Tot School – March 28, 2010

M is 42 months old.

Wellllll…… M had pneumonia this week.  So, we did not do much of anything except read books and watch tv.  My poor, poor baby.  We went to the doctor on Monday and he immediately started getting better after starting the antibiotics, but he’s still not back to normal.  (We’d appreciate prayers, if you are willing!)

The following is a smattering of this and that from past weeks that haven’t yet made it into a post, in no particular order as I’m not up to organizing anything right now…

We visited my parents who live on our family farm in Missouri.  It is more of a hobby farm now than anything (in its glory days it was a magnificent dairy farm, with horses and sheep to boot).  M loved feeding the chickens, and hearing the rooster crow!

While we were there we made a trip to Bass Pro (a major outdoor sports / hunting mall.  They had a lot of wonderful displays, including these sweet turtles:

And this grizzly bear, whom he agreed to stand next to if Auntie M would hold him:

 

I found a small foam ABC puzzle mat - the squares come apart and the letters all come out – for $1.00 at Walmart.  Here M is lining them up like a  train.  After he finished placing the letters in he “drove” it (pulled it) all around the house.

 

I took all the soft stuff out of our previous sensory bin and left the hard glass pebbles and marbles in.  I found a gumball machine at Dollar Tree and added it in.  Here’s M figuring out how it works (it was perfect for the marbles!):    (And, um, WHY does my baby look so long in this picture?)

This past week we did do one school-ish activity (later in the week, when he started improving and actually got dressed)… our egg game, which you can read about here. We played it and a couple of other games quite a bit, and although I hate for M to be so sick, I have to say I enjoyed the slower pace of our days this week.  Anyway, here we are playing the game:

And after we finished, we quickly graphed our chicks and other animals to see who had more before we actually counted them: 

Beginning next week (or the next school post I get around to writing), I’ll be linking these posts up to the Preschool Corner instead of Tot School.  I’ve been in denial that my baby is growing up, but have decided that our posts are probably more preschool-oriented now, although I do intend to keep school activities play-based and fun… no formal curriculum of any kind yet.  I hope all of you who read our Tot School posts will continue following M’s progress and our weekly activities!

Have a beautiful week, everyone! :)

Easter Basket Counting Game

This is a pretty simple game…. place the baskets in numerical order from 0 – 10 (obviously you can do 0-9 or 1-10 if you prefer), then place the correct number of eggs in each basket.  Here’s what the playing pieces look like:OR place the egg with the correct number of flowers painted on it in each basket.  OR turn it all into a file folder game and do both.

I decided to create a file folder game.
   
I laid the baskets out on the inside of my folder and taped them down with small pieces of double stick tape along the top and bottom edges.

Then I laminated the entire folder with contact paper.  (Note:  I tried adding a pocket for the game pieces, but it just wasn’t working for so many pieces.  I ended up putting them in a zipper baggie which I stapled to the back of the folder.)

Next, I took a very sharp pair of scissors (you could use an exacto knife) and made a slit in each basket.  I had to be careful to go only through the top layer of contact paper and the basket, and not through the file folder itself.  This turned the baskets into little pockets for the eggs.
M counts out the correct number of eggs and then places them in the appropriate basket/pocket: Then, if he wants, he places the flowered eggs in the correct baskets:
Despite the lengthy instructions for putting this together, it actually only took about 1/2 hour.  Let me know if you use it… we are really loving it!

The printables can be downloaded here.

Have a beautiful day! :)

Tot School – March 14, 2010

M is 41 months old.

I’ve been giving this some thought, and in the ongoing struggle to find balance, I’ve decided to limit my tot school posts to every other week, or two per month. We’ll see how it goes… bear with me!
We’ve been taking it very easy on “school” stuff lately. We’ve had beautiful weather and have just been enjoying the magic of being 3 years old. :) Here’s a bit of what we have done…
FINE MOTOR SKILLS:
M just loves cutting pages, so I created some quick shape ones for him. He cuts out the shapes then finds the same sized “blank” spot on the second page. To add a bit of excitement this time I had him use tape instead of a glue stick. He LOVED it! He definitely needs more practice with the tape, so we’ll be doing more of these!
A backpack of lacing buttons, animal shapes, spools, and little discs, from our toy lending library (still loving that we have one of these!).

