move with our fingers, so we used a Q-tip to move the sprinkle to cover the C.
Letter C Sensory Bin
This is what our letter C sensory bin looked like this week! Again, these sensory bins are perfect to throw together at the beginning of the week and leave out all week for your little one to look at and interact with.
You can purchase this week of curriculum for just $5 at my TpT store!
This post contains Amazon Affiliate links! All that means, is that if you make any purchases through the links, I earn a small commission. I put a lot of work and love into these posts and curriculum and I really appreciate your support!
This week we learned all about the letter B! It was a week full of blueberries, bumble bees, and baseballs! There are SO many fun things that begin with the letter B and so many amazing books out there. This was a really fun week of learning and I hope it can inspire you! As always, you can purchase this full week of Letter B Curriculum on my TpT shop! And if you are eager to jump ahead to the Letter C Curriculum, you can purchase that now as well!
If you would like to download the alphabet book I created, you can purchase it for just $2 on my Teachers Pay Teachers Store! The book is bright and colorful and image based. I intentionally made the letters extra big and it is perfect for your little learner.
You can purchase a full week of letter B curriculum for just $5 on my TpT shop! Within this curriculum, you will be given the calendar pictured above + all the activities I made for the week. I also list the early learning standards. The main intention behind this weekly curriculum I am making, is to give you some inspiration and structure! It is easy to get lost in the rabbit hole that is Pinterest, so I do the hard work of planning and brainstorming for you! All you need to do is print and have fun with your little one!
Monday: Blueberry Activities
After listening to the read-aloud version of Blueberries for Sal on Youtube, we did a couple blueberry-themed learning activities. I brought out the Do-A-Dot markers for the first time in awhile and H was very into it. These are one of my favorite art supplies. It is active and Hudson gets really into stamping the paper, but it never creates much of a mess, which I love! I created a B and b for him to dot to work on letter recognition. This printable is included in the B week curriculum!
We then did the “Put the Blueberries Back on the Bush” activity. H worked on his fine motor skills to place blueberries on the blue circles I scattered throughout the bush printable. This activity could also be done with blue pom poms! We capped off our learning day by making some yummy blueberry muffins.
Tuesday: Build-A-Bee B Activity + Happy Bee Coloring
In this week’s preschool pod, we read Orville the Bumble Bee Who Didn’t Believe He Could Fly. We then did the activity, “Pin the Stripes on the Bee.” All the parts of the bee and the yellow B is within the Letter B curriculum. We cut out all these parts and created the bee in the letter B page of our alphabet book. You can get the alphabet book for just $2. All you need for this activity is the printable pages in the curriculum, glue, googly eyes, and pipe cleaner for antennas. We also used the “Bee is Happy!” coloring pages and talked about emotion. This is a light way to get little ones comfortable talking about their feelings.
Wednesday: Baseball Activities
If you know H, you know one of his very favorite things is playing baseball. We had to incorporate some baseball-themed learning this week! We read Let’s Play Baseball, which quickly became a favorite of his. I used the baseball pattern building cards from this week’s curriculum. I made a few extra copies to put in plastic sleeves to show him the pattern. The other copies, I printed, laminated and cut out. This is a fun way to work on matching skills, sorting skills, and pattern building. This felt a bit too advanced for H, but I will definitely bring these out again in a few weeks!
H was antsy to stay moving, so to keep the lesson going a bit longer, I brought out his baseball tee and we played a color review game! I simply called out a color, and he would find that color ball from the bin and hit it from his tee. He was super into this. He really has his colors down now, so this was an easy and fun game. Early on in quarantine, we did color-themed weeks, which I really think helped him get his colors down quickly. You can find all those color-themed ideas here: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
Thursday: Beach Trip + Blue Seashell Scavenger Hunt
Learning at the beach is always a good idea. The beach really is the perfect setting for creativity, play and exploration. If you do not live near a beach, you could always setup an indoor beach at home! At the beach with friends, we read Three Bears on a Boat. While this story is on the longer side, it was hands down one of my son’s favorite books all week. It is a really well-told story about 3 sibling bears that break their mother’s blue seashell. They set sail on a boat in an effort to find a new blue seashell to replace it. I don’t want to give too much away, but this is a really excellent book and is filled with letter B words: bears, boat, blue!
