Sunday, August 23, 2009

Tot School

Tot School

M is 35 months old.

I felt really behind all week, nothing was planned (and I am nothing if not a Planner), and both M and I were a little cranky.  Sigh.  Motherhood isn’t always pretty I guess.  Anyway, we did only a few things…

We played with M’s foam bath numbers and he matched the number to the correct pile of erasers that I set up:

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He did this pretty well, with only a little guidance from me.  We switched it and he put the number of erasers down next to the appropriate foam number (does that make sense??)

One day he wanted to “do school” when I wasn’t able to, so he got out the little erasers, a pair of tongs, and a bowl from the kitchen and did this all on his own :

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I found a copy of the Moveable Alphabet here, printed it out and put it in our pocket chart (from Target dollar spot – you knew I’d mention it at least once, didn’t you?!).  Then M matched up his letters from his See and Spell.  I thought he would have fun putting things in the pocket chart, but he really was not all that interested.  I do think I’ll try it again though, it could’ve just been that we had a bad attitude all week. ;)august 2009 028

M matched paper clips to colored pieces of cardstock.  He did great with getting them on this time, something he’s really had a hard time with in the past:

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He did some scissor practice using the pages I printed from here:

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We did a dolphin puzzle, which was a real struggle… I know he can do this puzzle, he just lost interest halfway through.  I made him finish it, but I’m really not sure why.  Normally if he isn’t having fun we just skip something. 

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We made a blue, yellow, blue, yellow pattern with his blocks.  I did this with him and kept asking “what comes next?” and he kind of got it eventually, I think.

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We finished up with an activity that’s always fun and puts both of us in a good mood.  We got out his songbook and we played his instruments and sang several songs.  You can’t see his box of instruments in this picture; we have a harmonica, a triangle, a shaker bottle (pictured), jingle bells, tambourine, and the bowl and wooden spoon (pictured) that he uses like a drum.  august 2009 058

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I’m hoping to make next week a little more fun and interesting!  I hope you all had wonderful weeks with your tots!!

Have a beautiful day! :)

8 comments:

  1. I also love my pocket chart from the dollar spot! I need to get it back out again instead of using the floor for matching. Looks like you guys had a fun week of learning!

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  2. I know exactly what you mean about crankiness. Anna is a queen of cranky suddenly - I am not sure if she is sick or just homesick. I hope next week is better for both Matthew and Anna :)

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  3. I hope next week goes better for both of you! It looks like you had a great week of learning, anyways. It's too funny that he got the erasers out on his own. We have the same erasers and my kids regularly retrieve them to play with - I had to start hiding them because my tiny one can open the top :) And I love the idea for the pocket chart - I wish there was a Target near me!!

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  4. I love the eraser/bath number idea! I will have to do that soon with my son.

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  5. What exactly is in the songbook? I have a lot of the same instruments but I don't know what to do except for free time with them.

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  6. Love the song book idea. I also love the eraser counting. I am so impressed that he can recognize all of his numbers AND count. That is fantastic.
    Thanks for posting!
    Cathy aka The Attached Mama

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  7. Amanda - I just typed up some of our favorite songs (I asked M for suggestions, and came up with some new ones on my own) and put them in a 3-ring binder. We each pick an instrument and play it while we sing a song. It's pretty noisy, not very musical. :) I put one song on each page and added clip art at the top to help him "read" and decide which song he wants; like a lamb at the top of Mary had a Little Lamb, etc.

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  8. Cathy, if I gave the impression that M knows how to count and recognizes his numbers, I'm sorry! We are very much in the process of learning these. Some days he does better than others. He is slowly getting the # recognition down, but actual counting (to more than 3) is slow going. So... don't be too impressed!!! :)

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