Tot School – Letter L

We spent two weeks on the Letter L!  We focused on leaves and two books: The Grouchy Ladybug and The Little Lamb.

We focus on a letter every week and do fun activities based on that letter.  I usually set six “Tot Trays” up for my son to play with and learn as the week progresses.  I had a six-tray set-up in the kitchen, with six trays from Oriental Trading.  Promoting the four Montessori principles: Language, Mathematics, Sensory, and Practical Life.

I have decided to only put out one or two trays out at a time. Some children would thrive with all six trays out, as I was doing up until Letter K, but my son needed less in front of him.  My child thrives with less choice and I have found that one or two trays engages him more than six trays.

At the beginning of the week, I cut out each of the following from our Tot School ABCs curriculum — this makes Tot School time easier for me, when we are “in the moment.”

• Numbers: for using manipulatives in 1:1 correspondence
• Colors: coloring with markers or crayons
• Shapes: gluing onto a piece of paper

{Disclosure: affiliate links may be in this post.}

Here is John with his numbers.  He is learning 1:1 correspondence with these adorable bear counters.

Lauri capital letter peg puzzles.

I bought four different sized screws and corresponding bolts at the hardware store.  He was very excited about this tray!  He got hard at work with his fine motor pincer grasp skills — it was difficult for him to master, so we will be doing this again!  (I had to keep this one up due to having a crawling baby in the house!)

I saw this fun magnet stick from Memorizing the Moments and wanted to get one!  It was $2.99 at Amazon!  A fun introduction to magnetism!

Michelle at Delightful Learning had such a fun idea — to get these links and put them in the holes for lacing cards — John loved this!!

I made this schedule to organize our Tot School time, according to the Montessori principles: Language, Mathematics, Sensory, and Practical Life.  I didn’t get a picture of mine from Letter L, but this is what the blank one looks like:

You can read my post about it and download the free Tot School Planning Form here.

Bible verse of the week:

Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7

We had a lot of use out of this bible verse this week!

We use the ABC bible verse songs from Songs for Saplings.  These songs are so catchy, beautiful, not “children’s music annoying,” and I find myself singing and learning and memorizing the bible verses along with John.  Carisa at 1plus1plus1equals1 has made coordinating ABC Bible Verses posters which have really helped with his memorization as well.

  

We put up our bible verse, a Ll small poster from Tot School, a Ll sign from my Kindergarten teaching days, and these wonderful Montessori sandpaper letters.  We put these up on the wall so he could feel the letter every morning and trace his fingers on the letter.

Letter of the week: Ll

Our curriculum consists of 1plus1plus1equals1‘s Tot School ABC’s.

John has really gotten the hang of tracing!!  We do this with dry erase markers and heavy duty sheet protectors.  Erasing is a handy practical life skill as well!

Check out my recent post about utensil prewriting and letter writing in {Early Literacy Stage 3}.

Do-A-Dot markers on his L pages.

Stamping an L on the Leaf!

For our Leaf shapes, we stamped some leaves on a green sheet of paper and glued our shapes on, while we talked about the shape names!

Our work for the week on a clothesline in his room:

And our L magnets and Leap Frog Letter Factory magnets on our refrigerator:

Book of the week:

We had fun with The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle

John pulled out this book from his shelf and has fallen in love with it!  The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle has a lot of great life lessons in it.  We have learned about night time versus daytime, telling time with clocks, sharing, learning about the circle of life, learning about large and small animals, and the importance of friendship.

We colored a picture of a Leaf and colored both the ladybugs and the little aphids.  This was very exciting, as this was the first time John has intentionally colored. {Proud mama moment.}

We also read The Little Lamb by Phoebe and Judy Dunn — so stay tuned for the post on that fun book later this week!

Working with his pattern puzzles.

We went on a leaf hunt around our yard.  He had so much fun discovering big and small and dead and alive leaves!