The blue seashell scavenger hunt is the perfect pairing for this story. Again, this activity can be found in the Letter B Curriculum. For this activity, I simply printed out the shells, laminated them, and stuck a few around us in the sand. H and his friend gathered all the shells and we worked on sorting the shells based on A or B. This is an easy way to review the letter A from last week.
I also set up a little boat sensory bin. I brought an aluminum tray, filled it with ocean water, and put in a few boats. This was a great invitation-to-play.
Friday: B Wings Watercoloring + Butterfly Counting Mats
We ended the week, focused on butterflies! In an effort to get some more non-fiction reading into our week, I included, Watch Me Grow Butterflies. This book is really interesting and we both found it fascinating to look at the real pictures of the life cycle of a butterfly. It truly is amazing.
The “Catch and Count Butterfly” mats were much more of a hit than the alligator counting mats from last week. We counted butterflies and I helped him trace the numbers. He seemed to really enjoy the bright blue color of the butterflies.
After some counting, Hudson enjoyed some watercoloring! Mom and dad painted our own butterflies, while Hudson used the B-winged butterfly that is included in the curriculum! This final lesson of the week was the perfect one to do as a family. While it can be difficult to get the whole family together for learning time, I noticed that H was much more involved and interested in the lesson with dad being involved!
Letter B Sensory Bin
This is what our letter B sensory bin looked like this week! Again, these sensory bins are perfect to throw together at the beginning of the week and leave out all week for your little one to look at and interact with.
You can purchase this week of curriculum for just $5 at my TpT store!
This school year is feeling strange for us all. For us, things donโt feel quite as weird since we are not yet at the school-aged stage, but it still has bummed me out that we canโt attend the toddler class we were originally enrolled in.
It is still really important to me that Hudson gets a year full of learning and play! I am the type of person that needs a very clear plan and structure to make this happen. I have pulled on some of my teacher skills, and I have begun the process of making a 26-week ABC curriculum. This will help kick off our Tot School/Mommy Play-school (basically think of it as the pre-preschool).
Quick side-note, if you too have a 2-3 year-old and would like to implement a Tot School at home with your little one, I have found this resource from Mrs. Plemonโs Kindergarten to be super helpful.
I am creating this as we go, but this first week has proven to be a lot of fun! Most of the learning and activities will take place within our home, but I have coordinated with a few mom friends to add a social element (we are being careful and safe, but after months of very minimal social interactions with friends, H and I both desperately need this social space). With one set of friends, we will be doing weekly adventure field trips. With the other set of friends, we will be decorating the letter of the week and reading a book together.
If you would like to download the alphabet book I created, you can purchase it for just $2 on my Teachers Pay Teachers Store! The book is bright and colorful and image based. I intentionally made the letters extra big and it is perfect for your little learner.
Each week, I will be summarizing our week of learning here on the blog. I will be linking to the books, products and resources we use!ย I hope you find this helpful and fun!
You can download a full week of letter A curriculum for FREE on my TpT shop! If you download it, I would love for you to leave a review! Within this curriculum, you will find a weekly calendar that gives you a book and an activity for each day of the week! I also list the early learning standards. Within the curriculum, I give you a few learning activities to do at-home. I also outline some activity ideas not included in the packet. The main intention behind this weekly curriculum I am making, is to give you some inspiration and structure! It is easy to get lost in the rabbit hole that is Pinterest, so I do the hard work of planning and brainstorming for you! All you need to do is print and have fun with your little one!
Monday: Airplane Park Field Trip + Airplane Size Sorting
We went to Jose Del Valle Park in Lakewood. Of course, most of this park is still closed, but we did all of our activities by the big airplane structure within the park. It made for fun photos and was the perfect setting for learning about airplanes! We read some airplane books, made paper airplanes, and did the airplane size sorting activity (in free curriculum here). This is a simple activity and works best if you laminate the airplanes so they are sturdy and can be used again and again. This activity is great for color recognition + size sorting! I found it worked best as an invitation-to-play. I simply set it out in our living room and Hudson gravitated right towards it.
