Tot School~Letter L, Week 2

~Smiley is currently 29 months old~

Letter L...
We continued to work on the Letter Ll this week. I like spacing our letter activities out over a two week time period as it feels less rushed that way. Also, I have found so many fun things to do for each letter that I really need an additional week to fit everything in :) Check out my post from last week to see what we did for week 1 of Letter L.

I again used Carisa's wonderful Raising Rock Stars Preschool curriculum this week and Smiley enjoyed all the activities we did. As I mentioned last week, some of the activities still are a little too difficult for him, and I therefore adjust what we do to fit his need...

Smiley was really into the popsickle crafts and liked pretending to blow out the candles :)


He liked studying the vocabulary cards again this week...

And measuring the verse. It's so tall mommy...

Tracing the letters is an area that is still very difficult for Smiley. I think I will skip this for now and focus on tracing more basic things, such as vertical or horizontal lines. I might get one of the KUMON workbooks some time soon or just make my own templates...

We also used many Letter L activities from Confessions of a Homeschooler again this week. I absolutely LOVE all the fabulous activities she has for the letters and they seem to perfectly meet Smiley's needs right now :) We will definitely be using them for our weekly letter activities from now on!

I thought this paper clip activity is awesome. Smiley was a big fan as well. Things like this are right up his alley :)


I found colored paperclips to go with this activity and Smiley enjoyed matching the correct color clip with the color of the ladybug. (He used white or black- the color of the dots- if the ladybug was in a color for which we did not have clips)

Some ladybug building...

ABCs...

I got a fun Write and Erase Set from Brain Quest (for the airplane trip to Switzerland), which Smiley was really into. He particularly enjoyed the erasing part ;)

Writing and erasing the letter O.

We worked on this Uppercase & Lowercase letter matching game from Homeschool Creations a few times this past week.

Smiley is really into Word World (on PBS) lately and I therefore made him Carisa's Word World tot pack. He was really into it :)

Random Learning Activities...

I gave Smiley some foam (dishwashing foam from the sink) and let him get to town on his little table. He cleaned for at least 45 minutes!!

We made Salzteig (salt dough). Combine one part salt with two parts flour and one part water and mix. You can then use it like playdough, making different shapes etc. You can then bake and color the finished products. I plan on doing our Christmas ornaments with this technique this year (that way it doesn't matter if they break...).

We made ladybugs and caterpillars, but I forgot to take pictures of the finished product :(

Some puzzle fun...

Smiley was really really really into slugs! It has been a little rainy in Switzerland lately and there are tons of slugs everywhere right now, much to Smiley's delight. He could not get enough of the lovely creatures...

Sorting balls by color.

We made a big circle with his balls and ran around it for a long time. We then proceeded to wash his tractor :)

Some piano fun...
Working on his fine motor skills...
And of course, playing lots and lots of soccer, fitting to the World cup ;)
Unfortunately, our vacation in Switzerland has come to an end. We got back home last night. We're still suffering from jet lag, but I hope we'll feel up for some tot school this coming week. Fortunately, I have our letter Tt stuff already planned out :)

Product Review: CSN Stores

I recently stumbled upon CSN Stores, which has over 200 online stores where you can find everything from cookware to cribs to toys and even your most specific needs like LED Lighting or laptop cases! There has been plenty of blog buzz about CSN stores and there is no doubt why since you can practically find anything in one of their stores. There truly seems to be something for everyone.

I feel very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to do a product review of an item of my choice from one of their stores. There are so many wonderful toys and tot school items to choose from. It's going to be difficult to decide on something ;) Watch for a future post to see what product I choose and how it turned out.

Have you used CSN before? What product do you like?

Tot School~Vacation Style

~Smiley is currently 29 months old~

We're still on vacation in Switzerland visiting with my family. In contrast to last week, planned tot school was nearly nonexistant this week. We just had too much fun doing other things together :) Of course, tot school experiences were still present everyday :) Here are some of the things we were up to this past week...

Lots and lots of time was spent in the garden...
Smiley always seeks out fine motor activities ;)
Playdates...

We went to the circus. It was Smileys first time and we had such a blast seeing all the animals, clowns and acrobats. Here he is running around after the show :)

Smiley got a fun play kitchen and played with it every day. It's one of the highlights here.

We did this matching puzzle a few times during the week...

And Lego was played with every single day...

Counting money ;)

Tot School~Letter L

~Smiley is currently 29 months old~

Letter L...
Smiley saw my looking at Carisa's awesome preschool curriculum and wanted to do the powerpoint slideshow himself. I purchased the MEMBERS ONLY package, which is a fabulous deal for only a $10 (one time) joining fee! Smiley LOVED the slide show and wanted to watch it a few times in a row. Originally, my plan was to wait with the Raising Rock Stars Preschool Curriculum until he is a bit older (more like 3.5 or 4). I am still not sure yet, how I will go about it. For this week, we did the curriculum with him and he really enjoyed it. He liked the craft activities, and he said "let your light shine" throughout the week. He also enjoyed the little flashcards and learning a few new vocabulary words (he got a kick out of the lobster-loved the big eyes). He tried the writing activities, although they are still difficult for him. Also, really getting into the meaning of the verse and its application will be easier when he is a bit older. I might use some activities of the curriculum now and then do the full one again when he is a bit older. I think for right now, we will just play it by ear and see how it goes. We may also take more than just one week per letter to give us time to fill in with other tot school activities :)

Here he is working with the flashcards...
And doing the prep sheet for the letter L. He didn't stop his line at the start, but kept on doing his vertical line down to the bottom of the page ;)


We filled in some ladybug activites from confessions of a homeschooler. The activities are super cute and I was very excited to show them to Smiley. I thought he would love this ladybug matching game, but he wasn't having it that day. Maybe another time...
He did like sorting the upper case and lower case Ls...

I printed some other activities that I still need to laminate. Hopefully, we will get to them this week :)

And we continued our foam letters. Here is our L is for Lion. It looks more like a giraffe, but oh well...

Smiley practiced a little bit of reading...

and enjoyed playing with this leap frog toy that we got for the flight to Swizerland...

Fine Motor Activities...

Smiley peeled A LOT of peas and loved it :)

He got a piggy bank from my mom and enjoyed depositing some Swiss Francs :)

He played with this fishing toy, although it was pretty tricky (it's a travel size version).

He worked on 6 piece puzzles...

Nature...

We had fun exploring the nature here in Switzerland. The little stream by my parents' house was a HUGE hit...









And so were the llamas (fitting to our letter of the week)...

We blew Löwenzahn (again the letter L :)), which is the German word for dandelion.

We saw ducks...

...and deer.

Outside Fun...

Smiley had fun playing in the sand

and making soup :)

buying fruit and veggies at the German market...

Playing in the water...

And chasing bubbles in my parents' garden...

Climbing a pirate ship...

And flying in a hot air balloon ride :)

We had a fun-filled week here in Swizerland :)