No tot school in our house this week. Jackson has some nasty virus and has been throwing up for 4 days. Yes, you read that correctly. FOUR. LONG. DAYS. My washing machine and I are about to go on strike from this nasty virus. We want it out! Out and far away from my precious babies! Olivia, thankfully, has not caught it and is very stir crazy since we have to play quietly since brother is sleeping.
Oh and did I mention we are moving in 9 days? yeah....and I have only packed 2 closets. more on the move to come when we finally get our heads above the water.
Showing posts with label tot school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tot school. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Tot School
This week I am going to focus a little more on what Olivia gets to do during Tot School. Her time is significantly less since we normally do our school time during her nap but she is really getting the hang of playing with things the correct way so I am trying to find a good time to focus solely on her. Her is a video of her sorting things!
edited: I just watched this and for some reason it formatted weird and has cut off the top of her head in this video. I really can operate a camera better than this:)
The sorting is just pompoms, pieces of straws, pipe cleaner pieces, paper clips, beans, and rubber bands into little plastic cups. I store it in a gallon size zip lock bag and it is super easy prep work!
Livi got this Matching Middles cookie shape set in her Easter basket.
She worked on matching colors with this ice cream folder game that I made from File Folder Fun
We have a family pass to the Science Museum so we took our Tot School on the road!
exploring the water table
planting seeds in the farm
sorting our vegetables into the correct trucks
checking out some cockroaches......gross.
The turtle had babies!!
We ended our time digging for bones underneath a mighty large T-rex!
edited: I just watched this and for some reason it formatted weird and has cut off the top of her head in this video. I really can operate a camera better than this:)
The sorting is just pompoms, pieces of straws, pipe cleaner pieces, paper clips, beans, and rubber bands into little plastic cups. I store it in a gallon size zip lock bag and it is super easy prep work!
Livi got this Matching Middles cookie shape set in her Easter basket.
She worked on matching colors with this ice cream folder game that I made from File Folder FunWe have a family pass to the Science Museum so we took our Tot School on the road!
exploring the water table
planting seeds in the farm
sorting our vegetables into the correct trucks
checking out some cockroaches......gross.
The turtle had babies!!
We ended our time digging for bones underneath a mighty large T-rex!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Tot School
Tot School was a little sporadic last week since we had lots of fun things to do like the Gladney Skittle. We decided to do a few baseball themed things since some friends of ours were taking us out to see the Rangers beat the White Sox (Daddy's favorite)!
Some people have wondered about how we "do" tot school and how much preparation it takes. I may try and do more of a post on this sometime soon since we are about to step it up in the tot school/preschooling here. We need to be ready to do all of our preschooling needs in Ethiopia and training them, and more importantly training me, to make this a daily and scheduled activity is important. Thankfully, Jackson will most likely attend Bingham Academy for Kindergarten where we will live and work, so we don't have to worry too much about homeschooling while in Ethiopia. But being a teacher, my kids will probably always have to suffer through some type of learning at home! Jackson goes to preschool two days a week now and still has to have fun home schooling with his mommy!
And I know a lot of people think it takes a lot of prep work, and to some degree yes. I do own a lot of stuff from being a preschool teacher for 5 years, but even still, I have made a majority of it since starting with Jackson. The key is to make things you can use over and over again and then put it away when it is not in use. This way, it always seems like a new activity. Once the prep work is done and you have a nice stash, you can do it pretty easily. Just add small things as you have the time. To learn ALL about how to home school your tot or preschooler you can click the link below.
Practicing putting capital letters in ABC order
These are mini colored clothespins (I just colored them with a sharpie) that they have to clip on to the matching pipe cleaner loop. Great for fine motor. Jackson is having a goldfish and raisin snack at the same time.....learning at an early age to multitask:)
We brought out our baseball lacing cards.
here she is trying to show it to the camera....I dont know why it isn't flipping!
Jackson has sensitive hearing and we normally have headphones for him to wear if it is too loud for him but Mommy forgot them. Actually there were no fireworks that night so I thought he would be fine but the speaker was bothering him. Thankfully though Geico was giving out these sweat bands so it became ear muffs:)
They looked so cute in their matching Texas shirts!
We also practiced tossing and catching soft squishy baseballs but I guess I forgot to take a picture! Sorry!
Some people have wondered about how we "do" tot school and how much preparation it takes. I may try and do more of a post on this sometime soon since we are about to step it up in the tot school/preschooling here. We need to be ready to do all of our preschooling needs in Ethiopia and training them, and more importantly training me, to make this a daily and scheduled activity is important. Thankfully, Jackson will most likely attend Bingham Academy for Kindergarten where we will live and work, so we don't have to worry too much about homeschooling while in Ethiopia. But being a teacher, my kids will probably always have to suffer through some type of learning at home! Jackson goes to preschool two days a week now and still has to have fun home schooling with his mommy!
And I know a lot of people think it takes a lot of prep work, and to some degree yes. I do own a lot of stuff from being a preschool teacher for 5 years, but even still, I have made a majority of it since starting with Jackson. The key is to make things you can use over and over again and then put it away when it is not in use. This way, it always seems like a new activity. Once the prep work is done and you have a nice stash, you can do it pretty easily. Just add small things as you have the time. To learn ALL about how to home school your tot or preschooler you can click the link below.
