This past Sunday, I had the privilege of leading worship with an awesome team at our church for the first time in months. To God be the glory!

Wordless Wednesday

Tot School

(Nathan is 30 months)

As usual, last week was a fabulous week for tot school! My camera battery died so I didn't get as many pictures as I'd like, but it was still a fabulous week! Thanks to a big change in location for our home computer (down stairs instead of upstairs) and a little wi-fi difficulty, I was unable to post this over the weekend, but again, our tot school time was still fabulous!!!

Building Fun!

Automoblox are always a favorite.

This week, we built ramps to race the cars down! So much fun!!!

Speaking of building, how about some legos for patterning practice? And of course, we had to build a super tall tower with all the individual blocks (no pattern mommy, just a tall tower). I love that he made the "concentrating face" in the bottom picture!

Reading fun!

We checked out these books from the library (some I quickly returned to our library bag after pre-reading them while N was napping). Nathan has really turned a corner with reading and he's starting to put more and more letters together to actually read. He's sounding out words with greater confidence and is able to sound out many 3 letter words and a few 4 letter words. We need to work on spelling practice and reading outside of the books though because he memorizes a book after hearing it once so the "sound it out" challenge is no longer there. :)

Number fun:

Although it was super easy for him, Nathan enjoyed the challenge of opening the clothespins and matching them to the number on the sweater. This activity came from www.childcareland.com and was really easy to make.

Putting numbers in order (0-9). I know he knows which number comes next, and he can certainly say the numbers while counting, and identify them, but sequencing them is a bit of a challenge. Any suggestions? Please leave a comment! :)

Letter Fun:

This week's biggest hit was sidewalk chalk and I regret that I didn't get any pictures. Nathan loves to write letters and he's beginning to make words without help. Today he wrote TIP and said, "mommy, I spelled tip like the cement mixer" (it was in front of our house tipping to pour concrete).

Another sequencing activity is below using letters.

Spelling his name given a basket of letters and a few distractor letters.

Music Fun!

We did lots of music making this week! He played piano and sang quite a bit, had some guitar time with daddy and we listened to lots of songs. He's started to ask, "what's that song about" which has offered a great time to talk about some key Biblical lessons.

One day, I did a directional activity with him and his cymbals. Bang them above your head... to the right... while standing on one foot... etc. Super fun and great listening activity!

Puzzle Fun:

He's mastered these matching oreos and can do all of them in no time. :)

Art Fun:

I found this activity here on "the blessed country mom's" tot school blog. We varied it a bit and made dinosaurs! :) Of course my idea was putting the tissue on one by one. That didn't last long and my efficiency expert decided he'd found a new way to do the craft!

We also got to share some tot school time with Nathan's cousin Karmyn. We went for a nature walk and collected flowers and leaves. Then the kids picked all the leaves and flowers off the stems and smashed them on the contact paper. It was so funny to watch the differences in the art styles of a 2 year old boy and a 4 year old girl. :)

This flower craft also involved some size recognition and sorting. I cut circles to fit in each of the flowers (3 sizes) and Nathan quickly found which circles fit in which flowers and glued them on.

Sorting Fun:

I got this idea from Rocker Tot's mom a long time ago and finally put it into practice! You can find her post about coin sorting here.

Writing Fun:

Nathan and I both have a special fondness for these awesome dry erase crayons! :)

Coloring Fun:

He still colors and writes with both hands, but seems to prefer the right for most letters and for coloring.

Game Fun:

We played "I can do that" while Karmyn was visiting and it was a hoot! I loved watching the kids but my favorite was watching my husband "scoot under the trick-a-ma-stick with the ball under his chin". Awesome I tell you!!!

This week's favorite photo? I just love that tongue out! It's precious!

Want to see more tot school ideas? Check out Carissa's blog by clicking here!

I'd love to know who all is reading our blog! Leave a comment and say hello! :)

It's here... he's 30 months... officially 2 and a half.

in reality he's 2.5 going on 15. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Tot School

(Nathan is 29.5 months old)

This week, I added a little more formality to our tot school time. In our cubby of trays, I had previously numbered them. This week I added a "schedule" so that Nathan would understand what order to do the trays in and when he got to complete the star trays (favorite activities). (Can you tell I spent 10 years pre-kiddo working one on one with kiddos with autism?) He loved it and it was very motivating. I do not yet require him to complete each of the 9 trays in one day or sitting, but he must do them in order, making it very rewarding to complete the two before the star!

