Tot School: Week 3

Miles is 15 months old.

I'm sort of attempting to have both of my kiddos using the same theme (for now anyway), so some of Miles' activities this week coordinate with Sophie's "All About Me" theme.  I figured this was a great way to focus on learning some body parts with Miles.

Here's what's on his shelf this week:

Dress Up Play.  I put some simple accessories in a basket for Miles to explore.  I included a couple hats, shoes, a slipper, some sunglasses, an oven mitt, a glove, and a mirror and then would encourage him to put the item on the correct body part.  He couldn't always get the item on independently, but he would attempt to put it in the right place.  We had fun with this one! 

Melissa and Doug Caterpillar Gear Toy.

Sticky Picture.  I shared more about this fun way to talk about body part vocabulary over at Activity Mom this week.  He liked sticking the balls on his picture, but he really enjoyed throwing the pom pom balls and letting them land there instead!

Paper Tearing. I loved his face whenever he realized that I was really letting him tear the construction paper!  

We also read lots of books about the parts of the body.  He's really proud of his new skill of identifying his eyes, ears, and nose!  And he points to his feet whenever we say its time to get shoes on, so I think this theme came at the perfect time for him!

Linking up at 1+1+1=1 Tot School Gathering Place and Teaching Mama's Everything Early Childhood.

BIG Tot School: Beach Theme

After spending the previous week at the beach with my family, I thought it would be a perfect time to do a beach themed Tot School week.  So, we took a break from the Fruit of the Spirit to enjoy some sun and sand!

Literacy Activities

Prewriting Practice. Using these great prewriting cards from Walking by the Way and some sand, Sophie practiced her prewriting skills.  

Alphabet Bingo. I loaded these fish bingo templates from PreKinders with some of the letters that Sophie has the most trouble with and we played Bingo! I just drew cards from a set of alphabet cards until she had put dots on every fish.  It was her first time playing, and she hadn't quite figured out that she had to get all of the fish covered to win - she kept saying "bingo!" after every time she covered a fish.  After a while she was just doing it to be silly, but we had a good time.

Phonemic Awareness. I laid out five seashells in front of Sophie and would say a "beach" sentence, like "Sophie looks for shells." I showed Sophie how to repeat the sentence slowly and move one seashell forward for every word in the sentence.  This will take some more practice, but was great for listening skills as well as pre-reading.

Same and Different Sounds. Also a pre-reading activity (with a musical twist!), I got out our triangle and wood block instruments and would hide behind the couch.  I would play two sounds in a row, and Sophie would tell me whether they were the same or different.  This was a fun game that she wanted to play often! We also just had free music play with the instruments.

Math Activities

Fish Bubble Counting Mats. Using glass beads and counting mats from Measured Mom, Sophie practiced counting and one-to-one correspondence.  She really enjoyed this activity - it was probably her favorite of the week.

Pattern Blocks. She played with her Melissa and Doug Pattern Blocks and the fish template.  This was her first time using the "big kid" pattern blocks and they were tough on her perfectionism.  She got pretty upset when the pieces would move as she would add a new piece.  Poor girl comes by it honestly...

Sun Grid Game. Sophie rolled the dice (my latest Dollar Tree find!) and would cover the given number of suns on the grid (from Gift of Curiosity's Beach Printable Pack).  We used sun punches as markers (my super fabulous mom just gave me three boxes of sorted punches and cut-outs from her earlier card making days!) and played until she covered the whole card. 

Beach Pattern Practice. (from Gift of Curiosity's Beach Printable Pack)

Other Activities

Seashell and Sand Investigation.  Sophie loved getting to use her new magnifying glass to look at seashells and sand we picked up at the beach the week before.  We described the seashells and did some sorting. She looks so grown up in this picture!

Booklist.

1,2,3...By the Sea, A counting book. Dianne Moritz.

Clam-I-Am. Tish Rabe.

I Went Walking. Sue Williams.

On the Way to the Beach. Henry Cole 

Sophie has really taken to reading books lately.  She will sit and want me or Clay to read to her for almost an hour sometimes.  Love this candid shot of her "reading" on her own. 

Next week: Back to Fruit of the Spirit for an All About Me themed week centered around Goodness.

Tot School: Week 2

Miles is 14.5 months.

I am having so much fun doing Tot School time with Miles!  He loves his special time and special toys that (in theory) are just for him.

Here's what was on his Tot Shelf this week:

Pound and Roll Tower.  He loves this toy!  It is relatively new, but our little "Bam Bam" (as he is affectionately called on occasion) revels in the opportunity to hit things without being told no.  He can put a hurting on those poor balls!  I love the glee in his face in this picture!  Later in the week, he started putting ping pong balls through the ball holes.  It was interesting to see him observe that they didn't stay put long enough to be pounded, but just fell right through the holes.

Family Member Photos.  I shared more about this on Activity Mom, but we used the photos to play a few games to work on identifying family members and say their names!  (Miles says "Momma" and "Dada", but doesn't have a name for Sophie yet.  He doesn't have to do much talking around here...he's got a big sister who is perfectly content to talk enough for both of them!) He really enjoyed playing with the pictures and could point to the correct picture easily.

