Tot School with Nolan- 16 months

So….(I say 'SO" way too much and will work on it.)….. I had not initially planned on doing Tot School with Nolan.  But over the past week, it kind of just worked out that way.  In my mind…I felt like I didn't have enough time or energy to plan something out for him….he'd just 'play' while the girls are doing school.  Well…as it turns out…Nolan thinks he's as big as the girls and needs to be in the middle of it all.  And he won't just 'play' with his own toys.  So the wheels in my head are turning and I'm trying to come up with some more things for him to do.  We'll see!

While I don't sit down and make elaborate plans for him…my plan is to try and have several activities for him to do that stay strictly in the school room and can only be played during school hours…in hopes that it will take him longer to get tired of them.  I haven't bought anything new…but just watching him and figuring out the things that he likes that keep him entertained anywhere from 2-15 minutes at a time.  :)

Here are a few things from the past 2 weeks.

Sometimes he just likes to eat his fruit pouch in the 'Cozy Corner'.

Help sister with letters.  (the dry erase markers….ohmygoodness…..he loves the dry erase markers.  and he thinks he neeeeeeds the dry erase markers.  It's a battle every day.  Multiple times in a day.

He loves this wooden tool box by Melissa & Doug.  I've had this toy for a few years and he's really the first to have any interest.  This keeps him occupied anywhere from 5-10 minutes.  That's a lot!  :)

I moved our little toddler kid's table from Ikea into the schoolroom.  It does not really fit, but it works ok for now, I guess.  I put a couple of puzzles on there one morning, and I didn't bring attention to them…and it only took him a few minutes to find them.  By himself, they keep him occupied for maybe a minute or 2…but he does like to do them for longer when I help him.

(never a dull moment!!!!)

Just hanging out….

I cleaned out a Pringles can and filled it with old, empty thread spools.  Look at his face in this first picture.  This is the look of "I have something I'm not supposed to have"….and that has to be my goal in this whole 'tot school' thing…because he reeeeally enjoys things he thinks he's not supposed to have.  ;)

He loves calendar time.  Sure…he has no idea…but he tries to dance and clap as we sing.  And it's the cutest thing.

This is one of the learning toys that one of the girls got for Christmas a few years ago.  He loves it.

Something so simple, and really nothing at all.  A bag of pumpkin counters (yes they are a choking hazard and I have to watch him).  He loves opening the bag, dumping them out, and putting them back in.  He also likes for me to close the bag and re-open it for him.  It's the little things, right?

These stacker pegs….they're his favorite right now.

I don't normall encourage the loud ball popping toy.  :)

He's never too far away….if he's occupied for even a couple of minutes- I consider it success!

And he spends some time in my lap, too!  :)

I'm a little excited to try a few new things this week!

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C is for Caterpillars

We got our caterpillars a few weeks ago.  And when I had originally decided to order them....my intent was to jump start myself and get me into gear.  Since going back to work this past January (and probably a little before that with the start of our business).....I have really neglected our more constructive learning time.  Over the months, we have done activities here and there....that I usually did not photograph because I was too lazy/tired.

But now that I am starting to getting settled in and adjusted.....I am trying to re-work my balance of time, and ready to make this time with Parker more of a priority.  I also want to have this time with Grace, too.  But I have a bit more organizing to do first!  ;)

Since I ordered the caterpillars, I decided I would do letter C first.  We've have only done a few letters in the past, and C was not one of them.  I am trying not to be so hard on myself and realize that I might not always have the time to get everything done in my head that I want to get done, but rather, just go with the flow and have fun while doing it.

So last week our caterpillars became chrysalis (or is it chrysali for pleural?).  There were 6.

One of our first letter C activities was a wonderful printable from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  She used her Do-A-Dots to make the letter.  She loved this.  So from here on out I think I will make several copies of these pages for her to do over again.

Also from Confessions of a Homeschooler, this lacing activity.  We have lacing beads and she does really well with the lacing....

But for this activity, she didn't quite understand the pattern of going up through one, then down through the other.

I absolutely love this next activity.  Also from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

I printed these things out from Confessions of a Homeschooler's site (all of her printables are free and they are amazing!).  Laminated.  Then cut out.  As we read the story she would string them through a shoe string.



And at the end.....I pulled the butterfly from behind me and 'surprised' her with it.  She loved it.  What a great manipulative in seeing the life cycle of a butterfly!

She also did this letter C magnet sheet.



I recently got these Power Magnets and love them.



So remember earlier in this post when I talked about flexibility.....and how I am going to try to be flexible?  Well- this is where this comes into play.  Our caterpillars have already become butterflies.

And Geoff and Parker set them free yesterday.  She, apparently, had to use her Barbie to get them to leave their temporary home?

So back to the flexibility thing.  I had planned in my head to be completely done with Letter C and onto Letter B when they actually became butterflies, but time did not permit.    However- I still plan to do letter B next!

So this afternoon she painted egg carton caterpillars.  I really enjoyed watching her do this because we did this last year and I love to compare.

Last year- it was a mod podge of color....

This year.....more carefully orchestrated....

I also got a great many things from 1+1+1=1 Tot Packs and Preschool Packs.  I still have not finished cutting everything out, but everything you see from here down is a free printable from this great site!


With this activity- she had to put the caterpillars in order from smallest to biggest.  Geoff helped guide her with this activity.  She understands bigger and smaller, but this is really her first time doing this actual type of activity.

Carisa from 1+1+1=1 also just recently added her C is for Candy Preschool pack, and since candy is one of Parker's favorite things, I thought we should do a few activities.  There are still a few more I'd like to do, but here's what we've done so far.

With this activity, she had to decide whether or not the picture was a fruit or candy.  She had no problem with this activity at all.  haha.  ;)

With this next activity- I put the number at the bottom of the candy bowl....and then she has to count out and put that number of lollipops in the bowel.  She did a great job....but we only made it to the number 4 before we got distracted.

Here- she had to pick which one was different in each line.  She struggled a little with this.  We did end up identifying the 'different' one in each line and she had them all circled correctly......but then she got circle crazy and circled them all!

This activity is great, too.  She had to trace the line to the toothbrush.  The first one she tried was the second one....the zig-zag.....and you can kind of see the rounded squiggle line underneath.  I didn't think she quite understood what to do.  So I traced directly over that zig zag to show her.  Then- it appeared that she caught on.

I'm really excited about starting these activities up again.  I love this time with her (usually in Grace's nap time) and how eager she is to learn/do the activities.  The first day back, she would keep saying, "What's next, Mommy?"  She just ate it up!

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And lastly, this evening.....Parker asked to play with these strips of laminated paper that were my cutting scraps from her activities....and she had colored them.  Then she asked for scissors and and tape.  We gave them to her because we were busy cleaning the kitchen....when I heard......"Mommy!  Look!  It's a 't' like Jesus!"  

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