So of all the wonderful ideas I came across, this week we have implemented two new ideas. They were relatively simple to begin and helped to fill some gaps that were missing. Both ideas came from the Blog Tired Need Sleep. (Okay...the title of that blog just sums up motherhood so nicely). The first ideas is "The Morning Message." I set up Sunshine's chalkboard in the kitchen, and once we are finished with breakfast we choose a message to write. As I write the message I say each letter and then it is Sunshine's turn to point at and say the letters-well, ideally this is how it works. Sunshine's orneries (is that a word?) get the best of her at times and she calls each letter an "a." Then I tell her a mystery letter and she uses a magnifying glass to find the mystery letter in the message. It's quick, it's simple, and yet it has lots of great benefits, which you can read about here. Some of our messages this week were "I like bugs" and "Sweet Pea loves daddy."
The other idea we started this week was the art box. I set up a box with various art supplies and let sweet pea go at it. It's not technically part of Tot School, which is typically one hour in the morning...for us, we're using the art box more as an afternoon activity when she seems a little antsy or bored. I had initially thought of using it while I prep dinner, however, while she is in charge it does take a little help from mommy (o:
She titled this one "The Googly Eyed Monster"
This week we had 3 days of regular, one hour long tot school; then we had 1 day when our activities were spread throughout the day (and the house); and then we had 1 day off because Daddy'O had the day off. Here are a few pictures to capture some of our activities.
Itty Bitty Bookworm activity along with the book "When it Starts to Snow." Olivia recreated the page with the little mouse hiding inside the brick wall.
Another Itty Bitty Bookworm activity. Olivia created a house for her little pet mouse.
The Itty Bitty Bookworm activity where she us supposed to color the pictures and yet she chose to pretend the markers were different Veggie Tale characters standing on top of each other. This happens all the time when she is asked to color a picture...the markers/crayons/colored pencils become friends and never actually color the page. This week I chose not to stress about it and let her imagination run.
Tot tray...spooning beans from one container to another.
Letter of the week "Q."
Hand Writing Without Tears...forming Q with dough.
Tot Tray...dropping individual pieces of string into a jar. She pretended they were all part of a family trying to get inside their house and out of the snow.
Tot tray...Melissa and Doug geometric shapes.
She grabbed a clothes pin to be her beak and started picking up the shapes with it.
She wanted to make felt friends and pulled this one out on her own.
Cooking activity inspired by Totally Tots "Once Upon a Book." She spread cream cheese on Vanilla Wafers and then dipped them in coconut. She liked the first one, then decided to eat the rest plain.
Itty Bitty Bookworm activity...we made a winter treat for the birds. We (I) spread peanut butter on the bagel (while Olivia ate another bagel), then rolled it in bird seed, and finally hung it in a tree in our backyard.
Another activity she also loved, but I didn't get pictures of was also inspired by Totally Tots "Once Upon a Book." It was the activity of printing out the picture of a big mitten and then stuffing the different animals inside as we read along. Her favorite part at the end was tossing the mitten in the air and scattering all the animals.
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