Tot-School

by Jenny Irvine // February 22, 2009 // No Comments

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.

Giving Thanks -Tot Style

by Jenny Irvine // November 18, 2008 // No Comments

So if you read my other blog you know that we are strongly encouraging A to be thankful for what she has her family, home, food, friends, and the basic necessities in life not just materialistic things. We all know those things that take up space and clutter our homes but we can’t live with out! Here is a peak at what we worked on this week to stick with our theme of “Thankfulness”.

We started off thinking of others by making a homeless man a little lunch. Abby helped pack the lunch (a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, chips, a granola bar, and a water). We drove by one of the streets near the freeway that often has a homeless person sitting with a sign and waived the lunch out the window. A was a bit confused by this “why he aint got a home?” However, I know someday she will look back at it and be grateful that she was able to help someone in need at such a young age “3” 🙂

Then Abby made a card to slip into the lunch that read “May God Bless you” and A added her own artful design to it !

We also made some “Tootsie Turkeys” as a little memory of how cute our little feet were in 2008! Abby is very excited to be growing bigger everyday so Mommy wanted to bottle up those little turkey toes! Abby of coarse loved the tracing, gluing, and cutting.

Our “2008 Tootsie Turkeys”

We also made a “Thankful Tree” with our friends on Halloween. The leaves each hold the name of someone special to Abby. This was a lot of fun to make. We love looking at it everyday on our kitchen table to remind us of how blessed we are to have such a good family.

Come check out what others are doing in Tot-School and be inspired like I am every week I log on!

Tot School Fall Style

by Jenny Irvine // November 3, 2008 // No Comments

I haven’t been very good at posting on here lately, but we have been very busy learning and exploring here are a few of the things that we have done in the past couple weeks during our school time together. Mommy has not been very good at downloading all of them on the computer lately. To much to do and so little time. First, we had school “camping style” coloring pictures in our new tent that we got for our 3rd Birthday. Abby thought this was really fun and enjoyed learning about the Alphabet and just coloring pictures inside her secret hang out.

We dyed rice in fall colors and enjoyed playing with our new sensory bucket. Measuring, scooping, and just making a rice mess!! But that’s ok it was not anything the vacuum could not clean up.

Abby really loves Curious George and wanted to look for worms like George this particular morning. Mom had to put on her thinking cap because it was really rainy. So we made worms out of yarn and hid them in our dry milk sensory bucket. Therefore, we dug for worms in the sand and stayed dry all the while.

And for a little file folder fun we matched colors with little raccoon images. The word colors match up to the actual colors themselves. Abby did great at this and we now make a little game out of it.

Finally, one of our other on going projects over here is our indoor garden. We planted seeds from our Chia Pet Herb Garden Abby did the entire thing and this is her little prized possession. Mommy does not have a green thumb, but Abby sure does like to care for the plants in our house. More power to you kiddo!!

Come join us and others teaching our Tots at home!!