(because it loaded out of order. Really, this was intended for the end of the post...)
Tot School "Flops":
~ Driving a racecar on the letter E. This lasted about 12 seconds. He hated it.
~ attempting small plastic tweezers. He cried because he couldn't do it himself. Sobbed, actually. (Don't worry - I picked him up & cuddled him as soon as I snapped the picture.)
Tot School, Alex Style:
~ "reading" Curious George. Grandma & Grandpa gave him a big set of Curious George books for his birthday, and Alex begs me to read George all. day. long. We even had pancakes for dinner this week because George makes pancakes in one of the books.
~ poker chips, to be explained later...I just didn't get that picture into the collage
SPOONINGAnother activity borrowed from A Mommy Talks , only she was using a snowman muffin tin, and our is a snowflake tin. I gave Alex a bowl full of cotton balls & a large measuring spoon. He had a blast! He's asked to do this again & again this week.
POMPOMS, finally!
We live 30 minutes from everything. I like it that way, but I never take time to go anywhere except Target & the grocery store. This week, we hit SuperWalmart so I could grocery shop & go craft shopping in the same store.
Let me tell you, these were a HIT! Alex absolutely adored them! We played with pompoms and tongs, pompoms and a gravy ladle, pompoms and a measuring spoon, bowls, cups, muffin tins...the list goes on. I think Alex could have survived the week on pompoms alone! The tongs were a bit tricky. (Better than the plastic tweezers, though!) After trying the tongs for a while, Alex requested a "big foon, please". (Big spoon)
This idea is based on one from Wilson Ramblings. (Katie always has the neatest ideas!) Alex enjoyed this! He colored on a blank sheet of paper while I had fun drawing pictures for him. He really enjoyed putting the pompoms on the correct circles. (It only lasted about 10 minutes, though, before he decided it would be more fun to throw pompoms at the dog...)
Dot-Art for Letter E. We're still working on dotting in the circles. Sometimes he tries & misses; other times, he doesn't even care & just starts randomly dotting the page while saying, "Dot, dot, dot." He's definitely learned how to screw/unscrew the lid on the bingo markers.
(Can anyone tell me why Do-A-Dot markers are better than bingo markers? Is there a valid reason to buy the official dot markers?)
Colors - We worked with poker chips from the dollar store, sorting them by color in a muffin tin. There's also a random picture in the first collage of this post where we put the chips through a hole in the top of an empty Crystal Light canister...we did all the reds first, then the blues, until Alex grew tired of it. Next time, I might limit it to 3 or 4 chips of each color. It might be better for his little attention span.
I also printed color cards. I want to give credit, but I printed these quite some time ago, so I don't recall where they came from. There are 6 different colors, but I only laminated red & blue for our first try with this color-sorting activity. Alex willingly sorted the pictures, but he didn't have any desire to do it again.
Random
~ playing with his Tag Jr (I only pull it out on occasion, so it's a special treat)
~ stringing beads by shape - all the circles, all the stars, etc. Mama still helps him string, as our dollar store beads don't have very big holes.
~ his E-shaped grilled cheese sandwich
~ jumping ON and OFF the rug
~ coloring his E is for Elephant. I told him "color the toes" or "color the tail" and he attempted to follow directions
~ turning his dump truck into a ride-on toy
~ riding his new tricycle - he can't quite figure out how to pedal independently yet
~ "eating" a poker chip because Mama called it a chip. Oops! ;)
To see what other tots are doing this week, check out:
13 comments:
You're doing such a good job. Things have fallen apart in the "school" department over here the last while. I barely have enough energy to get through the day with this pregnancy let alone have the drive to be creative. I told myself tonight that my excuses run out once I'm over being sick. If I was still teaching at a school, then I would call in sick. I get a free pass for this one. :-) Anyway, I have to get back into the habit. It won't be any easier with 3 kids, so I might as well force myself now. Natalie was doing so good with identifying beginning and ending sounds of words, and I don't want to miss out on her eagerness to learn. I think we're going to tackle more complex math too. She can sort, count, identify shapes, and so on, so I thought I'd gently take it up a notch. She's ready. She'll be a few months from 6 by the time she starts kindergarten, so I think it's okay to go for it. I'm going to keep Eboni in sorting, matching, identifying colors, letters, and shapes. There's no need to stress myself out, right? We can bump it up when Natalie is at school starting in the fall. Plus, she might be less distracted being the "big kid" in the house. It'll be a fun 1-on-1 activity for us when Malachi naps.
You had lots of great ideas this week. Thanks for sharing.
My little one LOVES George as well. I enjoyed reading all of your poker chip ideas. I saw them the other day at the dollar store and was wondering what I could do with them. Thanks for the ideas!
Very cute activities! I love your snowflake muffin pan! Looks like you had a fun week! :)
It looks like you had a really fun week! Great activities :)
Lots of fabulous activities!
I was lol at him unscrewing the tops of the bingo markers. That's what my tot likes do too.
When I worked in a day care center years ago, we used Bingo markerss\ to do dot art. Then someone invented Do-A-Dot markers! I think they just copied Bingo blotter markers in order to make money. Anyway, where can you buy bingo blotters these days? Are they cheaper than do-a-dot markers?
Great week! I love all of the activities you did with the poker chips!
We just bought Poker markers last week. Thank you for the ideas for using them. I really like the road E, sorry your son didnt. Great week!
Bingo markers - what a great idea! I bet they're easier to find than the Do-A-Dot markers...I'll have to look. Love the sorting poker chips idea! I can't get my little one to sort at all, so anything different might do it! Great ideas this week!!
Allison - I did NOTHING creative with Alex in the early or late weeks of pregnancy. In the beginning, I existed. Yeah, that was enough! ;) At the end, I simply focused on having the house ready for a baby - organized, extra meals in the freezer, extra food in the pantry, etc. And I know that your pregnancies are much harder than mine.
Definitely don't stress yourself out over it. Maybe use this time before Malachi is born to get things ready, and then you can use the prepared activities as a special Mommy & Natalie time after the baby is born.
AngelNicki ~ our Bingo markers were on clearance at CVS. I paid $2 for 2-packs of markers.
You're popular!! Rightly so, I'm a Dawn wannabe ;)
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