Tot School (on break)

Luv Bug is 36 months old

It's been a crazy few weeks around here. We've had sickness, company, and more sickness. I usually take about 100 pictures each week, when I uploaded the pics from my camera from the last two weeks there were only 22. Fortunately, everything is getting back to normal around here. We didn't have any Tot School planned, but we did play quite a bit and did a few other activities.

 My family came for a long weekend visit. My sister made snickerdoodles with Luv Bug.

 I rarely buy paper plates but, since we had so many extra people, I picked up a pack. Luv Bug got ahold of them and laid out about half the package. She said she was making a path for her Little People.

 We went to the Dollar Tree and let her pick out a puzzle. When we got home, I realized it was one she already had. She didn't mind.

 My sister and brother in law are amazing bargain shoppers. They picked up quite a few Littlest Pet Shop sets for just a few dollars on clearance. Luv Bug has been spending a lot of time with these.

"Making mud" on an unseaonably warm day.

Our letter these last 2 weeks was O. This letter O do a dot page from Confessions of a Homeschooler was the only O activity we did.

Although I didn't snap many pictures, we did enjoy our time with our family and friends. We are looking forward to getting back into our routine next week.

Tot School Letter N

Luv Bug is 36 months old

We still have sickness in the house, so we mostly just did trays and play, but we did manage to fit in a few letter N activities.  I've been struggling with whether or not to include worksheet type printables. Luv Bug loves them and asks for them when I don't put them out, but I've noticed that she's been very clingy to me lately. I try not to do any cleaning or other things until Daddy is home to play with her or after bed, but there are times when I have to step away for a bit to prepare a meal or clean up a spill. If I am not right next to her, she will not play. She will come to whichever room I am in 'to keep me company'. I don't mind and I love the snuggles, but I worry that she isn't getting the  free play she needs.  I figured if I didn't use printables, we would have more time to play. Thankfully, I found this post of Carisa's over at 1+1+1=1. It discusses following the child's lead.  In our tot school, I only set out the activities. Whether and how she decides to do things is up to her. I've decided not to worry and just enjoy my little sidekick.

I was ambitious after a week with no planning and set out 7 trays.

 I set out her polished stones with some containers. She always enjoys this.

 I keep trying to get her to play Candy Land. She just wants to have the little gingerbread tokens move along the trail, then announce..."I win!"

 Whenever we do totbooks or lapbooks or file folder games, I store them in here. I bring them out every now and then so she can play them again.

 Patterning. Apple patterns from Confessions of a Homeschoolers Letter A unit.

I can't remember where the pumpkin one is from. If it's yours, please let me know in the comments and I'll add the link.

 A is for Apple puzzle from Confession of A Homeschooler's letter A unit.

B is for Butterfly from her letter b unit.

 This igloo file folder game was here at Preschool Printables.

From Confession of a Homeschooler's E and F units.

 Magnetic letters and word cards. 

 Melissa and Doug's magnetic doll.

 I first saw this idea here. First Luv Bug puts tees in block, then balances marbles on them. She loves this tray and it is always a big hit whenever I put it out for her.

 I had this old deli tray left over from a get together. I cut and laminated construction paper to fit each slot, then I gathered several small items for Luv Bug to sort. She did this a few times, but was much more interested in playing with the little animal counters.

 After we sorted them, we lined them up by color and talked about most and least.

As a variation, one day I added her Education Cubes. First she would roll the number cube, then the color cube and sort accordingly. This was the only turn she took, then decided she didn't like it.

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 She decided to color her letter n do a dot sheet from Confession of a Homeschooler's letter N unit.

 Completing Confession of a Homeschooler's letter N play doh mat.

 On a nice day we took her water beads outside.

 I had this sequencing sheet from years ago when I worked in Pre-K. Luv Bug did very well.

 Of course, lots and lots of puzzles.

The next few weeks we will just be doing spontaneous activities for tot school since we'll be having family visiting. Hopefully, we will finally get rid of this sickness and be ready to jump back in after they leave.

Tot School (no theme)

Luv Bug is 35 months old

I've been sick with a sinus infection for just over a week. I was feeling my worst last weekend and did not have the energy to plan and set up a theme, so we just took 1 day at a time and had a fun week together. I didn't set out trays for Luv Bug, but instead, each night, I'd set out a few fun things. I'm finally getting better, but we may take one more 'easy' week.

Here are some of the things we did this week:

 Luv Bu loves her Cookie Monster playdoh set and usually plays happily for at least half an hour.

 I am so glad I set out her Melissa and Doug wooden blocks. She's never showed much interest in them until this week.

 She loves all her Busy Books, but especially her Toy Story Busy Book.  (Link is to Amazon, but I buy them at Barnes and Noble for about only $10.) She gets this out several times each day. Here they had all fallen off a cliff and were at the hospital. The little ambulance and other wooden vehicles were from the Target dollar spot.

 She played briefly with her Shape Sequence puzzle.

 Luv Bug loves puzzles and usually does several each week. This alphabet puzzle was from The Dollar Tree.  I thought it was funny that she added her Toy Story characters.

 Luv Bug will be 3 (too) soon and I wanted to make a mold of her handprint and footprint with plaster of paris. The directions said to let set 30 minutes before placing hand in it. I must have added too much plaster, because after about 5 minutes, it was rock hard. I let Luv Bug paint it as a gift to my mom. (she can use it as a stepping stone for her garden).

 There's a reason we only paint before bath time:)

 I saw these toothpicks at a local meat market and thought uv Bug would enjoy sticking them in her foam block. The ends were sharp, so I stayed close by. She LOVED this.

 I'm not sure what this piece of wood is actually for, but it was here when we moved in. Luv Bug enjoyed balancing her marbles on it.

 Since she was having so much fun with her marbles, I gave her a pool noodle to put them in.

 We placed Emperor Zurg at the end and she tried to knock him over. We played this for quite awhile.

 I saw this idea for slide drawing here at Tinkerlab. I've been wanting to try it for awhile, but never remembered.

 On a nice day, we brought our cloud dough outside.

 Luv Bug still loves Carisa'a Tot Time Notebook.

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The most exciting thing we did was go see The Laurie Berkner Band! It was so much fun and so worth the travel, even though I had been feeling lousy.

Lately I've been feeling like I'm putting too much out as far as printables go. I never force Luv Bug to do any tot school activity and she enjoys them, but I want the majority of our time to be for spontaneous free play. I think I'm going to do more 'no theme' weeks. We did so much and had so much fun, the way I intended our time to be.