Minimalist Playroom and Kids Library Tour

Here is a tour of our kids' playroom. We have come a long way over the last year from toy hordes to striving for toy minimalism. We are constantly purging toys that we no longer love and our playroom has become a peaceful haven for fun and creative play. Every toy has a place and this room is super easy to clean and organize. This is my favorite room in the house!

First Grade Back to School Shopping Haul From Target!

Niko is going back to school! Here is what we picked up from Target this week using his new school's list and some extra fun supplies! We love back to school shopping!

Minimalist home-school resources tour and organization. First grade and preschool.

I am back! My kids are 5.5 and 3.5 and I going to start blogging again about our amazing supplemental home-school journey. My kids have completely different interests and learn in very different way. The only thing they have in common is that they love to learn. Since life is so hectic, I am going to switch over to my YouTube videos. 

Mr. B's Favorite Toys: 2-3 Years Old

Mr. B received a HUGE amount of birthday presents for his third birthday and we can't wait to explore them all. All these presents got me thinking about Mr. B's favorite toys from the last year.

Here are Mr. B's most played with toys from ages 2-3:

Imaginext 















Mr. B has two sets that he plays with all the time: the Fire Station and the Pirate Ship. These sets are very large and expensive but they do get a lot of play. We rotate toys constantly and the pirate ship is the only toy consistently kept in the playroom because he plays with it almost every day.

Toobs

I have been adding Toobs to all of our unit studies because Mr. B loves them. They are excellent manipulatives and make learning so much fun. Some of our favorite Toobs are The World Landmarks Toob (Mr. B still sleeps with his landmark toys), the Coral Reef Toob, the Space Toob (which started it all) and the Presidents Toob.

Dress Up Clothes 

Mr. B is ALWAYS in costume and his dress up box has become very full during the last year (thanks to thrift stores and Halloween sales). His favorite costume is of course his Darth Vader mask and helmet. He also loves to dress up as heroes (batman, superman, firefighters and police officers), construction workers and, recently, Harry Potter.

Weapons 

Mr. B has collected a plastic arsenal of weapons. He has enough swords, light sabers and wands to conquer a small imaginary kingdom. These are probably his favorite toys of all because he goes completely crazy for them (the promise of a pirate sword got him to use the potty after months of refusing).

Lego/Duplo 


Mr. B always ends up building himself more weapons out of Duplo (mostly elaborate laser blasters). He also loves Lego and recently started putting together the junior sets on his own. He loves the larger sets too and one of our favorite activities is putting them together. I buy Lego all the time because we all love it and are constantly building.

12 Piece Melissa & Doug Jigsaw Puzzles 

The puzzles with the wooden backing are perfect because Mr. B doesn't have to work on a flat surface (he can also bring the puzzle to me to show off his work when he's done!). The bright colors also make the pieces easier to put together. 12 pieces seems to be the magic number for the last few months because he gets overwhelmed with more difficult puzzles.

Dinosaur Digging Kits 

I found a few  kits at a consignment sale and Mr. B got hooked. He loves finding surprises so these kits are a lot of fun.

Vehicles 

Mr. B loves getting and playing with small cars (especially the cars from the Cars movies). I find these very cheap at thrift stores (about $3 for a bag) and give them out as special treats. Mr. B has amassed quite a few. He's recently started watching YouTube videos where these cars are raced on ramps so that may be what he will start asking for soon.

Sidewalk Chalk

Chalk is currently Mr. B's favorite medium. He will happily go outside and draw all over the cement in the back yard and has recently started practicing his letters. It seems easier for him than crayon or pencil.


Figurines 

Mr. B loves imaginary play so he treats his figurines like family members. They go everywhere with him. We love to get the sets at the Disney Store because they are based on his favorite movies.

Little People 

Mr. B has been a fan of Little People since he was a baby. I keep a huge container of these in the garage and get it out for him several times a month. I am always looking for more pieces at thrift stores. They are perfect for hours of imaginary play.

Sports

Mr. B received a T-Ball set for his second birthday and played with it every day. He recently received a baseball mitt and loves to play catch. He isn't crazy about riding bikes but loves his scooter and Little Tikes Cozy Coupe. 

Learning Resources Pretend & Play Doctor Set is another post. 

Other well loved toys include musical instruments (like his harmonica), the Green Toys Rocket Play-set and anything that his sister is currently playing with. 

Mr. B's Top Read Books: 2.5-3 Years Old

Mr. B turned three last weekend (on Halloween!!!). I have been absent from writing during the last few weeks planning Halloween and his birthday bash.

This is a good opportunity to discuss some of his favorites during the last half year. I listed his top read books from two to two-and-a-half here.

Here are his top read books from two-and-a-half to three years old:

The Berenstain Bears First Time Books

Mr. B found my huge stash of these books a few months ago. We have only read a handful so far because they are not all developmentally appropriate (I like to use these book to introduce him to complex social situations). Of the ones we've read, Mr. B is fixated on Trick or Treat, Get the Gimmies and the Green-Eyed Monster. These three books are perfect for his current developmental level because they deal with deceiving appearances, greed/tantrums and envy. These books are absolutely amazing and we love them!

Magic School Bus Level 2 Scholastic Readers

Mr. B loves science but is not quite ready for any of the other Magic School Bus books. These readers are perfect for him and we are constantly re-reading the handful that I have managed to collect. I hope that Mr. B comes to appreciate the Magic School Bus series as much as I do.

