Book Basket ~ January & February

At the end of each month we want to give you a 'heads up' of the books that will be used in the two upcoming months for several of our features: Little Books for Little Cooks, Now I Know My ABC's, and Once Upon a Book. These lists are to help you out so you can be looking for the books at your library, digging through your stacks in search of them, or order those 'must haves'!

Here are the books that we are planning to use during the months of January and February:

Little Books for Little Cooks






Now I Know My ABC's





Once Upon a Book

Terrific Tot Sites ~ Up to Ten

UptoTen.com is a site that has over 1,300 free games for children ~ mazes, puzzles, coloring pages, songs, stories and more. While some of them are geared toward older children, there are more than a few that can be played with your little one!

Image copyright UptoTen.com

A neat feature of the site is the Boowa & Kwala ‘First Clicks’ tutorials. The ‘First Clicks’ lessons guide your child through different basic keyboard lessons that gradually build up in difficulty ~ things like mouse rollover, click and action, or click and color. Depending on your child’s computer abilities, he can learn some basic skills here through fun and simple games and activities.

Image copyright UptoTen.com

If you are searching for a particular type of game or if you want to focus on a specific educational category, the search pages are handy! You can type in a question, or choose the category you are hunting for to find a game targeted to that area.

Image copyright UptoTen.com

Once you decide on the category you are looking for, your search results are sorted by the title/description, category, age range, site popularity, and also provides the skills that the activity will focus on {memory, listening, observation, understanding, oral expression, etc…}.

Some of the fun games we enjoyed: Dress Your Daddy, Hide and Seek in the Dark, Hanging Lamp Patterns, Salty or Sweet, and Kite Pairs. The site offers many other games too, so stop by and check them out!

Hope you enjoy this Terrific Tot Site! To see more featured sites, click here!

Once Upon a Book ~ Happy Birthday, Jesus

Happy Birthday, Jesus

by Kim Mitzo Thompson

Summary: Join Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds, and the angels as they celebrate the birth of Jesus in this charming book and CD set. The wonderful original song follows the story word-for-word so young readers can sing along with each page on their own.

Daily Activities

Supplies needed: Plain wrapping paper, markers and crayons, white/cream construction paper, flour, salt, water, peppermint extract, cake mix, frosting and decorations.

Dec 21: Birthday Banner

Make a birthday banner to hang this week in the house to celebrate Jesus' birthday.

Dec 22: Candy Cane J ornament 

Draw the letter J {free hand} and let your LO decorate it with strips of red and white paper. Punch a hole and tie some yarn so it hangs like a J on your Christmas Tree.

Dec 23: Candy Cane Playdoh

Dec 24: Make and Decorate a Birthday Cake

Gather up your baking and decorating supplies to bake and decorate a birthday cake for Jesus.

Dec 25: Sing Happy Birthday

Sing Happy Birthday to Jesus!

Bible Memory

December’s Bible Verse: “For there is born to you this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11

Add the verse reference this week and recite the whole verse together! Great job!!

Want to see what's coming next (and books we've done in the past)? Click here to see our Once Upon a Book webpage!

The New Year Ahead…

We are pleased to have the new 2010 writing team finalized and are really excited to reveal the new moms on board! Please join us (the existing team members) in welcoming the following new ladies to the Totally Tots team…

• Erica from Confessions of a Homeschooler
• Crafty Corner


• Erin from Home Grown Hearts
• Once Upon a Book


• Jenn from Mama Jenn
• Once Upon a Book
• Simply Made


• Jodi from Granola Mom 4 God
• Once Upon a Book

You will see their bios and also updated bios from our current team members coming soon!

We are also excited to share some new features coming your way in January…

• From Tots to Teens
• Biblically based parenting


• Mommy Made Printables
• a collection of printables made by moms focused on our monthly theme


• Play with Me
• ideas for playing with a specific open-ended toy of the month


• Little Books for Little Cooks
• tots in the kitchen with mom

A few existing features have undergone a bit of a makeover, you’ll see the changes soon! We have done a lot of work, taken your input, and tried to make some changes that will serve moms of tots even better this upcoming year! Stay tuned!

Now I Know My ABC’s ~ F is for Fox

It's time for some fun alphabet crafts!! We hope you enjoy these! If you are new, you can visit our ABC webpage to find links to any other letters we have done as well as links for upcoming books!

