Tot School - February 7, 2010

Esther is 39 Months old

Since reading this post almost a year ago I have been wanting to do it, but was waiting until I had a good supply of buttons and I could find the book. I had ordered The Button Box from our library and it finally arrived. After reading the book I presented Esther with her very own box of buttons. To say she was excited would be an understatement.

The buttons I had bought at Michaels. They came all together in a bag and it cost $4.00

She spent time just looking through them, sorting them and playing with them.

Later in the week we used them for counting. I am sure they will be brought out again for many more learning adventures.

We also used our Kumon tracing Book for the first time. She loved it!! In fact I had to stop her after several pages so that she would be excited to do more the next day.

We had a guest with us one day so we all got to paint with kool aid

As well as play dress up for a tea party.
We learned about Daniel and lion's den and made this stuffed lion craft. I tried to take a nice picture but the lion was too busy drinking Esther's milk.
For our science time we learned all about out skin, why we sweat, and our fingerprints.

We also played with poker chips.

It has been a year since I first started Tot School and this blog, (Happy Birthday me!) and I can't believe that not once have I shared how much I LOVE poker chips! We use them for so many learning activities. For some reason my kids love the feel of the chips as well as the sound they make when they clink together.

This week Esther used poker chips to practice her shapes. I would start a shape for her and she would finish it.

She also practiced her patterning.

Little Man Elijah also has started joining us. Here he is with the very first Tot Tool I ever made.

I took a frosting container (any plastic container would work) and I cut a slit in the top. I used duct tape to cover any sharp edges. When you push the poker chip through the slit it makes a great clinking sound. Once they're all in you shake it for good measure, then open it up and start all over again. Both my kids love this toy and it occupies them for quite a while.

That was our week for Tot school to see what other are doing click the button below.

Tot School - Aug 8-15

Esther is 33 Months Old

We finally had a week of tot school that was a little more planned and that I was able to take pictures of.

For Fine Motor Control we practiced folding using pages from a Kumon "Let's Fold" book.

Nature
We learned about White Pine trees and what makes them special. The needles are soft to the touch,

and sometimes can be sticky.

There are five needles to a bundle.

And they grow to be very big.

We used different parts of the White Pine tree to make a collage of the number five which was our project for Math Readiness.
Edit: I just realized I did not add that I got the idea for the five from the book "Nature for the Very Young". I took her idea and tweaked it a bit for us, but it was not my own inspiration.

After this directed art project, I let her use the left over materials to make a collage of her choosing.
You may not see it, but there is a rock covered in glue in there. This is definitely a project for outside.

The White Pines we were looking at were on the edge of a parking lot. Esther Loved walking on the curb, which made me happy, providing a Gross Motor Skill for the week.
Reading Readiness
We mainly just do a lot of reading, but recently I started something new. After we have read a book several (hundred) times, I encourage Esther to then read the book to one of her dolls.

This way she is practicing re-telling the story and playing at the same time.

Life Skills

We worked on our sewing and I also let her cut a banana with a butter knife for the first time (no picture to show since both hands had to be ready just in case)


Art
After reading some of Charlotte Mason's writings, I decided to add a little art appreciation to our house. I purchased some used books that had colored pictures of paintings. I then cut out a picture, framed it and placed it on our dining room table.

It will stay here for the entire month of August. Periodically I may point it out to Esther, or she may ask about it. There are days when there is no interaction with it, but it is always on display.

Esther is TOTALLY into glue right now. So I gave her a bottle of glue, paper and four different shakers with colored salt and let her go.
She had so much fun, that she sat there for 20 minutes!! This kid never sits still for that long. I am definitely stocking up on glue.

That was our week for Tot School. To see what others are doing, click the button below.

Tot School

Esther is 31 Months Old

Well, it seems two weeks have passed since I last posted about Tot School. We have had two very full weeks of tot school, so I will attempt to keep it brief, but I must share pictures so my family can see what we've been up to.

The first week, we went back to some old tools that haven't been used in a while.

Hammering Letters
Bottle Top Names
Practicing our handwriting with dry erase markers on workbook pages in page protectors.
I also made this new tool so that Esther can practice putting together snaps on clothing.

Little brother looking on

It is simply an old piece of baby clothing stapled to a cheap picture frame.
Later in the week Esther completely surprised me when she decided she wanted to use the nature notebook I made for her 3 MONTHS AGO!! At the time I showed her how she can draw pictures of flowers she likes, but she showed absolutely no interest. I laid it on her school shelves, where it sat collecting dust until on Friday she picked it up with a pencil as we were going outside. Here is her picture:

This is what she was drawing (my beautiful rose)

I had to guide her a little bit, since she seemed overwhelmed over the idea of drawing a flower from the garden. I asked her what colors she saw in the flower, then to find that color in the box of pastels. She took it from there. Can you tell I'm a proud Mommy!!

