Nephi Traveling to the Promised Land

Monday - I introduced the account with pictures from ldsfamilyfun.com. We sang All the Folks on Nephi's Boat from Scripture Scouts

Tuesday -  We colored a picture of Nephi steering the ship from ldsfamilyfun.com while singing out song.

Wednesday - We all pretended we were on Nephi's boat (our couch). I, then, pretended to be Laman and tied Nephi (James and Emma) up in a blanket. We then rocked back and forth and up and down as if we were tossed in a storm (much giggling) until Nephi was finally let go.

Thursday - Repeat of the very popular Wednesday.

Friday - We retold the story using Little Hands Visuals from LatterDay Chatter.

Nephi Building the Boat

Every day we start scripture time by holding our Book of Mormons and singing the chorus of Scripture Power. James and Emma now love the song and like to sing it with great vigor. :) A few weeks ago we studied the account of Nephi building the boat. Here's how our week went.

Monday - I introduced the story with pictures (free!) from ldsfamilyfun.com. At this site you can download coloring pages from the Living Scriptures videos. We don't actually own these videos, but I do like using some of the coloring pages to help tell the story. In an ideal world I have time to color the pages I am going to use before I introduce the story. However, you can often find my oldest two coloring the pages Sunday night, or occasionally I tell the story without the pages colored at all. You can download A LOT of pages for each story, but I find that the twins lose interest if there are too many. I try and pick just a few to tell the basics of the story. We sang Chop, Saw, Hammer and Chip from Scripture Scouts, Nephi's Boat from Scripture Scouts, and Nephi's Courage from the Children's Songbook.

Tuesday - We colored one page from our story, Nephi building the boat while singing our three songs.

Wednesday - We built Nephi's boat out of legos.

Friday - We retold the story with our songs.

Trucks, Trucks, Trucks

Last week our twinkie time was all about trucks! Here's what our week looked like -

Monday Table Time - Shadow Matching from Little Adventures Tot Packs
              Floor Time - Masking Tape Roads for our cars to drive on

Tuesday Table Time - Tested out what kind of tracks our cars made in playdough
              Floor Time - Masking Tape Roads (twins insisted :) )

Wednesday Table Time - Practiced writing our names (the twins watched and then had fun scribbling)
                   Floor Time - Had a car wash in the kitchen sink (this was a BIG hit!)

Friday Table Time - Color Truck Splat Matching from Little Adventures Tot Packs
           Floor Time - Played Stop! and Go! with our trucks

Some of our favorite truck books include:

Roadwork by Sally Sutton
Demolition by Sally Sutton
My Truck is Stuck! by Kevin Lewis
Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site by Sherri Rinker
Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle
Little Blue Truck Leads the Way by Alice Schertle

Lehi's Dream

Last week we learned all about Lehi's Dream. Here's the run down of how the week went...

Monday - I told the twins the story using some fantastic visuals from Latterday Chatter. I love her Little Hands series. I have a variety of story telling props for scripture stories, but the twins love these the most simply because they are, as she so aptly named, made for little hands. They are just the right size for my toddlers to handle and play with. I typically like to use free resources, but these were a purchase that I felt were worth every penny.

Tuesday - I drew a picture of a tree and some fruit that the twins colored while I sang, 'The Fruit of the Tree' from Scripture Scouts and the chorus 'The Iron Rod' from the Hymn Book. I usually just sing the songs over and over and pretty soon the kiddos are singing with me.

Wednesday - I pulled out one of our little Christmas trees, threw some oranges in it, pulled out our broom and sang while the twins took turns holding the iron rod and taking the fruit off the tree. They especially liked eating the fruit.

Thursday - Wednesday was such a hit that we repeated it Thursday, though James wanted to know why we weren't getting the rest of the Christmas decorations out. :)

Friday - We retold the story with the Little Hands visuals while singing the songs.

How does this all work?

Here's how a normal Twinkie Time morning works...

9:00 Scripture Time
9:10 Free Play while I clean, vacuum, generally get stuff done
9:40 Calendar Time
9:45 Singing Time
10:00 Twinkie Table Time
10:15 Twinkie Floor Time

While we do many other things together throughout the day (read, bake, play etc.), this is time that I have set aside just for them, where they have my undivided attention, no matter what.

What is Calendar Time?

This one is short and sweet. I have a calendar space in our school room (our local school store was going out of business and I was able to purchase these calendar items for 50% off. Lovely :) ) where the twins and I gather for just a few minutes every day. We pull out our special red polka dot pillows to sit on and sing our days of the week song. They actually aren't on those pillows long as they each have a pointer that they love to come up and point to the days of the week on the poster while we sing it. They have loved doing this so much that we now have holes in our poster. Oh well, it was only $1. We then say the date and stick on the corresponding calendar cover. Next we sing our weather song and mark on Mr. Frog's forecast what the weather will be. Usually cold. What am I saying??? It's always cold. Last we point out our letter and make it's sound,  point our number and count the objects, and see what color Mr. Mouse is painting today. That's it. Short and sweet.

What is Singing Time?

I believe deep down in my soul that 'a child who sings is a happy child' (Elder Falabella, April 2013 General Conference). We are constantly singing in our house, from sun up to sun down. Over the years I have collected many fun singing props and instruments that I love to use with my children. I have found it's easiest for me to remember to do this if I have a designated Singing Time.