Rosie’s Walk

by Pat Hutchins

Summary: Rosie the hen goes for a walk…but is followed closely by the fox! Rosie doesn’t realize the trouble she is in, but the fox is the one that ends up with all the trouble in the end!

I know. It looks like a squirrel...but it's a fox. :)

What You'll Need:

• Brown foam sheet/construction paper
• Scissors
• Pen {to trace letter}
• Fake fur
• Googly eyes
• small pom pom for nose
• Glue

How to make the 'F' Fox:

1. Trace and cut an uppercase 'F' out of the foam sheet or construction paper. I used a foam sheet that was about 4" x 5" in size.
2. Using the extra foam, cut out two small triangles for ears.
3. Cut out a tail from the fake fur.
4. Glue the ears, tail, eye and nose onto your letter F.

Treats 4 Your Tot

Here are some more cool giveaways for tots/moms of tots, check them out below and let us know if you win something we told you about!!!!

• 12 Days of Christmas Learning Pack…ends 12/12/09
• Gaddy Nipper Crayons…ends 12/16/09
• AppleCheeks Cloth Diaper Kit…ends 12/17/09
• Curious Chef Kit…ends 12/17/09
• Leap Frog Toys…ends 12/18/09
• Tike Tech Stroller...ends 12/18/09
• Eleven Shoes...ends 12/28/09
• Lincoln Logs…ends 12/14/09
• Safety 1st Car Seat…ends 12/15/09
• Sprig Toys Dolphin Explorer Boat…ends 12/15/09
• Sprig Toys Dino Adventure Rig…ends 12/15/09
• Buckle Toy Turtle…ends 12/23/09

~I do not take email requests to be added to this list, these are just personal favorites I find online, you are welcome to leave any giveaway links (TOT FRIENDLY ONLY) in the comments below.

Terrific Tot Sites ~ Fifi and the Flowertots

Fifi and the Flowertots is a show that is available to view on Sprout. The show features characters that look like flowers and follows their activities in their organic garden {the creator of this series also developed Bob the Builder}.

The site has some cute games that are simple for little ones to activate and use.

~ Hide and Seek just requires a touch of the space bar to uncover the hidden characters.

~ Jigsaw puzzles help your little one learn how to control the mouse with drop/drag

image copyright Chapman Entertainment Limited

~ Matching pairs is a simple memory game, but helps your child find matches a little easier by color coding the cards {blue and pink}.

~ Mo’s Trailer Catch is a great game for helping your tot learn direction {left, right} by using the arrow keys to move the trailer to catch the falling objects.

There are several other games available to play on the site as well as coloring pages and some sing-along videos. There are also some short video clips of the show on the site.

If you’d like to watch additional videos of the show itself, you can also visit Sprout online for even more. Hope you enjoy this Terrific Tot Site! To see more featured sites, click here!

Once Upon a Book ~ My Christmas Gift

My Christmas Gift

by Crystal Bowman

Summary: Why do we celebrate Christmas each year? The Bible explains it--the answer is clear. Young children will discover the most important gift of all through charming rhyme and meaningful pictures.

Daily Activities

Supplies needed: Plain wrapping paper or butcher paper, paint, cookie cutters and sponges, gift bows and 2 small boxes.

Dec 14: Homemade Wrapping Paper

Buy some solid colored wrapping paper, get out the cookie cutters, paint, stickers and let your LO create your holiday wrapping paper!

Dec 15: Sorting fun

Gather some holiday gift tags and have your LO sort them by size, color, theme etc...

Dec 16: My gift for Jesus

Have your LO decorate a heart. Place the heart in a box and wrap with homemade wrapping paper and label it (LO's name) Gift to Jesus Hang it on the tree.

Dec 17: Pass the Gift Game

Wrap a small box and play 'pass the gift' just like the hot potato game.

Dec 18: Gift Ornament

Hang your Gift For Jesus gift on the tree.

Bible Memory

December’s Bible Verse: “For there is born to you this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11

This weeks part for LO's to memorize: ‘For there is born to you this day in the city of David, who is Christ the Lord.’

Song Time

Baby Jesus Song

To the tune of "Are you Sleeping Brother John"

Baby Jesus, Baby Jesus, (cup and rock your arms)
Born to us, Born to us,
You came to save us, You came to save us, (raise hands to heaven)
Amen, Amen. (prayerful hands)

Baby Jesus, Baby Jesus, (cup and rock your arms)
We love you, We love you. (hug yourself)
We’re going to heaven, going to heaven, (point upwards)
Thank you, Thank you. (prayerful hands)

Want to see what's coming next (and books we've done in the past)? Click here to see our Once Upon a Book webpage! For the December activity schedule, please click here.

