This Week at Tot School

Some of the fun things we did this week:

Lorelai had no interest in actually finger painting, but stacking and unstacking the jars kept her happy for 20 minutes. Score!
I'm pretty darn sure she knows her colors, yet she often says them wrong anyway. Is she like partially color blind or something?
Yes, I do realize how stupid I just sounded there.

ok, I came up with this dandy idea all by myself. I called it "Bug Hunt". I want to focus on bugs and nature this spring (and I also scored some cheap bug stuff at the Target dollar spot) so this was a great way to start it off. I went online and found some cute bug pics, cut them out, pasted them on paper, and laminated them. I put them all around Lorelai's room and then gave her a bucket to collect all her findings. She really liked this! Of course the possibilities were endless with the activity. She enjoyed counting each of the bug "tokens". We talked about what each bug was, how they crawl, what color they are, what noise they make...etc. I also had some bugs in there multiple times, so matching comes into play, too. I may also do this again with flowers.



My hope is also that Lorelai won't have a fear of bugs like someone else I know....

Recent Tot School Fun

So, we have been tot schooling here and there, I just haven't had the time to blog about it. Lorelai is terrible 2-ing, so it makes having an actual school schedule a waste...I just pull out an activity when she seems interested. Sometimes it lasts a half hour and sometimes I just walk away wishing I could move to Jamaica.
At least I am honest.


She finally likes her string bead sets!

Totally copied this idea from another mom...get a container with a small opening and throw some clothes pins (or popsicle sticks painted different colors, etc.) in it. This amuses Lorelai greatly! She loves putting everything in the container then shaking it out.

She loves to paint!

Green play dough for St. Patty's. The web is full of make-it-yourself play dough recipies...don't be lazy! Try it! I did and I don't think I'll ever pay for the brand name stuff again!

We've been working on shapes and colors for weeks now. Play dough is a great way to teach them both. If you watch PBS in the morning, perhaps you have heard that silly Steve singing the shape song: "...line, line, circle, circle...". Well I started singing it with Lorelai and whipping out the shapes at the right time and she LOVES it. Lorelai basically likes anything set to music, so I have been singing TONS!

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....

Weekly Update: Tot School

Tot School has been a bit challenging for us lately! I think the novelty of it has worn off for Lorelai (most likely due to the fact that my collection of activities is small right now). I know that Lorelai is on the younger end of readiness for Tot School, too (19 months). Keeping these things in mind, I've been doing my best to tailor our little program to Lorelai's needs. At this point I have found that it is much better to do a couple activities throughout the day instead of sitting down for a 4 activity marathon.
You know how kids are, next week will probably be totally different now that I have got the hang of doing things this way!

This is an AWESOME book...each page has a different letter, animal and adjective. Lorelai loved seeing the animal on each page and watching me dramatically act out each adjective. This book needs to be in your collection!

This was our CD for the week. I like picking out new music at the library for us to try (I'm making a point to take Lorelai to the library every Monday night...eventhough all she does is run around.) I enjoyed the CD...Lorelai just kept asking where Elmo's song was.

We almost make it through the whole bag of letters! Lorelai has really been coming along with recognizing letters. She pointed out the number 5 when we were at the bank and the letter O when we were at the mall this week. Hooray!

I guess you could say that friday was our 1st Tot School field trip. We headed out to see Sesame Street live. Both Lorelai and I had a blast! I can't wait to take her next year!
I've been inspired to set a mini-curriculum by some of you fellow Tot Schoolers, so come back next week to see what I planned :)

We Love Tot School!

Over the past week or so I have begun Tot School with Lorelai. You can find out more about Tot School by clicking here.
Tot School is all about exposing early learning skills through fun play. It takes place before your child enters Pre-K. There is no curriculum to buy and the only rule is that it be FUN. All the glory goes to A for introducing me to the idea :)
Not only has Lorelai been loving out Tot School activities, but I have been getting a huge kick out of creating activities and tools that fit/stretch her capabilities and knowledge. Here are some pictures of us Tot Schoolin'...
Music time with some Sesame Street hits:



Number time on our magnet board (thanks to target we got the board, letters, and numbers for a total of $4.50!):

Lorelai loves this color/shape stacker (thanks to buybuy baby we can all get 20% off their selection of Melissa and Doug toys with those never-ending BB&B coupons!):

Puzzle time:

I had fun creating the color cards, word spelling game, and alphabet garland. I even added a "polka dots", "stripes", and "plaid" card to the color cards. Cute!




I really feel that Tot School has renewed my passion for staying home with Lorelai. I'll be posting more about our learning adventures soon :)