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Tot School ::3::


This week for Tot School things were a little crazier (a lot to do during the day with preschool starting for big brother…and a new routine to adjust to), but we still squeezed in time together and are adjusting everyone to the “Mommy gets to spend special time with Kaleb” routine too!

Getting rid of our high chair and moving Kaleb to the booster seat so he can sit at the table has been a huge help – although he still wants to be buckled in constantly and then sometimes can’t reach the activity that we are doing. In his little mind: booster = must be buckled. :)

We spent some time playing with some animal magnets that I found last week. He loved pulling them off and rearranging them, dropping them in and taking them out of the bag. We tried driving the tractor around on the table, but the magnet he was most interested in? A haybale. Go figure.


Kaleb loves the stacking cups and is beginning to consistenly get them in the right ascending order.

Ever since I pulled this ring stack out again (I know it’s more of an infant toy, but I’m working on the size differences and stacking them correctly) he has been carrying it around the house and wanting to take it to bed with him. Now, of course, the rings are located all over my house (and good luck to me in finding them all).


Kaleb has also discovered where Mommy has been hiding the crayons and has great fun dumping them out and then putting them back in the box. I can’t complain if he wants to clean them up, so I just take pictures. He is having a lot of fun coloring and is sitting for much longer time periods to scribble away now.


I pulled out some of our puzzle blocks to stack, and he wanted more to stack so we pulled out the 1″ blocks too (much better).


He also loved trying out the lacing cards. He was able to get the string into several of the holes, and then let me pull the string tight for him.

That’s it for this week – be sure to click on the Tot School link above to see how other moms are incorporating Tot School into their day!

The Preschool Corner: Letter B

Zachary has moved onto the letter “B” this week and it cracks me up how HUGE he has to make his “bellys” on his B’s. His P’s and R’s are normal, but he really enjoys making them larger than life.

He also started preschool 2 days a week (so Mommy has a little more time with Kaleb on those mornings).

ABC Book: Bumblebee

The bumblebee fits onto a standard size piece of paper. He cut out circles for the body and head of the bee and cut black stripes to glue on it also. I cut out wings for the bee using wax paper and then we added googly eyes and antennas to complete it.
Art Activity: Binoculars

We took two toilet paper rolls and stapled them together to look like binoculars, punched holes in the side to tie a long piece of string in for a “strap” of sorts.

Fun Activities

Balance: Have your child try walking with something balanced on their heads.Then try standing on just one leg. Do it while closing your eyes and see what happens!

Balance Beam: Tape a long strip of wide tape down the middle of a hallway floor and walk along the tape line. Can you do it without stepping off the tape?

String Beads: Practice patterning or make a necklace together.

Bounce Balloons: Blow up some balloons and have fun bouncing them back and forth to each other.

Letter Sheet/Collage

Click on thumbnail to download pdf

Writing
This week we used our large easel to practice writing our letters, especially since the bellies on those “B”s can get rather large at times!
Rhymes and Songs
London Bridges Falling Down
Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee

Storytime

Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle

Tot School ::2::


Getting pictures of the things that we do during Tot School, can sometimes be a wee bit challenging. Four kids, all vying for their own piece of the action. And everyone wants to help the baby. Sigh.

But I have pulled my act together, and even if the pictures are blurry, skewed or whatever, here they are!
Kaleb is well aware now that all the “good stuff” is hiding out on the shelves in Mommy’s room. It’s almost enough to distract him from the toilet.

The toys may be exciting for a little bit, but then being able to reach door knobs and open and close doors is so much fun too, so forgetting the toys can be rather easy.

This week Kaleb colored a lot more with the crayons as opposed to trying to eat the entire box, which was a welcome surprise. I kept naming the colors he used as he was coloring and every time he used the purple, he would color a bit and then raise his hands and say “Purple!” He repeated it over and over – so sweet!



We also spent some time playing with our Fisher Price farm – he loved zooming the tractor around, making fun noises and putting the animals in their pens. He is consistent with a few of the animal sounds (pig, cow, and rooster) at this point.


The new found “freedom” of his booster seat has been great, but he has more fun buckling his seat when he isn’t sitting in it – and Mommy has fun unbuckling it over and over again!!

Next week I’ll have some more pictures to show what else Kaleb is up to!