In My Heart ~ Merry Christmas…Luke 2:11

This is another of the special seasonal verses from Songs for Saplings. We will be leaving this verse up throughout the rest of the season, so there will be no new In My Heart verses until January! Merry Christmas!

Verses are from: Songs for Saplings: ABCs
(You can get it here, or here)

Find the PDF files to download here!

See our Raising Rock Stars posts here!

See our intro post about teaching Bible memory verses to tots here.

Know I Know My ABC’s ~ E is for Elephant

It's time for some fun alphabet crafts!! We hope you enjoy these! If you are new, you can visit our ABC webpage to find links to any other letters we have done as well as links for upcoming books!

Ella Elephant Scats Like That

by Andy Hurwitz

Summary: This cute little board book comes with a jazz cd and has simple rhymes and jazz patterns to do with your little one.

The idea for this craft came from this post at No Time for Flash Cards. We added a tusk for our elephant though.

What You'll Need:

• Gray or white foam sheet/construction paper {our craft stores only had white}
• Scissors
• Pen {to trace letter}
• Gray paint ~ if you can't find gray paper or foam
• Googly eyes
• Glue

How to make the 'E' Elephant:

1. Trace and cut an uppercase 'E' out of the foam sheet or construction paper. I used a foam sheet that was about 4" x 5" in size. Since our craft store didn't have gray foam, I used white and we painted it gray after we had glued it all together.
2. Using the extra foam, cut out an ear and a trunk for the elephant. I used a little sliver of our white foam to also cut out a tusk for him.
3. Glue the elephant's trunk onto the middle section of the letter 'E'.
4. Glue on the ear and paint if needed.
5. Add an eye and tusk to finish!

Cute Tots ~ Changes

Cute Tots is a fun and simple way of sharing our Mommy blogs and Cute Tots with each other! We will be keeping this feature for 2010, but only posting it on the 5th Tuesday of months that have 5 Tuesdays {April, July, September, December}. We would love to showcase your tots for this feature, as a fun way to share our blogs with each other.

You can continue to send in your cute tots the same way as always, just know they won't be featured until those specific months! You can see guidelines for submitting your Cute Tot here!

Treats 4 Your Tot

Here are some more cool giveaways for tots/moms of tots, check them out below and let us know if you win something we told you about!!!!

• Guidecraft Geo Shape Sorter…ends 12/13/09
• Itty Bitty Bookworm...ends 12/12/09
  
• Strider Running Bike...ends 12/11/09
• Boon Flair High Chair...ends 12/7/09
• VTech Ride n Learn Giraffe Bike...ends 12/7/09
• Beaba BabyCook...ends 12/7/09
• Boon Frog Bath Pod...ends 12/7/09
• VTech Bugsby...ends 12/11/09

Crafty Corner ~ Christmas Time!

Jesus is the Light of the World Candle Craft by
Confessions Of A Homeschooler


Paper Plate Angels by
Ramblings Of A Crazy Woman
Nativity Craft by
Confessions Of A Homeschooler

Peppermint Scrub
by No Time For Flashcards


Santa craft from
Confessions Of A Homeschooler

Christmas Advent Chain by
Ramblings of a Crazy Woman


Handprint Reindeer by
Tired, Need Sleep

Candy Cane Craft:
Ramblings of a Crazy Woman
Family Christmas Stocking Craft:

Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

Paint with a Christmas Tree Craft

Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

Fun Felt Christmas Tree by
Confessions Of A Homeschooler

Craft Stick Wreath:
Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

Pom-Pom Christmas Tree Ornament:
Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

Preschool Wreath Craft: Our Crafts-n-Things

Christmas Trees: Raising Memories

Other fun Winter Craft Ideas:
All Kids Network Winter Crafts
Family Fun Christmas Crafts
Kaboose Christmas Crafts

Do you have a tot-friendly Christmas or winter craft on your blog? Read here first and then email me (EricaAtTotallyTots@gmail (dot) com) so I can add it here! If you feature crafts on your blog often, be sure to let me know in the email so I can add you to the "search" list for future posts!

~Welcome to Erica, one of our new team members! She will be officially introduced soon, but she jumped right in and helped us out with this post for December! Be sure to click her name tag to visit her awesome personal blog!!