Tot School (30 months)

We had another fabulous week!  Here’s our week in pictures and a few words!
Building/racing fun:
Nathan has finally learned not to crash his train tracks and this has enabled us to build multi-level tracks and for him to help with much more of the building!  He loves all things with wheels, so naturally building, racing, and the other things that go along with those are included in our tot school time.

I can’t remember who posted about the highway letter idea (so sorry!), but it comes from this website (http://makinglearningfun.com/themepages/RacecarABCcards.htm).  I chose to draw my own letters and then color them (N with crayon, and A with marker) and quickly figured out why people print them!  Nathan did enjoy lining up his cars on the letters though!
 
Science fun:
We’ve been reading tons of books about all kinds of things but a few of the books have been about bugs… so of course all of our plastic animals were dumped on the floor and we went through them talking about if they were a bug or animal and what the name was (if N didn’t already know).

Patterning/Gluing:
Okay, so I’ve just recently given in to handing over control of the glue stick to my toddler.  I don’t like sticky messes, but I’m learning that I’m the mother of a boy and I have to get over that!  So this past week, after showing Nathan the point of the activity (ABAB patterning) and how to make glue dots… I handed over the glue bottle.  The patterning went well, he successfully and independently patterned 8 different cards.  The glue, while independent and not so messy, was hysterical.  The dots turned into highways, but honestly, who cares?  Well, I did for a sec, but then realized the point is not to make perfect glue dots, it’s to allow Nathan to explore patterning and glue!

Games, Music, and Dressing:
Of course they don’t go into the same category… but since I only have a few pics, I’m consolidating screen space. :)  I know, what’s gotten into me?  We played a great game called color match.  While the color matching was simple for Nathan… the turn taking, and learning he could only draw a card once per turn and if he had room great, if not he couldn’t turn over another card till his turn… well, that was the learning part. :)
As usual, we played instruments all through the week. 
Nathan is soooooo independent in so many areas and then doesn’t really care to be independent in others.  Recently he’s started to enjoy picking out his clothes (something he didn’t care to do before).  The blue “ROCK” polo and red knit shorts were one of his creations.  These outfits are often accompanied out of the house by a different shoe on each foot.  :)

Word Family Fun:
I used some old scrapbook letters and some stickers/horrible drawing to make these word family worksheets.  Nathan loved them and amazed me with his ability to spell out the words and independently place the letters (on his independent glue stick blobs).  We did this several different days.
 
Letters/Spelling/Phonics
Matching words to pictures: I saw this idea on The Adventures of Bear, and then modified it to fit the supplies we already had.  Nathan did a great job matching the words to the pictures.  I had to remind him to slow down and think before choosing, but once he did, he surprised me with this!
 
I gave Nathan the letters of his name and asked him to glue them in order.  Then between the lines at the bottom, I asked him to write his name.  He’s learning about spacing the letters that he writes and writing left to right.

I lined up ABC cards A-M (which in hindsight I should have asked N to do) and handed him a basket of animals whose names started with letters A-M.  Other than confusing C and K on Cow, and mistaking the iguana for a lizard, he did this quickly, correctly, and without help. I love the way he purposefully stood all the animals on their legs and carefully placed each one down as to not disturb the standing ones. :)
 
Puzzle Fun:

Button Drop:
I found this idea from Children’s Learning Activities and Nathan had a blast with it.  I gave him a butter container with a small slit cut in the top and a container (which usually holds our cough drops-can you tell) of all sizes of buttons.  He did this several times in a row, but the most fun was the last time when he forced all the buttons except for one in the small hole, thus widening the hole each time.  This is why CLA suggests using a baby food jar with a non-pliable lid.  :)  The funniest part to me was when Nathan couldn’t force the last button through the ever widening hole in the top.  He just had to have that button in with the others so he took the lid off completely and said, “there mommy, it will fit in that BIIIIIG hole”.  Then, he replaced the lid and requested a new activity.  HeeHee!
 
Number Fun:
Nathan is drawing lines from the amount of items to the correct number.  He also traced the numbers.  This printable came from The Ramblings and Adventures of a SAHM. 

A similar idea came from Carissa at 1+1+1=1.  Since our printer is out of ink, I made Nathan these “how many” sheets using construction paper and stickers we have at home.  He had to count the objects, choose the correct number off the table, take the sticker backing off of the number and then place it over the correct # in the number choices on the page.  This was a huge hit!  Thanks for the idea Carissa!!!

Drawing/Writing Fun:
Here’s my literal child for you… in his box of paper he found this X.  He asked me what color he should color it (and since he loves to draw with black, brown, and purple most all the time), I suggested a “rainbow X” meaning all kinds of colors.  Well Nathan, being so literal, drew a rainbow overtop of the X.  :)

My favorite of the week had to be this impromptu coloring time with daddy.  They were drawing cars and Daddy drew an awesome blue one.  It’s “The King” from Cars.  Well, for those of you who’ve seen the movie… you know that The King gets flat tires.  Nathan had to depict this on daddy’s drawing.  See?

I hope that you enjoy these ideas and the fun pics from our great week!  To find out what others are doing in their tot schools, go to Carissa’s blog and check out the tot school posts!  www.1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com