 

Fish Stickers.  Since his sister was doing a Beach themed Tot School, I figured I would try to add a little ocean to his shelf as well!  This was his first time with stickers and he really got good with them by the end of the week.   

Ping Pong Ball Scoop and Transfer.  Super simple activity that even Sophie tried to hijack. Ping pong balls in a bowl with a scooper and a muffin tray.  Miles worked on scooping and stirring the balls, and then typically transferred with his hands to the muffin tins.  He did great with the one-to-one correspondence idea.  I was really impressed.  Sometimes he would drop the ping pong ball into a spot that already had one and he would deliberately move it to an empty compartment. 

 

Overall a fun week!

I'll leave you with one of my favorite pictures of the week.  Sophie started learning how to take pictures on our camera this week and took this great one of me and my sweet little man!  (Side note:  Oh my stars, those cheeks!  I just want to kiss them all day long!!)

 

Linking up at 1+1+1=1 Tot School Gathering Place and Teaching Mama's Everything Early Childhood.

BIG Tot School: Fourth of July (Letter "j")

Sophie is 3 years old. (38 months)

NOTE:  To keep things organized, I will start calling Sophie's posts BIG Tot School.  Honestly, she is probably doing more preschool-style activities, but she's my baby and I can't bring myself to call it preschool yet...)

I'm still trying to figure out exactly how to organize and plan Tot School/Preschool for Sophie at this point.  I can't really leave activities on a shelf because most of her activities involve items that Miles can't play with yet.  She's also wanting to do LOTS of activities.  She wants to do Tot School every morning during Miles' nap and we typically spend an hour to an hour and a half playing together.  So, I'm experimenting with workbox-style storage and planning.  We'll see how it works as we keep progressing.

For our Bible time this week, we were reading about the parable of the hidden treasure from Matthew 13.  We read from the Jesus Storybook Bible and acted out the story as well.  At the end of the week, I had Sophie tell me about the story while I wrote down her words.  Then we made a picture together to go along with it.  I'm working to gradually introduce the idea of narration to her.  

Our Memory Verse was the Fruit of the Spirit and Romans 3:23.

Our letter of the week was the letter "j" so she glued jewels (sequins) onto her "j" outline.

Most of the Fourth of July ideas came from Gift of Curiosity's Fourth of July Montessori Activities and printable pack.

Water Bead Transfer. Sophie used her spoon to transfer blue water beads back and forth.  These little guys are slippery and bouncy, so it was a little challenging at first, but she really enjoyed it.

Patriotic Shadow Matching. This matching game was from Gift of Curiosity's printable pack.  We hadn't ever done shadow matching before, but she got the hang of it right away and wanted to play it multiple times during the week.

Pre-writing Printables. Sophie loves writing and tracing in her "special book" and this week's patriotic themed pages (from Gift of Curiosity as well) were no exception. 

Wooden Bead Patterning.

Star Color Gradation. This was Sophie's first exposure to color grading.  I think the vocabulary of lighter and darker in this context was new for her.  This activity was a bit challenging for her and she wasn't super interested in repeated attempts.  It's something we will try again in the future.

Find the Flag. Similar to the Find the Birthday Cake activity she loved so much during our Birthday themed week, the idea of this activity was to hide a small flag behind one of the letters and call out the letter to search behind it.  I used some of the letters that are most difficult for Sophie to identify consistently.  

Toothpick flags into floral foam.

Painting Fireworks.  Since we saw fireworks from the condo when we were staying with my family, we had a quiet night in for the 4th of July. We got out the paint and painted fireworks to celebrate!  Miles used a dish brush, and Sophie used pipe cleaners twisted into a starburst pattern.  Sophie loved it, but Miles was less than impressed.  This was his second attempt at painting and he really wasn't anymore excited about it than the first time.

Super Simple Patriotic Treat. In a shameless last minute attempt to have a "cute" patriotic snack to celebrate (when we had gotten home from vacation the same day!) I rolled an ice cream sandwich in patriotic sprinkles.  My three year old pretty much thinks sprinkles are the greatest thing in the world, so I was a hero.  I'm sure the founding fathers would be proud. :)

Linking up at 1+1+1=1 Tot School Gathering Place and Teaching Mama's Everything Early Childhood.

Tot School: Fourth of July

Miles is 14 months old.

This past week was Miles' first Tot School shelf and he loved it!  I should go ahead and have the disclaimer that I have next to no completely clear pictures of my sweet son.  My sweet little tornado is constantly moving! :)

Fourth of July Parade.  This activity was actually for both Miles and Sophie.  I put on Stars and Stripes Forever by John Phillip Sousa and we shook our patriotic maracas and waved our American flags all throughout the house.  Sophie was into it right away.  Miles took a bit to warm up, but after a minute he decided to join in the fun!  (No...I did not dress him to match intentionally...but he looks adorable, doesn't he!)