We made some ladybugs by cutting a potato in half and doing some good-ol’-fashioned potato stamping!  We then worked with black paint to make all of the ladybugs friendly (“and not grouchy”) because the two ladybugs in the book are friends in the end : )

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I hope you have a wonderful week,

Check out my posts on the Early Literacy Stages:

This post is linked up at the Tot School Gathering Place and check out my Link-Up page for the other awesome places I may link this blog post!

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment!  ♥ 

Tot School – Letter K

We spent two weeks on Letter K — a week of keys, kangaroos, koalas, and kittens.

I recently wrote a guest post at Hammock Tracks on How I Make Tot Trays.  Check it out!

We focus on a letter every week and do fun activities based on that letter.  I set six “Tot Trays” up for my son to play with and learn as the week progresses.

Lately, I have been feeling overwhelmed by the Tot Tray Switch when we change our letter of the week — which is about every two weeks. I keep finding so many fantastic ideas from so many amazing mama bloggers that I want to do them all. I went along with it for a while, to try to bust out massive creativeness every couple weeks, but it was too much.  I want to keep things simple and consistent and have now found a nice balance for making my son’s tot trays.

I had a six-tray set-up in the kitchen, with six trays from Oriental Trading.  Promoting the four Montessori principles: Language, Mathematics, Sensory, and Practical Life.

However….

I decided to only put out one tray this time.  I still put them all together at the beginning of my letter switch (and put them on the top of a bookshelf), but have only given him one on his shelf at a time.  This has really helped with keeping my son’s interest.  We play it together for two days and I leave it out on our shelf for him to play independently for a day or two.  Then we will move on to the next one that I have made.

It is important to follow your child’s lead for learning!

It looks empty!  Some children would thrive with all six trays, keeping them orderly and setting them back up after playing with one.  But my son needed less in front of him.  He came over to a single tray — in three days — more times than when he had all six trays on the shelf to choose from.  This was a Montessori lesson for me!  Children thrive with less choice and they will be creative and engage themselves with less!

Popsicle stick shapes from Moms Have Questions Too.

Filling in shapes with blocks (a great mathematics and spatial activity!) from All Our Days.  I couldn’t believe how much John loved this.  We did all the cards in one sitting and he kept asking to do it again.  I got the little cubes, that don’t fit perfectly but they work, from the Dollar Store.  They are small, so we could only do this when the baby was sleeping or not playing with us.

I saw this fun magnet stick from Memorizing the Moments and wanted to get one!  It was $2.99 at Amazon!  A fun introduction to magnetism!  (Disclosure: there are affiliate links in this post.)

John does not really like to “lace”, no matter how often I promote it or put a lacing card out.  But Michelle at Delightful Learning had such a fun idea — to get these links and put them in the holes — John loved this!!

Practicing his colors. I cut his color cards out and put them on his tray with the corresponding colored crayon. He loved it again this week!  We have these Crayola triangular crayons which I love and are worth the extra dollar.

Math work with 1:1 correspondence using pom-pom magnets.

I made this schedule to organize our Tot School time, according to the Montessori principles: Language, Mathematics, Sensory, and Practical Life.

You can read my post about it and download the free Tot School Planning Form here.

Bible verse of the week:

Be kind to one another.  Ephesians 4:32

We had a lot of use out of this bible verse this week!

We use the ABC bible verse songs from Songs for Saplings.  These songs are so catchy, beautiful, not “children’s music annoying,” and I find myself singing and learning and memorizing the bible verses along with John.  Carisa at 1plus1plus1equals1 has made coordinating ABC Bible Verses posters which have really helped with his memorization as well.  

We put up our bible verse, a Kk small poster from Tot School, a Kk sign from my Kindergarten teaching days, and these wonderful Montessori sandpaper letters.  We put these up on the wall so he could feel the letter every morning and trace his fingers on the letter.

Letter of the week: Kk

Our curriculum consists of 1plus1plus1equals1‘s Tot School ABC’s.

John has really gotten the hang of tracing!!  We do this with dry erase markers and heavy duty sheet protectors.  Erasing is a handy practical life skill as well!