Tuesday: Letter A Apple Stamping
Each week, we are going to decorate the letter of the week! By the end of the 26 weeks, I will laminate each letter and bind it together in a book. This will be a great keepsake for H and his friends! If you too would like to create an alphabet book with your little one, you can purchase it for just $2 on my Tpt Store. This week, we read Ten Apples Up on Top and then decorated the letter A by stamping apple halves. This is a fun and simple activity! We of course added a bit of glitter at the end for fun!
Wednesday: Alligator Counting Activity
In the afternoon, after Hudsonโs nap, I set up an outdoor classroom for him since it was so hot in our house. We read Thereโs An Alligator Under My Bed by Mercer Mayer. This is a new favorite book of ours and is perfect for the letter A week. During this particular read-aloud, I really emphasized the word alligator and had H point to the alligator on each page. He was really into it. The counting part of the lesson, he was not as into, but this will take time. He is only 2! We kept it light and fun as we worked on our counting skills from 1-5. Again, you can get these โHow Many Alligators Are Under My Bed?โ counting mats for FREE when you download my Letter A Week Curriculum.
Thursday: Apple Pie Scissor Cutting Tray + Apple Pie Making
This day was all about apple pie! In the morning, I set up a really simple scissor cutting practice tray. These apple pie printables are a fun way to practice scissor cutting skills and work on understanding parts of a whole. This was a bit advanced for my 2-year-old, but would be perfect for your 3-4 year-old. We focused on working with scissors to cut our pretend apple pie made of play-dough.
In the afternoon, we read the book, How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. Then, we worked in the kitchen and with some help from Grammy and Auntie, made a delicious apple pie! Another great way to make this activity more toddler-friendly, is to buy pre-made pie dough and just have your little one mix apple filling and place in pie tin. The whole process of making a pie was a bit too long for little H.
Friday: Ants Go Marching Activity + Ants on a Log Snack Making
To finish off the week, we focused on ants! I set-up a make-your-own ants on a log snack tray. I let H do it all on his own. He really enjoyed the independence. This is a fun snack tray and a built-in activity that only requires celery sticks, peanut butter, and raisins!
After this activity, we listened to the Ants Go Marching One by One and used the little laminated ants I made to form the A and a (this activity is also in my free letter A curriculum). Again, H was not as into this, but we will eventually get there. It was still a great activity to show H what the Aa looks like and it paired nicely with the book, Hey, Little Ant. We both really enjoy this story and it is a great one for teaching about different perspectives.
Letter A Sensory Bin
At the start of each week, I will be creating a sensory bin with all letter A things for Hudson to look at and interact with throughout the week.
You can download this week of curriculum for free at my TpT store!
The following is our story walking through miscarriage. I wrote everything as we were going through it. It might feel a bit rambling and disjointed at parts, but hey, that is the sound of grief.
My heart literally feels like it is on fire. My stomach feels empty and dead. My vision feels blurry from all the crying. My soul feels weary.
Literally two days ago, we were scheduling the date of our gender reveal as we found out I would be able to take a 10-week blood test to find out our babyโs gender. Now, instead of the gender reveal on the calendar, I have a week full of blood work, doctorโs appointments, and a scheduled D&C surgery.
Things certainly have taken a turn.
Our dialogue in the past week has been light and fun. I bet we are having a girl. No, we are definitely having a boy. How should we do the reveal? Should Hudson hit the ball or throw the ball?
Oh how I wish we could back to these simple dilemmas.
Now everything feels different. Most of our dialogue is in-between tears. There are long stretches of silence and loud, painful wails. There are words about blood work and hCG levels and D&C surgery.
My talks with the Lord have definitely been different lately. There has been less words. More pauses. A few more questions. But in this season where I canโt really find the exact words to pray, I am still finding myself saying, I know you are in this Lord. We trust you. We love you.
