Virtual Book Club

In September I joined a virtual book club on Facebook. It's timing was perfect since we have instituted a no TV policy for Anna unless she uses the potty. I knew I would need extra ideas on how to keep this kid (who doesn't nap anymore) busy.  We thought this would be the magic thing we did to motivate her to get out of diapers but so far (7 weeks in) she hasn't gone at all. *Sigh* We thought maybe after a week or two she'd give in because she was complaining a little bit. I reminded her of the rules and her response was "Sometimes rules change Mommy". After this response we knew we had to stay with it and we've done really well. The only exception was when she stayed with the Grandparents while Kevin and I took a trip. Now she tells me she will go when she turns 4. I'll believe it when I see it. In the meantime we've been having a really fun time doing book club activities. It focuses me a little bit, provides tons of ideas, and keeps me accountable. It also helped me learn about the collage studio on my phone that I had no idea was there! Below are some of the things we've done the last couple of months. I don't have pictures of everything but a pretty good representation of what we've up to.

This particular week we read Should I Share My Ice Cream by Mo Willems and talked about friendship. The girls made cards for their friends telling them something they liked about them and Anna made friendship bracelets. We also pulled out our pumpkin play dough to spell our friends names. 

Another week was Pumpkin week and we read Five Little Pumpkins by Dan Yaccarino. This was a very fun filled week (I was feeling excited about fall and therefore very motivated). We made mosaic pumpkins, did counting with our pumpkin play dough, used our dot markers for some worksheets, made pumpkin shaped borax crystals, and decorated a pumpkin. 

Another week we read Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle for Farm week. That week we visited Deanna Rose to see the animals and did watercolors to make our own little blue trucks.

We had fun with Spiders a couple weeks ago when we read The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. One project included making sparkly spider webs. 

We also made these little spiders out of paper plates which I am in love with. I came up with this idea by myself which I was proud of and I think they turned out super cute.

Last week was Night week and we read Time for Bed by Mem Fox. Anna did a star number recognition game, we practiced some relaxation stretches, and decorated stars so we could sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. 

We also did some crayon resist watercolor painting and the girls found their name in the night sky. They also decorated cups and poked holes in them. Then we stuck a glow stick in them and looked at them in the dark.

Back in September we read Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert. This was another one of my favorite weeks and we did a lot of activities. It was a gorgeous week outside so we went on lots of walks and collected tons of stuff to make our own leaf people. 

Jane had a little bit more direction with hers but I was still impressed with what she came up with. Anna pretty much constructed everything herself and I was super impressed with her little guy. It looks a lot like these little people she's been drawing lately and it was fun seeing her create him with tree parts. 

There have been a couple other books including Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr Suess for Apple week (this was our first book and my pictures aren't that great) and this week we are doing Owls and reading Owl Babies by Martin Waddell. With Halloween we've had a slow start on activities but hopefully I can get motivated and do something fun later today.