Tot School

This week I am going to be posting Preschool and Tot School in separate posts. I did this to shorten the posts, but I think I made them longer because I took more pictures knowing they were going in separate posts. lol Also, I'm going to be posting by days (Monday, Tuesday etc). Finally, I will post Asa first and Silas second. Hopefully this will make it at least quicker for me to upload pictures. Enjoy! :)

This was our first full week in our new school room and we REALLY enjoyed it. It is so nice to be able to close the door when we are finished and not have a huge mess of school materials throughout the house all day. Definitely helps in the area of housekeeping.

MODAY
We finished up the letter Kk this week and did the letter Ll also. Here Asa is matching kites with their matching color tails. This can be found at Confessions of a Homeschooler blog. Such a great blog and her Letter of the Week curriculum can be printed off for free!
He also had a lot of fun making towers and 'cakes' (that's what my kids call it when there is a peg in each available hole) with this peg stacker.

This puzzle is his obsession right now. He carries it around constantly all day long and randomly puts it together. While he is taking out the pieces he will say each letter...as he puts in the pieces he will say each letter. lol This particular picture is one of the times this week that he was really working hard on learning the phonic sounds. A few times this week for 30 min. straight he would ask me what each letter says. He amazingly retained a lot of that information and is well on his way to knowing the phonetic sounds for the letters! I am completely blown away at this skill. I would've never expected him to know all of his letters and their sounds before he turned 3. Because of his veracious appetite for letters I ordered Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and plan on starting it with him on Monday. My mom taught all 3 of my brothers to read using this book.
TUESDAY
Working on kite building with pattern blocks. This pattern was found at the Confessions link that I linked above.
Kite building (again same link). I was surprised that Asa easily counted the dots on the dice correctly. I thought I would have to help him more with that.
A cute little poem about different color kites. I cannot remember where I found it. But the verses are simple.

Red kite, red kite
In the sky
I see a red kite flying by.

Then you repeat that verse substituting different colors. I then printed out different colored kites that I modified using clipart to match the colors I wanted. Asa would put the matching color on his feltboard when that color was read in the poem.

Throw the bean bag on the letter Kk. Also made them state the phonetic sound for the letters they landed on.

WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday I introduced the letter Ll by hiding lemons and limes all over the classroom. The kids had a great time finding them. We also used them for counting practice, patterning, spoon racing, and stirring them up in bowls and 'cooking' with them. Wish I had more fun pictures to show of all of that!
Really happy he found a lemon!
I cut a toilet paper tube in half and flattened it to make lemon and lime shapes. Asa had fun stamping yellow and green paint onto the letter Ll. See what other fun things you can make with toilet paper tube prints in this post and here. I also think that they would make really cute footballs. :)
This finished picture is his sister's artwork, but his looked pretty much the same.
Filling in his hearts with candy hearts.
THURSDAY
Asa made a pretty valentine flower arrangement with some fake flowers and sparkly, red hearts.

FRIDAY
Working on sorting lollipop Lls. This cute printout and more lollipop printouts can be found here.
On to Silas.
MONDAY
He really, really liked this spooning activity I had set out for him and he played it nearly everyday. He take only one at a time, nor did he put only one jewel per compartment, but he did a great job with using the spoon.

PUZZLE MANIA!!! This little guy loves puzzles, and that is not an overstatement. These were his first choice everyday this week. They easily took up 10-15 minutes of his morning tot time.

Puzzles can stack too. I've been setting him up in his chair and giving him something to do while I'm getting either lunch or dinner ready this last week. It has worked wonders and I no longer have a screaming inconsolable child underfoot while I'm getting him food. Here he is enjoying a new puzzle that came in the mail that day.
I asked him where his ears were. :) Yes, there is marker all over this table. It was a free one that used to be our school table. Now it is our kitchen table and there will be a table cloth on it most of the time. lol It looks like I just let my children color on it.
TUESDAY
Working at the poster area.
We have these fun stuffed letters that the boys like to play with. I got them at a garage sale for .25 cents! Amazing what you can find out there.
Every time he picks one up to put back in the bucket he asks, "Wha da?"
WEDNESDAY
Working hard at balancing that lime. He really enjoyed playing with these. This day he particularly enjoyed transferring them from one bowl to another.

THURSDAY
The next day he had a lot of fun putting them in lines. I tried to get him to sort them by color, but he wanted nothing to do with that. :)
Working on stacking pegs.

