September’s Tot School

Nathan is currently 34 months old.

I’ve come to realize that a weekly tot school posting is just not going to happen these days!  With pregnancy progressing into the last weeks and our schedule these days, a monthly recap is much more doable! :)  We are still doing tot school weekly, but I’m not following closely behind with the camera these days.  I have a hard enough time getting the preggo body from point a to b, much less toting a camera around too! :)  I digress… oh to more important things… our tot school times this month, at least the ones I managed to photo!  :)
Real Life School… learning to vacuum and use the dust buster… and I tell you what, he’s good at it, very thorough, he loves it, and his little body can get to so many places mine can’t!    He loves to get every last Bailey hair and dirt spec and loves to be a big helper in this way.  He enjoys the responsibility too.  Only once did we have to talk about what things were good to clean up and which things weren’t… that was when he sucked up the food in Bailey’s food bowl… that way she didn’t get it on the floor, he explained. :)

Preschool activities… these are going on at school… learning to write upper and lower case letters… he knows most all of the uppers, but we’ve not worked on writing them between the lines, nor had we worked on writing lower case letters.  This is great practice at school.  They’re learning to write the numbers too.  There is a center for worksheets/writing practice and he loves it. He brings home several worksheets most every day from school… and delights in telling us about them!  Here are a few pictures from the first week.  They work on one letter per week so there’s lots of practice time.  The crafts are also a huge hit, and there’s an art center open for “free art”.  Another of Nathan’s favorites and a great creative outlet.  Most of his artwork hangs on our art wall, but here are a few from safety week.  Of course he’s doing lots of other things at preschool, but these were just a few I wanted to share this month. :)

Drawing/Writing… this kiddo loves to draw, write and color!  He’ll do it with pencils, markers, crayons, sidewalk chalk… you name it.  He loves to create pictures and I love to watch!  These are pictures of a boomerang (bottom right), cup with milk (bottom right), and jellyfish (others) he drew one day… I love that concentration!

I also love the face he made when I asked him to hold up the picture for me to photograph… classic!  :)
 
To follow up with preschool during tot school, we’re continuing the number theme for the week and working on writing numbers, lower and upper case letters, as well as tracing.  This is probably one of his favorite activities, other than drawing and coloring.  We’re working on him remembering/learning to write his name on each “paper” too.   He’s definitely right handed although in sports, he uses both hands and feet equally as well. 

Puzzle time… another favorite.  Nathan can do a 12 piece jigsaw puzzle in no time, and we’re working on the skill building for 24 and 36 piece puzzles, as well as puzzles that aren’t a perfect rectangle.  He can do them well with guidance, but still gets frustrated when working alone.  He puts the puzzles together element by element (the bus then the airplane) in the picture, not by edge then inside.  This seems to work for him, so I’m going with it! :) 
Also, as you can see in the bottom pictures, we’ve had some opportunities with various friends to work on completing something like a puzzle together, working as a pair.  His buddy A, the only one I got pictures of, is a good teammate for this kind of thing because she and Nathan tend to like similar activities and aren’t overly competitive with one another. 

Size sequencing… Nathan loves to line things up and “park” things so we’ve been working on lining things up in different orders… biggest to smallest, tallest to shortest, etc.  
Playdough and it’s many uses… particularly cutting!  Nathan’s getting better and better with cutting using a knife and can cut some of his foods without help!  He loves to play with playdough, and this is one of many skills that playdough is perfect for!

More than just a leapster!   Nathan loves his leapster which comes out occasionally at home.  It’s a wonderful tool for teaching hand eye coordination, pencil grip (using the stylus), and so much more!  Lately, it’s also been a great tool for teaching Nathan to be patient with himself and to try not to go straight to mom or dad to ask for help or call it quits when something is hard.  Nathan is difficult to challenge, but when he is met with a task he can’t do perfectly (probably because most things come so easy) he is quick to give up, get frustrated, move on, or get anxious.  This is something we continue to work through, teach and mold as he grows older and more aware of his feelings.  The leapster is a great tool for this because he’s really motivated to keep going even when it’s not going perfectly.
 