Sensory Bottle.  I put some sparkly red "Easter grass", some pom poms, and star beads into a plastic jar for Miles to explore.  Pretty much anything that makes noise when he shakes it is a hit.

Patriotic Pom Pom Push.  Miles' favorite activity by far was the pom pom push.  I took a small snack cup I got from the Target Dollar section, cut a whole just a bit smaller than the pom poms, and showed him how to push them into the cup.  This was a great activity for him.  It was a bit of a challenge at first, but after a few tries he figured it out and probably played for ten minutes.  I was impressed by his perseverance!  This was really the first time I had seen him trying to really make something work the way he wanted it to.  It reminds me how much I love doing Tot School with my little ones to be able to witness all these learning moments!

Block Transfer.  Wooden blocks in colored cups.  Pretty self explanatory, but he enjoyed taking them in and out.  Sophie wanted to play with it too!  I had to laugh that she wanted HIS red and blue blocks when we had a whole basket of identical blocks in the playroom.

The last bag on the shelf was full of a few random red and blue odds and ends for Miles to explore. A sponge, a bean bag, a plastic star, and a squishy ball.  He never even touched it.  Hence, no pictures.

Overall, I think his first week of Tot School was a success!  It was nice to have some intentional play time with him.  I will need to figure out how to either involve Sophie productively, or find another way to occupy her so that Miles can have the focused time he deserves.  She would be playing well independently, but when we would start doing Tot School she would rush over to get all involved.  I did tell her that she could play with the items on his shelf, but if he got interested she had to give it to him right away. We'll figure it out, but Tot School for Miles is here to stay!

Linking up at 1+1+1=1 Tot School Gathering Place and Teaching Mama's Everything Early Childhood.

Tot School: Apples (Adam and Eve)

We are continuing to follow the basic structure of Intentional by Grace's Fruit of the Spirit Curriculum, so this week was all about Apples and Adam and Eve.

During our Bible and Tot School Board time, we read the story of Adam and Eve and the Fall of Man from a couple of our toddler Bibles, including the Jesus Storybook Bible. We also worked on our memory verse for the week Psalm 34:8a, and continued to recite the Fruit of the Spirit.

Literacy Activities 

Apple "a". We used a Do-a-Dot marker to make "apples" on our lowercase a.  Sophie made the apples and then added stems with a marker.  This was great prewriting practice! (Don't worry, we adjusted pencil grip!) Oh, and for the record, we most certainly have a left-handed little lady.  

Apple Tree Uppercase/Lowercase Matching.  I drew a tree and wrote the uppercase letters all over it.  Then on red dot stickers, I wrote the lowercase letters.  Sophie matched up the lowercase "apples" to the correct spot on the tree.  She is getting really good at this!  (She had a few issues because the stickers were circles and would get turned around...note to anyone who might try this activity!)

Uppercase/Lowercase Letter Matching Puzzles.  Sophie matched the letters we have done so far using these cards from Homeschool Creations.  They match our letter cards from our Tot School Board.  I keep thinking I need to put magnets on the back of these or something because Sophie gets really bothered when they don't line up just right.  We have a serious perfectionist on our hands...

Apple Picking Game.  We did a simpler version of this game back when we did the Letter A when she was two, and I shared about it over at the Activity Mom.  This time, I wrote lowercase letters on the apples and placed them around the room.  She would find all the apples and put them in her basket after telling me the letter and the letter sound.  We played this game almost every day, multiple times.  Definitely her favorite activity.

Sophie loves writing in her book with dry-erase markers.  I used the Prewriting Practice pages and just for kicks threw in the Aa and Ee writing pages as well, both from the 3 Dinosaurs Romping and Roaring A Pack.  She was SO proud of writing her letters!

Math Activities

 Apple Patterns.  We did simple AB patterns with our apples.  This was our first real try at patterning, and she eventually got the hang of it.  We definitely will need to continue to work on this skill.

Apple Number Sequencing Puzzle from Amy Lattin on Teachers Pay Teachers (free!). This was also played with almost every day.  

Other Activities

Coffee Filter Apples.  We did this fun craft from Gift of Curiosity.  In this picture, she has "written" the names of everyone in our family around the outside of her coffee filter.  :)  Her favorite part, though, was definitely spraying it with the water bottle!  This activity will be a repeat for sure.

Miles (14 Months)

Starting next week, I think Mr. Miles is going to get his own Tot School post because he will be getting his very own Tot Trays!  He is getting so curious about everything and I am really seeing he get interested in figuring things out and repeating what he sees his sister do.  

This week, he tried coloring for the first time!  He was so happy of himself. (Don't know that reference? Do yourself a favor and check out this video - the adorableness will make your day!)

He also really enjoyed playing with Sophie's apples.  He would put them in the basket and dump them out over and over again.  Forgive the diaper picture - it's already full-blown hot here!

Up next: Our Fourth of July Tot School Activities!

Linking up at 1+1+1=1 Tot School Gathering Place and Teaching Mama's Everything Early Childhood.