Cutting practice:

Nathan cuts foam much better than paper and so this was a great activity to build his independent cutting confidence. I love that every time he needed to open his scissors, his mouth dropped open too! :)

Art fun

I got this idea from Shannon's tot school post (here) about contact paper collages. Nathan had a great time putting tissue paper squares all over the sticky contact paper. It was a challenge for him to put them on without crinkling them. :)

We're working on putting things in order (letters and numbers) and this is our number activity of the week.

Sorting by the beginning letter sound... This continues to be super easy for Nathan but the "s" bin made it a great learning activity. He often doesn't say the s sound in the beginning of a word (sneaky snake is "neaky nake"). This activity prompted him to put the "s" sound on the beginning of words he knew started with s. "Mommy, that's not a nail, it's a SNAIL!". So fun to see him self correct that! By the end of the week, he was saying sneaky snake with no prompts!

We also worked on beginning word sounds using this printout.

Spelling fun:

I though Nathan would enjoy this activity and he really did! He matched some three letter words to their matching object and then, given a tray of letters, he found the letters, put them in the right order, and sounded out the word to make sure they were in the right order.

Puzzle time!

Worksheet practice. Nathan continues to excell in writing and drawing but he has a hard time grasping a pencil. I have a hard time knowing how to teach him. Any suggestions? He independently completed the following worksheets (given verbal instruction)...

What things start with M?

complete the maze

circle the beginning letter

write your name at the top of the paper

color the sunshine yellow and then draw one.

color the apple red... instead he told me he would draw a red A in the apple because apple starts with A. :)

I love watching Nathan write his letters. He does it everywhere. One of the hard ones for him is B. His B looks like a treble clef and I want to remember this when he's older. It's precious and considering Chad and I both come from musical backgrounds, we both know it's not easy to draw a treble clef. Perhaps he'll retain that ability! :)

"How to Make an F' - by Nathan

Practicing "NATHAN" as well as "Z, V, L, and N". I can't remember where I found the letter tracing templates. If they are from you, please let me know!!!!!

After writing the letters, his absolute favorite part is using the mitt to wipe off the templates. I couldn't help but snap these photos of his sweet little tongue hanging out as he concentrated so hard to get those templates clean!

This week's memory verse is Proverbs 17:17. "A friend loves at all times...". We used a printable from Carissa (found here) to illustrate this concept. Nathan memorized the verse, practiced writing F and f (F is his favorite), and colored the picture. We also talked about ways to love his friends.

Free coloring time:

Tongs - this is a favorite weekly activity. He's learned to pick up 3 at a time.

Singing and playing instruments and worshiping as a family.

Sensory fun

oatmeal in an old pair of hose in a warm bath. Super squishy fun! It makes the bath water opaque which makes toys fun to search for underwater.

Drawing... Nathan loves to trace his hand and is super proud of it when he's finished.

see?

He's been doing a fabulous job writing his name all week.

This picture makes me teary eyed. I love this shy smile but proud look as he'd drawn his first self portrait. :) No, that's not a halo, it's his forehead.

Weather...

this week, Nathan and Daddy read a book all about weather and we've been talking quite a bit about thunder and lightening thanks to all these storms. Nathan learned to draw lightening and loved making a thunder sound while drawing the lightening.

Deal of the week! I've been looking everywhere for the game Caterpillar Scramble. I've seen it on so many blogs and really wanted to purchase it but I couldn't justify paying $25 for it. This week, I happened to find it on the clearance aisle at target for $4.04!!!! Of course, it came home with us and Nathan loves it!

Reading! We made our 2nd trip to the library and Nathan brought home 25 books! They are all on his night stand and one day after nap, he was super quiet and I knew he was awake. I went in his room to find this. :)

We have read so many books this week! It's been so fun to have new books to read everyday, and some good ole favorites too.

I found this great idea from the Shafer Family blog. You can find the link to it here. We made a notebook (well, we started it, but I've not finished it) all about Nathan! He and I both had so much fun working on this!!!

We had a blast this week! To check out other tot school blogs and all the fun they are having, slide on over to Carissa's blog and take a look.