Sunday, May 16, 2010

Tot School-Slow but Fun

Charger is 29 months

We are kinda winding down for the school year, so we didnt have a 'theme' or a letter. Just a few things that we had a lot of fun with!





I found these fun gumball machine counting mats from Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler. She offers little circle gumballs for counting, but I decided to make it slightly more 'hands on.' I raided our cotton balls and chose the coordinating color of each mat. I also changed the sizes to make it more fun. I used a huge orange one since I only needed one and used 10 tiny black ones. The sizes slowly got slower throughout the game. Charger loved this and did so well with it! Mustang begged to play too :).



I presented our homemade sound cylinders, but Charger still had his own idea on how we would use them. {click the link to read how I made them}




I found these mats from Erica as well. Charger was to match up the letters in the boxes with the mats. I expected this to be very easy for him since he knows all his letters, but it wasnt. This bored him. I will only do a couple rows at a time if I try it again.



I made up this awesome Big Machines Tot Book from Carissa at 1+1+1=1. Charger LOVED IT! Have I mentioned that he loves cars, trucks, trains, diggers, backhoes, tractors, and scoops? This tot book was PERFECT! There is a little book in the middle that reads, I like...and then finishes with a vehicle. As I read the book, Charger would exclaim 'I like ... too, mom!'

On every single page :)




Tiny Tot School

Mini Cooper is 8 months old




I gave Mini our new nesting blocks. She loved the bright colors and the little blocks in the set. I got them for 1.00 at a yard sale, which I thought was a great deal until I realized that we didnt get #3. Oh well, Mini cant count yet!





I gave her one of the little wooden shelves and let her put the smallest nesting blog in and out of the squares.




She has gotten very good at opening the cabinet under our TV.

And all three kids had fun playing with our new Lauri tall stacking pegs.




Charger used them to build a tall tower.




Mustang lined them up in rows.




And once she caught the pegs, Mini Cooper tried to eat them. Look at that determination!!

We got our pegs as part of our review of CSNstores.com. Make sure you sign up for my
$25.00 CSN stores giveaway while you are here. It ends tomorrow {5/17}!!

To see what others did in their Tot School this week, check out the weekly link up at 1+1+1=1. God Bless!!





11 comments:

Stefanie said...

Your babies are just so cute!! It looks like a fun week. Good call on the cotton balls. That makes for less work for mom too. =o)

Fun Frugal Mommy said...

Great week. I love the gumball machines they are so cute.

Theresa Mezo said...

fun week!
like the gumball game too, thanks for sharing! :)

Anonymous said...

Very fun learning going on. May I ask how you plan your activities? Do you just go with it and make it as it comes? DO you have a particular planning and prep time to get everything together? I am just really wanting to do more with my kids. Trying to find out how to plan and prep all these ideas.

kewkew said...

I am really liking the gumball game and your substitution of the cotton balls. And I can definitely see my Amelia using the sound cylinders the way Charger did. LOL. Seeing him using them in this post reminded me I would love to find out if anyone at church uses baby food and would save me the jars. May I ask what kind of paint you used.
Thank you for your encouraging words you left in the comment section of my blog today. Also, it is actually my eldest son holding the baby. :) Have a blessed day.

MamaDuck76 said...

I *love* how you used the cotton balls as gumballs. It's less printing, laminating, and cutting for you...and it's more hands-on for the kids! What a cute way to do it!

It's too bad you're missing #3 from the nesting blocks :( Oh well - at least they're fun for stacking!

Madonna said...

I definitely need to make some sound shakers. My son would get a kick out of it. He would probably just run around shaking them. He is such the music man.

Susan-Chasing Marcus said...

The gumballs look like so much fun. My little one has pj's with gumballs on them and she absolutely loves them. She of course has no idea what gum is, but those pj's are her favs.

Anonymous said...

What a great week! Love the gumball printable! I will have to start collecting things to make sound jars like yours love them!

KateO said...

I love the gumball couting project. That is so cute.
I seriously cannot figure out when you get time to prep all this stuff. Kudos girl!
Kate

Ali said...

Ohh I love the gumball machines, we will have to try those! And the letter matching, though Jimmy will probably just want to play around. We'll see! Thanks for the great ideas =)