Tot School (Popcorn, Fine Motor, Bird Feeder)

**J is 32 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!


Popcorn Sorting and Scooping











































The last time we played with popcorn, it got a bit messy. All J wanted to do was break them apart. This time we were more organized. I held his fire hat like a bucket and he picked them out of the bin and put them in the hat. He loved going back and forth doing this for a while. Then that got boring so I got out his shovel and he was scooping and digging in the bin.


Fine Motor Learning





























J wanted to dump these out and put them back into the container. They were pretty small craft stars so it was great for his fine motor skills.






























J wanted to "feed" his dinosaurs so I got him a jar of marbles and let him dump them into a bowl. He then was putting them back in the jar and also working on screwing on and off the lid.


Miniature Bird Nests






























I forgot I bought these little bird nests and mini cardinals with eggs at the craft store earlier this winter. J found them and loved putting them together.


Pine Cone Bird Feeders

One thing I've been wanting to do for a while is make pine cone bird feeders. We finally did it! It was a little hard to find these big pine cones. We had dinner at my other sister's house and with J and the kids we went out with a flash light at dusk and were able to find several good ones. J and I had a great time with this. I wasn't sure how he'd do with the messy peanut butter, but he managed it pretty well. We used tiny spatulas to spread on the peanut butter first. J called it "painting". Then we rolled them in bird seed and then used gardening wire (kind of like twist-ties) and then we hung them on an old Christmas tree outside. Somehow I spaced out taking a picture of the tree once we had all 8 little pine cones tied to it. We didn't have to wait very long and some chickadees came for a visit. Then a squirrel found them but there was plenty to go around.

Learning CD-Rom































I got a Reader Rabbit CD-Rom from the library that J is just nuts over. He is finally getting to learn to use the mouse. They have this software at our library and I noticed how J just loved playing it. It is very toddler-friendly. There are several different games like this shapes matching game, a painting game, a letter matching game. They are helping him work on his ABCs, letter recognition, colors, shapes and using the mouse.

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

Tot School (North Woods, Animals, Lacing Beads)

**J is 28 months old**

Part of our Tot School time this past week was spent doing "life fun" outdoors in the North Woods of Wisconsin. J brought his little toy figures along and my husband set up a couple cute pictures. The colors were at their peak and were just beautiful. We spent some time collecting things like leaves, pine cones, birch bark, pine tree needles, a little bit of moss and a mushroom. Then we arranged them on newspaper for pictures.

I used pine cones to introduce the idea of biggest to smallest. J really seemed to like this. We'd mix them up and he would try to put them in order again. I had to help. For a couple days, he was finding things and naming the biggest and smallest of them too.















We went to the Wildwood Wildlife Park in Minocqua. It was a bit outrageous price-wise ($12 adults and $8 kids 2 and over!) but they did have over 700 animals in a variety of exhibits. It wasn't very busy either since we were there in the off season. We saw tigers (including a white tiger), zebras, red and arctic foxes, wolves, bears, chickens, turtles, and he got to hand-feed a deer. My husband got a few good pictures. One was of J just about to pet a baby bunny in the kids area. In the next photo, he wanted to feed the camel a leaf and he came over to him and ate it! He was a little scared but excited too. I really like the picture that shows how tall he is.









































Once we got home and I was unpacking, J really liked my camping head lamp. He had a hard time figuring out how to put it on. I helped and then he loved walking around watching as it shined on things.









































Daddy's friend came in to town from Atlanta at the end of the week. We went to Devil's Lake and walked around. The weather was so nice, on and off sun and in the low 70's. The gift shop was having a close-out sale on animal figures so I bought J a bunch. He played with these a lot the rest of the day.

Once we got home from Devil's Lake, J couldn't wait to play with his new animal kingdom additions. He liked lining them up together. He also enrolled me into playing with him telling me "play with the the elephant mommy". I played with the elephant and then we played with the lion family (daddy, mommy and baby lion). We would just make up silly things like what they wanted to eat and where they wanted to go.




























One morning while dressing J, I accidentally put both his legs into one pant leg. For some reason this really hit my funny bone and I could not stop laughing. He kept wiggling around saying "I'm stuck, mommy" and I was telling him I goofed and put his legs in the wrong way. I had to get a couple pictures.




























We got out our lacing beads and I started out seeing what J was interested in doing. He didn't take to it right away so I started putting the beads on by matching shapes. He had fun picking out a matching shape and handing it to me to thread it. Then he threaded a few on himself. When he had enough of that I dumped the beads into the wooden container and started arranging them by color. I did a few and then J enjoyed doing the rest.

Come visit other blogs where I link up at the Weeky Wrap Up.

For more fun with Tot School ideas, visit 1+1+1=1