This Side of Sunny

Tot School Week 25

{Carter is 46 months old}

Oh, I had this post all written but then it disappeared! We didn't do official tot school this week, but played a lot instead. In fact, our play seemed to have a 'B' theme to it.

From building with our TRIO blocks...

to blowing bubbles with the bubble gun...

to a homemade game of bowling...

to washing the "Bug" car...

Carter has really grown in all areas from August with doing tot school. When we pulled up to the gym and he was able to either identify the letter or the sound in the sign (and it's long!) I knew it was time to move him over to preschool. So this will be my last tot school post, sniff, sniff, it's been fun sharing with other moms and getting ideas.

I'll be looking at different things I'd like to focus on with Carter and go from there, so I'm not sure of where I'll be linking up to next. Carter is going to preschool in the fall so that might change my focus.

Of course, it won't be long until this one starts tot school...

Tot School Week 24

{Carter is 46 months old}

Had fun this week ::

Valentine's art project

Magnet V is for Valentine

Counting hearts and matching numbers

Graphing with candies!

 

Tot School Week 23

{Carter is 46 months old}

Introducing the letter T:

With a little help from Daddy, Carter rolled out the letter T on the playdough mat.

All on his own at lunch, he made the letter T with toothpicks.

More creating...

Tracing...

Dobbing...

Matching...

The Big Trucks tot pack:

Reading...

Writing (tracing)...

Counting...

Truck play:

Current obsession :: garbage trucks

Big Trucks big puzzle...

Books Collection :: All Things That Go!

Our favorites:

Here is where you can buy them too! I also added some I should get, like the boat and sub ones!

Tot School Week 22

{Carter is 46 months old}

Alphabet Time

Having fun with magnetic letters on a baking pan, spelling out a friend's name. I would either give him the sound and he find the letter or vice versa. He is just now starting to recognize his letters. Oh yeah, don't mind the mountain of laundry in the background...

He enjoyed putting the letters back in the puzzle. This was challenging and he lost interest before he finished so it will be a good activity to bring out next week too.

Small Spaces

Transfer with mini poms.

Fine Motor/Math

Beading went better this time around. I managed to get him to do a partial pattern but after this he wanted to add a green bead, so still working on the pattern concept.

Color Sorting

This was an indepedent review for him. He's putting his hands up for success!

For this month, we've been discussing winter, talking about the letters w and s, and reviewing basic concepts- colors, counting, patterns, etc. My focus for next month:

Theme: transportation (because he's in love with garbage trucks, love (Valentine's Day)

Letters: T, L, V

Verse: By this we know love, because Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. I John 3:16

Concepts: Alphabet activities, counting objects 1-20, art

 

Tot School Week 21

{Carter is 46 months old}

This week we only did one day of Tot School because the oldest was sick in the wee hours of the morning, and this mama was tired.

I tried something new this week and set up four stations at the table. I let him choose what activity to do and when. He was excited to see everything laid out and it was easy for me to set up and clean up.

Practicing cutting lines from Kumon workbook.

Working on our new letter, S with the Do-a-Dot markers- I keep wanting to call them bingo dobbers! Everytime I pull them out, I have visions of old ladies fluffing up their good luck troll dolls and setting up their dobbers in front of their various bingo cards. Now they are educational!

Working on a snowman pattern.

The challenge of the day: matching letter sounds with the picture. He was able to point, but had a hard time with the concept of drawing a line from the letter to the picture.

 

Tot School Week 20

{Carter is 45 months}

Art

What says winter more than playing with snow (shaving cream)?

I thought he would enjoy shaving cream art from here.

First he had fun smoothing the shaving cream everwhere (helped to use a tray) then I sprinkled on drops of paint.  Then he took a popsicle stick and swirled it together.

Press the paper on it...

And viola!  A beautiful unique creation. 

You are supposed to take a cardboard piece and scrape it off but that smeared the paint even more so we did another one and I just left it to dry.  It turned out fine.

Color Sorting

He seemed more interested in color sorting dinosaurs this time around.  Of course I didn't get a picture when they were flying across the room.  Didn't you know all dinosaurs could fly?

Imaginary Play

This was a shelf that held those collapsible bins.  He spent alot of time filling it with books and working on this shelf with his tools.

Assessment

I did finish my assessment on Carter's growth- he was able to identify all his body parts (was missing the chin from August), more colors and knows all his shapes.  I was giving him actual wooden shapes from the Melissa & Doug pattern set, to identify.  I showed him the circle and he said "That's an o".  I was kind of shocked.  I thought to myself, well better grab the other assessment for letter identification- I wasn't ready for that!  Turns out he knows quite a few letters (including W from this month!) and some sounds without the letter name. 

I would like to think this was all my work but I know better.  More like my friend Tad from Leap Frog letter DVD series!  Good stuff!

Something Fun

For the New Year, I completed these New Year interviews with my two boys.  It was neat to see what their answers were and will be interesting to compare their answers next year (if I can keep them in a safe place for that long!).

Tot School Week 19

{Carter is 45 months}

It was good to be back into our routine after all the holiday hoopla.  I'm starting to transition Carter to more preschool activities because I think he is ready (at least some days!).  Lately, he's been making letters with food, toys and just about anything else.  However, I don't think I'll make the full jump until he turns four, which is in March.  That will give me some time to prepare.

Theme for the month: Winter

I printed off W for the playdough mat.  He was so excited because he was able to roll the dough and match it on there himself.  I felt kind of weird not going in alphabet order (teacher OCDness) but I decided not to do a letter of the week until later anyway. 

