Grandma's Tot School

Allow me to just brag for a second.  I have the best mom ever.  We live 14 hours away from my family, but my mom goes out of her way to be a fabulous grandma despite the distance.  If she's not dressing up for a Skype tea party or singing countless verses of "Five Little Monkeys" through the computer screen, she's cutting out felt "paper" dolls for Sophie to play with.  (More on these later!)  She's seriously pretty fabulous.

Sophie and I just recently got to spend almost two weeks in St. Louis.  Knowing how much she likes her Tot School time, my mom set up a special "Grandma Tot School" just for her.  My awesome sister helped as well (sharing from her stash of kindergarten teacher stuff!).  Here are some of the fun activities they did!

Foam Mat Puzzle

My mom found this Disney princess foam mat puzzle at a garage sale (she's a pretty great garage saler too!) and Sophie had lots of fun playing with it!  She couldn't quite connect the pieces really well yet, but she enjoyed stacking the pieces and counting with Grandma.

One-to-One Correspondence with Foam Blocks

Sophie has taken off with the one-to-one correspondence concept lately, so my mom had a bucket of foam blocks (from the kindergarten teacher's stash!) and an ice cube tray for Sophie to play with.  Also, foam shapes are fun to throw. :)

Beanbags

Grandma included the constant favorite around here - beanbags!  We mostly threw them, but stacking is sometimes fun as well. (PS. Aren't the pumpkin bins she used as her "trays" the cutest?!)

Counting Pumpkins

This was a fabulous way to introduce Sophie to counting beyond our simply pointing and counting everything in sight (which is a current favorite activity).  My sister traced some foam pumpkins she found at the Dollar Tree on three different posters.  Sophie could then put the pumpkins on the outlines and we could count together.  It was kind of like a puzzle to her and she did a good job putting them on the posters.

Fall Tree

My mom drew an empty tree on a poster board and had a bucket full of foam fall leaves.  Sophie would put them on the tree to decorate it.  We choose not to attach them so that she could do it over and over again, but we will probably do this activity again and make some artwork with it!  She also liked putting them in the bucket as well as throwing the leaves (anybody catching a theme here?).

We also had lots of other fun times including the zoo and the pumpkin patch.  She loved the large dried corn bin at the pumpkin patch!  She probably spent twenty minutes playing (with her uncles burying her legs in the corn).

I'll post our regular, back-at-home Tot School week soon! :)

For tons more ideas be sure to visit these sites I'm linking to this week!

Tot School Gathering Place at 1+1+1=1 

Tot School Tuesday at See Vanessa Craft
Tuesday Tots at Rainy Day Mum
Link and Learn at No Time for Flashcards
Show and Share Saturday Link Up at I Can Teach My Child

Titus 2sday at Time Warp Wife

Trivium Tuesday at Living and Learning at Home

Tender Moments with Toddlers and Preschoolers at The Chaos and the Clutter 
Sunday Showcase at Learn Play Imagine