Saturday, March 27, 2010

Tot School – 27 Months

L is for Ladybug! It’s definitely a pretty common theme, but Alex is fascinated by ladybugs anyway! He finds ladybugs on our walls, in the garage, on the table at the library…pretty much everywhere!

We only did 2 days of Tot School this week instead of our typical 3 days. (It’s only 30 – 45 minutes each time…not full days, of course!) Max was sick with a cold – clingy & crabby - and nobody got much sleep…so neither Alex nor I felt like doing tot school on Wednesday.

Alex matched colored ladybugs from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I’m noticing the picture doesn’t show any colors actually matched up. This must be a before or an after picture? I promise that he did it! ;) March2010 350He did the ladybug magnet page, also from Confessions of a Homeschooler. (He really never liked doing these with Do-A-Dot markers, but he *loves* taking turns with Mommy to put magnets on the dots. We name the magnets by color as we place them on the page.) March2010 354 March2010 355

He (somewhat grudgingly at first…) did this Ladybug Playdough Mat from Childcareland.

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We read Ten Little Ladybugs and practiced counting. I took out our foam bathtub numbers, and we matched numbers 1 – 5 with the numbers in the book. (We also read The Grouchy Ladybug and The Very Lazy Ladybug.)

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I printed these ABC leaves and ladybugs from Childcareland, added velcro dots, and Alex had to match the ladybugs to the leaves. We didn’t do the whole alphabet at once; that would have been overwhelming for him. He definitely liked it, and he could have easily (and gladly) handled more than 6 letters at a time.

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Making Learning Fun suggested making a felt ladybug and felt spots to practice counting with this song:

(to the tune of Muffin Man)

Ladybug has 1 black spot
1 black spot, 1 black spot
Ladybug has one black spot
Pretty ladybug

(substitute numbers as you count)

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We rolled a foam dice to pick a number, then we matched it to the foam bathtub number, and we counted out the spots for the ladybug. Alex doesn’t like one to one correspondence while counting, so he had to be encouraged to stick with this activity!
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What Alex did like was putting the ladybug’s spots on his toy cars after we’d finished tot school for the day. Goofball! ;)

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He had a ladybug snack – a circle of bread with strawberry fruit spread, raisins for spots, and a bunch of raisins for a head.

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Random Activities

We baked yummy pudding cake, fingerpainted, played outside, went to the library, and spent a LOT of time playing with trucks & tractors. No pictures to share, though!

Melissa & Doug pattern block puzzles…he finally cares! Alex has ignored these puzzles for months!

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He pulled the Guitar Praise guitar out of the closet and pretended to play.

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Sorting poker chips by color

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Our Tot School shelves
I’m sharing this in case any Tot Schoolers are still looking for a way to organize. I needed something that took up less space than the shelves Carisa recommends, as we do Tot School in our kitchen. We already have these four of these shelves (from Walmart’s website) in our playroom, so I repurposed one of them & borrowed 2 shelves from another unit to create 6 cubbies. It’s working out great! I can finally have a little organization! (Never mind that it looks a little out of place in our kitchen; it’s keeping me sane!)

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Watching more construction across the street. Lucky boy!

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A lesson for baby & big brother – Alex has been begging to feed the baby, so here was his first attempt when I finally gave in (with CLOSE supervision). Not bad! Max ate every bite…although he wore plenty of cereal that missed his mouth :)

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Little Learner - Max finally (at 7 months old) decided that he would learn to roll over. Until this point, it’s been a very rare occurrence. Now he’s rolling every day. Before long, he’ll be rolling toward all sorts of mischief! ;)

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Tot Schoolers - Did you see this on Homeschool Creations? Melissa & Doug toys are on sale at BN.com for 45% off with free shipping on orders over $25. Add to that, you can use coupon code K7P9P3X to get a 20% discount on your FIRST purchase with BN.com!!! How's that for a good deal on some new Tot School items?!

To see what other tots are doing this week, check out:

Tot School

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Tot School – 26 Months

K is for Kite and St. Patrick’s Day

What a week it’s been!  Busy, sick, trip to the dentist, spring fever…you name it!  I can’t say that Tot School was a top priority this week!

