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.

Tot School: Days of Creation

Sophie and I have been working through Intentional by Grace's Fruit of the Spirit Curriculum. We have really enjoyed doing this together and it has led to many opportunities to discuss and practice behaviors common to toddlers (patience, anyone?).

We don't do all the activities, and I modify or add others to supplement, but it has served as a great backbone for our Tot School time.  It focuses on uppercase letters, which Sophie already knows well, so we focus on the lowercase letters instead.

This week (and last) has been all about Creation.  I decided to stretch this unit and focus on one day of creation each day.

We did several activities each day of this unit.

- Tot School Board.  We start our Tot School time with our board, which displays our Bible verses, letter of the week, and letter gross motor activity, as well as anything else we are focusing on.  Sophie says her memory verse (or if she is feeling a bit stubborn, she listens to momma say it) and then identifies the other items on the board.  Our memory verse was Genesis 1:1.  The letter of the week for the first week was the letter "Z". (This picture is from the following week!)

- Days of Creation Sequencing.  After reading the creation story (from our various children's Bibles or storybooks), we talk through each day and do little motions to help us remember what happened on each day using these Days of Creation cards from PreKinders. (In the pocket chart shown above). If Sophie is interested, she puts them in order, but usually we just talk about them.

- Days of Creation Song from DLTK-Bible.  My girl is all about music, so this is by far the best way for her to remember the Days of Creation!

- GOD Gave Us the Earth Interactive Sight Word Reader.  Sophie knows all her letter sounds and is showing lots of interest in letters, words and reading.  I'm not doing anything formal with her yet, but since this reader fit so well, I decided to introduce her to the idea of sight words.  She really enjoyed doing this book.  She is obsessed with Little Einsteins, so as we were reading the sight word book each day and would get to the page of the day with the word God missing, I would dramatically exclaim "Oh no!  Big Jet took the word and scrambled it all up!" She loved pretending she was solving a Little Einstein problem while cutting the letters apart and gluing them in the correct order.  So fun!

- Days of Creation Book.  I saw this adorable idea at The Art of Being Mama and we did the page that corresponded to the day we were learning.

Day One Activities
- Light and Dark.  We sat in my closet with the lights off and talked about what we saw and heard outside at nighttime.  Then we turned the lights back on and talked about how the day was different from the night and what we saw and heard then.
- For snack we had chocolate pudding with whipped cream to represent day and night.

Day Two Activities
- Beach Day!  This happened to work out perfectly with a mommy and Sophie day, so we headed to the beach to look at the clouds and the seas up close!  This was the first time Sophie was brave enough to head into the water and she had a great time!

- Clouds in a Jar.  Sophie LOVED this activity!  She wanted to do it three times and just had to show Daddy when he got home.  It was so simple, but she felt so grown up.

- Snack time: Blue jello with marshmallows to represent sky and clouds.


Day Three Activities
- Observed and watered the plants in our little vegetable garden

- Apple Tree Counting Playdoh Mats from Life Over C's

Day Four Activities
- Starry Night with a flashlight and a colander
- Counting star buttons in a muffin tin

- Snack time: Star cheese (umm...cheese cut with a star cookie cutter...creativity at its finest!). She wanted to pretend it was a cookie and put sprinkles on it.  Sure, why not. Gross.

Day Five Activities
- Bird Feeder out of toilet paper roll, peanut butter, and bird seed.
- Categorizing whether something goes in the sky or underwater.  We used this pictures on our Day Five Creation Book instead of on the worksheet.
- Snack time: Goldfish Crackers

Day Six Activities
- Sorting various Toob Animals by their habitats (forest, house pets, farm, water, etc.)

- Move like animals gross motor play.  This is totally simple - I just call out an animal and have Sophie pretend to move like that animal.  Simple, yet hilarious.
- Snack time: Animal Crackers

Day Seven
- I tried to get away with just taking naps during our Tot School time, but Sophie totally wasn't game for it.  So in honor of resting, I stayed in my pajamas (because obviously, I would never do this any other day!...)
- We just reviewed the other days and did our favorite activities over again!

For a Creation activity geared towards the younger toddler crowd, be sure to check out my God Made Everything color book. 

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

I'm back! - And Birthday Themed Tot School

I know, its been like twenty-seven forevers since I have posted.  Between adjusting to having two little ones, selling our house, living with in-laws for 4 months while renovating a house, and trying to get settled, something just had to give.  I thought maybe I needed to hang up the blogging for good.

But I had been thinking about starting some Tot School activities with my son who just turned one, so I came back and started scrolling through the blog.  I LOVE being able to look back at all the developmental strides Sophie took.  It was like a scrapbook or a journal depicting our days together and the learning that she is doing each and every moment.  And it made me a little sad that I have missed out on having this past year documented like that.  So....I'm going to try to blog about our learning experiences.  Even if no one but me ever reads it, it is something I want to try to have for my family and myself.

Quick catch up on my little ones.

Sophie just turned three.  She is a fun-loving, dancing, singing, princess and playdoh obsessed little lady.  She has a giggle that can melt my heart and acts way older than a three year old.  She is learning in leaps and bounds and makes me worry about keeping up with her!

Miles is 14 months old.  He is the sweetest, most loving little boy ever.  He hasn't met a food he doesn't like.  He's just started walking, loves playing ball, dancing to his sister's music, and trying to imitate anything Sophie does.  He is a momma's boy through and through, and is curious about the world (a kind way of saying "into everything!").

Birthday Theme Tot School Activities

In honor of Sophie's birthday a few weeks ago, we did a week full of birthday themed activities.  She absolutely loved having a week all about her birthday!  

We made a birthday banner to hang for her party.  I wrote her name in pencil and she painted over the lines with a paint brush.  We had done this a few weeks earlier for Daddy's birthday and she totally surprised me with her ability to trace with a paintbrush (she had shown no interest in tracing with a marker before). But she loved it and was so proud to show it off!

I made a cupcake upper/lowercase letter matching game which we called "Cupcake Shop".  She loved pretending that I was ordering letter cupcakes and she had to put the correct icing on the cupcakes.  

I also made a number recognition printable, which will be shared soon at The Activity Mom, which invoved putting the correct number of candles on the cupcake.  She loved singing "Happy Birthday to Sophie" and blowing out the candles after each number card.

She also really enjoyed putting do-a-dot "sprinkles" on a cupcake coloring page.  

We did several birthday themed printables from Homeschool Creations and 1+1+1=1 as well.  Sophie really took to the tracing pages this time.  Her favorite by far, though, was the Find the Birthday Cake game from Homeschool Creations.

Happy Third Birthday, Sophie!

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