ABC Jesus Loves Me: Year One Week Five

Zoey is 16 months old. We’re using ABC Jesus Loves Me, the free curriculum. This is Year One, Week Five. (We skipped week four since it’s a review week and we’re not doing those.)

We didn’t get to every activity I had planned for Zoey. I feel like I’ve been planning too many for her personality. She doesn’t really like sitting down and doing these like Zeke did when he was her age. I’m trying to do one activity a day for now, and I will increase them as I see she is ready. Here is what we did this week. 

The Bible story was David and Goliath. We watched a short YouTube video that read a book to us. We also sang “Only A Boy Named David” each day. I actually sang it to her, and I tried to get her to do some motions. 

The color was red, the shape was a triangle, and her animal was a dog. Her book was “Big Red Barn.”

Zoey used her Kwik Stix to paint the weekly alphabet symbol red. The symbol is “down” since Goliath went down!

She also colored her train red with the Crayola twistable crayons. She got tired of this and decided to rip her bow off and throw the crayon. This picture is mid-rip and mid-throw!

I printed out a barn for Zoey to color red. She added farm animal stickers. She is getting the hang of stickers! 

We also played with the Little People barn and animals. She actually played with it longer than I anticipated! She’s finally starting to PLAY with toys. 

She used a red marker to color her dog coloring page. This reminds me of Clifford!

I cut red triangles from construction paper and Zoey glued them to cardstock. 

We also practiced throwing a red beanbag and catching it. 

One sock off and one sock on, as always. 

There were a few activities we didn’t get to do this week, but that’s okay. I’m going to play only five activities for next week, one a day, and see if that works better!

Monthly Musings - Winter Self-Care

I'm linking up with Patty and Holly for the first Monthly Musings of 2024, and today we're discussing Winter Self-Care. Here are the questions with my answers.

1.) How do you take care of yourself in winter?

Winters in Louisiana are mostly mild, although we’ve had some really cold temps and snow/ice this past week. I mainly take care of myself by dressing for the weather and putting away my Birkenstock sandals for a few months. I try to take extra vitamin C to stay healthy since I tend to get bronchitis several times each fall and winter. I also try to keep my skin moisturized since I tend to get dry skin the winter.

2.) How do you fight the winter blues?

It’s easy to get blue when it’s cloudy, cold, and rainy most of the winter. I try to read more and watch more television shows when I can’t spend much time outdoors. I do try to get outside every day because that helps my mood so much! Having a one-year-old this year, I haven’t been getting outside like I need to. It’s so cold and windy, and her little face gets so chapped and dry, so I keep her inside when I can. Sometimes I just have to get out of the house and go to Sonic and grab a sweet tea or run to the library with the kids. Reading the Bible, listening to music, playing card or board games, and redecorating or organizing also keep my spirits up. I usually do more online shopping in the winter - I find having a package on the way gives me a little anticipation of looking forward to something. That may not be practical, but hey - it's the truth for me.

- I went to the deer stand with Rod one cold evening -

3.) Tips to make your living space cozy?

I burn lots of candles in the winter, especially apple pie or cinnamon scented ones. I like to keep lamps on to keep a cozy feel, and there’s usually a blanket or two lying around that someone discarded. I also like to have fresh baked goods at least weekly if not more. A plate of warm cookies or brownies for the kids and their friends is always cozy! 

4.) Suggestions for fun wintertime activities?

We don’t get much snow and ice, so we don’t do traditional wintertime activities like sledding or building snowmen. We just do our normal outdoor activities year-round! 

Indoors - we do like to do more crafts and play more board games. I also like to bake more as I mentioned above, and I tend to watch more TV in winter compared to hardly any in the spring and summer. 

- Sugar cookie cream cheese bars -

5.) What are your exercise routines in winter?

I don’t really have an exercise routine, although I need to start! I do a lot more stretching in winter because my muscles tend to be stiffer. I also like aerobics, and I have done so many over the years that I can keep pretty steady free-style aerobics going on in my living room! I have been wanting to do more upper body strength training, so maybe I’ll start that soon. 

6.) Best tips for restful sleep?

Ha! Don’t co-sleep with your toddler! Just kidding - I do love co-sleeping, and it does help me to get better sleep when I have babies. I try to get to sleep early each night, and I wake up between 5-6 in the morning. Keeping a sound machine beside my bed helps me to sleep more soundly! I also like to sleep cold.