Do-A-Dot markers on his K is for Keys pages.  I was fiddling with my camera and got a very shaky shot.

Stickers on his Letter K.  This is a great way to learn “inside” and “outside” too — he kept joking that he was going to put a sticker outside the K — he thought it was a hoot.

Shadow matching his keys and Kk. The K was a real breakthrough with the puzzle.  He understood that there is a circle around the picture that needs to be connected!  He did this several times without help!

Letter Review:

We reviewed all of our letters so far with their bible verses.

And we watched LeapFrog Letter Factory with his magnet board and all his uppercase letters so far.

Book of the week:

The Little Kitten by Phoebe and Judy Dunn

My son loves all of these books.  The whole series is so wonderful.  The photographs are stunning and they always have a cute and believable storyline about a young child and their journey with a lovable little animal.  This book focused on a little girl and her little kitten named Pickle.

• I set a new Schleich kitten out in our sensory bin (which is below) and John slept with him every night.
• We made sure to read the book at least twice a day.
• We focused on vocabulary and manners in the book.

Working with his Magneatos.  This is a battleship (Dad has some influence here) : )

Thinking about what to build next.  This really was a magnet week!

 And John loved his pattern blocks and the free pattern block puzzles that I downloaded and printed from PreKinders!

A yellow split pea letter K sensory bin

He loved all of the animals in this bin and decided to just put them to sleep in their “soft bed”. : )

We cut out some simple kangaroos from my Abeka craft books — he loved them and carried them around the house everywhere.  I had wanted to make this amazing kangaroo and pouch from Simply Home, but decided that we would do it when he is older, when we do My Father’s World for Kindergarten, or I just didn’t find the time to craft these past two weeks — these two are keeping me on my toes — and it has been way too nice to stay cooped up inside for long!

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I hope you have a wonderful week,

I am grateful to all of the wonderful linky party hosting mamas: check out my Link-Up page for where I may link this blog post!

Thank you for featuring me! ♥

Guest Blog Post at Hammock Tracks: Learning Through Tot Trays

I am very excited to have my first guest blog post today!  Savannah at Hammock Tracks blogs about her life, her homeschooling, and her delicious recipes!  I love her gorgeous photography, too. Please head on over to Hammock Tracks to read about:

Learning Through Tot Trays!

And if you have made your way over from Hammock Tracks, I’d like to say:

Welcome!

I hope you stay a while!  I write about mothering, homeschooling, healthy living, and many other passions in between.

You may be interested in how to plan Tot School with your little ones.  I created a Tot School Planning Form to help organize our time together.  Here is a link to that post.

I thought I’d set up some easy links to my Tot School posts so far, for letters A through J, so you can see what we are doing with Tot School and Tot Trays.  Just click on the photos below.

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Tot School – Letter J

This week was a week of jellyfish and jeeps!  John is now 32 months old.

Every week, I put out six tot trays out for my son and I try to be intentional with activities that correlate with each of the four Montessori learning categories: Language, Sensory, Mathematics, Practical Life.  Our Tot Trays are out on our shelf all week.  I’ll take one out intentionally for us to play together, but he can also play wiht them at any time.

A Melissa & Doug lacing fish.

J is for Jellyfish magnet page with pom pom magnets.  (This is a sweet girl-friend.)

Matching Teddy bear counters to the Jellyfish number cards 1 through 5.  1:1 correspondence.  He really got the hang of this this week!  So proud of him :)

Lauri capital letter stackers with pegs.

He loved these from last week’s Ii theme: Some awesome instrument shadow matching from Memorizing the Moments.

And matching flowers to their stems.  I made this simple activity as a busy bag.

I made this schedule to organize our Tot School time, according to the Montessori principles: Language, Mathematics, Sensory, and Practical Life.

You can read my post about it and download the free Tot School Planning Form here.

Bible verse of the week:

I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God,

in the God of my salvation.  Habakkuk 3:18

We use the ABC bible verse songs from Songs for Saplings.  These songs are so catchy, beautiful, not “children’s music annoying,” and I find myself singing and learning and memorizing the bible verses along with John.  Carisa at 1plus1plus1equals1 has made coordinating ABC Bible Verses posters which have really helped with his memorization as well.  

