Monday, April 20, 2009

Tot-School


Luke is 47 months old
Kimberly is 35 months old
It was another busy, busy Tot-School week, as is usual. It also was a beautiful, warm sunny week, so we spent a lot of time outside.Both of my "tots" learned to blow bubbles.
It was kind of tricky, but they finally got the hang of it!
We visited the playground nearby.
The bravery climbing, swinging and sliding has improved quite a bit since last year.
We headed out for a hike at nearby Mount Hike. This is one of out favorite destinations, and just perfect for little hikers.
Waiting for snack, always a highlight of hiking.
I just love our Classic Books with Holes, and Luke's favorite has to be Down by The Station.
I printed this out from the DLTK site. I added the letter T to the page. I then laminated it for durability.
I cut out foam piece to match the picture and the kids have been putting it together, following the printable, like a puzzle. They both have been enjoying this a lot.
I got the Wikki Stix back out this week. Before playing with them freely, I drew letters on a piece of paper and Luke made the letters with with the Wikki stix.
Kimberly also discovered that Wikki stix make great hippie headwear,
and nifty pencil holders.
We have started learning about seeds this week.
Above, Kimberly is getter out planting discs ready for planting.
These planting discs were fun all on there own. The kids were amazed at how big they became after they had absorbed water--I was a little amazed also.
In go the seeds. Hopefully next week, we will have little sprouts.
Kimberly looks very scientific with the magnifying glass.
I have found the magnifying glasses can keep little children busy for quite a while, just hand them out and stay back, and they do a lot of discovering all on their own.
Kimberly made foam flowers this week. I cut many, many flower shapes out of foam. I them provided pick cleaners for stems and then the flowers were created.
Kimberly admiring her work!
A beautiful springtime bouquet.
We have a new "tot tool" that we used this week. Alphabet Mats.
It has cute little foam alphabet bugs. It has both upper and lowercase letters and we spent some time matching a few "partner" letters.
It also comes with mats that are used to practice letter matching. You can match the capital letter to the lowercase letter of just match the letter that is there. This is what I did with Kimbery, because we are still working on just naming each letter.
Luke especially liked stack the letter bugs up and then running over them with his trains--he is all boy!
My absolutely, most favorite new tot tool is the Leapfrog Tag Reader. Make sure you check out the link that I provided because there is a lot more to it than I can explain. I will tell you that you use the computer to load an accompanying book onto your Tag reader and then your child can listen to the story and then also do many, many interactive activities on each page of the book. They also have a wonderful assortment of books available for the reader.
All four of my youngest kids, 3-9 have been enjoying this everyday.
Make sure to check out everyone's great ideas for Tot School activities this week.

5 comments:

Goat Gal said...

I love the shape train! I long to go for a hike but it is too muddy stil (and in some places snowy).

Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice said...

I loved your ideas! LOTS and LOTS of them!!

Ladybug Mommy Maria said...

I love the picture of the littles with their big sis (I'm assuming) - your children are so beautiful!

Unknown said...

Oh, what a clever, yet simple idea to cut out the train pieces in foam, in puzzle format! Thanks for sharing it!

Lisa said...

Joanne, you seriously have the most wonderful projects to share, the best photographs, and the most adorable children... I always get great ideas over here!