Silas didn't have Tot School on Friday because we went to the Story Hour at our library (epic fail....Silas absolutely hated having to sit still, next time I'll bring a snack to keep him quiet)

Just because I was feeling particularly nostalgic on Tuesday about my baby growing up I took cute sleeping pictures at his naptime. I just love his little bottom in the air......
And his sweet little hands by his face.....sigh.....it goes by way too fast!
Happy blogging!

jess_hak

Visit other tot school moms to get some new ideas. Click the button. :)

Week in Review: Finishing Kk and onto Ll

I decided that I'm going to start posting Annabelle's weekly review for preschool and the boys' Tot School separately. Not only that I'm going to be posting by day (Monday, Tuesday etc.). I thought that doing this would shorten these posts and pictures, but instead it may have lengthened them. Because I knew I was doing separate posts at the beginning of the week I took a gazillion pictures. lol So enjoy!

MONDAY and TUESDAY
This might seem like a weird picture to lead off on, but I was so proud of Annabelle for completing this. She doesn't like to color much. Not because she dislikes the activity, but because she is such a perfectionist that if something looks wrong in her eyes, even the tiny littlest bit of crayon outside the lines, the page is ruined and she gets a horrible attitude to go with it. So she just prefers not to color. Not only did she color this in one setting she cut it all out by herself too! She did a great job and had an excellent attitude! This page was part of our Bible lesson that God will supply ALL of our needs.
The first couple days of this week were spent finishing up our Kk activities. She thought this game I made was pretty fun. She clipped the correct number of clothespins onto the kite tails.

Putting together a kite with her pattern blocks. Pattern found here.
This fun little game is another one I put together. The object is to try to land on the Kk. This was also a good review of phonetic sounds. Every letter she landed on I had her tell me the sound it made (if her brother didn't answer first). They both did very well with their sounds.

WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday I was confident that Annabelle knew the letter Kk well enough to move onto the next letter, Ll. I thought that it would be fun to start this day with a little hide and seek. I hid all the lemons and limes. The kids had a fun time collecting them. We also had a lot of fun mixing them in bowls, spoon races, patterning, and counting. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this....must be we were all having too much fun for me to remember to snap a couple photos.
After this Annabelle made her Ll page for the alphabet wall. First she dotted her Lls then she stamp painted with flattened toilet paper tubes to make lemon and lime shapes on her paper.
The finished product. The cool colored in limes was the result of bubbles forming inside the tubes and when she pulled it off the paper it would pop and color in the lines. Pretty cool!
Sorting and counting activity. I kept it simple (only 1-5) this time, since it is a new activity.

This by far is one of her favorite activities and she just gets better and faster at it every time. The idea is to create the same pattern that is on the paper on the table next to it. You can print this and other great ladybug activities out here.

THURSDAY
Flower arranging. Apparently she only requires one white flower, and all the fuzzy pink hearts. lol And yes, where we live it is 20 degrees outside, don't let the cute little sundress fool you. I'm shivering just looking at that outfit, but they don't seem to bother her. I do make her change and/or layer before we leave the house. Silly girl. lol
Our Bible lesson for this week centered on ladybugs and how they are helpful bugs and eat certain insects that can destroy crops. Did you know they are Australian natives?! Apparently they were brought over from Australia to eat another insect (that also came from Australia). You learn something new everyday I tell ya. Coloring her picture while listening to the lesson.
I made this game (and it took forever to cut out all those black dots....twice because I laminated them lol). Annabelle got a kick out of this game and kept calling the ladybugs 'little cuties'.

On of the few Valentine activities that she worked with this week. This is the rose tonging. Asa is patiently watching and waiting for his turn.
How many kisses did Valentine bear get? Well, no more than 15 at this point. Annabelle was thrilled that she got to work with real food (chocolate) and was even more excited when she found out she got to eat 5 of them. :) This activity can be downloaded from here.
FRIDAY
To finish up the week Annabelle worked on some of her lollipop activities. These are really cute and can be printed off here. Who doesn't love a good lollipop? :)
Sad, my picture didn't upload properly. I think that you get the point though. Put the arrow (clothespin) on the corresponding lowercase letter. Annabelle did A-M in under 6 minutes. I was very happy with that. You can find these printables here.


Well, that wraps up our preschool week. We are pressing on and learning the letter Mm next week, along with talking about a whole lot of love. I hope to post tomorrow with some of my really fun plans for the week. Happy blogging!
jess_hak

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