Tot School (The Christmas Wrap Up)

**J is 31 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!



Home Made Tambourine






























I got this wonderful idea over at Shining Your Lights. J had recently found a real tambourine to play with at our mom's group last week. He didn't want to put it down. So when I saw this on Stephanie's blog Shining Our Lights, I realized I had everything to make it! This came in handy when we went Christmas caroling just before Christmas too.


Christmas Caroling and using our new tambourine






























Daddy got a group of us together to go Christmas caroling. J did pretty well, but he got a little confused going into a place, getting settled, and then leaving soon after. We went in and out of 4 different places like that and he finally understood we were just going there to sing. I love doing this and it's the first time we went since J was born.



Gingerbread Printables






























Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations had a lot of neat gingerbread printables. We printed out a baby gingerbread puzzle, but he didn't quite get this one. He started out matching the face and then found the feet so I put it together for him once, then mixed it up and told him it was his turn. He put the face together and then named each part (but they didn't all fit together) and he said There! even though he wasn't really done. But it was still fun since he loves anything gingerbread-related.















































From the Making Learning Fun site we found a Gingerbread Matching printable. J was so excited he couldn't wait for me to get them all cut out. He kept asking to play with them. I laid them all out on a piece of construction paper and he got to work matching. He matched a few of them and then said "I'm going to mix them all up". I thought he was getting frustrated and might quit but he surprised me and went at it again this time working until he had the match made for each one!



















J also enjoyed coloring this gingerbread house also from Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations. I printed out a couple of them since he liked it so much.



















Another printable we found from Making Learning Fun was this cute gingerbread man. I also printed out a few of these which J had fun coloring.


Christmas Gift Opening
(Extended Family and then from Mom and Dad)

New Shopping Cart and play food! Loves it.

















Little People Barn with Sounds - this was a hit too. He loves singing the Old McDonald song it plays.















Cute doctor's kit. He loves this stethoscope. It makes a coughing sound when you press on it. It has all kinds of neat little things like a toy thermometer, reflex hammer, medication syringe and medicine.
















Little People School Bus - He loves all the new characters especially the bus driver. Has fun driving this around all over the living room.

















Melissa and Doug Animals at the Zoo puzzle. Have yet to open this one up for play!
















J's Favorite - Handy Manny musical tool box and construction hat
















Surrounded by Books
















I love this picture of J surrounded by books. He has loved doing this ever since I got a new little cubby for his books. They used to be in a closed cupboard, but now that they're out in the open he loves just taking out one after another to "read".



Thanks for visiting!

Tot School (More Christmas Season Fun)

**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!


Holiday Decorating






























This year, I got some window cling decorations for J. He has fun putting these up and then taking them down again. He also likes to play with them.


Puzzles






























J worked a little bit on some puzzles this week. He is getting better at finding pieces that fit together, but sometimes needs my help in getting them to completely "click" together. I sometimes only have to guide him just a little and he can find where something goes. Some he does find completely on his own. The second puzzle here was an alphabet puzzle and I notice he's starting to recognize a lot more letters from sight.



Coloring
















This is a favorite activity around our house. On this day, J picked out a coloring book for me and asked if I'd join in. I colored the Cat Woman in his Spider Man coloring book.

































I found several Christmas printables for J to color. After he colored the front of them, he started "drawing" on the backs. He was chattering and chattering and I heard him talk about waterfalls, jump ropes, and other things I couldn't quite make out. I love to see his imagination at work.



Working on Number Recognition































We used our See and Say toy. J was actually playing with his mini-computer and pulled this toy out for me. He said, "Sit and play with me mommy?" So I started playing with this and asked for his help. He had the most fun just pushing all the buttons and hearing the numbers called out. I showed him how the game is actually played by waiting for the voice to call out instructions. We did this for a little bit. The game asks a few different ways to find the numbers e.g. "find the red number, find the 4 or find the blue 3. J does great finding the number by color but has trouble recognizing the number by itself. I got out our numbers sheet to do a little practice with that. It didn't hold his interest very long. I'd ask him to find the 8 for example, and at one point he said, "I'm too busy dancing."


Diego Printable Poster Activity































This was a printable that I downloaded and forgot about. J was rooting around my activity cabinet and was super, super excited when he found it. He asked me what it was and can he play with it. I explained it was a poster and I would cut out the pieces and once I cut them out he could glue them on. He is really excited to work with the glue stick lately and now he can do it pretty well. He didn't need too much coaching on this one. He would pick out an animal and then I would tell him to find the page where it would go. He would put the glue on and stick it in place. When we were done, he had fun pulling them off and then putting on more glue and sticking them back on again.



Christmas Carols Play-A-Song Book

I found this book after seeing it on another mommy blog called The Iowa Farmer's Wife. J just loves it! I barely got it out of the box when J was already sitting down figuring it out. On his own, he figured out that the little picture on the Christmas song goes with the button on the side to play that song. He asked me to read it, but I told him they're songs so he had me sing them several times throughout the week. I love Christmas carols so this has been a fun activity for us.



Enjoying Gingerbread













































We had a lot of fun making gingerbread cookies this week. I found some Betty Crocker gingerbread cookie mix and a lot of toppings to decorate with. I let J do a little stirring, but mostly he joined in the decorating part. He even was able to put on a little of the icing. I'm not that fond of eating gingerbread cookies, but noticed J liked them a lot. Most of them we ended up bringing to church for a college student study day that takes place each year.

