The twins always know it's singing time when our singing time blanket and our welcome song begins (Here We Are Together with some fun puppets). They usually rush over and plop themselves on the blanket, ready to sing. When they were really little, it was more of them listening to me sing. As they have gotten older, they are beginning to sing more of the songs with me. They really like it when I pause and have them fill in the last word of the phrase, they think it is great fun.

So how does it work? I could come up with all kinds of complex singing time plans, but I don't. I just fill a bin with props for five or six songs and the twins take turns picking out a prop. We then sing the song and the other toddler gets the chance to pick the next song. That's it, nothing complex goes on in this house. :) At the end of each singing time - either when the bin is empty or the twins are getting restless - I pull out the instruments and the picture of Pres. Monson and we start banging around on our instruments while singing the chorus to Follow the Prophet. After we sing a few songs with the instruments we usually end with I Am A Child of God on the jingle bells. Like I said, nothing complex here.

What is Twinkie Floor Time?

Twinkie Floor Time is the favorite time of day in our house. When it's Twinkie Floor Time we push aside our ottoman, clearing out a large place on our carpet, lay on our bellies and play together - just Mom, Emma, and James. We make sure there are no interruptions, no matter what! This is very important as our days are usually nothing but interruptions.

I use this time to pull out one specific toy or participate in a specific activity. I like to use what may be considered more educational toys; such as blocks, counting bears, lacing beads etc. Melissa and Doug are my favorite toys, but they are a budget buster! Over the years I have saved for and used many a 40% off coupon to purchase a few. But any toy will work as long as you are enjoying the moment with your little one. One of our recent favorites was taking a roll of painters tape and creating a road all over the family room for our cars to drive on.

Sometimes we don't use toys at all, instead we play running and jumping games. I think the most important thing about Twinkie Floor Time is that is all about Mom's undivided attention.

What is Twinkie Table Time?

As I thought and researched over how to provide meaningful activities for my twinkies, I decided that I wanted to have a time each day devoted to developing fine motor skills through a variety of art projects. When my two older children, now 12 and 10, were toddlers, I had an intense fear of the mess created from any sort of art project, so I tended to avoid them at all costs. At my oldest daughter's first parent/teacher conference her kindergarten teacher fixated on my daughter's lack of glue skills. It seemed to be really quite traumatic for this teacher. So, in an effort to not scar any additional kindergarten teachers, I opted to have twinkie table time.

Twinkie table time is a designated time (30 sec to 30 min. - totally child directed) where the twins are provided with an opportunity to engage in a variety of art mediums such as the ever important glue, paint, playdough etc. As the title describes, all of our art projects take place at the table. We have a tendency to struggle staying in one spot for more than 2 seconds, so this has been a great way to increase our ability to sit still.

I am all about themes, so I enjoy centering our twinkie table time around weekly themes. While I wish I had all the time in the world to design and implement toddler themes, I just don't. So I have opted to use Tot Packs from Little Adventures Preschool. They can be found here. I have only purchased the January - May bunch ($12), but have really enjoyed them so far. We don't do everything listed in the packs, but I like the option to pick and choose from something already completed. We alternate these activities with more open ended ones - such as dot painting, finger painting etc.

For as much as I used to hate art projects, I have come to adore them. Bring on the finger paint (as long as the babies are only in their diapers)!

What is Scripture Time?

We like to start off our mornings with Scripture Time. As my babies are not quite 2 1/2, I try and keep it short and sweet. I'm always amazed at how much they pick up in our little morning jaunt in the scriptures.

I decided to start off with the Book of Mormon. It's very important to me that my kiddos are familiar with the stories found in the scriptures, I believe that creating familiarity is laying the groundwork for testimony. I searched far and wide through the vast expanses of the internet to find a toddler scripture reading program that would work for us. I ended up gleaning from several different sites and creating what works for us.

Our weekly schedule is as follows -

Monday - Introduce the story with pictures and songs

Tuesday - Quick retell of story, art project with songs

Wednesday - Acting out the story with songs

Thursday - Art project or reenacting with songs

Friday - Reviewing the story with different medium (flannel board etc.)

We use many different resources for these activities, but I think it is important to mention here that we are as poor as church mice at the moment. My husband is in the last portion of his residency and money is exceptionally tight. Almost everything I use is either free, next to free, been given to us, or has been carefully evaluated and considered worth the purchase price. I find it so discouraging to come across something that I think will be great for our family only to realize we can't afford it. So the resources seen here will be cost effective because that is just the way we roll. :)

What in the world is Twinkie Time?

These are my twinkies.

My little twinkies, James and Emma, are 28 months old. Last month we started Twinkie Time, which simply is purposeful learning and play. James and Emma are #3 and #4 in our home and I had come to the realization that they were starting to get lost in the shuffle. Thus Twinkie Time was born.

Twinkie Time consists of a few different activities throughout the morning. We have Scripture Time, Calendar Time, Singing Time, Twinkie Table Time and Twinkie Floor Time. The only real rule we have for each of these little pockets of time is that James and Emma get Mom's undivided attention. 

As a mother of four children ages 12 - 2, I know from first hand experience that mothering is all about trying to figure out what works for your family. As soon as we get a good thing going, it seems like it's not going that good anymore. :) So take what you will from this silly little blog, and know that most days we are just working on keeping our head above water.

This blog is dedicated to my cute sister, Samantha. Hopefully you can find a thing or two to do with Baby Sawyer.