One area he’s achieved great success in regarding this is getting dressed!  He can now get himself completely dressed without help!  His “tall socks” sometimes are a challenge, but he can do them now and is less likely to give up on the first try!  He’s also able to undress completely, although he still quickly grows frustrated with his shirt if it’s not super easy the first time.  We are so proud of Nathan for fighting past the frustration and for learning that it doesn’t have to be perfect to be good… One thing at a time… getting dressed… CHECK!  :)

Building school… Bob the Builder is a new favorite and Duplos are an old favorite.  Put them together and we have all kinds of new things to build!  :)  He’s also been able to play with real legos (as opposed to duplos) at my folks house and he really likes them.  Little does he know, Santa knows this and has already shopped consignment sales and found him some legos! :)
   
We’ve also been working on/learning more about prereading skills, sounding out words, pretend play, cleaning up a task before moving to a new one, riding a bike, scooter, and trike (brakes, gravity, physics, and speed on each), computer skills, more independence around the house, memory verses for building character, feelings, and so much more!  I love this time with Nathan, as does Chad and we’re so happy that he does too!   :)
Are you doing tot school with your little one?  Share your ideas, read about new ideas!  Check out Carissa’s blog, as she’s the tot school guru and host!  :) 
You’ll find it here: www.1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com

Tot school!

(Nathan is 33 months old)

Last week was a crazy week for us, but we did enjoy some fun and some tot school activities!  On Monday, Labor Day, we headed to an animal farm and had a blast.  It was so much fun to do something like this with Chad!  The weather was beautiful and cool and we were so thankful!  So, how does this adventure qualify for tot school?  Well, lots of ways!
-emu have 3 toes, ostriches have 2 toes
-zebras have upper and lower teeth and shouldn’t be hand fed
-how to hold your hand flat so that you don’t get nibbled
-animal names and how they like to be fed (dropping food in their mouth, eating out of a bucket, eating out of your hand, etc).

-baby zebras grow fast and nurse for a long time
-animals with beaks are often scary to feed but if you dare, feed directly out of your bucket, not your hand!
-llamas spit (thanks Tim for learning this one for us!)

-baby pot bellied pigs are super cute
-rhinos love the water and weigh a lot
-tongues come in all shades of colors

-each giraffe has a different pattern of spots, just like zebras stripes are all different
-sheep can grow really long curly horns
-camels only have bottom teeth and reallllly like to be hand fed!
  
There were so many fun things to learn!!!  We all enjoyed feeding the giraffes (especially the baby one in a different area – although I didn’t get pictures).  It was really neat to look closely at their different markings, the bumps on their noses, their eye lashes, and the wrinkles on their faces.  How cool that God made us all different… even the animals!

Nathan loved sitting this way while we rode the wagon around the huge sanctuary.  He could see everything and didn’t have to try to see around all the tall adults.  He was always ready to stop and feed the animals and was most often found with one hand on the rail and one hand in the feed bucket.  :)

Feeding the camels was probably the funniest part of the day.  These three were so boisterous about getting food and they constantly had their mouths open and their lower jaws through the fence.  They were also realllllly slobbery!
 

They reminded us of the three stooges.

We’ve been to Lazy 5 Ranch a number of times and each time we go, it’s a new adventure.  Each time, Nathan has a new favorite, and has developed more confidence in feeding the animals.  This trip, the only animals he was slightly hesitant to feed were the emu and I DON’T BLAME HIM!  They are super scary to me!  You can click on the 2 pictures below to see our last two Lazy 5 adventures. 
                              
             September 15, 2009                                                                      April 28, 2009
 
It was a lovely day, and full of so much fun and learning!

Also this week, Nathan started back to preschool and is really enjoying his classmates and all the activities.  They have a free art center where all kinds of art supplies are easily at their disposal and Nathan loves this!  He’s also worked on cutting, gluing, lacing, stacking, writing, academics, sharing, communicating with peers, music, and all kinds of social opportunities!
In our more formal tot school at home, although I got no pictures, we continued to talk about the metamorphosis of frogs and even let our frogs and tadpoles go this week!  We worked on holding up the fingers to display 1-5, days of the week, months of the year, counting by 10s to 100, counting to 20 by ones, drawing and writing, cutting, building, stacking, jumping, hopping, skipping, galloping.  Nathan also spent a great deal of time outside.  He loves to ride bikes and scooters and is quite good at it!  He loves to ride his “big boy bike” – a 2 wheel with training wheels and is really good at slowing down and breaking when needed.  He also loves to ride the big kids razor scooters.  He has a small 3 wheel one, but he does much better on the 2 wheel kind and we’re looking for bargains for one of those!  He’s also a fan of riding his trike.  We’ve been working on sounding out words and have been reading the BOB books.  Nathan loves all books and everyday we read many different books.  Nathan you are such a joy!!!
  
Are you doing tot school?  Interested in tot school?  Check out Carissa’s blog for more info!

Tot School in August!