Even in the darkness, I canโt help but feel Godโs hand over all of this. I feel Him in the loving text messages we have received. In the extra snuggles Hudson has so generously offered over to us. In the early morning prayers. In the most beautiful bouquet of flowers. He is caring for us in such tangible ways.
We have been so surrounded by love and prayers. We are so thankful for our family and community of friends that love us so well.
The Ultrasound that Changed Everything
It has been a few days since I last wrote. If I am honest, writing is not really the thing I want to be doing right now. Mostly, I just want to watch Gilmore Girls and eat warm doughnuts and sit on the couch. But, I forced myself to get up early this morning because I know this time is sacred and I do want to put into words how I have been feeling lately.
I actually want to start back on Friday. The day everything changed for us. Due to Covid, Lance was unable to come with me to any of the doctorโs appointments. With our pregnancy with Hudson, he literally came to every single appointment. Initially, we both felt disappointed that he could not see our baby on the ultrasound, but I promised to video it for him. Little did we both know that him not being there would be so incredibly lonely for us both. I needed Lance and he couldnโt even sit with me in the lobby.
The whole process of the appointment made everything worse. I still believe it could have been handled with so much more sensitivity and kindness. I get it. Sadly, miscarriage is common. 1 in 4 common. This is another day for these doctors and nurses, but for us, it is literally the worst day of our lives. It is our greatest fear coming true.
The Texting Ultrasound Tech
Everything felt so procedural. During the ultrasound, there was no explanation or anything as to why the baby looked so tiny and motionless. I asked if everything was okay because he or she looked so small and the ultrasound tech simply replied with, yes, looks small. Again, I get it. I donโt think he legally was able to directly tell me the baby was not alive, but why couldnโt he have grabbed the doctor so she could directly tell me? Instead, he told me to go back to the lobby and the doctor would review the results with me.
So I silently sat myself back down. This time I could not read my book that I was easily flipping through a few minutes prior to that terrible ultrasound. I texted Lance, something is wrong. And then I began to Google incessantly.
Is it okay if baby is measuring 8 weeks when you are supposed to be 10 weeks pregnant?
Are there special cases where heartbeat is not detected at 8 weeks?
Are there reasons ultrasound tech does not talk much during ultrasound?
Symptoms of miscarriage.
And I did this for an hour and a half alone. Do you know how long an hour and a half feels when you are unconfident about the health of your baby? Eternity. Especially when you are sitting alone.
I have replayed this window of time in my head over and over again. And the thing that sticks with me most is that ultrasound tech guy. As I Googled with tears in my eyes and became increasingly more certain that the news I was waiting for would not be good news, I heard him laughing. He was laughing and texting and chatting. He knew my baby was not alive. Again, I get it. He sees this type of thing often. He does not know me or my life or all our hopes and dreams we had for this baby. Yet still, the casualness of it all, stings my heart.
Mask Full of Tears
When I was finally called into the doctorโs office, the doctor was quick to deliver the words I had been dreading for an hour and a half. It looks like you are having a miscarriage.
I tried to hold it together. But within seconds, the tears flooded and were held within my mask.
The doctor was kind, but she was also very medical. Saying things like this is so common, 1 in 4 pregnancies result in miscarriage, it is nothing you did, chromosomal abnormality.
Yet still, it felt too numbers-based. Too-medical. Not enough compassion.
She explained the next steps. Blood work, follow-up ultrasound, and scheduled D&C surgery. And that was it. Still in the middle of tears, I was expected to go back out there, see that ultrasound tech as he continued to text on his phone, and make my next appointment that would confirm our greatest fear.
I felt so vulnerable and alone. I needed a second. So I went to the bathroom. Ran cold water on my face. Took a few deep breaths. Whispered to myself everything is going to be okay. Put on a fake smile and went out to make the appointment.
Procedural Coldness
Again, I was met with procedural coldness. I donโt know exactly what I was expecting. Maybe a look in my eyes and a gentle smile. Maybe a word of encouragement. Instead, it was all business. She handed me over the forms of blood work that had hCG and abortion highlighted on it. Seeing that word โabortionโ on the blood work forms brought me such intense sadness. Did you know that? Did you know that the medical term for miscarriage is abortion? Over the course of the week I had to see that word on every paperwork I signed and confirmed. Words are powerful. Every time I saw that word it stung my heart. This was not my choice. We wanted this life so desperately. Abortion did not at all accurately describe what was happening in our lives.
