Author: Jenny Irvine

Egg Carton Counting

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After reading many blogs about homeschooling our little ones I decided to create a few Tot Tools myself. Here is one that I recently came up with “Egg Carton Counting”

Materials Needed:
An empty egg carton
Printed numbers or number stickers
Fruit Loops, Cheerios, beans, any little object that can be used for counting

First place a number in each compartment of the egg carton.

Then provide your child with the counting material of choice. We used Fruit Loops!

He or she is to then place the number of corresponding materials in each slot of the egg carton. This will help with number recognition, fine motor skills, and counting.

The end result…should look something like this!!

Tot-School

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I have been really bad at downloading pictures lately but here is some of the things that we have been working on during “A’s school time”. My last post I mentioned about trying to be more organized/structured (mostly on my end) and ultimately the time spent planning has been well worth my efforts. I created a sheet which I call my focus sheet I plan out 2 weeks worth of learning exercises making sure I focus on all subjects areas. Most important having fun while learning!! I made a new “Tot Tool” Egg Carton Counting which I will post more photos of in another post! A was a little distracted as we worked on this but as time went on she started to get the hang of it she even started some simple subtraction as she would eat the Fruit Loops! We would work on “how many are left”?


For a sensory experience we played in chocolate pudding!!! It was fun, messy, and tasted good too! We practiced writing our letters in the chocolate.

I took a part one of our file folder games that I made early on….I just didn’t like how I put it together. So instead we have a new “Raccoon Clothespin Game” that was lots of fun. The raccoons have the color and word printed on them and A had to match the colored clothespin to the coordinating raccoon.
We painted with oranges this was neat and the paper came out beautifully but didn’t hold A’s attention for very long. I think we were done painting and cleaning up in 10 minutes time. It took me longer to roll out the paper.

We also have been enjoying our new felt board that I made. It is far from perfect but it works and A seems to enjoy putting the various pieces up on the board like we do at story time at the library. I am currently working on some themed pieces to go with some stories we read here at home. So far we have a “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” pieces and “If You Give a Pig a Party“. All hand cut pieces out of felt by yours truly.

Waiting

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So I am anxiously awaiting my boxes of school supplies for Skinny Minnie! I made my first purchase yesterday from Discount School Supply! I was like a kid in a candy store clicking on all of the items (some for this year some for next). I will likely be putting in another order after I have saved some more money. I think I have a new addiction to buying educational items 🙂

After much contemplating, pondering, reading, and anxiety over what is “right” we have finally decided A is staying home for school again next year. Thanks to all of you veteran homeschoolers who have been so patient with me and my millions of questions.

This will likely be a year by year decision on our families behalf but it is truly a decision that I feel shouldn’t be taken lightly (despite the age of the child). I get a lot of “she is only 31/2 don’t worry” I just smile, nod, or bite my tongue because it is obvious to me at that point this individual does not share the same views on education as I do. My personal belief is that education and learning starts from the time a child is born. Parents are a child’s first and most important educator. No-one knows your child and his or her needs better than you!