Letter of the week: Jj

Our curriculum consists of 1plus1plus1equals1‘s Tot School ABC’s. Do-A-Dot markers on his J is for Jellyfish pages.

Tracing left to right in a straight line!

Matching the jellyfish with their shadows.

Stamping J (and cows) onto his Jellyfish.

I presented the color cards like this last week and John loved it.  I cut them out and put them on his tray with the corresponding colored crayon. He loved it again this week!  We have these Crayola triangular crayons which I love and are worth the couple extra cents : )

Book of the week:

Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw

We love this goofy book about five sheep who are all riding in their jeep! We got out some of our jeep toys and worked with the simple Jeep pages that I made — you can get them here.

We also went to the library and checked out some Jellyfish books to learn about those crazy creatures : )

We did some Jeep size sorting and number counting with his Tot Tray manipulatives.

And John loved his pattern blocks and the free pattern block puzzles that I downloaded and printed from PreKinders!

A split pea sensory bin with his vocabulary pictures from Tot School ABCs.  I laminated one set and cut them out and hid them in the peas.  John had to find them and match them to the page in a sheet protector.  He loved this and we played it several times.  And I am happy to report that this bin gave us the best success with “throwing everything everywhere” problem : )

Had to stop sometimes — as you can see — he is beginning to fling everything across his room.

Gross Motor

I have been doing yoga with John about 2 or 3 times a week.  I love Rodney Yee of Gaiam and have his AM yoga dvd.  When we went to the library, I found a Baby Yoga dvd. He had a lot of fun with it.  There is a different move for every letter of the alphabet : ) — including a jabberwalking jellyfish!!!

Care of Environment

“Sharpening his knife.” Opening the cheese seal.

We made a cute jellyfish (and learned about the bell, tentacles, and lobes!) from our trip to the library!

His work for the week on his clothesline in his room.

Thanks for visiting Wildflower Ramblings, if you’d like to receive post updates, please Like my Facebook Page!

I hope you have a wonderful week,

I am grateful to all of the wonderful linky party hosting mamas: check out my Link-Up page for where I may link this blog post!

Thank you for featuring me!

Tot School – Letter Ii

Every week, I put out six tot trays out for the week and I try to be intentional with activities that correlate with each of the four Montessori learning categories: Language, Sensory, Mathematics, Practical Life.  Our Tot Trays are out on our shelf all week.  I’ll take one out intentionally for us to play together, but he can also play wiht them at any time.

A clothespin color matching game I made with markers, clothespins, and an old Melissa & Doug wooden box. A simple rainbow puzzle. Some awesome iiiinstrument shadow matching from Memorizing the Moments. Here is a slotting game with all of the letters we have worked on so far.  These are letter discs made from laminated letters and wooden discs I found at Michaels.  Check out Confessions of a Homeschooler for her letter template. Matching Unifix cubes  to the Igloo number cards 1 through 5.  1:1 correspondence.
An igloo magnet page with circle magnet pieces.

I made this schedule to organize our Tot School time, according to the Montessori principles: Language, Mathematics, Sensory, and Practical Life.

You can read my post about it and download the free Tot School Planning Form here.

Bible verse of the week:

Let my prayer be set before you like incense.  Psalm 141:2

We use the ABC bible verse songs from Songs for Saplings.  These songs are so catchy, beautiful, not “children’s music annoying,” and I find myself singing and learning and memorizing the bible verses along with John.  Carisa at 1plus1plus1equals1 has made coordinating ABC Bible Verses posters which have really helped with his memorization as well.  

Letter of the week: Ii

Our curriculum consists of 1plus1plus1equals1‘s Tot School ABC’s.

Do-A-Dot markers on his I is for Ice Cream Truck pages that I made — very simple, but you can get them here.

And his Igloo pages. I presented the color cards in a new way this week and it was a huge hit.  I cut them out and put them on his tray with the corresponding colored crayon. John was so excited and got to work.