Nathan is 33 months old now and what a wonderful August it has been!  We’ve taken a break from formal tot school, but the learning has still continued!  We’ve had many trips and vacations as well as some extra time with Daddy home!  Our theme for August has been good clean fun… or so it seems from the pictures!
Nathan found a roll of toilet paper in the living room which had been hiding behind the couch for a while (it was left after a bridal shower game).  He asked if he could play with it and of course, me being the practical, mess hating, rule oriented one would have said no.  Daddy, who answered first said, SURE and the fun began!  They must have TP’d our entire downstairs and oh did they have fun!  Bailey even joined in on the unrolling.  The best part?  Nathan was just as excited to clean it all up!

Nathan has been really into pretending lately and it’s been fun to watch him recreate different stories.  One morning whilc at the park, he tried to recreate “the grumpy old troll who lives under the bridge”.  He was the troll and Izzy was trying to cross the bridge.  Too funny to hear their conversation!

Nathan has spent quite a bit of time “fishing” this summer as well.  He catches all kinds of different sea creatures and colorful fish with each cast.  More pretend play, but also some good water safety (wearing a life jacket on the dock, paying attention to the edge, not casting the line toward people, etc).  Also while at YaYa and PaPa’s house, he learned the fun of playing in a cooler filled with water.  We talked about the water level when he was in vs. out of the cooler as well as which toys would sink or float.
  
We have done a few formal tot school sessions in preparation for preschool which starts in just a few days!  Nathan loves to cut with his tiger scissors and is growing quite proficient with them.
 
He still has an intense love for reading and letters and we’ve been working on sounding out words all summer.  During this activity, I placed two cards in front on him and asked him to do different things using his trains to show me he could find the right word.  For example, “place Toby on “dog” and Percy on “go”.”  “Drive Percy and Toby over the word “cat.”  “ Place Percy on the word “exit.”  It was a challenge as sometimes the words were very similar and he couldn’t rely just on memory or the first letters. 

We also continued to work on letters and beginning word sounds with this animal mat.  It has 16 different animals and they start with various letters, but not all different sounds.  Given the pile of letters that corresponded with the beginning sound, I asked Nathan to match the correct letter to the correct animal.  He really enjoyed doing this, and of course Percy and Toby had to watch.

Along with some preschool readiness things, we’ve been doing more life skill types of things like sorting laundry, setting the table, putting the dishes away, putting clothes away, washing dishes, etc.  Nathan loves to play in this sink and “wash” his toys.  He also discovered he could use the tongs to pick up the toys out of the soapy water.  This is a new favorite activity at our house these days and it keeps him occupied for 30 minutes or more.  And don’t worry, for those of you out there (like me) who find kitchen sinks disgusting… I clorox it before his little hands get anywhere near it!

We’ve spent much time at playgrounds of all sorts this summer and Nathan has really turned into a skilled climber.  His gross motor skills and motor planning skills are certainly put to the test during these kinds of climbing.

Keeping up with the gross motor development… We’ve been practicing balancing on one foot from the floor, the top of the bilibo, on flat foot, tippy toe, etc.  We’ve also been talking about how to get from one place to another – galloping, slithering, crawling, rolling, etc.  These are really fun to act out and it’s a great way to incorporate which animals crawl or run or slither!  FYI: It is not a good idea for a pregnant woman (28 weeks at the time) to try and demonstrate “slithering”.  :)

 
Nathan continues swim lessons a couple times a week (either with a teacher or with us).  He’s able to swim close to 30 feet completely on his own without coming up for air.  He can dog paddle and has a pretty good freestyle stoke as well (“big arms”).  He can back and front flip underwater (with a little push from mom and dad), log roll through the water without help, belly flop, he’s learning to dive in frontwards, he can back dive (his version – stand backwards on the ladder and fall into the water and do a flip underwater and come back to the ladder"), jump in and retrieve something and swim back to the side, and he’s learning to get his head above water all by himself to get a breath.  We know he can but he doesn’t do it nearly enough.

Chad found a “science experiment” in our backyard.  We have a baby pool on the side of the house that had filled with rain while we were out of town.  A frog, well more like lots of frogs, jumped in a laid eggs.  Chad found HUNDREDS of tadpoles in there.  We brought some in on 8/20 and have been watching them turn into frogs.  They are simple to care for, and just require a little lettuce and water changes.  We’ll keep you posted on the process of their metamorphosis!
  
That’s our month in a nutshell!  Have you been doing tot school too?  Please link up your post to Carissa’s host post! 
Interested in finding out more?  Click here!! www.1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com