Tot School: Letter T

(Miss E ~ 46 months)
(Mr. C ~ 24 months)

Linking up over at the Tot School Gathering Place!

I don't know about y'all, but we're finally getting into the swing of things as far as the new school year goes. Adding a few new activities has definitely been an adjustment, but we're getting there! And naps. Naps are still few and far between, but they're there, hiding intermittently throughout the week. What a difference a nap makes!

This week, we celebrated the Letter T! Mr. C is probably into every stereotypical toy/topic that your average two year old boy would enjoy, so T made him oh so happy! Since sister loves her brother so, she was happy to oblige.

We started off the week with trucks and trains, galore! I try to rotate toys a little bit as to keep things new, so knowing the letter T was coming, these had been put away for a few weeks. They were so excited to have the train set out again! We have both the Conductor Carl and Thomas the Train sets, and they love to have the trains mingle :)

Y'all. Both kids INDEPENDENTLY set up the train set this week. I was doing dishes, and they did this themselves! Miss E actually sang a song about the letter T, and I about fell on the floor. It was a great day.

Both kiddos are really into do-a-dots right now, so it was a perfect way to start on our table top activities.

Mr. C celebrated his second birthday, and got some AWESOME toys and books that fit right in with our theme! A friend (who is very familiar with this boy's love language of all things that go) gave Mr. C Sally Sutton's Roadwork, and the corresponding CAT mini-machines. We matched the corresponding trucks to each part of the story, and Miss E acted them out.  It was such a fun change to our typical Tot School day :)

Yes. That is my foot.

Both kiddos are still really into table top tasks, so I try to take advantage of it. Miss E did the letter maze, while Charlie used letter T stampers.

She worked so hard to make a pattern (blue, purple, pink) with her stickers.

Both kids worked well together using play dough to make our letter of the week. I used this time to review last week's letter, as well.

We're still working on cutting, and finding better ways to cater to each child's skills. Miss E cuts out the animals for our letter T, and Mr. C practices with strips of construction paper.

We're still working on shapes, too, so we used another of Mr. C's birthday gifts (Melissa and Doug's Pattern Blocks) in our Tot School time. This was another great activity for some independence! Miss E actually started a game, shouting out shapes to Mr. C, and they were giggling all the way. So fun!

That was our week! Hope you enjoyed how we explored the letter T. See you next week!

xoxo, k.

Tot School: Letter L

(Miss E ~ 46 months)
(Mr. C ~ 23 months)

Linking up over at the Tot School Gathering Place!

Hello, hello!

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!

Until next time,

Mrs. Kuda

Easy Sensory Bin for under $10

I'm not sure about you, but sometimes (and I'm saying this when it's been raining for 3 days, and we've all just about had it with each other and this house) it's just necessary to have some sort of activity at the ready when the kiddos are getting restless.

Who me? I never get restless...

Wait. An endless activity, perfect for rainy days, and only $10? Yes, my friends, it's true. And here's how I did it!

First, I went to Target and rummaged through their $1 bin. I know I've mentioned this before, but I cannot tell you how much I love this! Here's what I found: perfect little tongs sized for Miss E, little Chevron patterned buckets, and mini-scoops. After grabbing some rice and split peas, we were ready to go!

I had the plastic bin and dinosaurs at home already. I poured in the rice and split peas...

Then added all the fun goodies...

I collected some tops from Mr. C's pouches of food when we're on the go. I thought it added some nice color, and gave Miss E something to dig for.

After giving Miss E the rules of her new bin (nothing in the mouth, and when you pour it has to be over the bin), she was ready to go!!

And don't forget the clean up! Miss E is always at the ready when it comes to cleaning the house. Picking up her toys? Maybe not. But using a "sweeper" to help mommy? Absolutely!

Miss E asks to play with this every single day. I try to limit it to a few times a week to keep it new, and so I can use it to my advantage (Cooking dinner, anyone? This is a perfect distraction!). That being said, it's perfect to incorporate into Tot School every day. Just switch out the smaller items with the theme you're using that week. I just happened to have dinosaurs lying around, and they were perfect for this bin.