Stamping an I on the Igloo.

For our vocabulary this week, we played a match-up game.  I printed two copies and cut the cards out and put them face-down on the floor.  John loved this.  Next time I think I’ll laminate them and hide them in rice or beans : )

Book of the week:

Mama Do you love me? by Barbara Joosse

I looked and looked around my house for a book that has an igloo in it.  And this sweet story about an Eskimo girl and her mother is the only one I could come up with.  It is the sweetest story about a mother’s enverending love for her child.  (There is also a Papa Do you love me? book about a little African boy and his father.)

We did some Ice cream truck size sorting, and number counting with his Tot Tray manipulatives.

Here he is gluing his shapes onto a piece of paper with glue sponging.  He loved this!  And then he matched some of his toys’ shapes to the page on the window.

Making the letter I with playdough.  I rolled snakes for him to create the Ii.

We played Ice Cream Truck.  I taped a picture of an ice cream truck on one of his Monster Trucks and put a yogurt popsicle on it and drove it over to him.  He was so excited.  He loves the little truck and after eating it, he was in and out of the freezer putting them in his truck.

Dad enjoyed an Ice cream treat too : ) (He’s super excited I’m taking his picture.)

Here he is putting together his interlocking Letter Puzzles from Melissa & Doug.

John loved cutting cantaloupe this week.

And he helped tonging our tortillas on our plates.

Love my little ones!

I hope you have a wonderful week — I love comments — please leave a link so I can see what you are doing in your Tot School.

Tot School Planning Form

I have been wanting to make a planning form that fits my specific needs for my Tot School time (and all the time!) with my son.  I have been utilizing the wonderful Planning Form at Homeschool Creations (she has a second one here), in which I put down what I wanted to get done each day.  (I have found many wonderful resources from others: 1plus1plus1equals1, Happy and Blessed Home, Stir the Wonder.) However, my son sometimes has other plans — and attaching specific activities to specific days (or days of the week), has not been successful.  Sometimes he loooves a certain activity or coloring material, and the next day he’ll despise it.

I wanted to make a list of all my ideas.  I certainly don’t have to get to all of them, but it is a combined brainstorm list and checklist.  I was getting frustrated with my organization and wanted to really tailor a schedule to my thoughts.  It is set up into the four Montessori categories that I have been working with: Language, Mathematics, Sensory, and Practical Life.

Since we are using 1plus1plus1equals1’s Tot School ABCs as our primary resource, this Planning Form fits her printables for the weekly letter work.  When we are done with this round of ABCs and move on, I will create a new one (or, if before then, I want to change things up, I ‘ll share that too).

You can download the Tot School Planning Form here. I hope it is a blessing to you!

I know that everyone wants something different, so in case the above one doesn’t suit your needs, here is the blank Tot School Planning Form!  

We are using it for the first time this week, for Letter Ii.  I will post another update on how it is going and more insight into the categories!  So far, I absolutely love it and it has really helped me organize my thoughts and our time!

Please email me at wildflowerramblings at gmail dot com if you have questions or would like it edited in a different way!

Thank you for taking the time to visit Wildflower Ramblings!

Blessings,

I love comments and would love to see what you’re doing with your Tot School, so make sure to leave a link!

And if you’d like to receive updates, please Like my Facebook Page!

Tot School – Letter H

We are taking Tot School a bit slower these days — so many holidays to celebrate and have fun with : )  It is nice because we are in no hurry!

These last two weeks, we have studied H — hammers, horses, hippos, hats, hands, hedgehogs, and helicopters!

Bible verse of the week:

Happy are the people whose God is the Lord. Psalm 144:1

(la la la la la la la)

We use the ABC bible verse songs from Songs for Saplings.  These songs are so catchy, beautiful, not “children’s music annoying,” and I find myself singing and learning and memorizing the bible verses along with John.  Carisa at 1plus1plus1equals1 has made coordinating ABC Bible Verses posters which have really helped with his memorization as well.  