Practicing putting capital letters in ABC order
These are mini colored clothespins (I just colored them with a sharpie) that they have to clip on to the matching pipe cleaner loop. Great for fine motor. Jackson is having a goldfish and raisin snack at the same time.....learning at an early age to multitask:)
We brought out our baseball lacing cards.
here she is trying to show it to the camera....I dont know why it isn't flipping!
Jackson has sensitive hearing and we normally have headphones for him to wear if it is too loud for him but Mommy forgot them. Actually there were no fireworks that night so I thought he would be fine but the speaker was bothering him. Thankfully though Geico was giving out these sweat bands so it became ear muffs:)
They looked so cute in their matching Texas shirts!We also practiced tossing and catching soft squishy baseballs but I guess I forgot to take a picture! Sorry!
So hopefully in the next few weeks you will see a bit of a difference in our Tot School time. We sold some furniture (ahh it is actually refreshing to get rid of stuff) and we are making a little school room/playroom so we have some more space for our fun!
Friday, April 23, 2010
Tot School
Ah, Tot School. It is the first thing to go when things get crazy around here. It is a shame because it is my kid's favorite part of the day, but it is so much easier to just tell them to play with their toys than plan out meaningful play for them. But when it is gone for too long, we all get a little antsy with days on end of free time. We have gotten some really great new learning toys lately that I'll share with you. They have provided hours of entertainment lately!
I was driving in my neighborhood the other day when I spied some great puzzles at a yard sale so I had to stop! The Melissa & Doug ABC train puzzle was only $1! Oh and please excuse Olivia of not wearing pants.....we are working hard on the potty training this week as well.
Jackson worked on sequencing and identifying the letters. Olivia worked on identifying the pictures and they both did a great job working on putting the pieces together.
We were also given these great Kumon learning workbooks. I absolutely love them and will probably post more as we work through them more. This is the from the My First Book of Cutting. He loves it.
Jackson got this Tall Stacker Pegs Building Set for his birthday and they have spent hours creating all sorts of things.
Olivia worked on her matching colors mickey folder game.
Another yard sale puzzle. I love that it has both capital and lowercase letters.
We also spent a lot of time running around outside, enjoying the beautiful weather. Here they are running at the Arboretum. More pictures of that to come!
I was driving in my neighborhood the other day when I spied some great puzzles at a yard sale so I had to stop! The Melissa & Doug ABC train puzzle was only $1! Oh and please excuse Olivia of not wearing pants.....we are working hard on the potty training this week as well.
Jackson worked on sequencing and identifying the letters. Olivia worked on identifying the pictures and they both did a great job working on putting the pieces together.
We were also given these great Kumon learning workbooks. I absolutely love them and will probably post more as we work through them more. This is the from the My First Book of Cutting. He loves it.
Jackson got this Tall Stacker Pegs Building Set for his birthday and they have spent hours creating all sorts of things.
Olivia worked on her matching colors mickey folder game.
Another yard sale puzzle. I love that it has both capital and lowercase letters.
We also spent a lot of time running around outside, enjoying the beautiful weather. Here they are running at the Arboretum. More pictures of that to come!Friday, March 12, 2010
Tot School
Here is what we did in Tot School this week!
We practiced fine motor skills with tweezers and pom pom balls
Livi is starting to get the hang of Tot School.
We practiced matching capital letters and lowercase and also practiced saying the names and sounds of the letters.
Jackson got a new, fun Mickey Mouse matching dominoes game. It comes with 6 different types and so we started with an easy one (colors) for him so he could get the hang of making domino trains.
He really seemed to enjoy it.
We practiced fine motor skills with tweezers and pom pom balls
Livi is starting to get the hang of Tot School.
We practiced matching capital letters and lowercase and also practiced saying the names and sounds of the letters.
Jackson got a new, fun Mickey Mouse matching dominoes game. It comes with 6 different types and so we started with an easy one (colors) for him so he could get the hang of making domino trains.
He really seemed to enjoy it.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Tot School
Well, tot school hasn't made much of an appearance since Livi has been home but we have been trying to work it into our days more often the last few weeks. If you don't know what Tot School is you can hit the button below to find out all the details but basically it is a homeschool curriculum for preschoolers that focuses on learning through play. Jackson loves it and Livi is......well, she has a nickname in our house that fits her perfectly, The Destructor. Yes, anything that you might not even think could possibly be harmed will be destroyed in a matter of minutes so she is still learning to sit and control herself while playing with toys the correct way:) Maybe I will be better at capturing her disasters and posting them on the blog! Here are a few pictures of what we did this week:
they loved scooping dried pasta into different bowls with different spoons
Jackson has also been watching A LOT of Olympics....
this results in "skating" in our socks on the tile floor with our golf clubs, or I mean, hockey sticks.
He also likes to ski and bobsled but those just consist of running around the house while he shouts, "Mom! I am bobsledding!"
they loved scooping dried pasta into different bowls with different spoons
Jackson has also been watching A LOT of Olympics....
this results in "skating" in our socks on the tile floor with our golf clubs, or I mean, hockey sticks.He also likes to ski and bobsled but those just consist of running around the house while he shouts, "Mom! I am bobsledding!"
Don't forget about the t-shirt giveaway!
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