There were no instructions about where to get blood work or hours of operation or anything. This might seem small, but when you are just given terrible news, it helps to have very clear instructions and steps. I again felt a bit lost, but I was in no mood to ask questions. As soon as she handed me the appointment card, it felt like I ran out of the office. I wanted to escape that terrible place. I held it together in those minutes and steps from office to elevator to car. And the moment my car door slammed, everything broke loose from me and I wailed.
Salty Milkshake
I called Lance. I wailed some more. And I drove home in confusion and despair. The only thing I could think about was how I wanted a milkshake and hot fries. Grief makes you long for comfort.
From the moment I got home, there was an overflow of tears from all three of us. Hudson is at a very sweet stage where he feels so deeply what you are feeling. When he saw us crying, he was compelled to cry. And not just cry. It really seemed like he understood the severity of our pain. He felt the loss of his baby brother or sister just as much as we did. It was like he knew something was wrong. He grabbed our little doppler that we were using just earlier that day in hopes we would hear the heartbeat on our own. He remembered this and grabbed it and kept bringing it to me saying, โheartbeat, heartbeat, heartbeat!โ I sadly had to tell him that we were not certain if there was a heartbeat anymore.
The milkshake we got that night tasted salty. It was a sweet comfort, but I am pretty sure it was mixed with my tears.
This was on Lance’s birthday, 2 days after hearing no heartbeat on the ultrasound. In the pain, we were able to have a sacred day alone celebrating the wonderful life of my husband, while still allowing space to sit in the sadness.
Malibu Escape
In the intense sadness, the Lord was gentle with us and allowed our weekend to be lighter than we imagined to be possible. Sunday was Lanceโs birthday. Terrible timing in some ways, but by the grace of God, we were able to celebrate. We were able to be honest and say we are both so very sad, but we can somehow still enjoy this day. We escaped to Malibu for a much needed day with just the three of us. We skipped church and responsibilities for a day. We were sad. We were grieving. But the Lord met us where we were that weekend and somehow gave us lighter hearts. We had the perfect lunch in an outdoor gastropub in Malibu. We literally had the patio all to ourselves. It was quiet and peaceful. We explored beach caves and took in the salty, fresh air. There was an underlying sadness in it all, but it was still, despite everything, a good day.
Handle with Care
And then Monday hit and it was like we woke up and realized this was in fact our reality.
Monday brought a wave of deep sadness. It all seemed to finally hit me. It was the start of a week full of bloodwork, doctorโs appointments, a final ultrasound, and surgery. Not a ton to look forward to. This day, I felt especially on edge. As we waited to be called back for bloodwork, we went to my OB’s office to explain to them how I was unable to get blood drawn on Saturday since the Lap Corp was closed. I needed to move my Tuesday doctorโs appointment for this reason. I was fully caught off guard when I was met with a harsh tone questioning if I tried all the Lap Corp locations. A harsh tone questioning my decision making was the last thing I needed as I was going through a miscarriage!
This small interaction made me lose it. I held it together, but as we left the office I again burst into tears. Do they realize what is going on here? I felt like I needed to be wearing a shirt that stated I needed to be handled with extra care and gentleness. I really wish it was explained to me which locations were open. Grief puts a hold on logic. I did not think to call up a bunch of locations. I simply drove to the one my map showed me and the sign said closed, so I went home.
The rest of the week was weird. There was a lot of grief, but it was also mixed with a tiny amount of hope. I was still carrying our baby. There was still no blood. There were no external symptoms that I was miscarrying. If I had not gone into that ultrasound, I would still be strutting around happily with my little bump.
