So, this is actually our second week of Tot School this school year, but Blogger and I had a fight with last week's post, and Blogger won. I've decided to just move on :)
Mr. C is so much more into the structured activities I've planned each week than I ever imagined. He's been a bit slower to talk than his sister was at this age, so unfortunately that means that sometimes I underestimate the full extent of his capabilities. It has been so much fun to watch him!
Our room was set up with all things L, including the kiddo's reading nook. We LOVE going to the library each week to pick out our books for the week's Tot School letter. This week was no exception. Since our letter L focus was on lions, llamas and leaves, our books went along with the theme.
A favorite was Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert. Since the weather has been oh, so nice, we headed outside to collect items for our very own leaf man.
Miss E gave hers a walking stick, just like the one she likes to use when she goes for a hike :)
In addition to letter-focused printables found here, Miss E has been using the Kumon workbooks for writing and cutting. She's been SO into figuring out sounds of letters and trying to write them, so I thought I'd capitalize on it!
To keep her thumb up, I draw a smiley face on her thumb nail as a reminder. Works like a charm! I think I learned the trick from 1plus1plus1equals1.net:)
Back when Mr. C was a wee one, we did a whole week focused on The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We took out a few of those activities, since the caterpillar eats leaves. Of course!
There you have it! A fun, but VERY busy week. Fall always brings out the craftiness in me, so be on the look out for some fun crafty-crafts soon!
I have two totally related, but somewhat off-topic things to say about this week. First, we don't OWN The Very Hungry Caterpillar. WHAT?! I hadn't realized it until we were at the library a couple of weeks ago searching for 'H' books, when I discovered a barely used copy, then promptly snatched it up as Miss E LOVES butterflies. And since spring is on it's way (or so I thought on that particular warm-ish day), I thought it would be a perfect break from our letters as we lead into the week before Easter.
Second, Miss E says "Catta-killer" instead of caterpillar. I almost can't stand the cuteness, and it makes me want to freeze her in time and never let her grow up. It's that cute.
On to Tot School! We had SUCH A FUN WEEK. I have to shout that to you because it really was just so natural. I definitely worked harder to get things together, but the activities just flowed so nicely, and it really felt like a successful Tot School week.
We actually started over the weekend with reading the book. By the time we started structured activities, she was so excited! We even wore some awesome socks for the occasion...
Can I just say that Pinterest was my hero this week? In addition to the Tot Pack, I found a ton of fun stuff on Pinterest, too. Our first activity was to paint a leaf, and we used a white cotton ball as the egg. Miss E got a kick out of it.
The mom from Mommy Montage found this awesome video. Miss E loved it! Such a hit, and she requested to watch the "catter-killer" change into a butterfly over and over again.
Since the book is so colorful, we decided to do some much needed work on colors. I'm pretty sure Miss E knows all of them, but every once and awhile she throws me for a loop. Since she's really into glueing, we made a colorful caterpillar! Then we used puffy balls to match the colors. I used a different number for each color, so we also worked on counting. She was "eh" about this activity after the glueing stopped. I will say she asked to do it again tonight, so I think I'll keep it out next week, too.
I know it's hard to see, but she was particularly sensitive
about the camera this week. Two-year olds. Sheesh.
The next day, I found her doing this in her bedroom... Organizing her bows by colors. I think it's starting to make sense to her!
We did a bunch of Tot School Packs, with the most focus on color ID and tracing. I also laminated the size/sequence caterpillars and butterflies, which she liked, too.
Look at the beginning of the week above, versus the end of the week below. She's really starting to figure it out!
I loved listening to her complete this: "First, he eats straight, then he eats zig-zag, then he eats square, then he eats wavy lines!"
We matched different fruit found in the book to the corresponding colors. Miss E liked it best when I placed the colors, and the she took one picture at a time to match them.
She also enjoyed matching the fruits/colors this way:
And here, Miss E was completing the small to large sequencing:
And of course, since glueing is her main squeeze right now, we counted (and glued) to complete a depiction of the life cycle of the caterpillar/butterfly. It's hard to tell in the pictures, but I wrote down the numbers so she could match them. We even put the corresponding number of "glue dots" to glue each piece. She just loved it.
I could keep going (we did so much this week!), but I think this shows a pretty good portion of what we did. Of course, Mr. C was there to help along the way...
How sweet are they? So much love.
And one more for good measure... I'm starting to see such an amazingly sweet relationship between these two grow. It melts my heart!
I mean seriously. I almost can't take it!
Melts. My. Heart.
Welcome to my corner of the web! So happy you've joined me. I'm a wife to Mr. Kuda and a momma to two sweet kiddos and a pup. I love God, crafting, and eating Hot Tamales. And chocolate. Always chocolate.