Open House (A Lift-The-Flap Book) by Steve Noon

Mr. B loves books with flaps. I initially bought this book at a thrift store and several of its pages were damaged. Mr. B loved this book and constantly complained about the missing flaps so I ended up buying him a new one. This book takes the reader through a Roman Street, a Scottish Tower, a Dutch Home, a French Farmhouse, A Country Mansion, A Japanese House and an American Store. There is so much to explore in this book and each flap is filled with fun conversation starters.

Wacky Wednesday by Theo. LeSieg (AKA Dr. Seuss)

This is a "what is wrong with this picture" book. Mr. B had to read this before bed every night for months. I'm so tired of this book.

Olivia Helps with Christmas

Mr. B loves Olivia and her brothers. This is a very cute and funny book about the Pig family's Christmas.

The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman

This is a great rhyming book about a very large family full of picky eaters. This one is a pleasure to read and the pictures are so much fun to explore, adding so much to the story.

Jimmy Zangwow's Out-Of-This-World Moon Pie Adventure by Toy DiTerlizzi

This book is about a boy who goes on a silly quest in outer-space for moon pies and milk. This is a very fun book and one of Mr. B's favorites.

Frozen Sing-Along Storybook 

This is a very long book. I, personally, have had enough of Frozen but the pictures in t his book are beautiful and the story is well written (it's better than watching the movie three times a day).

Mike Fink by Steven Kellogg

We are HUGE Steven Kellogg fans and I try to collect everything with his name on it. Mr. B was obsessed with this book for quite a while even though I still think that it's way too advanced for him. I'm very glad that he didn't ask too many questions about some of the more disturbing things that happened because I'm not ready to discuss them.

George Shrinks by William Joyce

This is a very simple book about a little boy with a to-do list from his parents. I appreciate it because it's a very quick read (especially after reading the Frozen book for half an hour) and Joyce has a good sense of humor.

Mr. B's other 2.5-3 year old favorites are the Mercer Mayer Monster books, Vigfus the Viking and Space Station Mars.

Adding The Great Barrier Reef to our Australia Box

As we dove deeper into our Australia unit I realized that we should probably cover The Great Barrier Reef while we're here (pun intended).  I picked up a Coral Reef Toob at Michaels ($5 with 50% off coupon), printed out some photos of real life Barrier Reef fish from The Helpful Garden for a matching exercise and took a look through our book collection. There are almost no kid-friendly Barrier Reef Books at our library but I did manage to find The Magic School Bus Takes a Dive (about the coral reef) in our collection. 

I also realized that we already own the best Great Barrier Reef resource of all: Finding Nemo! 

Mr. B had an absolute blast learning the names of the fish in the Toob (he recognized Nemo and Dory right away) and was very excited to match his toys to the sea creatures introduced in the movie. I also added a few more sea creatures from our collection (i.e. sea turtle, sharks, dolphins, etc). 

This may be his favorite unit ever! He has been carrying a basket full of the Toob fish with him everywhere and plays with them all the time. 

I also found a fun idea on Creekside Learning involving turning a water table into the Great Barrier Reef. I think that we are definitely going to try this next time we cover Australia again. 

Human Body Unit

It's time to add a new unit to our study. Since Halloween (our favorite holiday) is coming up, this is a great time for a human body unit. Mr. B loves skeletons and has a good grasp of the basics. We've been working on putting together a model skeleton and a life size foam skeleton but it's time to take it to the next level. I'm going all out with this unit. 

Our Manipulatives

Today I purchased the skeleton which we can also use as a decoration for Halloween (this guy was on sale at Michaels for $8 after 50% off). Also, last month I ran into a brand new Human Torso which I scored for $2.50. I'm going to wrap this up and present it to Mr. B as an early birthday present tomorrow. Finally, the model skeleton and the foam puzzle are tools we've been working with for several months. 

Hopefully I can get him really excited about this unit! 

Our Books 

I have gathered a large collection of books about the human body and the senses (and these are just the age appropriate ones). Alive is Mr. B's all time favorite book. He's been obsessed with it since before he could talk. 

I also ordered a few additional books from the library: 

• A Drop of Blood by Paul Showers
• Bones by Stephen Krensky
• Human Body by Kathleen Zoehfeld 

I also ordered Usborne's See Inside Your Body by Katie Daynes and Colin King from Amazon. It should arrive tomorrow (this is another early birthday present). 

Projects

I just finished putting together this skeleton puzzle from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I printed out the organs, laminated the pieces and attached sticky Velcro tape to the pieces so that Mr. B can practice putting the bones and organs together on the foam board. 

Our other project will be to trace Mr. B's body on to a long sheet of butcher paper and glue life sized organs to the picture. We'll get to this later.

The Reveal: 

I presented Mr. B with the large plastic skeleton/Halloween decoration first and he instantly fell in love with it. He insisted on taking the skeleton everywhere with him and designated it his new best friend. We read The Magic School Bus Fixes a Bone and Mr. B was really excited that he had a skeleton just like the class had in the book.

I also gave Mr. B the human torso and he spent most of the day taking out the organs and putting them back. 

He was not as excited about the Velcro skeleton. I also tried to read "Inside Your Outside! (Cat in the Hat) but Mr. B lost interest half way through. 

Today was actually a pretty difficult day and not a successful homeschooling experience. Hopefully we will have better luck tomorrow (Library Day!).