TOT School

~Smiley is currently 20 months old~

Unfortunately, I was a bad photographer this week and mostly forgot take shots during our tot school activities. So this week's post is rather short :(

Fine Motor Skills...
We played with Legos quite a few times this week. Smiley is a big fan of stacking them. We worked on our colors at the same time.




Colors...
Smiley continues to enjoy to sort his animals by color. He also really likes to pick them out by name. For example, I will tell him to "find the blue pig" and he will look for it and hold it up. He really enjoys this :)

Art...

We did quite a bit of art again this week. Smiley got to try out markers for the first time :) He loved this! Taking the lid on and off was a big reason for why he enjoyed this as much as he did ;)

If you would like to see what other mom's did for tot school this week, please visit Carisa's awesome blog at 1plus1plus1equals1.

Tot School- 2 weeks

~Smiley is currently 19 months old~

Since I was too busy last week to post write a tot school post, this week's post will include the past two weeks.

Itty-Bitty Bookworm...

We worked on the unit to the book More More More said the baby these past couple of weeks. I do like the curriculum, but don't love it. I will probably go back to doing my own thing after this month, using a monthly theme, working on numbers, colors and shapes and probably starting on letters. I think I will look into the letter of the week curriculum as well, and probably just use a lot of material from totally tots and 1+1+1 :)

Here Smiley did the scribble art to the book More More More...

And added some water color :)

Numbers...

We still enjoy working with numbers a lot and have continued to practice the numbers 0-10. Smiley does correctly recognize all of these numbers without problem now. I guess our next step will be counting as well as 1:1 recognition. We may take our time with this though...

He likes it when I ask him to get a number, such as the number 3. He gets the number and holds it up with a big grin :)

Colors...

Smiley is starting to get better and better with his colors. He pretty much knows blue, red, yellow, green, purple and white by now.

He really enjoys sorting the animals by color.

We always reinforce colors when we play with our connectors or our blocks as well. Those are great fine motor toys also!

Animals...

Smiley is still in love with animals. I think next month's theme will have to include animals as well :)

Art...

We again did a lot of art activities these past two weeks. Here we're working with stickers.

We colored tons and tons these past two weeks :)

Putting crayons in and out of their box is still a big hit as well :)

Reading...

Smiley is absolutely in love with books, so reading is a big part of our day. Just recently he started being into paper books again. He didn't have the attention span for them for a long time. I am so excited that now, he will actually sit through a few Dr. Seuss books!! Big change from just a couple of months ago!

If you would like to read more tot school post, please check out Carisa's blog at 1plus1plus1equals1.

Tot School

~Smiley is currently 19 months old~

Ocean Theme...

We continued to work on our ocean theme this week. We particularly focused on art projects this week and made this huge collage for Smiley's room. I am impressed by how much he loves art and how well he does with the different projects. He actually sits still and doesn't try to eat anything :)

He did extremely well putting the different foam shapes on our fish. He even put the glue on himself (with some of mommy's help).

What started like this...

Turned into this... :)

The Itty-Bitty Bookworm...

We started the Itty-Bitty Bookworm curriculum this week. I already got the September curriculum, since I will be due the end of September and we will likely have a few interruptions to our tot school routine :)

This and next week, we're working with the book "More, more more said the baby". Smiley really enjoys this book. So far I quite like the curriculum, but I need a few more weeks to really be able to evaluate it. This month, the focus will be on the color red and the shape circle. It would be nice to have a number as part of the monthly theme as well. I think this might be included in the curriculum for year 2. I will have to look into that... Let me know if you've used the curriculum and what you think of it!


Working on one of the coloring sheets for the week.

Fine Motor Skills/Color Recognition...

Those are two great skills to combine.

We played a bunch with this stacking toy, which Smiley loves. We worked on the different colors and shapes at the same time...

Smiley always finds new ways of how to improve mommy's tot school games. Here he is balancing the stacker toys on a stirring stick :)

We still enjoy this shape sorter boat. What great fun! Smiley loved hiding his cheerios between two shapes.

Numbers...

Smiley has gotten really really good at recognizing the numbers 0-10. We use the flash cards I blogged about last week, this number puzzle and a number dvd. He's really into numbers these days and loves to show off his new skill. He names and recognizes the numbers 0-10 very easily now :)

Here he is working on his number puzzle. It's great for recognizing numbers and practicing fine motor skills at the same time :)

What is he looking at so intently? His Numbers DVD.

Smiley loves this Number dvd. He asks for it a lot. I think it has really helped him identify the numbers 0-10.

Zoo...

This week, we spent one of our mornings at the zoo. Smiley is a big animal lover and enjoys seeing all the different animals :)

We really enjoyed the seals. What fun animals!

Fascinated, looking at all the animals at the zoo :)

Smiley had fun touching a snake.

Looking at the goats and sheep...

The gorillas were great fun of course.

Just silly...

This picture is so Smiley :) He's trying to stick his foot through the little people school bus door and drive it aroun like that ;)

If you would like to read what other mommy's and their tots did for tot school this week, check out Carisa's blog at 1plus1plus1equals1.