2.08.2009

Weekly Update: Tot School

This week of Tot School marked the first time I set up a bit of a "curriculum" for Lorelai. I decided that each week I will choose a letter, number, song, movement activity, and something from nature (animal, plant, insect, etc.) to be themes throughout our week. This week we studied the letter "S", number "8", spiders, the song "itsy bitsy spider" and, as our movement activity, the crab walk (which i confess we never got to do!).
Like I said last week, I've been trying to get a CD from the library each week for Lorelai to listen to while we "work". Last week it was music from Mexico, and this week I chose Cajun music. My best description of Cajun music would be that it is country music sung in french! A strange combo. It was neat to hear music we've really never heard before.
I filled one of Lorelai's little IKEA buckets with objects that begin with the letter "S". She LOVED this, so for sure we will do it each week. Even though none of the toys were new, she liked the novelty of picking each of the objects out of the bucket and hearing me pronounce the names of each.

The SSSSSunglasses were her favorite!

We looked up "S" in the Golden Dictionary...

Coloring "S". Ok, so I know that cursive is a looong way off, but at least she's getting the chance to see and become familiar with it (do they even use it in school anymore?)

Later in the week, we took a cue from Scraps 'n Stuff about doing Tot School on the floor. I do everything on the floor with Lorelai except for coloring. I've been wishing we had the room for a little Lorelai-sized table and chairs, but we SO do not. I was starting to wonder if Lorelai would take more interest in coloring and crafts if she was more comfortable at a table her own size. Instead, I simply taped her coloring page to the floor and let her have at it! I really do think it makes it more fun for her.
Another sweet thing I HAVE to say about this pic is that Lorelai learned how to say "beautiful" while she was coloring this picture (of a spider, no less!). I always profusely praise every little scribble she makes with crayons because I am way over-eager to do crafts with her. I told her that her coloring was "beautiful" and suddenly she began (repeatedly) exclaiming "doo-ti-full".

I also started journaling about what we do each week in Tot School. Not only will it give me a resource of ideas to draw from in the future, but I can look at things we have already done and keep our future projects fresh and new.

What a great week! Now, what to do for this week....

6 comments:

appleandi said...

awesome!
we were just talking about cursive writing last night (at the mom's night out) and how it is no longer used anywhere... so sad. way to go getting her familiar with different ways of writing.

Laura said...

Looks like you had a great week. I love the idea of tot school being a bit more organized. Mine SO isn't right now. But I plan on doing something similar when my little one is a bit older :)

Mary said...

I like the idea of writing in journal about what you are doing each week. I think I will start that too.

Amy Clary said...

:) I love your "S" items in a bucket. Great idea! We may have to borrow that one.

Pamela said...

Love your ideas this week! I am definitely going to do the letter bucket. The journal is a great idea, my only problem is follow thru. I tried to do the flylady(cleaning) journal once and it didn't work! I didn't really do tot week this past week, but will be back this week!

Anonymous said...

This is all great stuff...not to mention it keeps Lorelai out of my office! Keep it up, you're a great teacher & Mommy!!! Luv U.
-Tim