Placing marbles on the suction cups of the back of a dinosaur-shaped bath-gripper-thingy.
LARGE MOTOR SKILLS:
Playing in the jump-o-lene with cousin S. Do you like his cheesy smile?
A great find at Dollar Tree – a target game with sticky balls so we can work on our aim.
A huge foam USA map mat (the kind that has foam squares that lock together). He stands on Minnesota and jumps to Florida a lot because that’s where Grandma and Grandpa currently are. :)
LITERACY SKILLS:
I set up M’s ABC train cards in the pocket chart, leaving a few out. We went through the ABCs until we came to a blank spot. Then he decided which letter was missing and found it in the pile on the floor. He did great with this, and it was fun to switch the game up a little bit from what we normally do!
SENSORY: The sensory bin has been full of very hard and very soft things. You can mainly see the soft things in the picture – cotton balls and pom poms. There are also small and large glass pebbles, glass marbles, and some plastic crystals, along with a scoop and a couple of small containers.
SCIENCE:
We found this cute book at the library:
Bird Talk, by Ann Jonas. Basically it tells a little bird story using only “memory phrases”. These phrases are what people who study birds use to remember the various sounds that birds make. For example, a chickadee says “chick a dee dee dee”. A robin says, “cheerily cheer-up, cheerily cheer-up”, etc. It’s a cute book and we have a lot of birds around, so we’ve really enjoyed it. I found this fantastic website, enature.com, and we were able to look up and listen to the actual bird sounds… it was a lot of fun and we were surprised at how accurate some of the memory phrases were, and a little bewildered about how they came up with some others. ;) I really need to spend some time exploring that site, it looks like a great resource!!
Go here to see more Tot School posts!
Have a beautiful day! :)

Sticker Collages and matching ABCs

We are leaving soon for a week long trip to visit my parents.  It will be fun once we get there, but the drive… oh, the long long drive… not sure that’s going to be as much fun. ;)  We’ll be in the car for about 6 to 7 hours for 2 days; somewhere around 12 to 14 hours total.  This does include some frequent stopping, which I feel is necessary for a small child.  If it were just hubs and me, it’d take about 11 hours and we’d do it all in one day.
Anyway, as you can imagine I’ve been trying to come up with good car activities for a 3 year old.  (If you have any input about this, PLEASE leave a comment!)  I want things that aren’t too messy, are engaging and interesting and novel for him, and won’t involve my turning around every 2 minutes (my neck aches just thinking about it) to help.  I do have a few things planned that we can do together for a while, and for which I’ll move to the back seat to be next to him, but I’m hoping he’ll be able to do and enjoy some activities on his own (besides dvds and cd books and coloring).
I had an idea about how to use stickers in a new way (new for M), and made up some little pages for him to do.  I’m not sure if this will be something I’ll have to help him with or not… I may decide to do one of them at home with him some time this week before we leave so I can gauge how easily he can do it on his own.  I thought I’d post these in case anyone else thinks it’s a good idea too. :)
I put together some little sticker scenes using half a sheet of construction paper.  These are foam stickers and we have a TON of them.  After I had the scene how I wanted it, I labeled each sticker with a letter, then wrote the same letter on the paper in the space where the sticker should go:
When it’s put together it will look like this:

Here are some more I put together.  I snapped pictures of some of them before I actually wrote the letters on them…
    The last one has some layered stickers.  I’m curious to see how he’ll do with that.  Can you tell that’s supposed to be a kite in the sky?
To store these, I put the papers in a pocket of the bag we’ll be taking with us, and all the stickers in a ziploc bag.  I labeled the back of each page with a shape, then labeled the back of each sticker with the appropriate shape. 
Let me know what you think!  These were fun for me to put together; I hope M has fun with them too.
Have a beautiful day! :)

Homemade Ball (or bean bag) Toss Game

 If you look closely you can see the ball in midair close to the box.