Here’s what we did manage to do:

We spent an early morning watching the cement trucks pouring the driveway and sidewalk at the new house across the street.  The most interesting part was DEFINITELY when the cement truck got stuck in the mud – tires spinning, mud flying, and another cement truck showing up to tow him out of the mud.

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Alex took this picture once the truck was out of the mud.  Not bad for a 2 year old!March2010 150

This was K is for Kite week.  Don’t expect much, though – we didn’t accomplish much on our theme this week :(

Kite Color Matching (Confessions of a Homeschooler)
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K is for Kite magnet page from Confessions of a Homeschooler March2010 207

LeapFrog puzzle about opposites (has a kite on it…what a weak tie-in to our theme, lol!)

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Sick Day spent watching countless hours of Curious George and tractor movies

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St. Patrick’s Day Fun! 
This really was an exciting day for Alex!

We sorted M&Ms by color – and tried really hard not to eat them!

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We used the M&Ms to make rainbows with a pot of gold
(from Making Learning Fun)

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When our rainbows were complete, we ATE them!

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We fingerpainted Paper Plate Shamrocks

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We matched Shamrock Letters (Help!  I can’t remember what website this is from – maybe Childcareland?!)

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We sorted shamrocks by size from Making Learning Fun.  (We skipped the medium ones, as Alex really doesn’t care too much for size-sorting.)
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We enjoyed Shamrock Shakes

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We decorated the baby to look like a leprechaun. 
No – wait – that’s just carrots ;)
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We went on a treasure hunt for leprechaun gold…over and over and over again…
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We read LOTS of books, including kite books, leprechaun books, and Gail Gibbons’ St Patricks Day book – which tells the TRUE story of St. Patrick’s missionary work
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We took LOTS of walks & enjoyed the beautiful weather!

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We swept the front yard???
Well, he’s 2.  And he acts it! ;)
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As you can see, not much had to do with our theme this week, but we still had fun!

To see what other tots are doing, check out:

Tot School

Friday, March 19, 2010

The Dreaded Dentist

Well, maybe I shouldn’t say that…Alex didn’t dread the dentist. Mama did. Alex HATES having his teeth brushed. He’ll let you brush the bottom ones, but he has a huge meltdown every night when we try to brush his top teeth. Oh, it’s such a struggle!

We decided that it would be best to take Alex to a pediatric dentist. Yesterday was the day. Aunt Deb took Max, and Grandma S came to Deb’s house to spend time with them, too. Alex and I headed off to the dentist’s office. I have only positive comments for this place! If you live in the area, I’d be glad to recommend Dr. Karr for your kiddos!

Keith and I explained to Alex the night before that it would be kind of like going to the doctor, but they only want to see your teeth. You open your mouth really wide, and the nurse counts your teeth for you. When you’re all done, you get a new toothbrush and you get a prize.

The hygeniest turned out to be someone I grew up with – we went to the same church, and that helped me feel comfortable with it all. Amy was so sweet with Alex, explained everything in words he could understand, and he did so well!

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Alex bravely climbed up into the chair, opened his mouth willingly, and said, “ahh”. He got just a little nervous, and he asked me to hold his hand for a bit. He was really obedient and sat so still. I’m so very proud of him!

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He cracked me up as Amy was putting the flouride on his teeth. There he sat, mouth wide open, with the funniest look on his face. With Amy’s fingers in his mouth, Alex managed to say, “Willy thticky!!!!!!!!” (really sticky)

After he was finished, we visited the prize box. His first choice was a flowery purple bracelet. I suggested that he keep digging, and his next choice was a Disney Princess frisbee. Oh yeah, buddy, keep digging! He ended up with a little yellow race car, but I’m not sure it’s what he really wanted. (His only other choices were pencils and flimsy plastic army guys.)

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Afterwards, we went back to Aunt Deb’s house for lunch with Deb & Grandma. We also walked to the little park across the street, where Alex had a great time! Thanks, Grandma & Debbie, for a fun day!

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