- We are trying to transition her into her toddler bed -

7.) Favorite warm beverages?

The only warm beverage I drink is hot chocolate. I love to add mini marshmallows! 

8.) Best winter skincare tips? 

I use Dove moisturizer on my face beneath my makeup. I also use make up remover wipes that are moisturizing. I like Jergens Ultra Healing lotion. If my skin gets super dry and chapped, I use Aquaphor for babies, but it works wonders! It's also great for chapped lips!

9.) Flannel sheets - yes or no?

No- regular cotton! I've never used flannel sheets, but I have a feeling they'd be too hot for me.

10.) Favorite winter pajamas?

I have a few pair of Blue Mountain from Tractor Supply that are really cozy. They're also on sale for less than $10 right now! I also love my satin pajamas that Rod got me for Christmas. They’re the Amanda Blu brand. The older I get, the more I enjoy wearing matching pajama sets instead of sweats or shorts and old t-shirts.

If you want to join in, here is the list of monthly topics for the entire year!

ABC Jesus Loves Me: Year One Week Three

Zoey is 15 months old, and we're using ABC Jesus Loves Me free curriculum this year. We're using Year One, and this week is Week Three. I always make a printable lesson plan for the week, and you're free to save and print it for yourself. 

We talked about Jesus this week and sang songs like "Jesus Loves the Little Children" and "Jesus Loves Me." 

Zoey was being grumpy on Monday, and we never got around to any of her activities other than singing. I just bumped them to Tuesday! The simple way I keep track of what we do it by putting a checkmark in each box when we finish it. That way I can see at a glance if I forgot something or if she wasn't in the mood to try an activity, and I can try to fit it in another day.

The first thing I had Zoey do is color her train yellow since that's her color this week. I do try to say the color of the week over and over, but she hasn't repeated any colors yet. That's okay, though - this is about exposure not mastery!

I put some large yellow pom-poms in an empty Puffs container, and Zoey took them out and put them in a few times. 

I printed off a few random pictures of babies, and Zoey glued them to a sheet of cardstock. I wrote "Jesus Loves the Children" in a yellow marker at the top of the page.

I also encouraged her to push her push toy around the house some. She likes the popping noise it makes, but she has never been overly interested in it. She was using one hand to push it back and forth! 

She also really enjoyed eating some pasta that Eli cooked for lunch. I know that has nothing to do with the lesson plan, but the sign language sign is "more" and I wish I
would have worked with her on that when she did want more food. Getting her to eat real food has been a challenge - all she wants is to nurse. Since I'm wanting her weaned soon, I'm really trying to introduce more foods to her.

Today I had Zoey color this picture of a little girl. I glued it to a sheet of card stock and wrote C is for Child at the top in yellow. Then Zoey stuck yellow heart stickers on the paper. She is getting a little better at stickers! 

We also played with her shape sorter, and she is getting much better at putting the shapes in!

Today Zoey used paint sticks to paint her elephant yellow. This is her animal this week. 

She also painted this worksheet to make the song “Red and Yellow, Black and White, they are precious in his sight.” We used paint sticks for this, too. 

Zeke had speech today, so we didn’t do much tot school. We left around noon, and it's an hour drive there and back. 

Zoey played with play dough today. She’s getting better at NOT eating it. It was supposed to be yellow, but we didn’t have any and I didn’t have time to make it this week. I’m going to be sure to include this each week now because it’s such a great fine motor work out for her hands, and it actually holds her attention for a nice length of time! 

We talked about her ears. I’ll ask her “Where are your ears?” and she will grab them! She also knows her head, eyes, mouth, nose, and belly button. 

She played with her Color box this week. It contained some yellow Magnatiles, a yellow giraffe, a yellow house, a yellow block, a yellow truck, and a yellow plastic duck. 

I use some washi tape to tape some toy elephants to her wooden tray. She pulled the tape to “rescue” the elephants. She did two of them and then lost interest! Zeke finished for her. I’m hoping she starts to get more engaged in these activities. When Zeke was her age, he absolutely loved them! 

I laid out some butcher paper and we colored for a little bit. Then she did her normal thing and threw all the crayons down, climbed on the table, and crumpled the paper.

We also made her yellow diamond collage and water painted a yellow diamond on Saturday morning. Notice she usually has one sock on and one sock off. I don’t know why, but she will just pull off one sock. Sometimes she will put it on her hand!

And that was our week!