We had a "mom's morning in" for my Titus group meeting at church. Normally, we have a speaker while our children are in the nursery, but this week our kids stayed with us and made gingerbread houses. We did this last year, so I knew to put a T-shirt smock on J. He gets really into the frosting and it ends up all over. He was most interested in eating the goodies, but he did help me a bit in placing things on like m&m's, pretzels and chocolate chips.



We're Going on a Bear Hunt Song
J was singing a song from our library story time and I ended up finding it on You Tube (click here). He wanted to watch it a few times in a row and we sang it together. There's something about it I really like, I think it's the beat that's so catchy.

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

Tot School (Christmas and What Not)

**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!


Playing with Blocks































J picked his alphabet blocks to play with today. First he was lining them all up together in a square shape on the floor. Then he brought them to the window shelf and was stacking them. As he put on block on top of the other, he'd say the name of the object inside. He'd see how high he could stack them until they fell over. Sometimes, he just knocked them over himself.


Pal Zone













































This week we read a book called Mouse Paints. Our teacher Birch covered up all the tables with white paper and the kids got to paint. We used shaving cream and red, yellow and blue paint. J had such a great time blending and mixing the colors together with a craft stick. He and one other girl were the last ones to leave the activity. Birch started cleaning up so I was telling J it was time to finish, but Birch let them keep going. He said there are usually 1 or 2 kids who get so into the activity and the sensory experience of it that he just lets them go. So J stayed a bit longer. He had fun painting his hands and then mixing the colors with his fingers too.


Christmas Sensory Bin









































































We made a trip out to the crafts store so I could get a sensory bin together with a Christmas theme. Some of the things in it were mini Christmas trees, wreaths, presents, ornaments, jingle bells all in a cute Christmas box. J liked digging in to the box and seeing what he could find. At first, he played with the stickers just pulling them off the page. Then he discovered the mini presents. He came running to me with some Styrofoam and I saw that he learned how to unwrap these tiny little gifts! You'll see the picture where I caught him doing it and then the next picture he had a sinister laugh when he found out I wasn't mad.



Water Play































One morning J got asked if he could put his toys in the sink. That was fine with me, so I helped him pick out toys that were water-friendly. He did this in the past with beads, but I think he liked this even more. He liked trying to predict what would float and then loved narrating what was happening as he placed different things in the water. Then he got a shovel so he could stir and he wanted me to stir a bit too.


Blowing Bubbles

















We worked a little bit with learning how to blow bubbles. In the past, J has been more interested in chasing and popping the bubbles, but today he did work on blowing them. It took him a few times, but then he was getting the hang of it.


Titus Mom's Group













































This is a group that meets at my church. Every other week, we have a play group that meets in the gym in the fall and winter. It is a great time for moms to meet and talk and J loves playing with all the different toys everyone brings to share. Not only is it hard for J to share what he's playing with at the play group, but it's hard for him to see others playing with his toys that we bring to the group. To help with that, a bit ago I started having him pick out with me the toys that he would feel comfortable sharing. Today he was really excited about the things he wanted to share and he knew what he wanted to keep at home. He fell in love with a race car helmet and wore it the majority of the time. It was good to see him on the big wheel too, as we don't have many riding toys for him to play on.


Advent Calendar































I saw dozens of different Advent calendars on various blogs but I didn't get around to making my own. Instead, a friend gave us a chocolate Advent calendar which is the kind we opened when I was a kid. To add to the experience, I found a downloadable Advent Celebration book from a blog I follow called Holy Experience. I read each day's one during my quiet time, then when daddy gets home we talk about the verse of the day, the meaning behind it and how it relates to the coming of Jesus and then J opens his Advent door on the calendar. One day, he was more interested in The Little Drummer Boy book by Kristina Rodanas. Each page has the words to the song of the Little Drummer Boy with beautiful illustrations. I sang the song while describing what was happening in the pictures, telling the story to J.



Christmas Tree Matching Game from Musings of Me













































I am finally doing more printables and it's great to see J enjoy them. This was a good matching test for J. The Christmas tree patterns were pretty similar and once J got started he did miss a couple. I would point them out and he'd put them in the right place. I took a little video of him since it was so cute the little commentary he had while he was playing.






Magazine Picture Collage













































While I was reading my Parents magazine, I had the idea to cut out some of the cute kid-related pictures and have J make a collage. I wanted to try some new activities and give him the chance to work on using the glue stick. This was a great activity for him and I actually had a lot of fun putting it together and then seeing which pictures he liked best. By the end, he knew to put the glue on the back of the picture. In the beginning, he was putting the pictures on top of one another, but then he was following my instructions and learned to space them out across the page. He loved naming the objects and talking about them as he placed them across the page. I love how in the last picture he looks so satisfied with his work. We will definitely do this one again.



Christmas Tree Shape Identification from 1+1+1=1































This is a game where you put the large shape picture with the Christmas tree that has that matching ornament shape on it. I wasn't sure how J would do with this since the ornament shapes are fairly small. This was very easy for him so he did it pretty quickly, but then he cleared them off and did it a couple more times too. We took some time going through each shape to see if he could name them. He's gotten better at identifying his shapes, as he knew all of them here except for the rectangle and pentagon.




Dumping and Sorting































I was organizing our Tot School area and putting small things into little jars. J found a couple jars and asked if he could dump them out. One was marbles and one was black stones. I had no problem with this and could see it turning into a sorting activity. So I had him dump them into his dump truck. Then he dumped them onto the floor and had fun with that part. Next, I guided him in sorting the marbles and the stones putting them back into the jars. At first, he just grabbed handfuls and was shoving them in willy nilly. It took me a few times of giving the instructions to him and he started sorting them into the right jars and was really excited about it. Then he got to dump them back out again.





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