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Tot School ::30::

~ Kaleb is 32 months ~

This week we rotated toys using our workboxes every other day ~ meaning Kaleb was able to play with 5 new things on Monday, we switched to 5 different things on Tuesday and then cycled back to the Monday boxes. Kaleb is showing some more independence and isn’t always so fond of what Mommy chooses anymore. :)

This is the little man on the first day of school.

Kaleb had fun playing with the dress-up emotion bears. I asked him to make one look like Daddy {apparently Daddy wears his underwear to work…but at least he goes happily!}.

While we were sitting at the table working together, Kaleb sat with us and had fun coloring.

The lacing bugs were a big hit since we’ve been having fun with bugs and the great outdoors this week.

Laurianna loved being able to help Kaleb pouring water. She would ask him to pour the water into a specific colored cup {Mommy got smart and put a towel under it this time!}.

Kaleb was so VERY excited with the caterpillars that we have in our house. The little aquarium was at his eye level for all of 3 minutes before we found him carting the poor things around the house. Needless to say, it was moved up to the counter and out of reach from grabby-boy. This is a picture of the first chrysalis we have – two more to go!

Some of the other things in Kaleb’s boxes this week:
~ 4 piece puzzle
~ letter and magnet board
~ color sorting cards
~ paper clip matching
~ little blocks

Don’t forget to visit Carissa at 1+1+1=1 for some more Tot School posts.

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Tot School ::29::

~ Kaleb is 32 months ~

We’re more into the ‘swing’ of using our workboxes now with Kaleb. Want to have a little peek at how his are set up?

There are actually 12 boxes on the shelving unit, but the four big ones on the bottom are for the other kids if they have bulkier items. Besides, filling 12 boxes for him would be a LOT to do in one day. :) Depending on what is in the boxes, I might only put four out at a time and then pull the other four out after snack time.

Here’s a close up of one of the boxes. I posted the little Nemo number tags in my Preschool Workbox tag post last week.

Kaleb had fun lacing the beads..and Mommy likes them since they keep him busy for a little while. :) For those of you who have asked, you can find the beads on Amazon.

Every time I upload pictures I notice that binky in the boy’s mouth. Funny how we’re so used to it being around all.the.time at home, and I only really notice it when we take pictures.

I took all of our shapes off the wall to reorganize our ‘school area’ and wanted to find out what shapes Kaleb knew. He could name several {circle, star, square} but had trouble with the other names, so we played a game together. I put all the shapes on the floor and called out a shape name and he stood on that shape – and yeah for Kaleb! He knew them all {receptively}!! :) Now we’ll just work on the naming {expressively}.

This is probably one of my favorite pictures from the week. Kaleb has watched the Letter Factory dvd this last week and when I opened up the freezer I found the letter ‘C’ sitting on the shelf. When I asked him what was in my freezer, he pointed to the ‘C’ and said, “C-c-c-Cold!”

At the end of the week we took a ‘field trip’ to a local park that the kids love. This is the picture that just makes me smile!

Although I didn’t post pictures of everything we did, here were a few of the other things in Kaleb’s boxes this week: stacking buckets {and knocking them down}, bike riding {he’s pedaling on his own now!!}, coloring, alphabet matching, color sorting, leap pad, and his leap frog dvd.

Hope you all had a great week! Can’t wait to see what you are doing in your Tot School time! Don’t forget to visit Carissa at 1+1+1=1 for some more Tot School posts.

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Tot School ::28::

~ Kaleb is 32 months ~

There were a lot of other things that we did this week for school, but I didn’t have my camera out this week.

Monday: Kaleb pulled out a huge box of stuff to play with. Apparently he doesn’t feel that he is doing enough, so he put together his own “Tot Time”. He and Zachary sat on the floor together and stacked beads, used the color matching clothespins and also the sort by shape blocks. I was SO excited to hear Kaleb name all the colors!!

Tuesday: Trip to the Children’s Museum as a family. One of Kaleb’s favorite parts is the riding lawnmower. And Mommy forgot her camera. Again.

Wednesday: The weather has been beautiful early morning, so the kids were sent outside for a bit to play. This is how I found Kaleb. Fully dressed. Soaking wet from head to toe. Needless to say, the pool has been drained and put away.

Thursday: Much more time spent outside.

Reading with Daddy.

Don’t forget to visit Carissa at 1+1+1=1 for some more Tot School posts.