We are getting so very, very tired of winter here.   I let M go out whenever I am reasonably sure he won’t freeze, but it just isn’t enough.  He needs some gross motor fun inside, and I admit I’m not the best when it comes  to this kind of thing.  I’ve said this before… I’m a sit-in-one-place-and-do-something-quiet kind of girl, and I have a lot to learn about nurturing and appreciating M’s wild side. 

So, I made an attempt last Thursday, and was successful. :)  I found an old box, traced the top of a large cottage cheese container onto it, and cut out the circle.  Then I pushed the cottage cheese container into it and set the whole thing up on our loveseat.

I found these cute soft balls (similar to a bean bag, but with some sort of stuffing inside; they are very lightweight) at Dollar Tree.   Apparently they are supposed to look like Easter eggs. 

I put a piece of masking tape on the floor and we took turns standing at it and seeing if we could toss the balls into the container.  I thought M was doing great, but he was frustrated that whenever he managed to get a ball into the container it rolled right back out.  So we set up the laundry basket on the loveseat and did it that way.  Ha!  He enjoyed this a lot and was thrilled that it was ok to throw something in the house. :)

So, just go get your laundry basket and a ball and have fun!  If you want to make the same thing I made, make sure to cut your hole a tiny bit smaller than the outer rim of your container so the container won’t slide all the way through.

Have a beautiful day! :)

Tot School – Feb. 28, 2010

We took it very easy with school this past week.  I just brought out some random things that were easy for me to put together for M.  He is very into elaborate pretend play now and I’m trying to give him plenty of time for that.  If he’s involved in something like that during the only time I have free for a little school, well then no school.  I’m totally ok with that, although I have to work hard not to compare myself with other mommies out there.

So, in no particular order this week, here’s what we did (no action shots)…

A corkboard and push pins to outline the little pictures with.  I had several of these left over from the last time this activity was out.  He really enjoys this one!

 

Our newest puzzle from our toy lending libary:

 

Pegboard game with shapes, also from the toy library:

 

A new puzzle from mama (I’ve got scads of these stashed around the house; he just loves a new puzzle challenge).

 

The good old Lite Brite, which is always fun.  He likes to pull the shades in his room, close the door and get it as dark as possible when he plays with this:

 

Our foam puzzles – numbers and ABCs.  He still likes to hammer these guys in with his little wooden hammer!

 

The first thing he goes for every week is his letter cutting/collage page.  He did S this week:

 

The sand tray and his soft pipecleaner letters. 

 

And, he checks his little sprouts every single morning.  It’s looking like we are going to have lots of shamrocks and forget-me-nots.  We’ve been counting them and he’s so good about taking care of them.  I really need to thin them out, but they are like his babies, so I’m not sure exactly how to go about doing that. :)

 

I know we’ve done a lot more than this, but if I don’t take a picture of it I just can’t remember anything.   Actually, that’s true about a lot of things, not just tot school! :)

Go here to see other tot-schooling mamas.

Have a beautiful day! )

Tot School – Feb. 14, 2010

M is 41 months old.

Well, M is still feeling camera shy.  For this reason, I took a lot of pics of the activities as they were set up.  I love action shots more, but I’ve realized he really needs my attention to be on him when we are spending this precious time together.  I hope you all don’t mind the boring pictures!!

 

FINE MOTOR SKILLS:

This was a quick, simple activity to put together – I just punched some holes around a heart cut from fun foam and set it out with a lace from some lacing beads.

 

For this activity I set out a jar (filled with glass pebbles to keep it from falling over while M worked with it) and some elastic ponytail holders.  He stretched each one out with his hands, then manipulated it over the top of the jar and slid it down.  He really, really, really enjoyed this and it was definitely a challenge for him.  I got this idea here.

M made these sweet little beaded hearts for the grandmas.  Each one was made with a 3” length of pipecleaner and pony beads.  Once the beads were strung on we formed them into tiny hearts. 

