Tot School "Lite"

**J is 30 months old**

I love doing Tot School with J! We are very laid back and so far I don't really plan anything. I keep a lot of things visible to J and let him lead when it's time to do some focused learning-play. Thanks for stopping by!


Well this is the first time it's happened to me -- my computer crashed!!! I am so thankful that I backed up the computer for just the second time on 11/13 so I was able to restore my computer from that date. BUT that means I lost some of my pictures from this week. We ended up having a really light Tot School week so I probably didn't lose too many pictures. We did a lot of errands and had a few scheduled play activities that kept us on the go. You'll notice J is wearing his green jammies in many of the photos. He actually wore these two separate days during the week when he was adamant he wanted to wear them and I think they're cute so I didn't mind.

Some of the things we did this week:

Playing at Pal Zone


























































Pal Zone is a community play group we've been part of for over a year and a half yet I've never taken any pictures of our play time there. I really love this group because it's very diverse. Many of the people who come are originally from other countries so J gets to interact with children from different cultural backgrounds. There is open play time with zillions of toys then we gather in another room for circle time with songs, a story and a craft. One great activity is where we sing a song where each child learns to say their name and then pick up their name tag and place it on a felt board while we sing and clap for them. The story and craft go together and J gets to learn how to use glue, scissors, pipe cleaner activities and many others. We go once a week and really benefit from this group.


Watching Mark Schultz, Worship DVD





























One afternoon, J really wanted to watch a "worship movie". I explained that we can sing worship from our CD but I didn't have any worship movies. But then I remembered my husband had won a CD from his men's group that had a DVD of a live worship performance. The artist was Mark Schultz whose songs include "Back in His Arms Again" and "He's My Son". It was fun watching this together and singing some of the songs.


Story Time at the Library



























This is another activity we have enjoyed, going to our local library for their story hour. Every other month, they have a session a week for 4 weeks at a time. They pick a theme like today's was bears and then they have a craft to go with it. Today's craft was making a bear's cave surrounded with snow and the bear hiding in his cave. J and I worked together to use the glue bottle and stick them on.


Making Christmas Cookies, A Play Date


























































I haven't got started on an Advent calendar and I haven't done my Christmas decorating, so I have really been wanting to do something related to Christmas. Today I got all the fixins for sugar cookie decorating and invited my friend so our sons could do this together. I haven't done many cooking activities with J so I knew this would be interesting. We didn't really know what we were in for, but I was glad we were doing this together. We each had our own bowl letting our sons help mix and use the cookie cutters (sorry, we had our hands full and I didn't get pictures of that part) but never imagined how tricky this can be with a not-yet-2 year old and 2-1/2 year old. My friend remembers her mom used to make the cookies and the kids decorated and we laughed at how much easier that would have been. We couldn't move fast enough to stop little hands from tossing flour and grabbing sprinkles and frosting. There was plenty of clean up, but it was well worth it. The boys loved making as much as eating and we had fun fellowship together enjoying this activity with our kids.

Pom Pom Sorting






























We started out this activity with the idea that j would sort them into the ice cube tray. Then he got the idea he wanted to switch to playdoh. Before we could do playdoh, I told him we needed to clean up. He was super excited about putting the pom poms away in the container so that became a little activity in itself!

Playdoh















J did a little with the Playdoh. On my wish list is a set of Playdoh tools, but in the meantime I have to improvise. I got out a small rolling pin so J could play with that, but he wasn't really into it. I then found a highlighter and he loved the pressing the lid and seeing the designs it made. I also found a set of dice and when he pressed it into the Playdoh you could actually see the number design.


Books
Disappearing Desmond
The Little Drummer Boy (musical book)
O Little Town of Bethlehem (musical book)
The Pine Tree Parable
The Scarecrow and the Spider
Time for Bed Elephant Small
The Tiny Seed


Movies
Little Einsteins; The Christmas Wish

Dinosaur Train; Dinosaurs in the Snow
I just had to post a video of J while he was watching this DVD. He went bananas over a song called "The Night Train" and had daddy and I play it for him literally 10 times or more so he could dance to it. I took a short video of him moving and grooving to the song. I love watching kids dance!







Music
Veggie Tales; 25 Favorite Toddler Songs
Songs Kids Love to Sing; 25 Sunday School Songs

See the fun things other moms are doing at the Weekly Wrap Up, another place I link up.