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Tot School ::27::

~ Kaleb is 32 months ~

We got back into a better routine this week and had a great time making 4th of July crafts {go figure} and just having fun! Here was the layout for the week:

Tuesday: 4 pc. block puzzles, 4th of July shaker, 4th of July hat
Wednesday: star painting/stamping, Wii, color card sorting
Thursday: Children’s Museum with grandmother so Mommy could CLEAN
Friday: building w/ colored blocks, scrunchies on a stick, coffee filter ‘fireworks’

Some of our pictures {and from the looks of it, you’d think Kaleb only wears orange, eh?}

The 4th of July hats and ‘sparklers’ we made were a HUGE hit with all the kids, but Kaleb kept his on the entire time we watched the parade. Some foam sheets and duct tape is all it takes to make kids happy!

Our cookie cutters get so much use {HA!}, so we pulled them out this week along with our red and blue paint to make some star prints/stencils with all the kids. Kaleb was MOST thrilled to paint…he loves, loves, loves it and cries every time we put it away {while Mommy rejoices that the mess is cleaned up!}.

We’ve been playing Wii carnival and Kaleb was given a remote this time and did great on the horse races…no, we’re not raising a future horse racer…but he was too stinkin’ cute flapping that remote up and down as fast as he could!

I have some great colored building blocks and we had fun seeing how tall we could stack the blocks before Kaleb chose to knock them down. He also imitated building arches with me…his, not so much an arch.

Kaleb’s favorite game {and he’s getting rather quick!} is putting scrunchies on a stick from one of our other games. I love it because we name colors as he does it and he also get to work on some fine motor skills.

That’s it for this week! Don’t forget to visit Carissa at 1+1+1=1 for some more Tot School posts. If you are participating I’ll hopefully get a chance to stop by and visit you too!

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Tot School ::26::

~ Kaleb is 31 months ~

This last week was pretty laid back again ~ even though I thought for sure I’d have more time since the older kids were in VBS. Instead, we were running errands, playing together and just goofing off in general. :)

At homeschool convention I found a cute little Oreo matching game. I think it’s cute. Kaleb is not so impressed. He matched a few cookies and then moved onto other things.

Playdough, however, is always a winner!

I pulled out a Scrabble Junior game that I had picked up at a yard sale, spread out the board and started handing Kaleb letters to try to find on the board. In all honesty, I didn’t think that he would be able to do it at all.

He proved me wrong, but after about seven letters got a little bored {even though Mommy wanted him to keep going!}.

He had much fun playing outside this week since the weather was gorgeous!

We’ve been watching a robin and her babies in the tree above our play area….I found Kaleb on the porch trying to see the babies through the railing.

So cute to see the little mouth up above the top of the nest!

Rick took a day off to work on our porch steps and Kaleb was cracking us all up with his imitation of the saw. It took us a little bit to figure out what he was doing, but we think he does a pretty good imitation {warning: you might want to turn your speakers/volume down, ’cause it really does sound like a saw!}.

Don’t forget to visit Carissa at 1+1+1=1 for some more Tot School posts.

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Tot School ::25::

~ Kaleb is 30 months ~

Really, truly, there is not much to post this week in the way of Tot School. Mommy has been on a bit of a hiatus from school work and school time. We’re still playing and learning…it’s just not all documented.

Kaleb has been talking up a storm. Going from short phrases to full, complete sentences in just a matter of days. Amazing us with some of the things that he comes up with ~ and rather proud of himself to boot.

Kaleb had fun sorting and lining up his counting bears. This wasn’t how the activity was supposed to be…but since he was happy and it works – well, then it was Tot School!

The paint chip matching game was fun to match and play with too!

We sorted shapes and named both colors and shapes together.

Kaleb found a guitar and has been walking around the house playing it like a rockstar. It’s been a riot to watch and we’re not sure where he picked up the whole rockstar thing {unless it’s from Sid the Science Kid}.

Kaleb kept trying to get into the silverware drawer this week and although this lock on the handle didn’t actually do anything {McKenna put it there}, he cried and cried thinking the drawer was locked. It was hysterical ~ although his frustration only lasted 5 minutes before he figured out it wasn’t locked.

Bugs and the great outdoors have been the biggest thrill in our backyard. Birds, squirrels, ants, and especially ladybugs are everywhere. Zachary keeps bagging various insects and then he and Kaleb sit and examine them together – too sweet.

That’s about it for Tot School this week. Hopefully this next week will mean a little more time for Kaleb and me since the bigger kids will be in VBS all week!

Don’t forget to visit Carissa at 1+1+1=1 for some more Tot School posts.

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