Tot School! Week 2-15-10

We had such a fun week around here!  We were definitely on the go, but Grayson and I still managed to get in some tot school time together.  His tot trays for the week....

(I've finally given in and cleared the table in our foyer to be his "schooling" table.  I even rearranged my dining room furniture this weekend--thank you, Jennifer!--to accomodate more school fun.)

Our letter this week was "G" and I tried something new.   We still did our letter painting and "is for..." activity, but I added

in some "G" sensory buckets.  I got this idea, along with SO much more, at Carisa's blog.

One bucket was filled with all the "g's" I could find--he really liked this and the other bucket.  After our worship time, we began our "school" with these.  We may even be sticking with G again this week, so they'll probably stick around.

The next bucket (cute little bins I got for the kids from dollar section at target--love that!) was filled with toys/items that began with the letter g.  We have a goat (his favorite of the week), gemstone, grapes, glitter, gold, and giraffe.

I also broke out How to Build an A again--Grayson was finally interested in it this week!  We did at least 8 letters....I love this book and once he got going, he really enjoyed it too.  Again, he's such a kinetic learner; it's perfect for him.

A little fun....playing Hasbro Candy Land Castle Game, a fun shape-sorting game.  He mostly loves playing this with his uncle Jim and cousins, but he is known to break it out and play by himself some too.

Checking out the g's....

and all the "g" objects....

Working on our letter--I'm really trying to gently encourage him to try to paint/color inside the lines just to prepare him for next year.  (By state dates, he wouldn't start preschool next year, but we'll probably begin ourselves.  He's definitely getting ready for preschool....and we'll see where it goes at his pace.

His favorite part was getting to use as much glitter as he wanted since "g was for glitter."

We couldn't let "g" pass by without including God in it--he used some of his foam stickers to decorate a coloring page of Jesus demostrating His love for us....we still incorporated love into our theme this week.

He loved this one (and always does)!  He had a pattern tray (again, dollar section at target) using Green pom poms and Gemstones to tie in his letter.  When he was first starting tot school, I couldn't find any cheap, smaller tongs, so I let him use a clothespin and he still favors using it.  The size is great for his fingers and it's actually quite difficult to use--great fine motor muscle building!

His pattern....green pom, gemstone, etc.

This one was fun--we are (still) in the process of making our own artificial flowers--tot school style. 

We began with a zaxby's cup that I poked holes through.  He placed a green pipe cleaner in each hole, and

then we began threading foam lacing beads onto the ends to make our flower petals.

Of course, he got carried away with the beads and one stem got the royal treatment.  Again, as part of trying to prepare him for preschool, I'm requiring he finish projects that we start--this one was a little tedious so we'll finish it sometime this week.  It's really starting to look cute--I'll post a finished picture when we're done!

His finished letter that he did mostly by himself-paint in the lines and all!

Tiny Tot School

I can't believe our little one is old enough to begin all this fun learning!  I, of course, realize babies are learning from the moment they arrive, but she's old enough now for me to read her curious expressions and it's so much fun to see!

She actually just turned 7 months old yesterday....Happy mini Birthday, sweetheart!

These days you can find her on our rug in the living room, sitting up like a big girl and spontaneously propelling herself forward so that she ends up like this....

She rolls around and slithers on her belly like a little snake....I'm not sure she'll even really crawl.  She may just start scooting faster and faster....that will be pretty funny to watch.  She's also trying, with little luck, to pull herself up.  She may just skip the crawling....we'll see.

This one was actually taken at the end of January when Matt grows his annual beard after Christmas--my biggest blessings all in one chair!

Ava looks really happy, right? :)

**The links above are provided for your convenience.  I am a member of amazon associates and would receive a small percentage of sales in the event of a purchase resulting from use of the links.**