Books - Thanksgiving/Fall

I have had so much fun finding books to help Man Cub learn about holidays and seasons. Thanksgiving and Fall were so fun, there are so many wonderfully books out there!! 

First Day - December

Fashionably late, but I didn't want to skip a month so here is ...

Pumpkins

In order to fully enjoy Halloween I wanted to do a bunch of Pumpkin activities. 

The first up was the Local Pumpkin  Patch :) They have an awesome set up with rides and play areas. We made a whole trip out of it with cousins and had an awesome day! 

Pumpkin #1 was decorated with thumbtacks. I had seen the idea on Pinterest, but simplified it a bit. Maybe we will try it again in a few years and see if Man Cub tries to be a bit more organized in the placement of the thumbtacks. 

 Pumpkin #2 was decorated with Mod Podge and tissue paper. I don't have a lot of good pictures because it took a bit of assistance :) Man Cub loved using the paint brush and the end result was super cute. 

 Pumpkin #3 was another pinterest idea :) Melted Crayons!! Man Cub wasn't to excited about the blow dryer, but once the crayons started melted he got into it.

 Pumpkin #4 was decorated with Glitter and Glue. Man Cub really loves glue :) and once again this pumpkin turned out super cute!

Pumpkin #5 was the last one pumpkin and this was supervised by DH. I am not into cleaning the guts out of a pumpkin :) so DH put it all together and helped Man Cub carve up the pumpkin. And as you can tell Man Cub had a great time!

Books - Halloween

We have an awesome library right down the street from us and one of the things I have been trying to do is take advantage of being within walking distance of the library :) In the beginning of October I put a bunch of books on hold that would help introduce the Halloween theme to Man Cub. 

1. The Runaway Pumpkin 

An adorable story about a family and the pumpkin that runs away through their farm. 

2. Five Little Pumpkins

A cute rhyming book that has a good counting theme.

3. Brooms are for Flying

Man Cub loved this one!! It has a super simple wording that is fun to act out :)

4. What do you Do when a Monster says Boo?

Not necessarily a Halloween book, but it works. A cute story about a brother and his little sister monster. 

5. Dem Bones

Foot bones connected to da ankle bone, Ankle Bones connected to do Femur bone, etc ...

6. Big Pumpkin

All about a witch who wants to make pumpkin pie, but can't get the pumpkin off the vine. All sorts of Halloween characters come along to help. 

7. The Pumpkin Book 

This is a little old for Man Cub, but he enjoyed looking at the pictures of Pumpkins.

Signing Time - Halloween

I am not sure if I have talked about this much on my blog, but we are huge Signing Time users :) Little Man Cub has what would be considered a significant speech delay. He is learning to talk, but it's slow and we were starting to see some behavior issues stemming from aggravation at not being understood. Enter Baby Signing Time. All of a sudden he could communicate what he wanted!! and the amazing part was that as he learned signs he was also learning to say the words!! It was a serious game changer :) So we invested in the entire set of Baby signing time videos, books, flash cards, and music CDs and got started. It was wonderful to see the change it brought to our Man Cub; he was finally able to let me know what he wanted to eat, where he wanted to go, what he was playing with, etc ... It was so good that when a sale on Signing Time DVDs came up I invested in Series One of Signing Time. 

Signing Time has been a serious answer to prayers for us and has become a huge part of our lives. Halloween came around I really wanted to teach Man Cub to say Happy Halloween and to ask for Candy, but I knew that he wouldn't be able to say it. Well, after a quick Google search I discovered Signing Time Holiday Videos on YouTube!! 

Here is the first Holiday Video we have used 

And now Here is Man Cub showing off his new words :) 

He normally uses both hands for Halloween, but he  was being bribed with getting to watch a show and got detracted :/

Preschool - Halloween Week

I'm linking up at Homeschool Creations for Preschool Corner again!!

It was Halloween week and I really wanted to enjoy it, so most of our activities are Halloween themed :)

Sunday  -  we made another pumpkin!! This pumpkin was decorated with glitter and glue.

Monday  -  we had our October sensory tub and some Halloween stamps

Tuesday   -   Halloween pattern cards ... Man Cub didn't really understand how to complete the pattern cards so they ended up being more of a matching game. 

Also as a bonus he got to carve a pumpkin with daddy at night!!

Wednesday  -  HALLOWEEN!! For Halloween morning we headed to the local zoo; the zoo was decorated for halloween, had bouncy houses, and a special nocturnal animal show. In the evening we headed over to Grandma's for some trick-or-treating dressed as Peter Pan and a Lost Boy. 

Thursday -  Lift the flap and Match puzzle

Friday -  It's a bit of a stretch to call this educational, but DH and Man Cub took our old 1977 Cadillac out to get some work done when it caught on fire!! Yup, FIRE!!! Well from there Man Cub got to see a police man, a fire truck, a tow truck, and then a quick trip to the tow yard to see a fork lift ... see educational :) plus he now listens very well every time I say something is hot. Afterwards we went out to lunch at Chick-fil-a; not educational, but delicious! 

First Day - October

Linking up at Journey to Josie again this month!

Disney Family Night: Up

We are continuing with our Disney movie nights (thanks Counting Coconuts) in preparation of Disneyland; on the agenda this time was Up. I printed out a house template for all the kids (and Auntie Stephy) to color and cut out. Then we attached balloons so we all had our very own up houses! Later on during the movie the kids got chocolate bars when the Up characters had chocolate bars :)

Busy decorating!

the completed houses floating in my room. 

A quick update...

via my cell phone :)

bouncy fun/ shape and color matching/ walk time/ my little charlie brown

dirty crawling knees/ farmer's market flowers/ first time in the backpack carrier/ horsey ride from Uncle P

my view from the computer/ playdough/ water fountain fun with cousin D./ getting chores done 

organizing books/ super cool/ beach day with cousin V./ evening bike ride

tired baby/ Uncles crazy game "scooter basketball"/ new carseats/ sunbathing with cousin R.

slurpees with Uncle M./ Cashed in our Disney Rewards!/ More Uncle time/ happy little man

Waiting for Grandma/ Man Cubs Costume/ yup... more Uncle time/ Batman!

Man Cub put Chunky Monkey outside?!?!/ making a pirate face/ Uncle M liked his birthday gift/ DH got a day off to hang with the guys!

Chunky Monkey was hot/ I love that face/ movie night with DH/ making a paper leaf wreath