Tot School: Z is for Zipper (and Zebra)

~ Moose is currently 26 months old ~

Letter of the Week: Zz

Object/Theme: Zipper/Clothing

Color: Black

Shape: Square

Moose's daycare is keeping me on my toes hopping around the alphabet!  We went from Ii last week to Zz this week, and I didn't feel like I was able to maximize our theme, since I only found out on Monday.  I need to go ahead and plan some activities (and do all the printing/laminating) for all 26 letters so I can be better prepared in the future!

I was able to pull together the Tot School printables for the letter Zz, and Moose actually spent some time with them this week.

He even tried the line drawing (although the really accurate line you see is mine, not his).

We also used the Winter Clothing coloring sheets from 2 Teaching Mommies.  When our coloring is a color identification activity (as opposed to just free coloring) I try to encourage him to pick the "right" color by starting him off - it is still too soon to tell if he just doesn't want to be told what color to use, or if he can't tell the difference.

For the most part, the Moose was not particularly interested in the items I featured on his shelves.

He did play with the car lacing beads a little (I put it out figuring that lacing was a skill related to clothing), but ignored the sock coin purse.  He also mostly ignored the Melissa and Doug dressing board I put out for him, even though he played A LOT with the buckles on his kitchen booster seat (and insisted on helping with the buckles on his car seat).

Moose has been expressing a desire for independence in dressing himself for quite awhile, so getting him to participate in selecting his clothes and getting dressed was not at all difficult (although I have no photos to show for it).  The harder part was managing the frustration that went with it! He is so persistent in his efforts, even when he's reached a point of diminishing returns!

The only dressing-related book I had on hand was Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?.  So, since his daycare class used Zz for zebra, I also pulled out some zoo-themed books to supplement: 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo and One Night in the Zoo .

As with last week, the biggest success was our Montessori tray.  I picked up a little cream pitcher at TJ Maxx for $3.99 and set up the tray with a small amount of water in the pitcher, and a drinking cup.  Moose did remarkably well pouring from the pitcher to the cup.

He did less well pouring back to the pitcher to do it all over again.  We're planning to head out to Ikea this afternoon, and, among other things, I'll be on the lookout for two pitchers to go back and forth.  I may also take a step back and try letting him pour with beans (provided that we can find a pitcher with a slightly wider spout to accommodate the beans).

Wishing all my Tot School friends (visit Carisa at 1+1+1=1 to join in) a wonderful and inspired week!

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links.

Yarn Along: Consolation Cowl

I'm always happy to wake up and realize it is Wednesday and time, once again, to join Ginny and her wonderful Yarn Along!

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs.  I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~

I finally finished up the Moose's dishtowel, and began a new cowl for myself as consolation for the one I seriously undersized recently. 

I am still working my way through Organized Simplicity (and have made some great headway in organizing my junk drawer, kitchen counters, and dining room).  I am delighted at the practical inspiration the book delivers, without making me feel guilty for all my past organizational failings.  I also pulled out Montessori Play And Learn and How To Raise An Amazing Child the Montessori Way this week to get some activity ideas for the Moose after we had a great Montessori Moment playing with ice last week.

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links.

Tot School: H is for Hammer (25.5 mo)

~ Moose is currently 25.5 months old ~

Letter of the Week: Hh

Object/Theme: Hammer/Tools

Color: Pink

Shape: Star

We started off the new week with a new pocket chart on the fridge featuring the letter, color, and shape of the week.  The sets I chose (all from Lakeshore Learning, but apparently not available online) feature photos of objects, which seems to particularly attract the Moose.  I intended it to be primarily a visual, but Moose ended up interacting with it quite a lot - especially taking out and holding up the different stars (a starfish, starfruit, and gold craft star). 

I used the printables from 1+1+1=1 again, although I can honestly say that, except one swipe of a dry erase marker at the binder housing the sheets, Moose had absolutely no interest in doing coloring/tracing this week.

Because I did not have any smaller tool toys to feature on his shelves, I concentrated on some shape toys.  Moose really likes his Melissa & Doug Chunky Shapes Puzzle (he has taken to chunky puzzles in a way and with a skill he never showed with the "age-appropriate" large peg puzzles he spent all last year with).  The laminated shape cards from the printables got a lot of play again and he very soundly knows diamond, star, and oval on his own.  He really took to his Lauri Toys Shape and Color Sorter!

Although shapes and colors were not actually sorted.

Moose's book basket featured The Toolbox , Helping Daddy , and Skippyjon Jones Shape Up.  The Toolbox (like all Anne Rockwell books) is absolutely beautiful, and if you have a young tool enthusiast in your family, I can't recommend it enough!