Letter of the week: Hh

Our curriculum consists of 1plus1plus1equals1‘s Tot School ABC’s.  We don’t do everything that she includes in her packs, but we do most.

H is for Helicopter page that I made — very simple, but you can get them here.

Here we are coloring with regular markers.  Coloring the little hammers on the Hh.

More H fun. Loved the H is for Horse pages from Carisa’s farm pack. Matching his horse with the horse page — I had to keep printing these out, he loves everything in this pack!

Pounding the shapes with his HHHHhammer.

Letter H collection on our refrigerator: I cute our Tot School puzzle and put magnets on it, we have a couple of Melissa & Doug alphabet collections, as well as the LeapFrog Letter Frog Factory Magnetic Alphabet.  This is a hit every week!  (This is $60 on Amazon right now, crazy, thankfully we got ours at a garage sale, but they have a non-magnetic one for $20.)

We put his work on the clothesline above his bed, between two windows!

Book of the week:

The Hat by Jan Brett

We loved this book about Hedgie and his silly Hat.  We read it every day, about 2 times a day.  Didn’t do a whole lot with it, but he recognized the H on the cover every time : )

Mini Book of the week:

A Tools Book from 1plus1plus1equals1.  We colored all of the pages and then matched our tools with them.  He loved this!

Review:

We always review his bible verses — and he knows them because of the awesome accompanying tunes!  We use the ABC bible verse songs from Songs for Saplings.  Here are the ABC Bible Verses posters.

And I cut out all his previous trucks (and his beloved cat), so he could review his letters with their corresponding object.

Simple hammer practical life activity for fine motor practice: styrofoam (or cardboard, for more of a challenge!) egg cartons, golf tees, and a kid’s hammer.  He loved this!  I’ve also seen this on Sugar Aunts and Stir the Wonder.  (Yep, hanging out in a diaper – this kid is going potty about 5 times a day now, I have a post coming up about his progress, soon.)

Super excited about this activity!

I left the room for 1 minute to get some laundry done, and this is what he did to the egg cartons….

We also “washed” our tools for some fun water play.  I set him up with two tubs, one with soapy water, and some sponges and washcloths to wash his tools.  He ended up just playing with the water — very little washing, but he had a great time.

And shaving with dad : )

We did some sponge painting of a Hippo and a Horse from Abeka’s Art books.

And we traced his Hands for a simple craft.

Thank you for taking the time to visit Wildflower Ramblings!

Blessings,

I love comments and would love to see what you’re doing with your Tot School, so make sure to leave a link!

And if you’d like to receive updates, please Like my Facebook Page!

Tot School – The Snowy Day

This is my favorite book of all time.

Over the past few weeks of snow, we have taken advantage of the opportunity to read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  I already wrote about why and how much I love Mr. Keats in a previous post.  And now for the fun we had celebrating Peter and his snowy day!

We read the book every day, many times a day.  I don’t know what it is about this book, but my son’s face brights up every time we read it!  The wording is so descriptive, and yet so simple!

After we read the book several times, I chose to give him his little Peter doll that I made.  Super easy — here is a tutorial.

We also were able to watch the movie — which is really just the book on the television, sometimes with Peter “in action.”  I love these types of (Scholastic) movies for children — they are simply the book on video, and this one was approved by Mr. Keats himself!   As you may know, I shy away from television for my children, but as my son has gotten older, I do acknowledge — and I want to embrace — that it is a part of our world.  And these videos are a beautiful compromise.  This The Snowy Day rendition made my son love Peter, and Ezra Jack Keats, even more!

I also printed and laminated a mini-book of Peter.  (This is from Homeschool Share, but it looks like they took FIAR printables down for now.)  My son liked holding it — and he also impressed me by putting the whole story in order! 

We also got to read The Snowy Day from a Big Book that I kept from my kindergarten teaching days — John couldn’t believe it!

You can also read the book online at We Give Books!!

