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While being snowbound due to record breaking snowfalls we had a lot of time for some 'H' activities. I loved my friend's idea for this week: "H for housebound, hot cocoa, and holy moly this is too much snow!!" Though very funny and so true, we stuck to our Valentine theme of "H is for hearts."

Molly had fun gluing and sticking hearts for her letter H project.

For our stART project, we read the story Clifford's First Valentine's Day.

We then used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to paint hearts,

and then turned our heart stamping into valentines for some very special people!

Molly practiced her counting with Valentine candy. She enjoyed some candies along the way, and Mommy may have had a few too!

I made these alphabet matching cards as another aid for learning lowercase letters. Molly quickly realized that the colors for the pairs matched, so next time we'll try something a little different.

Other activities this week:

These word puzzles are also a fun toy to help with lowercase letters.

Finally, in honor of the Vancouver olympics, a friend hosted a "Make a flag" playdate. Molly was so proud of her new flag.

You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.

When I planned our letter weeks, I had not initially done the letters of Molly's name in a row. But, after we did 'M' and 'O', I got questioned whether we were doing 'L' and 'Y' next. And I thought, "Well, that would make sense!" So, as you can see, that's what we did.

To begin our letter Y project, Molly colored everything yellow.

As soon as I got out my scissors to cut out the shapes, Molly was no longer interested in coloring. All she wanted to do was cut, so I gave her some small strips to practice with.

Here is our 'Y' for yellow. Notice that we "colored" the lemon with some of her paper snips.

We worked with various forms of yogurt. First Molly used yogurt-covered raisins to practice her counting skills with these Curious George cards from One Little, Two Little.

She was also very excited to make chocolate frozen yogurt.

And after one failed attempt to actually freeze the yogurt, Molly finally got to enjoy the tasty treat.

For our stART project, we read Just how long can a long string be?!

We extended the story by making a yarn egg. Molly was not interested in getting her hands dirty with the glue, so it turned into a Mommy project.

It turned out really neat. Molly has loved playing with it, but it is now a bit squished. If you have the patience to do a few of these, they'd make a really pretty Easter decoration.

We also used the yarn to make this octopus, which appears to be attacking Noah's Ark.

Lastly, Molly and her daddy went out for a little bit of playing in the snow. She couldn't really walk in the snow, since it was almost as tall as she is, but Molly was very helpful in using the yard stick to measuring how high the pile Daddy was shoveling was. Also, note the plastic bags taped onto her legs as makeshift snow boots (we learned that trick last snow storm).

You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.

We started our letter L week learning about lemons and limes.

Then we made fresh squeezed lemonade. As I squeezed the lemons, Molly had fun transferring the rinds back and forth. I tried to turn it into a counting lesson, but she was only interested in transferring and pouring.

Molly loved her fresh squeezed lemonade. I realized that squeezing lemons by hand was harder than I thought it would be. Next time, I'll find a better way!

We started learning our lowercase letters with this matching game I found at Homeschool Creations.

We worked on fine motor skills with these lacing activities. The beads kept her busy for over half an hour!

A few non-L things:

Molly got these picture puzzle blocks from her Aunt 'Chelle last Christmas and has finally learned how to match the puzzle on her own.

We needed a place to hang some of Molly's crafts, so this was my solution. I think I might need some more walls soon.

You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.

Little sister, Leah, kicked off our 'O' week wearing her owl dress on Sunday.

I found inspiration for our 'O' craft at No Time for Flash Cards. We began with some sponge painting.

Then gluing on some shapes.

And here you have it. Whoo, whoo guessed we were making an owl?

Continuing our 'O' activities, I helped Molly make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies. She's been asking to help in the kitchen a lot lately. It's important to evenly space the dough when spooning it out onto the cookie sheet.

We had to let them cool before digging in.

Molly thought the cookies were excellent, though I think she couldn't have eaten much chocolate since most of it is on her face.

We finished out our 'O' week by participating in stART. A Story + Art = A Great Start!

The idea for our craft came from this blog. Here's Molly's interpretation of Sarah, Percy and Bill.

You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.

So, you are probably thinking, what happened to C? Well, I decided not to go in alphabetical order. Some weeks I have chosen a letter based on a holiday or specific scheduled activity, and other weeks it is totally random.

To begin our M week, Molly and I went to the "Music and Movement" class at our gym. We have been going for a while, but this week I actually documented it. Molly loves to sing, so we hear the songs from this class often!

Later that day, we worked on crafting our letter M.

M is for Marshmallow.

To work on fine motor skills, Molly built a marshmallow tower. I found the idea here. She kept asking if she could eat the marshmallows. The tower became a little less stable once the answer became yes.

We did a little marble painting. The marbles were dipped in paint and then we rolled them around the paper in box tops.

Michelle at A Mommy's Adventures came up with a great concept to extend a story. A Story + Art = A Great stART! So, this week we participated via Storybook Friends at our local library. We heard a reading of A Hat for Minerva Louise by way of a puppet show, and then did a craft.

Molly had a lot of fun putting her hand prints on the mittens and gluing on snow flakes. The phrase on the heart is "Cold hands...Warm heart."

Our last project for the week was creating a mouse from this template. Molly has enjoyed playing with the mouse. She's even asked to take him to bed and for a ride in the car.

After coloring her mouse, Molly asked to color more, so I printed a letter M from this website. She's getting better at her coloring. She was coloring the circles different colors, not quite in the line, but a definite improvement!

We also watched Mulan a few times. Molly has enjoyed watching full-length movies lately, and we only have a few that are appropriate for her, so Mulan was new. So, that was our M week. You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.

I was inspired by Melanie to begin working with Molly on preschool-type activities. I have decided to focus on a different letter each week. The letter this week was B.

We began our week by going bowling with some friends. You can read the details of our fun here.

I based our letter craft off this site. We started by first painting some bananas.

Then we cut them out and glued them on to construction paper.

Here's our B for banana!

Our final activity was baking banana bread. Molly was so excited to help and wear her new apron. First we mashed the bananas.

Then it was on to pouring, mixing and baking.

Molly was so proud of her banana bread. She had to show everyone that came over.

In addition to these activities, Molly also played with lots of balloons and some blue Play-Doh. I've had fun planning out our letter activities. I hope that I can keep it up and that Molly has fun learning as we go! You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.