Friday, September 30, 2011

Tot School – H and doctor

Max is 25 months, and Alex is 3.5 years

There’s no reason for the doctor theme going with letter H.  It’s just what the kids picked on Monday when I gave them a choice for the week :)

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First of all, I’d like to point out that any mess of ribbons, paper, and scrapbook supplies that you see in the background on these pictures is courtesy of two little boys who were left alone for 5 minutes too long…

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We start each morning of tot school by singing our song of the week.  This week, for letter H, I strayed from the RRSP song and choose to do “If You’re Happy…” because the boys love that song!  We used foam happy faces on our popsicle sticks to wave around while we sang.  The kids loved it!

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Then we talk about the Bible verse, read a devotional story to go with the verse, and do the other pages on our RRSP board.  We review the letters/number/sight word that we’re working on each week.  Alex isn’t too interested in the sight words yet, but he’ll get there in time…

After that, we do calendar. 

Since we only do Tot School three days a week, the boys often have two numbers to put in the chart.  They take turns putting in the numbers, we follow our finger up from today’s number to find the day of the week, and then I tell them the whole date as I point to each word/number on the calendar.  (“Today is Monday, September 26, 2011”)  Hopefully, Alex can begin doing the pointing soon!September2011 261

We sing the “Days of the Week” song from SuperSimpleSongs on YouTube.

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Then we move on to table/floor time for the boys.

Alex learned to write the letter H.  He can trace the sample, but he’s not very good at making his own Hs just yet!

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Alex & Grace loved working on the doctor & nurse puzzles from Homeschool Creations doctor tot pack.  (Grace is Alex’s friend, and we watch her once or twice a week.  She’s 18 days older than Alex.)

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Max tried, but it was a little too hard for him.  Mommy helped him make the nurse.

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Max simply ADORES shadow matching, and he’s very good at it.  He can’t wait for me to put it away when he’s finished…so that he can do it all over again!  He likes to hide the pictures behind their shadows.

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Alex does it, too, of course…

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I only gave Alex #1 – 5, but he did an excellent job of counting out the bandaids on this counting mat.

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Without one bit of help, Alex arranged the medicine bottles by size in about 20 seconds.  I’d say he has gotten the hang of ordering pictures by size!

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I pulled out some of our color-matching file folder games, and Max discovered a new love.  He carried these all around the house this week.  He’s been color matching like CRAZY! :) (I think this printable came from www.buildingblox.net; it also comes with color words for older children to match.)

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I added plastic color chips for him to place on the correct circles…he really liked that!

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He’s still struggling with orange/red, but he’s got the rest figured out.  I guess we’ll have to start really working at the names of the colors soon, as he definitely has an interest in this right now!

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He loved this race car color matching, and he’s done this countless times in the past few days.  (I made it when Alex was 2, and I have no idea if I still have the file buried somewhere in my computer…)  It’s so fun to see my boys working together! :)

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LOTS of reading happened in our house this week…reading together with Mom and independently looking at books.

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Here’s where we are displaying each of our weekly verses/letters for review.  They’re starting at the top of our bonus room stairs, and they’ll be heading down the stairs as the weeks go on…

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You can learn more about RRSP, Preschool Corner, or Tot School by clicking on the links below.  You’ll also see what other moms are doing with their tots and preschoolers!

Tot School

All doctor printables this week are from Homeschool Creations.  Special thanks to Jolanthe for the time and love that goes into making & sharing these printables!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

THIS is why…

…you should never talk on the phone with your neighbor while your children are busy in the playroom...

September2011 246They did this almost silently.  I was in the living room with Jensyn, and I thought the boys were playing cars & trucks.  I didn’t realize anything was going on until they started sliding down the mess.  Wow.

If you’re wondering, this is scrapbook paper, stickers, (previously) sorted photographs, and some plastic play food.  It took over an hour to clean & sort it all.  Guess whose boys will not be allowed in the playroom for 24 hours?

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Labor Day Weekend

On Saturday afternoon, we drove down to Kevin & Leanne’s house to spend the night, have fun together, and go to their church the next morning.  It’s the first time we’ve been able to attend their church since they moved last winter, and we really enjoyed getting to hear Kevin preach!

After church on Sunday, we headed to the Sweet Corn Festival in a nearby town.  There was, of course, plenty of free sweet corn to eat!  It’s also a typical fair with lots of food, games, and rides.

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Grandma P paid for the grandkids to ride on a camel.   Ooh, did that make this mama a little nervous, but the kids had fun! Each of my little ones rode with a bigger cousin to keep them safely on the camels’s back.  Thank you, Grandma!

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Max was allowed to ride, even though he didn’t quite meet the height requirements.
Considering it was an airplane, he was pretty excited about that!

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Jensyn hung out and enjoyed her afternoon…

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…while Kyle & Aunt Annie zipped around this crazy track!

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On Monday, we headed to Indiana Beach to use the half-price tickets I bought on Groupon earlier this year.  We packed a picnic lunch, and we enjoyed a nice, cool day.  It really wasn’t all that crowded, which made for a wonderful day!

Max was allowed on almost all of the kiddy rides, and he loved it!  He kept pointing and saying, “I want to ride dat!”  He was even brave enough to ride the Frog Hopper!

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And THIS is how you know when it’s time to head home…September2011 080

…two tired boys flopped down on the ground!