Sensory Fun

Our sensory bin was very simple.  I placed our Peter doll in a bin with styrofoam packing peanuts and some sticks.  This was kind of a pain because those packing peanuts stick everywhere!  I don’t advise it : )

We also had some simple sensory time with shaving cream on our kitchen table.  John was really getting the hang of making tracks with his fingers — and we did a quick letter review, and John discovered that he can make circles : )  That was very exciting!

And then, of course, we ventured outside in the snow.  John wanted to do all the things that Peter did.

First, we looked out the window to see all the snow!

We bundled up in our red coat : )

We went outside and made tracks, made tracks with a stick, smacked some trees with the stick, and walked with our toes pointing in and out.

We tried making snow balls — and ate them!

We made a snowman.

We made John’s first-ever snow angel.

We went sledding down the neighbors’ hill.

And we learned about snow melting, as we watched his little snowman melt with the warmer weather.

Then we made a little snow covered tree.

Starting with our materials:

• blue construction paper
• brown construction paper: cut into a trunk and some branches
• glue and paint brush
• white glitter
• a Peter made from red, brown, and black paper (I used our Peter doll as a template)

Loves working with a paint brush.Our first real time with glitter was successful!

I was only planning on making the tree, but John said that there had to be a Peter to smack it : )
Super excited about having two Peters. Our finished snow-covered tree to smack shimmers beautifully in the sun.

More wonderful The Snowy Day posts:

We wanted to use a lot more of these ideas, and probably will these next couple of weeks!

Delightful Learning — I would love to make gluten-free “snow ball” cookies.

Her Household Rhythm — I love their crayon shaded Peter picture!

Homeschool Creations — I love the picture with white snowflakes.  Doesn’t it look just like the book?  Jolanthe also has many free printables available on her site!

We are still enjoying The Snowy Day and I know we will do more next winter when my son is a bit older. Please link your time with the book — I know my son would love to look at pictures of other children doing snow-related and Peter-related activities : )

Tot School – Letter G

John hasn’t been as interested in our printables.  Usually, when he wakes up, he asks for “school” and we get started almost immediately, but this week, he has wanted to play (namely, play his GGGGguitar!).  We have gotten some “school” …

Tot School – Valentine’s Day

We put our Letter Tot School on hold this week, so that we could celebrate Valentine’s Day.  We have done so many fun activities this week and I’d love to share them with you.

I made six Valentine tot trays this week.  John loved them and we played each of them at least 3 or 4 times!

Heart Match – Up.  This was very simple to make and I thought it would be too hard, but he impressed me by doing it by himself the second time around!

We played Musical Hearts with this.  We put the hearts face down on the floor and danced around them, then I stopped the music and he picked one up and read the number.  By the end he was reading most of them!  He loved this simple game and asked for it the most, which I was surprised by.

John loves foam stickers, so we made a lot of Valentines this week.

Valentine Shapes.  I got a cute Valentine Tot Pack from 2TeachingMommies, and we matched shapes that we already had with the shapes on the cut-outs.
Valentine pom-pom sort with tweezers.  John had a harder time with this, I think because the pom poms were so small.

And another printable from 2TeachingMommies.  We put our Unifix cubes on top of the numbers.  He loved this.

Bible verses of the week:

Found at Homeschool Creations and Totally Tots.

Mini book of the week:

A cute Heart book from 2TeachingMommies. We colored every page and he likes walking around with his little book.

I was bummed that I couldn’t make it to Michael’s to make a “GLITTERY/SHINY” Valentine’s sensory bin, so I opted for red kidney beans as a base and just put in any red and pink things I had around the house.  John ended up absolutely loving the beans, so it was a success : )

We made a cute tissue paper heart.  John wasn’t really excited about this, so I did most of it.  He was very excited to give it to dad, though : )

We also….

Frosted and decorated heart-shaped cookies at a friend’s house (for John it was a rice cake, since they weren’t gluten free, but he doesn’t mind, he is such a little trooper).

And we made some sweet, simple Valentines out of foam paper and foam heart-shaped stickers.  John tries so hard to get the little sticky off, and he is really doing better with it!