Moose was most excited that his tool toys were featured this week.  He loves his V Tech Tool Box and Fisher-Price Drill Set!  I had put up the drill bits when we originally purchased the toy (lest they get lost) and brought them out for the first time this week and he spent A LOT of time driving the screws in and out.

Daddy Moose also invited him out to his workshop while he finished up some pens he had turned on the lathe, which Moose loved!

Moose specifically asked for yoga as his indoor physical activity this week and followed along very well with his two favorite segments on YouTube (run through the TV): the warm-up from Yoga Motion and some bug-inspired poses.  Interestingly, he brought toys to his yoga mat to play after yoga was finished, and I'm thinking he might do well (and contain his mess!) with a Montessori-style mat, so I'm going to look on Etsy this week for something of that nature.

The surprise learning moment of the week came thanks to an early morning (pre-sunrise) on Wednesday and an elephant-shaped booklight that Moose noticed high on his shelf.  We turned off the overhead light and turned the booklight off and on, shone it at the walls and ceiling, and talked about light and dark.  Of course I have no photos to show for it, but he was absolutely delighted by the experience!

This coming week we will move on to Ii and I can't wait to try out some of the cold weather fun ideas that have been coming to my inbox from some of my favorite blogs!  Moose is expected to move up to the next classroom at daycare sometime soon, so our alphabet run may get shifted, but for now I'm happy that the letter Ii falls during some actual wintry weather!

For some really excellent Tot School inspiration, visit Carisa at 1+1+1=1!

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links.

Trying Tot School

~ Moose is currently 25.5 months old ~

Letter of the week: Gg

Object/Theme: Goat/Farm

Color: Blue

Shape: Heart

This is my first Tot School post!  A little background is probably in order.  Moose attends an educational daycare three days a week when I am at the office.  That gives us two weekdays, plus the weekend at home together.  Since we were snowed in last January (and he was only 13 months old), it has been very clear to me that Moose needs some structure and stimulation to his days or he'll get bored and peel the paint off the walls.

I purchased Before Five in a Row last summer, but found it to be a bit too advanced for the Moose at this point.  I spent the fall scouring Lakeshore Learning for educational toddler activities and started loosely doing a theme week thanks to the great ideas at Teach Your Tot. Then I happily discovered Tot School and spent my little bit of downtime after Christmas getting ready to integrate some of the wonderful ideas on our days home together (typically Wednesdays and Fridays) and downtime on the weekends (if he seems in the mood).

For now, I will be taking my lead from his teacher as far as which letter/color/shape features in a given week.  Thankfully, they are covering the alphabet in order so I can plan some of our activities in advance.  Sometimes I don't know the color and shape until Monday.

Last week we covered the letter Gg. I used the 1+1+1=1 printables for some of the letter tracing and coloring pages, as well as the vocabulary and shape cards.  I also had some of the ABC coloring pages from Making Learning Fun ready and in Moose's weekly notebook.

I set up his favorite shelf in the kitchen hutch as Monetssori-sytle tot shelves.

This week we featured a farm puzzle, his blue counting bears, the "Old MacDonald" storytelling pieces, plus some stickers and the lacing beads he received from his Mimi for Christmas.

This was our book basket for the week:

We also had Big Red Barn and a DK Touch and Feel Farm Animals book featured in the book basket in his room.  For his indoor physical activity, we used Sesame Street: Get Up and Dance (at Moose's request).

I can't say how relieved I was for Carisa's warnings that Ladybug's interest in the writing/drawing/tracing activities was atypical!  Moose was pretty ambivalent about the tracing pages (although he seemed to love the binder and the dry erase markers, so maybe it will catch on).  He did color a farm-themed page from a coloring book I offered to him.

It doesn't look like much, but it was the first time he appeared to intentionally color a particular part of a picture (he did the nose and ears in pink with prompting from me; when he switched and started coloring in blue, he informed me "color toes").  All told, I think he sat at the table a grand total of three minutes.

Otherwise, his favorite activities involved motor skills and manipulation (no surprises there!).  He loves his storyboard, and brought out OldMacdonald several times (even in the evening when I wasn't trying to get him to do Tot School).

He also loved playing with his counting bears.

I am still covering one color at a time rather than forcing sorting since he is not catching on to colors particularly well.  Daddy Moose is afraid he might be color blind (any time you ask him what color something is, he will tell you it is green).  But he seemed to take well to shapes when I singled them out over the last few weeks (oval and star) so I'm going to try a similar approach with colors.

He also really loved the vocabulary and shape cards.  The only words he didn't know were "barn" and "farmer" and he had easily picked up "farmer" by the end of the week.  We are using an old food canister with a slot in the top for storage, which has added another dimension to the "game": placing each card in the tin once we review the shape or word.

Off we go . . . on to Hh this week!

For more Tot School inspiration, visit 1+1+1=1!