The Preschool Corner: Letter A

This week we started in a local homeschool co-op. Zachary’s class is focusing on a letter of the alphabet each week, so we started working on letter “Aa” activities.

Zachary also started trying to putting his own words together this week. He kept asking for me to sound out a word and he would use our magnet letters to “write” them on the board: hut, God, cat…he loved it and was so proud of himself for doing it! He even sat down and started reading some simple words to me!! Yeah, Zachary!

He’s also making big improvements in cutting and making most of the letters in his name – that “Z” can be awfully tricky!

ABC Book: Apple

The alphabet book page for the letter “A” was an apple this week. I cut out an apple shape from red construction paper and Zachary ripped it in half horizontally so that it looked like the apple was munched on a little bit. He also tore the sides of a white rectangle cut out from construction paper and we glued the top and the bottom of the apple to it. He added a leaf and made seeds for the core of the apple by making black fingerprints. Too cute!

Art Activity: Ant Fingerprints

Ink pads are always a favorite and since they were already out this week, Zachary went ahead and made little ants using his fingerprints. When he was done making the bodies with his fingerprints, he added legs and antennaes on them.

Fun Activities

Apple Prints – cut an apple in half and use it to stamp colorful prints on paper.

Letter Sheet/Collage

Writing

We have a white board and chalk board all-in-one from Melissa and Doug that Zachary likes to use, so this week he practiced his letters on the white board (because using the eraser is much fun!

Rhymes and Songs

(To the tune of “Farmer in the Dell”)

Let’s sing hurray for A,
Let’s sing hurray for A,
Let’s sing hurray for A today
Let’s sing hurray for A.
Apple starts with A,
Ants starts with A,
Let’s sing hurray for A today,
Let’s sing hurray for A.

Tot School

This week I finally got around to taking more pictures of Kaleb “doing school” and making a real effort to pull special things out to do with only him. Carissa at 1+1+1=1 hosts “Tot School” each week and this is my first (of hopefully many!!) week of posting along with her.

Kaleb spent some time with Daddy working with one of his Discovery Toys Shape sorters. He loves popping the shape in and then quickly reaching in to grab the shape back out. There are a few shapes he can do on his own, but I love this sorter, since it also teaches the kids to match colors as well as the shapes.
While I was in the kitchen, Kaleb pulled out all of my baking sheets and we had a little music festival of sorts. He spent a great deal of time arranging the pans “just so” and was even sweet enough to put them all right back where they belong. He loves to clean up (yeah for me!).
We all had a great time playing Hulabaloo together. Kaleb hasn’t grasped the concept of what he is supposed to do, but he has a great time trying to imitate the other kids. He was so upset when we put the game away and promptly pulled it all back out to play again by himself.
He’s only played with the our marble sorter a few times (since he doesn’t get to go downstairs much yet) and LOVED it (of course getting the other kids to let him play by himself for a few minutes was rather difficult).

Our other shape sorter he loves too, although he does know it’s much easier to just take the top off and put the shapes in without the lid. :)
He is trying to count along with me right now. When I start him on “one”, he quickly chimes in ever-so-sweetly, “two.” He loves to say “Go!” and each day we hear new little words coming from him. So much fun!
This next week we’re working with a little bit of a different schedule for our day, and that schedule will hopefully offer a fun routine for the kids that will also allow me a little more individual time with Kaleb.

The Preschool Corner: Handwriting without Tears

I’ve started out using Handwriting Without Tears style worksheets with Zachary this school year. I made these several years ago when teaching my oldest handwriting.

This week Zachary wanted to choose the letters to work on : L, T, and O. In addition to using the worksheets, we also practiced writing on the dry erase board and the chalkboard.

Zachary’s cutting skills are fairly non-existent (because he would most likely find other uses for scissors – ahem), so we did practicing cutting. We also hung up some of the basic shapes in our dining room to practice their names.

Zachary has also been trying to sound out words – little by little, it’s getting there!! And since Mommy has huge boxes of books to share, we also read a fun science book together each day.

Here are the documents I made to use with Zachary for handwriting practice. Click on the thumbnail to download the worksheets.

Be sure to check back weekly for other Preschool Corner posts and worksheets to use with your preschooler. This year we are focusing on alphabet activities, so stay tuned!