 

This was a great idea found here.  I cut slits in some red and white felt hearts, sewed a button onto a length of ribbon and M made a button snake.  He really enjoyed this once he started it.  Sorry there’s no “after” picture!

 

MATH SKILLS:

 M enjoyed doing his Bob the Builder truck size sorting activity. 

 I turned these little valentines from our most recent  High-Five issue into pom pom counting cards.   M used the tweezers to put the correct number of pom poms on each card.

 

We played a memory game with our shape sorting cards.  This was a little more difficult than a regular game of memory because we weren’t matching pictures, but shapes of items.  M did very well with this and really enjoyed it much more than simply sorting the cards into shape categories.

 

SCIENCE:

We bought some tiny seed starter kits at Target and planted some forget-me-nots and a shamrock plant. :)  M has been checking them every day to see if anything is growing yet.

SENSORY:

 We made a batch of valentine playdough – pretty red with glitter in it and a dash of cinnamon too – yum!  M wanted to make a snowman like we did with our white playdough in December… so that’s what we did!  I called them *Valentine Guys*.  M just called them red snowmen, heh. 

Then he made me the sweetest little playdough valentines (“These are just for you, Mommy!”):

And here was the big hit of the week… a tissue paper sensory bin.We actually used our old baby bathtub for this because our regular bin was being used for something else.   We had fun tearing it up, feeling it, and hearing how crinkly it is.  Then we tossed the pieces in the air and watched them float down.  M thought they float “probably because they aren’t very heavy”.  :) Then we had the best time blowing them up into the air and across the room.  Finally we just took handfuls and threw them at each other.  We both had a LOT of fun with this!  Thank you so much to April, who gave us this idea with her great post.  Visit her blog if you haven’t already, she is full of good ideas and has the sweetest little girl! :)     

CREATIVE PLAY:

Well, there were actually 2 big hits this week and this is part of the second one:Our lovely friend Elise sent us these tumbling goannas in a little package.  They stick to the fridge or window or wall and flip flop their way down, sometimes tangling each other up.  We’ve been having a lot of goanna races lately, they are so much fun!   Thank you, Elise, Savvy, and Blake!!  This was such a treat!  More about what else was in their package in a little while.

We also found out this week that our town has a toy lending library.  What?!?!  This is something I’ve read about on other blogs and I’ve been soooo jealous!  Well, it turns out we have one too and I’ve lived here for 10 years without knowing about it.  Not that I would’ve cared more than 3 years ago, but still.  So of course we went the very day we first heard about it.  M brought home this cool building toy set.  It’s mainly wheels, bolts, nuts, and some yellow connecting pieces.  We’ve made a cart for his pretend grocery shopping and a truck!  It’s really cool and I’ll hate taking it back. 

He also picked out this fun bulldozer floor puzzle.  I’m really looking forward to making the toy library part of our weekly or bi-weekly routine!

MUSIC:

Ok, here’s the other part of what we got in Elise’s package.  Really, she was so generous and she is truly one of the people I’m most thankful for having “met” via blogging… she’s a great mom, full of energy and fun ideas, and just has such a cheerful outlook.  I’m always inspired by her.  I want to move to Australia and be her next door neighbor. :)   Oh wait, would that be weird at all? ;)

She and her sweet children sent M these great Australian animal flashcards and the BEST cd of music.  This is such a good cd; we’ve been listening to it pretty much non-stop since receiving it and, honestly, I’m not tired of it yet.  I’m actually really enjoying it and that says a lot!  It’s fun to dance to and we are just having a great time with it!

 

Speaking of music, here’s what I videotaped one day this week.  Check out M’s bedhead. :)  (But please don’t look at the messy background.)   This cracked me up and I thought you might get a kick out of it too.  I apologize in advance for my obnoxious laugh (sorry!)…  the reason I thought it was so funny is because M normally does not have such a serious frown on his face when he’s singing, and his sweet little voice is not at all like this.  I don’t know what he was thinking, but he was adamant about making a video. :)  Enjoy…

 

For more Tot School posts go here!

Have a beautiful day! :)