A few things: Our bin is small. Homes in our area are small and expensive, so it is what it is. I have a friend who made a much larger one, and it is AWESOME. But we just don't have the space to store something like that. Secondly, we used rice. I love the color contrast with the split peas, but it is a bit messier than if I had used any sort of dried beans. You can see the dust from the rice on my jeans in the above picture, as well as on Miss E's face in the first picture.

And that's it! It took me no time at all, it was super cheap to do, and most importantly, it's a crowd pleaser! Even Mr. C enjoys watching his sister play, and helps by spraying all of the rice all over the room with his hands. That's what we have vacuums for, right?

Now get to it!

Until next time,

Mrs. Kuda

Tot School: Spring Has Sprung!

Miss E ~ 28 months

This week was one of those weeks that there was just no time to plan, but seeing that we've been so stinking busy in April, I wanted to finish the month off strong. Miss E has had her colors confused for quite some time (except for purple, of course) so I thought for Tot School this week, we could combine our spring theme and colors for a week. And I'm so happy we did! We got outside, got to know our colors a bit more, and I got to see Miss E get creative with the activities I set up for her.

First of all, if you haven't been around the DC Metro area in the past 1-2 weeks, let me just tell you something. It has been GORGEOUS! Like the perfect kind of spring. Really. It's kind of making the winter that never ended seem like a distant memory. Sort of.

What better way than to discover the colors around us than to explore spring? That's exactly what we did. For our first day of Tot School this week, we went for a nature walk. And then we did it Every. Single. Day. Both Mr. C and I loved getting the fresh air, and it was such a joy to see Miss E discovering all of the beautiful colors nature provides.

"Lots' of yellows, mommy!"

"It's kind of like light yellow, mommy."

"You take this home."

For each walk, we focused on one color. Green was the obvious, as it's bursting in everywhere you turn. We also focused on yellow, pink, red, and purple. As a side note, Miss E thought it was hilarious that blueberries tend to have a "dark purpur" (purple) color. How observant!

Here we are shamelessly discovering someone else's tulips. Since mine are already spent. Sigh...

Azalea's are now one of Miss E's favorite spring flowers. There are a TON in our area, and it seems to blow her mind that they come in all sorts of shapes and colors. Too cute.

Since Miss E is an apple that hasn't fallen far from my tree, the kid loves to organize things. Enter our color sorters! I found an awesome pair of little tongs in the $1 bin at Target. I had been searching for something a little easier for her little hands to work on fine motor skills. Clothes pins and regular tweezers were just a bit too challenging (which = frustrating). Finally! That bin never seems to fail me. (And I love how it's parked right near the entrance so I never forget to stop by :)

I just pulled out some of the 4 ounce cups I use for Mr. C's baby food, gave some basic instructions, and Miss E went to town. We went back and forth, suggesting which colors to choose next. So much fun.

And since she had commented on the purple blueberries, I thought it might be the perfect chance to make colors "real world" for her. I grabbed some of her play food, and had her add them to the puffy balls. What a hit! She did this activity over and over and over again. I think I'll add it in next week, too.

I cannot tell you how much this correspondence has changed the way she sees colors. She now brings them up all the time as she observes her surroundings, and it just makes me so stinking happy.

We also have these awesome foam letters that I had originally bought for the bath when Miss E was just a baby. Well, long story short, they never made it there. Miss E did this sorting on her own... I'll let the picture explain itself:

Love her tongue sticking out to the side. Thinking hard!

Here's one of my favorite shots of the week, during our quiet time.

If she wants to read, I'm not going to tell her where to do it.

In addition to the above activities, we colored A LOT, read books with the themes of colors and Spring, and I really let Miss E forge the way. We also did some gardening, but unfortunately missed the photo ops (between keeping Miss from throwing dirt, and Mr. C from eating it). I'm usually a planned activities kind of girl, but that's what I'm loving about Tot School. As long as Miss E is engaged, she's learning!

Until next time,

Mrs. Kuda

Where I'm linking up this week!
Tot School at 1+1+1=1
No Time for Flashcards

Tot School: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Miss E ~ 27 Months

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.

That's it for Tot School this week!

Until next time,

Mrs. Kuda