Of course, then we had to cut the playdough.  He was making pieces for the birthday cake, can't you tell?

We played with this fabulous pattern block puzzle set from Melissa and Doug.  This was the first time this was out, so I just let him play.  The puzzles are simple so he was able to do these independently. 

For our monthly bible verse, I suggested he outline the letters and he did!

Then we worked on some mazes.

Since the beginning of the year, I've seen a lot of growth fine motor and alphabet awareness.  Back in August, I did this assessment with him and next week I'll do it again to see exactly how he's grown!

Tot School Week 18- More merriment!

{Carter is 44 months}

I had some goals this week for Tot School (posted here):

• We're making snow from a kit and going to drive our toy cars in it!  Since we can't do the real thing, since where we live, it's still in the 80's!

We started reading about snow and ice, two concepts that are hard for little minds to grasp living in the desert.

Watching the water do its magic.

Knocking over walls of snow.  Got out the construction trucks for this one.

• Going to do these gumdrop trees, although I've already eaten one bag of them... oops!

These were fun to do with family and friends.  They didn't turn out how I envisioned them but I was excited by the creativity that these show.  There is something so satisfying about stabbing a gumdrop with half a toothpick and then pushing it into styrofoam.

• Finish our preschool pack- Not even close, I don't think we even revisited the book.  Obviously we were busy stuffing our faces with gumdrops!
• Make a reindeer pin craft- if I'm brave!  It's not that I'm not brave, it's just I realized these were too small for little hands to do and besides, my fingers want a break from glue gun burns.
• Do more dumptruck driving at the library with Mrs. Claus

We did visit with Mrs. Claus but left the dumptruck at home.  Carter was upset he didn't get to hold the wand like some of the kids.  It was an important lesson in not always getting what we want.

 

We made these ornaments out of Crayola Magic.  Used cookie cutters and then spread glitter glue on them, poked a hole for the ribbon.  Best part?  They are super light so they won't way down the tree branches!

Also, picked up this craft kit at Micheal's- those little tri beads brought back memories from my own childhood.  Carter was not interested in this craft at all, but my oldest liked it.  I pushed the beads onto pipe cleaners while he used the wire from the kit.  The pipe cleaner fuzz made it too difficult for him to push the bead on.

Notice Carter stacking sugar cookie decoration jars in the background.  :)

It was so relaxing to make a pattern and match up the beads on the pipe cleaner.

This week for Tot School I have things laminated and printed off to keep us busy from the Christmas preschool pack as well as from here since I also have my Kindergartner home too. From my days as a teacher, I know the closer Christmas comes, the more crazy the kids become.  The key is to keep them busy, busy, busy! 

May you have a blessed and joyful Christmas!

 

Tot School Week 16

{Carter is 44 months old}

In My Heart

This is the week we kicked off our Christmas verse.  We'll be doing activities with it all month long.

Letters/Cutting

Carter is starting to recognize letters and some sounds, so I wanted to make this Christmas ABC book from Carisa's preschool pack.  He wanted to help me cut them apart- he did really good!

He wanted to use the camera to take my picture.

The train from his Kumon workbook.  He did this all on his own, making sure he was cutting along the gray lines!

The finished train...

Art

Decided to revisit the "mess-free" painting, which I tried here.  Just using the paint was much better.  However, I didn't have alot of one color so I had to put two colors in there- which meant we also started talking about mixing colors.  Before I even asked him, Carter says, "Blue and yellow make green!"  When I asked him who taught him that he said "Coleman" (his brother).  Well, at least this time it wasn't a TV show...

When the two colors were mixed, we used a q-tip to write letters.  I showed him how to write a 'C' for his name.  He was so proud he could do it on his own!

What's Working

• Do one or two activities a day
• Going to the library once a week
• Visiting parks
• Watching Leapfrog's Letter Factory DVD's (these are awesome by the way, practically teaches all the letter sounds, even I start singing it after a while...)
• Have one major craft/art project a week

What's Not Working

• Toy rotation- I have them in big totes but I can't seem to put them out of sight, because if they aren't little hands get into them again.  I have trains, cars, Legos, tools, kitchen, all in totes for now.
• Any activities that are more adult directed- my kids know that in my previous life I was a teacher, they can smell me a mile away... if I start getting into teachermode, they get stubborn.  I have been backing off and letting open ended play rule.

I was thinking of adding a 'What I would like to do' section but I have to keep it easy on myself- I'm nursing a 7 month old and taking care of a house too.  That's what I remind myself of when I read all my favorite blogs, lots of great ideas out there! 

Carter is an older "tot" (he'll be 4 in March) so I keep thinking I can do more preschool type things with him but the reality is, he's just not ready.  I see glimpes of readiness so I get excited and try to do an activity, but then it flops.  He loves most of the open ended, homemade type activities we've done, of course, they are usually the more messier ones- sensory bin, small spaces, etc.

That's why this week was so great for me because I know he's learning and getting concepts even if we "just play" alot.  The cutting skills impressed me as well as he recognized a few letters with their sounds (from the Leapfrog video).  I know when he's ready, I'll be ready because when the need appears, the teacher does as well.

 

Tot School Week 15- Thanksgiving

{Carter is 44 months old}

This week was Thanksgiving!  Here's a few things we did...

Colored our Thanksgiving verse.

Fall sensory bin turned into sensory dumptruck.

Making a turkey with a kit we got from a used bookstore (for FREE!).

Carter wanted to take a picture of me.

All finished!

Last but not least, the feast!  Turkey at the kiddie table (that's Hunter, my nephew).