A Missed Miscarriage
To me, this has been one of the most confusing parts. I had a missed miscarriage, which means that my body never registered that the pregnancy was no longer viable. My body did not want to let go. And in some ways this frustrates me, but in a lot of other ways it makes me feel proud. Just like my heart, my whole body wanted to hold onto this little life as long as possible. By the time I had my surgery, it was already three weeks that the babyโs heartbeat stopped. Even though in some ways I feel like my body failed me, I also feel like it fought so hard to keep and protect our baby. And for that I feel thankful.
So in the days between Monday and Thursday (the day the miscarriage was officially confirmed), I spent most of my time either on the couch, at an appointment or in prayer praying for some kind of miracle. There was a lot of Greyโs Anatomy and Gilmore Girls consumed. Lots of Googling. Lots of sitting and waiting and blood work.
This in-between time was painful. I knew deep down what the result of the week would be, but in these days there was still a small string of hope. I was still carrying a baby. It was likely not alive, but it was still in my tummy and things just felt strange.
Miscarrying during a pandemic is extra lonely. Lance could not even step foot into the hospital, he literally had to just drop me off. I took this photo and sent it to him before the procedure.
Closure + Covid Tests
In a lot of ways, Thursday brought a sense of closure. Thursday brought peace in a strange way and I actually felt like I could finally and fully grieve our lost baby. Thursday also brought frustration as I again was stuck in a doctorโs office waiting over an hour after the final ultrasound again showed me our sweet tiny babe with no heartbeat.
Then I had to deal with an uninterested and uninformed lady who was in charge of scheduling my surgery. I had to get a rapid result Covid test in order to have my surgery the next day. She had no idea where I could get one, so as she sat on the phone distracted, I had to research on my own the best place to get Covid test results the same day. Again, it might sound small, but this was just another stressor that added to my grief.
After an exhausting day of running around doing yet another round of bloodwork and driving to get the Covid test, I finally returned to my spot on the couch. And this is the place I have spent most of my time since surgery on Friday. I donโt really care to go into the details, but the whole procedure went smoothly. The nurses were kind. And Taylor Swift thoughtfully released a new album the day before, so Folklore kept me company as I waited alone on the hospital bed. For what it was, the Lord absolutely used these small details to bring me comfort and peace as I was literally losing my baby from within me.
The Sunday after my D&C procedure, we again escaped to Malibu. In a lot of ways, Malibu was our place of healing.
Days Following D&C Surgery
In the days following the procedure, I have found myself not crying much. This seemed strange at first, but grief operates in a weird way. I have good days and bad days. Days where my heart stings all day long and days where I feel light and hopeful. In the good and the bad, Lance and I have felt so deeply cared for. From the flowers delivered to our door to the gracious friends and family bringing over a meal to the text check-ins and phone calls, we feel the love. We feel covered in prayers and we feel well taken care of.
I am not exactly sure what the next days or even weeks will look like. I am taking things one day at a time. Actually one moment at a time. I have minimized my days and really only focusing on the things that matter. I mostly stay at home. I occasionally do a few normal things, like dishes and laundry. I return to the couch every time I begin to feel overwhelmed and tired. I am taking things slow. I am running. I am praying. I am asking for help. I have never walked through something like this before and I donโt really know how to do it well. All I do know is that I need grace and a lot of it. I need Jesus more now that I ever thought I did before.
This man has been our rock. He has kept things going as I have had to take a major step back from the daily things I normally do. Extra thankful to walk through this together.
Our Why
I share this story because I hope it can give you a deeper perspective on the word miscarriage. I hope it can better humanize this very real (and sadly, very common) experience. I hope it can make you feel a little less alone if you too have experienced this type of loss or are currently going through it today. I hope it can help you better understand the experience if you have a friend or family member going through it. Ultimately, I hope our story points you to a loving Father. One who doesn’t always prevent his children from enduring pain and loss, but One that walks right alongside us through it all.
Also, I share this story because I am terrible at faking things. I am terrible at pretending everything is okay when I just lost our baby. I can’t simply move on. I need to share. I need to put words to how I am feeling. And mostly, I need to honor our baby. We lost our baby so early that I don’t even have a healthy ultrasound photo. I do not have any official pregnancy announcement photo. All I have are these words and a heart longing to one day meet our baby in heaven.