We also did marshmallow and toothpick sculptures
I have seen this used on many blogs, but there is one in particular I wanted to share. The Moveable Alphabet is a blog produced by a montessori teacher. She used this as a project with her students and was able to bring out some interesting insights about children and how they learn and create. If you have a moment, you may enjoy it.

And finally I found a wooden puzzle of the United States at the Good Will. The plan was to put in storage for the future, but Esther found it. She put it together with my brother and his wife Tara who were visiting.

Surprisingly, she actually retained some of the names of the states. She loves yelling out CALIFORNIA!! We have no idea why she likes saying this name or why she must yell it, but she does.

That's it for us. We're off to Connecticut for a week. We'll see you in another two weeks, but until then check out this website for more tot school ideas.

Blessings!

Tot School

Esther is 31 Months Old

Here are a few of the planned activities from our past week.

Esther made a collage of scrap paper and pictures cut from a magazine. I just gave her the paper, glue and scraps and let her create. She had a blast and amazingly enough didn't make too much of a mess.

I finally got all the materials I needed to do a sewing activity I saw at the another blog called Delightful Learning. I taught Esther how to thread a needle and then sew the button. (sorry, picture is blurry)

I made this file folder game from the book called Usborne Leaning Games. This book has some great reading and counting activities.

It is a great way to practice letters or sounds. Esther is struggling with the letter H and G, so I made a very simple Hippo and Grasshopper as the game pieces. (I made them so that they can lie flat for storage)

I also made up a set of number cards with the same number of dots on them. I then gave Esther several small animal erasers and she had to place the correct number of erasers on the cards using the dots as a guide. I've seen this idea on many blogs, so it is defiantly not of my own creation.

And finally, what do you get when you combine one paper plate, a stick, a piece of string and a balloon?

A really fun activity for gross Motor Skills.

Esther played with this for quite a while. First hitting it with the "bat", then running and hitting it with her head. Then she tried to kick it.

To see what others have done for Tot School, Click the button below.

Tot School - A new beginning

Star is 2.5 years old

Phew!! It's been a long two weeks. I have been totally re-organizing tot school while doing tot school at the same time. I realized I had a lot to share, so I decided to write a few different posts and I will link to them so that if you are interested all you have to do is click the link.

First, the re-organization has been great. Check it out here! I've decided to loosely follow the curriculum given on the website ABC Jesus Loves Me. I'm sure that Star doesn't recognize any real difference, but I feel more organized now that I have a basic outline to follow. I really like their bible lessons as well as the finger plays and little songs they have for leaning things like how to draw numbers and learning bible verses.

The past two weeks we have focused on the first three days of creation. We ate oreos for day one (light and dark). For day two we made a picture of cotton ball clouds and colored salt for the water. (see this post for instructions for the salt)


For day three we made salt dough mountains and valleys since the bible version we were using used these terms and Star didn't know what a valley was.

We also went to the local arboretum to look for flowers and explore the different plants there were.



While we were there we decided to explore the pond. We caught a frog, but he jumped away before we could get a good picture.


Here are some of the other activities from the week.

We sorted small, medium and large pom poms

We painted with sponges

which led to fingers

and surprisingly led to using paint brushes. I've been trying to give star differnt options while painting to inspire her creativity.
I have been saving little boxes for quite some time now, so I was finally ready to put together an activity. Star was given the boxes as follows.

And this is what she found....
Her favorite item was definitely the lock. She liked mixing up the boxes and finding other items to put in them.

We tried learning about patterns using our rubber frogs

but Star preferred to line them all up and count them

Then we sorted and "graphed" them
I am slowly learning that sometimes the best education occurs when there is less structure. A few months ago I would have been frustrated by Star not doing the activity "properly" and probably would have put it away when she started to play with them. If I had I would have missed all of the great learning and fun that followed. Plus, who wouldn't want to play more with these cute little frogs!
If you want your own cute frogs, check out your toy section in Walmart.

Star also took some time to teach Butterbean his letters. Very Cute!

This week we also drew people for the first time. Star has tried before, but this is the first time I could recognize actual parts of a person. This is a picture of me and Star.
We had a couple of surprise 80 degree days, so we got to play with our new sand and water table,
which is where we spent the rest of the week.

There was lots more, but I will leave it for your imagination. Thanks for stopping by and checking out what we did. To see what others have done click the button below.