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

Tot School (30 months)

Yay for another great tot school week! As summer begins, I am beginning to taper some of our tot school time and turn it into independent work and play. With a baby coming in November and Nathan used to having my undivided attention all day long, this transition needs to begin at some point, so I’ve started the slow transition this summer. :) Anyway, back to tot school! I think some of these pics may be from the week before last, but nonetheless, here’s what we’ve been up to! :)

Puzzle Time!

Gross Motor Fun!

Balancing on top of Bailey’s giant rope ball – talk about a core workout! Jumping over another one of Bailey’s toys was also super fun.

The all time favorite – the slip and slide! I think we’ve done this every day this week and let me just tell you how tired it makes my child! Partly because he stands wayyyyyyy across the yard at the other side of the fence and takes a loooooooooong running start. :)

Big Brother Practice…

When baby Ethan came to visit, Nathan practiced playing gently, sharing, learning about big vs. small toys, hard vs. soft toys, and how to engage a little one in play.

Writing Fun from the Kumon workbook.

Fine Motor Fun

Remember the game “Perfection”?? – great fine motor activity! We also did stickers and the matching middle oreos – complete with a giant stack of oreos for mommy to enjoy!

Drawing Fun

Nathan is loving cranes right now, and he draws one every chance he gets!!!! He draws a rectangle with wheels, a long beam, another long beam, and then a special hook. I’m so proud of him!!! This week we worked on spelling crane and writing it on the crane pictures. “R” is a tough letter for him to write so it was great practice.

Phonics Fun:

Practicing beginning sounds

Time for pretend/imaginative play! We played with his constructables which led to pretending to be Bob the Builder and “fixing” everything. Another day, he pretended to be a construction guy and built a road for his cars (thank you to the road crew who have been working outside our house for what feels like a month – you’re teaching my kiddo a lot about how to maintain roads!) Another day, we played with his tickle monster finger puppets. Oh my goodness, that was a hoot!

Speaking of building… remember this post? Well, I finally got around to posting the rest of the pictures. We’ve spent a lot of time in the past few weeks building, building, building! Towers, cities, conveyer belts, factories… so many things. We’ve been building with blocks, legos, pillows, anything that stacks! I love this age and the love for building in my kiddo!

I love the crane and conveyer belt in this duplo set because it really also helps to develop two handed skills (one to steady the crane/belt, and the other to wind the crank) and also it is a great fine motor exercise! Not to mention, with my background in Therapeutic Recreation, I can’t think of a better way to build fine motor skills than to play with legos!

Cutting Fun

Reading Time!

This might possibly be one of my favorite times of the day with Nathan. He will sit and listen to book after book after book. He’s always loved to be read to before bed, but now he’s sitting through 10 or 15 books in the middle of the day too. I always stop every few words and let him practice sounding out the words and learning that words make up stories and fun things like that. He’s doing fabulous with sounding out words and really LOVES books and reading! YAY!

I’ll leave you with my favorite picture of the week…

What have you been up to in your tot school this week? Please join the fun! Visit www.1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com for more info or to link up!

Tot School

(Nathan is 30 months old)

We had another fabulous week of tot school!!! Here's what we've been up to!

Sticker Fun:

I found this book at a consignment sale. It's the story of Noah with stickers that you add every few lines. We had a blast with this and it was great for Nathan to learn the names of Noah's sons, to practice the fine motor skills, and to match the picture in the book to the sticker. We'll be doing this again for sure!

To continue our sticker fun... I found 3 amazing Priddy giant sticker books at Garden Ridge for just 3.99 a piece!!!!! They are these 3 books and they retail for $12 a piece! Check out your local garden ridge!!!

1. http://www.amazon.com/Giant-Sticker-Puzzle-Book-Activity/dp/0312500947/ref=pd_sim_b_4

2. http://www.amazon.com/Giant-Sticker-Activity-Work-Book/dp/0312495234/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275681035&sr=8-12

3. http://www.amazon.com/Giant-Sticker-Fun-Book-Activity/dp/0312500920/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275681035&sr=8-15

After putting all the "e" stickers on and piecing together the elephant, we started writing. Nathan loves to write letters and "E" and "e" were no exception!

Phonics/Word/Spelling fun:

I checked out this Hooked on Phonics program from our library, covered the workbook pages with page protectors and Nathan and I set out to work through it. Dry erase crayon in hand, he completed over 30 pages without stopping. I finally stopped us so we could eat lunch. It's a great program with many activities, including writing, matching, tracing, flash cards, a DVD to follow up on the unit, and a book to follow up on the unit!

Nathan also completed about 10 pages in his KUMON upper case letters book.

We have used letter magnets a bunch this week learning word families and practicing more on sounding out words. This kiddo has a love for reading already!

I drew pictures and asked him to write the word on the blanks. This was a fun activity (and one than challenged my drawing skills)!

Playing in a box is always loads of fun! Especially when you learn to tip the box over while sitting in it! Talk about a core workout!

I showed Nathan a picture of our Compassion child and asked him if he'd like to draw a picture for Abdul to send in our next letter. He was so excited and eager to "make Abdul so happy and help him smile." He wrote Abdul's name (with me spelling it for him) on the front and back of his picture. So sweet to see his excitement over this.

Tracing/Drawing Fun:

I drew some pictures for Nathan to trace and he thought it was funny to trace them right side up and upside down. Then he drew some pictures of his own. Lately, his favorite thing to draw is a crane. :)

Art Fun:

Nathan and I spent one morning painting and we had a blast. On some pages, Nathan "traced" my outline and then painted it in (like the traffic light and stop sign). On other pages, he did his own painting; of course no painting day can be complete without handprints!

Puzzle Fun:

Nathan was really into puzzles this week. He did all of his puzzles at least once and some of them many times. He's getting really good at figuring out how to put different elements together (like the truck then the bulldozer) and then fitting the elements together.

We also did this folder game from Carissa. You can find it here. Nathan loved matching the mommy letters to the baby letters.

Carissa has fabulous idea and tons of resources!

Check them out by clicking on this button below.

I'll leave you with my favorite two pics of the week...

Have some fun ideas you want to share? Visit Carissa's blog and link up your post and let's continue to share the valuable lessons we teach our kiddos!